Morning watch 11-3-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was a cool start with a temperature of 41 (F) 5 (C) and sunshine
Click on the pics to see the full version
No falcons seen at Seneca Towers or Hawkeye either before or after my downtown watch. As I arrived just before 7am I spotted a falcon on the ledge above the nest box from the Broad St. bridge (BSB). It stooped down as I was driving toward Times Square (TSB) and I lost it. After checking around the area surrounding the hole I went back up to the BSB where I saw Beauty flying above Xerox.
I taped her as she was flying around the east side above Xerox, Bausch & Lomb and HSBC from Woodbury Blvd. After about 5-10 minutes she slipped back behind Xerox to the northeast where I lost sight of her. 10 minutes later I spotted the Beautyful one under the northeast wing of TSB-I went to Basin St. in the hole next to the Wilder building to watch.
Beauty kept an eye out for a prey bird to show itself and she found one below as she turned and zeroed in on a little bird on the ledge between the northeast and southeast wings one level above the nest box. She flew down and disappeared for a couple minutes and I thought she had left without me seeing-then suddenly reappeared to the front of the ledge and started plucking feathers.
Looking at my small camera screen I thought she had cached food because it was so small but when I got home and looked at the video on my computer screen, I could see that it was a fresh kill. So, I believe she caught it on the back of that ledge.
She finished up her meager meal filling the right side of her crop then did a whole lot of feaking.
I left for coffee and when I returned at 8:05am Beauty was gone-I knew she would be, that’s just how it goes sometimes. lol
5 minutes later I found Dot.Ca on the north side ledge of the OCSR elevator shaft and Beauty across from him on the south side ledge from across the river near the Radisson Hotel. I don’t know how happy he was that Beauty and I found him in his man cave-he looked to be in the ready to fly away position as he looked at her, then seemingly at me. lol
I decided to leave them to it and head home, ending my watch at 9:15am all smiles knowing our downtown Rochester Peregrine pair were together and well! 🙂
Click on the links below to watch todays videos
http://youtu.be/-8SM8RrPwRU
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November 3rd, 2014 at 1:53 PM
Perfect captions, MAK! 😀
November 3rd, 2014 at 2:08 PM
Off topic a bit,but,in checking out forum,I notice how clean nest box and platforms look,do falcons clean this from past season or does DEC send someone up? Guess i thought there would be a new nest box installed for next season,now i am wondering.Thanks for all you do for us “watcher”on-line.Diane
November 3rd, 2014 at 2:33 PM
Diane – I can answer this. When we went up to replace one of the cameras a few weeks ago, I cleaned the cameras and put the debris, bits and pieces of leftover prey from the platform into a bag. They like to see what type of prey is being brought up to the nest box by the falcons. Mostly pigeons of course, but sometimes we find other, more unusual prey. The nest box would not be replaced unless it was damaged.
November 3rd, 2014 at 4:37 PM
Thanks Pat, I couldn’t resist! 🙂
November 3rd, 2014 at 5:22 PM
I like the captions, too. Reminds me of the halcyon days when Shaky would make the most wonderful funnies with pictures of Mariah, Cabot-Sirocco, and Kaver. What old Bathrobe Brigader could forget “Hasenpfeffer” or Eyas “Divo”?
November 3rd, 2014 at 8:15 PM
I don’t know of these things Alison since I didn’t start watching until 2008-M&K’s last year at Kodak with Quest,Diamante,SusanB,Zephyr and Seneca. I’m glad you liked the captions. 🙂
November 3rd, 2014 at 9:59 PM
I enjoyed the captions, too, MAK! As I was coming home today, I saw Billie & 99(well at least I am assuming that’s who they were) flying riverside by ST! What a treat! 🙂
November 4th, 2014 at 5:44 AM
Patricia, it’s always a treat to see falcons on the wing! 🙂
November 4th, 2014 at 5:22 PM
Shaky used to have a website where all his funny falcon images were archived (they have not made it to the archives here). Many were situational (like you had to know the falcons involved) however some were universal. But that was long ago. Nevertheless, I imagine that if one asked nicely, he could dig them up from somewhere.