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Eyes to the Skies

Morning watch 9-27-14

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

We;re having quite a stretch of nice weather here in western New York-warm days and cool nights with lots of sunshine and blue skies. Today the starting temperature was 54 (F) 12 (C) when I set out for my morning watch

Click on my pics to see the full version

After a quick check of my apartment building Seneca Towers, I left for downtown as no falcons were around. I found Beauty on the east side as I made my way down Chestnut St. pulling over by the Hotel Cadillac. She was on the northeast corner of HSBC with her back mostly facing me and she was in hunt mode. She quickly pooped and flew off going into a stoop down the east side of HSBC out of view then surfaced and flew west.

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I followed in turn, driving west to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) where I caught up with her on the base of Mercury. At first she started picking at something for half a minute then she started looking to and fro while partially mantling. I thought perhaps she had caught something on her way over but when she finally started to pluck feathers and eat she showed me what she had, it was small. I figured it was only cached leftovers since she didn’t take much time to eat it!

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The Beautyful one finished up, did some feaking, roused once or twice as the sun was now fully on her, then flew off out over the river. She flew down river to the north past OCSR then turned west flying behind OCSR on the north side and disappeared.

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After checking the river and finding a Great Egret hunting below the south side of the BSB I headed straight to the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) as that’s the direction Beauty was flying and that’s where she likes to rest and digest after a meal. When I arrived on Fitzhugh St.Beauty was on her favorite FCT spot-the northeast cube with a pretty full looking crop.

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I left her after a few minutes to look for Dot.Ca (DC)-He wasn’t seen last night by Carol so I wanted to find him to put everyones’ mind to rest. It took a couple trips around downtown but I finally found him on the north side of the Times Square building (TSB). He was on the 5th column over from the back of the building and he was plucking feathers from a Northern Yellow-shafted Flicker.

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I shared space with DC from the parking lot next to TSB as he devoured his breakfast. He finished it as he went to the back of the ledge, then stood up and came to the front, feaked a few times and pooped.

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DC then made his way down to the ledge below the column he had been, walked back and forth a few times as he wiped his beak off as he went along . When he was sufficiently cleaned up he flew off to the north with a very full crop.

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I left downtown after that to see if I could catch somebody on Seneca Towers and I was rewarded with not only Veteran but Billie showed up as well for me. I love it when they cooperate! As I stopped on Seth Green Drive by the visitor parking I saw Veteran on the west side roof. He flew off over the roof out of view then showed up again landing on the northwest corner.

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Right after that Billie came flying in and Veteran moved over as she landed on the corner. She was in hunt mode-he moved even further down the roof just before Buffalo Billie flew off. Veteran followed right behind as they flew to the south and didn’t return.

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I’d say I had plenty to smile about after this watch as I called it quits at 9:40am! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a photo album and todays videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqj7I

http://youtu.be/3zllRgAtSe4

http://youtu.be/_BVrtC11Lok

http://youtu.be/29RTNRCHobs

http://youtu.be/N6F3I7It4LI

http://youtu.be/0NksH1vDXw8

http://youtu.be/paEv5XiS5Ts

5 Responses to “Morning watch 9-27-14”

  1. Kris G. Says:

    The one you say is Veteran looks banded and I think I see yellow tape. Nice poop shot, DC..eating good I see! Nice that it was a 4-Falcon watch today!

  2. MAK Says:

    You’re right about the band and yellow tape Kris-when I blew up the pic in Picassa it got too pixelated and I couldn’t make out the bands. So we had the new male here at Seneca Towers this morning and afternoon. Donna spotted it too-good catch people! 🙂

  3. June Kogut Says:

    Thanks, MAK.. More smiles!!

  4. don Says:

    “MAK is back”, really nice sharp shots of D.C. eating.

  5. MAK Says:

    June, how are you doing? Nice to hear from you. 🙂

    Don, I am back and thank you! 🙂


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