By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

After watchers Kathy O, Dana and Larry O reported witnessing a battle between (we believe) Big Frank, Seth and Billie at Medley Ctr yesterday, I knew I had to get out for a watch today.

After the fog lifted, around 9:30 am, I headed over to Medley Ctr.  Someone had dropped off a whole lot of bread in the middle of the parking lot and the gulls and pigeons were eating their fill.  All of a sudden, they all took panicked flight and left the area.  This was usually a sign that a bird of prey was nearby.  I was hoping to see a Peregrine Falcon, but it wasn’t a falcon that had scared them off.  A big, beautiful Coopers Hawk was on the ground near the mall.  It walked up to a grouping of small bushes.  I had to wonder if it had chased a bird into those bushes and was now looking for it.

After a couple minutes, the Coop flew up into a nearby small tree.  Here are a few pictures I took of the Coopers Hawk.

Dana joined me and we kept watch, looking to see if a Peregrine would show up.

I received a text from fellow watcher Brian H saying that he had seen Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower, so I decided to head downtown to look for Beauty and Dot.ca, while Dana remained in Irondequoit.

I found Beauty on the northeast box, below the platform on the Frontier Communication Tower.  Beauty didn’t stay long.  She spread her wings and flew to the south.

I was very sad to hear that Beauty’s mom Dorothy is no longer at her nest site.  I hope that she, like Mariah, left without being injured.  Farewell Dorothy.  You will be missed.  🙁

From the Broad St Bridge, in front of the Blue Cross Arena aka Rochester War Memorial, I found both Beauty and Dot.ca on the Mercury statue.  Beauty was on the base of the statue, plucking feathers from prey while Dot.ca watched over her from the top of the statue.

After finishing her meal, Beauty preened a bit and then took off heading north.  I believe that she went up into the OCSR elevator shaft.

Soon after Beauty left, Dot.ca flew down to the base of the statue and finished Beauty’s leftovers.  It was very small, so it didn’t take him long.

After finishing his small snack, Dot.ca left, but I didn’t see where he went.  I would have checked out the OCSR elevator shaft, but there was a whole lot of traffic over at the Radisson and on Main St.  Not sure what was going on.

Dana texted that she now had a falcon on one of the light poles at Medley Ctr (MC).  I decided to check out Seneca Towers (ST) on the way to MC.

At Seneca Towers, there was one falcon on the window ledge on the north end of the building.  While I was watching, the falcon took off headed north, very fast.  A few minutes later, a falcon returned to the north window ledge.

It was time to join Dana at Medley Ctr.  I found her watching the falcon on the north side of the parking lot.  When I first arrived, the Coopers Hawk was still in the tree.  Oh, and based on size, I would guess this was a big female.

The falcon on the light pole was watching all the bird activity in the area.  When she took off, it looked like she had a black over black band on her left leg,  I couldn’t see the right leg.  We were pretty sure that it was Big Frank.

Big Frank took off and flew around the west end of the mall, heading south.  The Coop was gone too, but we hadn’t seen it leave.

Dana and I searched for Big Frank, but could not find her.  It was time for me to end my watch.

It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny afternoon here in Rochester, NY. I am really enjoying this weather!  🙂

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 6th, 2015 at 7:55 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.