Morning watch 9-15-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
The day started partly cloudy with a temperature of 51 (F) 11 (C) then sunny with blue skies for the remainder of my watch
Click on the pics to see the full version
As I stepped out into the hallway from my apartment and looked out the east side balcony I could see a beautiful sky as the sun was making it’s way up toward the horizon from behind Rochester General Hospital. Less than a minute later it appeared.
I didn’t see any falcons on Seneca Towers as I left for my watch and my first sighting was from the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) where I spotted Beauty on the base of Mercury.
I drove over to the hole and checked her out from Aqueduct and Basin St. She was looking a bit grumpy this morning as she was in hunt mode.
Beauty flew off right after I got there so I went in search of her and/or Dot.Ca (DC). As I made my way back from the east side I spotted the Beautyful one under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB). Back down to the hole I went for the best viewing.
She started out with her back to me but when she was ready to fly off she turned, spread her wings nicely for me and took flight heading northeast.
I drove over to the Radisson Hotel to check the OCSR elevator shaft for DC but he wasn’t there. I noticed Beauty on the base of Mercury so I went to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) watch her. To my surprise, DC was now under the northeast wing of TSB.
While I was looking at Beauty DC left TSB-a minute later Beauty stooped down in the river and came back up with nothing to show for her efforts. She returned to the base of Mercury where she watched for a prey bird for the next 20 minutes.
At 8:04am Beauty stooped down in the river and returned with nothing to show for her efforts. She flew around Mercury and the next thing I saw was a falcon flying off the back side of Mercury.
I thought it was Beauty that I watched fly up to the northeast wing ledge of TSB. I went down to the hole again and it turned out to be DC with his back to me. Gotta love falcon games! They pulled the old switcheroo on me.
At the same time a Great Blue Heron flew above me heading down river-it had a small piece of food in its talons. I didn’t know they flew around with their prey. Boy, they have a big wingspan!
Around 8:15am DC flew off to the northwest-I left and went over by the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) since that was the direction I last saw Beauty going. I found DC on the northeast cube-there were feathers floating all through the air below him and they led me right to Beauty who was on an east side beam preparing breakfast.
DC was whining and begging Beauty for some of her catch-she, of course ignored him. He got impatient and started inchin his way down to where he could see her better-whining the whole time. He ended up on a south side beam in the same white section as Beauty.
Beauty stopped eating for a while I believe, to keep an eye on Mr. Will You Save Me Some! I went back and forth from the City Hall parking lot to Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities garage so as not to look at DC’s back.
I looked up to see that DC was no longer on that south beam-I thought he had left until I heard a little whine out of him. Back to the parking lot where I found him now on the north beam across from where he had been. I noticed that Beauty started eating again at this point. I left them like this a while later to head home.
I didn’t have any luck finding a falcon at Hawkeye or Seneca Towers but that didn’t keep me from smiling as DC and his food antics is always good for a good laugh! 🙂
Click on the links below to see the videos from my watch and a photo album
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September 16th, 2014 at 2:36 PM
Men (human or bird) will be men!! Thanks for all the great pictures and commentary.
September 16th, 2014 at 5:38 PM
True dat June! Thanks for your comment. 🙂