Morning Falcon Watch-Big Frank catches a female Mallard Duck 9-13-15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Another chilly start with fog and a misty rain falling and a temperature of 56 (F) 13 (C)
I started my morning with Billie and Seth whom I found on the south end of the building on the top window ledge. Seth started out a couple feet away from Billie and then he walked over to the opposite corner.
<Click
It seemed to be too breezy for Seth so he flew off and Billie followed right behind him. They initially went west but then made a U-turn and headed east out of view.
I headed downtown and found Dot.ca (DC) on the south side of the OCSR elevator shaft. Good thing is super white or I wouldn’t have been able to see him up there in his dark man cave with a misty rain falling.
I left him after a brief stay to look for Beauty. I found her on the east side of HSBC with her back to the world. She flew off to the south after 15-20 minutes at 7:38am.
When the Beautyful one didn’t return I went to the Strong Museum of Play parking lot to check buildings to the south but never found her again. I then returned to check on DC but he was gone from the elevator shaft. As I was leaving downtown I came across DC on the south side arch of Kodak Office-soon after he flew southwest and didn’t come back.
I headed over to the Medley Center a little after 8am and found Big Frank (BF) on one of the glass peaked roofs from the north side parking lot. I started to tape her when she flew off to the west out of sight.
I then drove around to the south side of the mall where, to my surprise, I found her on the ground in the parking lot near the entrance to the mall where the carousel is located mantling prey. At first I thought it was a pigeon but then she revealed it to me-a female Mallard Duck and it was still alive!!!
The poor duck put up quite a fight but BF eventually delivered the killing blow and started plucking feathers. She moved it a couple times, dragging it across the pavement like she wanted to fly off with it but decided it was too heavy for that and started eating again.
BF spent about 40 minutes eating and when she had her fill she flew off to the west at 9:08am.
It was misting pretty hard at this time so perhaps that’s why Big Frank left when she did and landed on the roof just west of where she had been. A very nice gentleman, Dick Colt, joined me at this point to watch. BF cleaned up a bit then flew off at 9:12am heading north.
Dick and I chatted for a few minutes then he left and I made a quick trip around the mall but didn’t find our duck hawk as they are also called. I ended my watch at 9:25am as my blood sugar was low and I had to get home to eat something. I must say that our newest addition from Canada to the Rochester falcon scene surely is giving us watchers a lot to see and putting a great big smile on this watchers face! 🙂
As always click on the links below to see today’s videos. I must warn those of you who have a weak stomach that the videos of Big Frank are graphic
September 13th, 2015 at 5:04 PM
Fantastic report and photos MAK!! That Frankie is something else, hope she doesn’t make a habit of eating on the ground…that scares me!
September 13th, 2015 at 10:30 PM
Big Frank sure is something else Kathy. And I too, hope she doesn’t eat on the ground again but some how I don’t think that’s gonna happen. 🙂