From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It doesn’t get much better that today’s outing. It was a cloudy day, but still mild compared to what it could be on a late November day. I’ll take it!

Kathy O, Dana & I met Joyce & Brian down at the Charlotte Pier in hopes of seeing the Snowy. I had to work yesterday, so I missed all the fun. We checked both side of the river with no Snowy sightings. Darn. We decided to check out the Irondequoit Bay Outlet, where someone said they had seen a Snowy, so off we went.

Our bad luck continued. We couldn’t find any Snowy’s there either. Lots of fisherman were out and lots of gulls & ducks and pigeons. We spotted one little one that didn’t look well. It was a juvenile Glacous gull with a broken wing. He was walking around, dragging his wing on the ground and looking for food. We watched him for awhile after giving him so scraps from my breakfast that he gobble down quickly. A decision was made. This little guy was not going to survive without a little help. With Brian’s help, Dana and I were able to catch the gull and put him in my rescue box. We took the bird to a Vet where we knew he would be given good care. I really hope that he is rehabbed and able to be released.

After leaving the Vet, we decided to head downtown, but fate would put a stop to these plans. Brian and Joyce called to say there was not one but two Peregrine Falcons at the Irondequoit Mall. We quickly turned around and headed back towards Irondequoit. For the next few hours, we watched this pair tandem hunt chasing pigeons and finally catching one. The male hit the pigeon and the female caught it in her talons, dispatching it quickly. She carried it back to the mall, landing on the glass roof.

The male was not too patient and kept trying to get his share. The female would have none of that. She took off and we found them on the SE side of the mall on a lamp post. After watching her pluck and eat for awhile, two walkers came a little too close and she took off carrying the prey off to the east with the male in hot pursuit. We could not find where they went

We headed back to join the rest of the Watchers, which now included, Kathy O, Dana, Joyce, Brian, MAK, Dan, Lisa McK, Jeanne and I. It was a blast seeing everyone and being able to watch this pair successfully tandem hunt. It was time for lunch, so we all headed over to Schaellers. Everyone except Lisa, MAK and Dan.

We got a text during lunch from Lisa. There was a Snowy on the back of the Coast Guard garage. So all but Jeanne and headed over to the Summerville where we had a nice visit with the juvie Snowy Owl that had been reported. We spent about an hour watching this beautiful creature look around, just taking everything in. You had to wonder what he thought of his surroundings, so different from his birth place.

We were starting to lose light, so we headed downtown. We didn’t see Beauty, but Brian suggestd that we park in an area where he said the Crows would fly over on their way into the city for their evening roosting spots. Brian did not steer us wrong. As the skies darkened, the Crows starting streaming in a long line overhead. I had never seen anything like it. 1,000’s upon 1,000’s of Crows flew over us heading into the city. It was incredible to see. They were uncountable! Most were silent, but a few cawed and rattled and chased each other as they passed overhead. We all just kind of watched in awe for about 25 mins, when finally the last stragglers came through. What a way to end such a fun and exciting day with good friends and good birds. 🙂

Here’s a link to my Kodak Gallery Album of pics from today and a YouTube video of our pair of Peregrines at the Irondequoit Mall.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=8612526311105%3A604559825

Video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pGO6X7dBtA

Take a look if you’d like. No sign on needed.

Carol P.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2011 at 12:36 AM 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.