Morning watch 1-11-15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
I want to dedicate this watch report to fellow falcon watcher and friend Glo Thomas who passed away early this morning. RIP Glo
It was a warm (compared to the past few days) 19 (F) -7 (C) degrees this morning as I headed out with overcast calm conditions
Click on the pics to see the full version
I checked the OCSR elevator shaft first and found it to be falconless. I then drove over to the Broad St. Bridge as I spotted a falcon on the base of Mercury with its back to me from the hole. It turned out to be Beauty. I had time to get a couple pics and when I took my eyes off her to tweet out my findings she snuck off.
As I made my way down Exchange Blvd. I glanced over at Widows Walk and the roof of City Place as I always do and noticed Beauty up on one of the chimney structures on City Place, so I pulled into the parking lot next to Times Square to observe her. This is a spot the Beautyful one likes to eat and true to form, she started plucking feathers from a fresh catch soon after I arrived.
The white down feathers of whatever she had up there kept sticking to her chest, head, back and beak. If it weren’t for the fact that a small bird lost its life to feed Beauty it might almost be funny to see her all covered with little white feathers.
It seemed as though Beauty spent more time pulling feathers than she did eating as I watched her for about an hour.
I left her to it at 9am so I could try and find Dot.ca (DC). He wasn’t around the Times Square area obviously since he didn’t visit Beauty so I went over to the Radisson Hotel by Main St. to check the OCSR elevator shaft-nothing on the north side ledge. Then I drove down to Bragdon Place and that’s where I saw DC on the south side ledge just standing there facing north.
I ended my watch at that time because I had to tend to some business in Brighton-I checked the Brighton site but no falcons were there. When I arrived home to Seneca Towers (ST) at 10:30am I spotted the head of falcon on the northwest corner from Seth Green Dr. When I looked again with camera in hand and ready to shoot it had turned around and all I could see were tail feathers. They were moving like it was eating but I can’t say for sure.
It disappeared so I drove out to St. Paul St. and checked the north end of ST from the Northridge Church but the falcon was gone. I had a nice watch and saw 3 of the 4 resident Rochester Peregrine Falcons to come away smiling! 🙂
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January 11th, 2015 at 6:30 PM
Got some pretty good shots of the Beautyful one, MAK! Yea, guess we shouldn’t laugh at all those tiny white feathers! Wonder why DC wasn’t there begging for food? RIP Glo
January 11th, 2015 at 7:06 PM
Patty, DC may have already eaten-from what I could see of him in the elevator shaft it looked like he might have had something in his crop. Thanks for honoring Glo. 🙂
January 12th, 2015 at 8:41 PM
Beautiful tribute to Glo MAK. Each and every day you are out there keeping us updated on our falcons & although I don’t always get time to read your full reports those tweets you send out mean so much when I’m at work to know what’s going on w/ them. So I thank you for all you do & I know Glo will be looking down and smiling on this years clutch so they will be blessed with another angel.
January 12th, 2015 at 9:12 PM
Linda, what a thoughtful comment-thank you. Angels are very important-I know this first hand. 🙂