By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Yesterday temps hit 91 degrees (F) and today it barely made it to 70.  What a difference a day makes.

We know that Beauty is completing a molt and that Dot.ca may now be molting.

From The Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Timing: It takes a lot of energy to build new feathers. Molting is, therefore, often timed to coincide with periods of less strenuous demands, such as after nesting or before migration.

This may explain why he is spending so much time inside the elevator shaft and on his own, except when he can get a bit of food from Beauty.

To understand more about why and how birds molt, check out this link to Cornell’s website.  There is a lot to learn there.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/allaboutbirds/studying/feathers/molting/document_view

Thursday, September 4, 2014

I went downtown early evening and found Dot.ca on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) below the platform.  He took off and I followed.  From the Broad St Bridge (BSB) I found both Beauty and Dot.ca on top of the Times Square Bldg. (TSB). Beauty was on the southeast wing ledge and Dot.ca was on the northeast wing ledge.  Feathered bookends.  lol

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BE SURE TO CLICK ON ANY PICTURES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE LARGER

It was nice seeing Dot.ca out of the elevator shaft and up on the Times Square Bldg with Beauty.  Joyce joined me and we remained down on Aqueduct St, aka “the hole”, until it got dark.  Just before we left, Dot.ca took off and ended up on the Widows Walk, just northwest of the Times Square Bldg.  By that time it was too dark to take any pictures.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Today’s watch took place this afternoon.  Cooler temps near 70 degrees (F) made it much nicer.  I only had a couple hours, so I wanted to see if I could find both Beauty and Dot.ca.  I first stopped at Kodak Park West, which was on my way.  It has been awhile since I’ve seen a falcon there and today was no different.  No falcons seen there, but lots of Gold Finches in the fields surrounding the parking lot.  I love to hear their cheery vocalizations.  It reminds me so much of spring.

Next stop downtown Rochester.  I took my normal route checking out the Kodak Office Tower first.  No falcons there, but lots of pigeons on the building.  It is definitely a good hunting spot for Beauty and Dot.ca.  Back when Mariah and Kaver were nesting there, the pigeons stayed off of the tower.

I drove around to the east side to check out Xerox, B&L and HSBC.  No falcons there.  But the neighborhood Red-tail Hawk flew overhead clutching a squirrel in her talons.  I do believe, based on the large size of this bird, that it is a female.  I parked my car near Geva to watch her as she landed on an old house that is falling apart.  After about 15 minutes, she took off and dropped the squirrel, but recovered it quickly.  The hawk carried it to the park across the street and up into a tree to eat in privacy.

I continued on and parked on the Broad St Bridge.  From there I could see Beauty on the south side of OCSR’s top IBeam.  Now where was Dot.ca?  I drove over to the Radisson and found Dot.ca up inside the elevator shaft on the south side ledge.  After an hour, I ended my watch, leaving both Beauty and Dot.ca where I found them.  All was quiet and peaceful.

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Here are some pictures of the Red-tail Hawk that has been hanging out near the Geva Theater area.  Just an FYI that this squirrel was dead.

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Lastly, my thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Daryl Pierson, a Rochester Police Officer who was killed in the line of duty.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2014 at 10:48 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.