Morning watch 4-15-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
When I left for my watch at 6:25am it was 38 degrees (F) 3 (C) raining and very dark
Beauty was on the eggs before I left for my watch. When I arrived downtown I looked around the Times Square (TSB) area from the Broad St. bridge (BSB) but didn’t see Dot.Ca (DC) so I took a ride to see if he was on Kodak Office like yesterday. He wasn’t and I received reports from Donna and Annette that there was a switch at the nest box as I was on my way back. Thank you ladies! It took me a bit to find Beauty on the east end of the Wilder green strip because I was on the BSB and you can’t see it from there. I found her as I got down to the hole (Aqueduct St.) around 7am.
She had her back to me the whole time I spent with her-not too many pics today for that reason and the weather conditions. The Beautyful one roused (shaking of feathers), did a little stretching and pooped around 7:30am.
That would be all the action I saw out of her-little did I know she was close to laying egg #4! I didn’t expect it until closer to noon. Anyway, I stayed with her until 8am and then I left to check out the Brighton site. There was nothing to be seen-not even a goose, so I went back downtown arriving at 8:33am to find Beauty still on the Wilder strip still with her back to me in the rain. About 10 minutes later Beauty left when I wasn’t looking-again Donna and Annette let me know. Thanks! I then moved over by Keybank where I could see the nest box area and saw DC fly out from the nest area-I found him on the top ibeam near the south corner of OCSR.
DC wasn’t doing much more than turning his head back and forth, most likely looking for breakfast. Around 9am he extracted a pellet and 10 minutes later he took off fast going southwest. He returned to OCSR same spot as before a few minutes later. This is when I started getting tweets that Beauty was in labor from NCAFalcons and Annette so I ended my watch hoping to get home in time to see. Too late, as Annette and NCA reported Beauty had laid egg #4 before I could get home. Thanks for your help gals! And in case you’re wondering-yes I was smiling the rest of the way home! 🙂
One link for you to click on today to view a video
April 16th, 2014 at 8:51 AM
It is too bad you did not get to see the laying of the egg on camera, but we are so grateful to you for your eyewitness reports about the falcons in flight and around town.