By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The starting temperature today was 42(F) 6(C) with calm winds and overcast skies-it went down as the day went on and the wind picked up considerably as a cold front is making its way through

Click on the pics to see the full version

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

As I pulled over on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) I spotted Dot.ca on the Mercury money bag with his back to me-I went down to the hole and he flew off as I arrived there. I made a couple trips around downtown and finally spotted Beauty on the Wilder green strip (WGS) from Aqueduct St. around 7:45am

10 minutes later she flew south and came back to land on the southeast wing ledge-half a minute later DC came flying in chirping and Beauty flew out to meet him above the Philipone building. Lots of vocalizing took place when they landed on the deck and DC gave the Beautyful one a food gift.

They crack me up because it’s almost like they’re racing each other to the deck as that last pic shows it was a photo finish! Once they landed I lost sight of them and Donna reported that she thought there was a food exchange. I saw DC flew out the nest box and come right over to the WGS, where unbeknownst to me, Beauty was right above me and they mated. I never saw her leave the nest box but there she was as I was parked on Basin St. underneath her. I wasn’t able to get my camera focused in fast enough to photograph the mating session and when they were done all I could see was Beauty’s tail. I had to move back over to Aqueduct St. to see that Beauty did indeed have a small offering of food from her mate. DC flew over to the southeast wing ledge on Times Square.

While Beauty ate, DC cleaned himself up as he had a full crop and obviously had eaten the lion’s share of the prey bird before handing over the rest to his mate.

Around 8:15am Beauty finished off DC’s leftovers and flew away while I was taping DC. A few minutes later I spotted Beauty on the southeast corner of Widows Walk and seconds later she was gone. DC flew down to the deck chirping and disappeared to the nest box.

DC came back out where I could see him and soon after flew off heading east.

I decided to go up on the bridge to have a look around and as I turned I spotted Beauty on the base of Mercury and DC was on his way over to her-I knew what was about to happen. I pulled over next to the Blue Cross Arena and got my camera focused in just in time to get the tail end of a mating session at 8:34am.

I had to get to another appointment this morning so I left Beauty in the afterglow, checking on my way out of downtown for DC but I didn’t find him.

I stopped by Seneca Towers but neither Billie nor 99 were there. Beauty and DC are in full swing with their courtship rituals and eggs aren’t too far off now. I believe she laid her first egg on April 8th last year so it’s getting close folks-stay tuned and keep smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to see today’s videos

http://youtu.be/OTXsZ4DfhRk

http://youtu.be/N0R5K0hARPg

http://youtu.be/2n-yTPvyVA4

http://youtu.be/AqiPjrtZzvg

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2015 at 4:42 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.