By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Another beautiful morning for a falcon watch with blue skies, sunshine and a starting temperature of 60 (F) 16 (C)

Please click on the pics to see full version

As is my usual routine of late I check from the Andrews St. bridge (ASB) first, then to the Broad St. bridge (BSB) and last the east side. I found both Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) on the east side of HSBC-she was on the southeast corner and he was on the northeast corner-bookends.

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They had their backs to me and as I had my camera fixed on DC while taping a video of them the Beautyful one left the building. From where I was parked at the back of the parking lot at the Inn on Broadway I could see the RGS antenna which is where she flew to. 15 minutes later DC left when I wasn’t looking so I drove over to East Ave. for a closer view of Beauty.

She hung out for 20 minutes preening as she continues with a molt (pulling out many down white feathers) and rousing before taking off to the west out of view.

A trip around downtown yielded me a sighting of DC from the ASB around 7:35am-he was on the northeast cube of the Frontier Communications tower (FCT).

I went to the City Hall parking lot to observe him in the rising sunlight making him look quite white and dapper. He stayed there looking around the area very alertly. At 8:10am DC flew north low and fast past the pine trees that line the south end of the Kodak Office parking lot leaving my field of vision.

A few minutes later DC flew in from the east and landed on a beam right below the platform on the east side. All I could see of him was his back and side. As I made my way down to the other end of Fitzhugh St. it only got worse as a beam was blocking his head from view. Finally, from below him I got a look at his profile-the white over the cere gave him away.

DC was looking mostly straight ahead of him and I got the feeling Beauty was up there somewhere so I started checking the tower from all sides. When I pulled over on Plymouth Ave. I had a clear view of Beauty on a west side beam that was across from DC whom I could not see from this vantage point.

I left them to it around 9:30am and headed home down St. Paul St.-I wanted to check the Kodak Hawkeye plant for Veteran or possibly the banded female I had seen on a window ledge at Seneca Towers a couple days ago. Joyce checked her out later as well and we were pretty darn sure it was Billie (the official spelling is Billy but the DEC wants us to spell it Billie so as not to create any confusion about her gender)  from Central Terminal in Buffalo,NY. No sightings there-continuing on to Seneca Towers where I live on the 16th floor I stopped on Seth Green Drive where there’s a spot you can see the west and south sides of the building thru the trees. Nothing along the roof line and just as I was going to pull my binoculars down and call it a watch I spotted a big falcon with its back to me on a 21st floor window air conditioner on the west side.

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I thought I better get hopping to see if I could get up the slow-go elevator in time to see this big girl from the 21st floor balcony. I was shaking with anticipation and when I walked out on that balcony  and saw how close she was I thought I died and went to heaven. I sat down on a bench and tried to make as little movement as possible so I wouldn’t scare her off. I was very happy that my presence didn’t seem to bother her at all. Let me introduce you to Billie, a 2013 offspring of Gleig (Daughter of Madame X and Surge and Pigotts sister) and our own Rochester born, Diamante (son of Mariah and Kaver). Black over green leg band 77/AX

Right around 9:55am Billie softly vocalized and flew off while I was taping her. I did my best to catch up with her as she flew above the tree canopy, over the river, back and forth under the Veterans bridge before she looped up under the south side of the bridge where I couldn’t see her. Now my watch was over as I took the elevator down 5 floors to my apartment smiling and shaking wildly from what I was lucky enough to have just witnessed! 🙂

Click on the links below to see a photo album and videos from todays fantastic watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqj3a

http://youtu.be/HvF9CzBcSJ8

http://youtu.be/W9sThQBj4yk

http://youtu.be/oSc2BCyWOUE

http://youtu.be/Bve6Ay5DwOo

http://youtu.be/9sFECE2RdiE

http://youtu.be/vb43zI8B7Xs

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2014 at 3:49 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.