By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
What an absolutely gorgeous day it turned out to be. Near 70 degrees (F), blue sky and sunshine. It doesn’t get much better than that.
My watch started at the BS location at about 1:30 pm. I try to periodically check this location, just in case. Today it was quiet there, with no falcons seen or heard.
I headed downtown and parked on the Broad St Bridge (BSB). From there I could see a falcon inside the nest box. Many thanks to Rfalconcam Watchers Annette and Donna for verifying that it was Dot.ca watching his four eyases. While I was looking around checking for Beauty, I heard a car horn sound behind me. It was fellow Falcon Watcher Dan. We moved to the south side of the bridge and set up our chairs, settling in for an afternoon watch. This was our view from the middle of the BSB.
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We could just make out Dot.ca’s head from our position.
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It was very quiet downtown, but a few folks stopped and asked us what we were looking at. Most people are very interested when we tell them about the falcons.
After about 20 minutes of not seeing Beauty, she made her entrance. We first saw her flying over the Radisson towards the OCSR. She turned back and circled over the river gaining altitude. Higher and higher. We watched her turn into a dot in the sky and lost her in the sun.
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After 3:00 pm Beauty reappeared. Still flying high. This time Dot.ca joined her and they did some tandem flying, before he returned to the Times Square Bldg landing on the southeast wing ledge.
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Beauty continued to fly overhead. She was over the Wilder Bldg when she did a maneuver that only a Peregrine Falcon can do. She flipped over and turned towards us. With her wings pulled in tight to her body, she stooped over us and low over the river on the south side of the BSB, pulling up and over the Court St Bridge. She continued towards Cornhill, low over the buildings, then turned left heading east. As she flew low over the river towards the Dinosaur BBQ restaurant, pigeons rose behind her. Beauty turned again towards the north and over Dan and I flying low over the river. We could see her target, a pigeon flying in front of her. She flew under the pigeon and then up, catching it and carrying it over the Main St Bridge. Beauty struggled to gain altitude. We lost sight of her behind the OCSR.
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Dan and I waited to see if she would return, but she did not. Dan had to leave about 10 minutes later, so I went to search for Beauty and found her on a building on State St, just northwest of the OCSR. It didn’t take her long before she flew with the pigeon towards the Times Square Bldg to feed her four eyases. (3:30 pm) At 3:50 pm, she flew out of the nest box and cached the remainder of the meal on a building on the east side of the river.
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Beauty returned to the nest box and I found Dot.ca on the south side of the OCSR, 2nd IBeam down from the top. That’s where I left them at about 4:30 pm.
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I stopped at Seneca Towers (ST) on my way home and found STJ (the juvie female at ST). She was flying high over the ST apartments, landing on the northwest corner and then taking off again.
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Veteran (the male) joined her in the sky. This is the only picture I got of him flying high over the American flag. He’s that small dot above the flag.
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Veteran headed north down the river. STJ continued to circle higher over head before she also heading north. I ended my falcon watch at 5:00 pm.
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During my travels, I saw this beautiful sculpture. Goodnight all!
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on Sunday, May 25th, 2014 at 10:39 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch.
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May 26th, 2014 at 10:24 AM
Nice shot of Veteran over the flag, Carol! And the sculpture is indeed beautiful. It sure was a perfect day to watch the birds.
May 26th, 2014 at 5:18 PM
It sure was! Thanks Pat!