Morning watch 5-6-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
This morning was partly cloudy with a temperature of 46 (F) 8 (C) and a slight breeze
As I started down St. Paul St. on my way downtown from my new home in Seneca Towers, I came up on the old Kodak Hawkeye plant half a mile down the road with a falcon on it at 6:20am. I determined that it was STT (Seneca Towers Tiercel) and he was on the railing near the nest box that has been there for many years. To my knowledge, no falcons have ever nested there-could the Seneca Towers (ST) pair be the ones to use it!? Time will tell!!
<Click on my pics to see full version
I pulled into a parking lot on the opposite side of Hawkeye on St. Paul St. and watched STT for about 5 minutes when he up and flew off toward ST to the northeast. He preened a little bit and looked like he was in hunt mode with an empty crop.
Next stop-downtown where I spotted Beauty on the south corner top ibeam of OCSR as I turned onto the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) from South Ave. I drove down to the hole but she was gone when I arrived so the search was on! I made my way around downtown 2 times checking the usual spots when I spotted the Beautyful one on the west corner top ibeam of OCSR as I was on the BSB looking around at 7:15am. Once again I went to the hole for a closer look parking on Aqueduct St. between Thomson Reuters and the Philipone building. She slipped off the north side 10 minutes later going into a stoop before leaving my field of vision.
While on the Andrews St. bridge (ASB) I noticed Beauty on the Hyatt Hotel perched on the southwest corner of it. I drove straight away to the BSB to hang out with her.
She had not caught anything from that stoop off OCSR for she was still in hunt mode, mostly looking around for a tasty treat to come flying by for breakfast.
At 8:02am Beauty flew off crossing the river heading west and quickly flying out of view past the OCSR and Crossroads buildings.
I next saw her as I was returning from checking the east side-stopped at the traffic light at Clinton and Broad St. I raised my binoculars to see a falcon bump on the back of Times Square perched at the southwest corner of the lower roof. Unfortunately, from that distance the photo I took of her is blurry and by the time I got there she was gone.
No worries because I found her a couple minutes later back on the top ibeam south corner of OCSR with her back to me as I went back to the hole to share space with her.
I left to get a cup of coffee and when I got back I found Dot.Ca on the 2nd ibeam south corner-so they thought they would try the old switcheroo on the eggs while I was gone. Ha-these 2 are very funny PEFAs!!
DC was busy preening after a couple hours of incubating his precious darlings. I’ve noticed that almost every time he or Beauty gets relieved from their duties on the eggs they immediately start preening. I guess one gets pretty messed up just laying around-kinda like bed head for us humans, you know, when you roll out of bed and your hair is sticking out every which way! LOL
At just about 9am DC left the building without me seeing and I decided it was time to leave as well. Fellow watcher and good friend KathyO had told me to check out the pond at Seneca Park which is below the Seneca Park Zoo off St. Paul St. north of Seneca Towers for a swan that was nesting in the grasses so before going home I did just that! Here’s a couple pics and I made a video of some noisy activity on the opposite side of the pond. Also included are a pic of Seneca Towers from the zoo road and the Hawkeye smoke stack from the entrance to my road a half mile away. I hope these make you smile as they did me! 🙂
Click on the links below to see 5 videos from todays watch-the last one is from Seneca Park,make sure you check this one out!
May 6th, 2014 at 11:50 PM
I loved the video of the birds and the dog at the pond, MAK.
May 6th, 2014 at 11:51 PM
That was a kick eh Patty!? 🙂