By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

As I type this report, it is a balmy 60 degrees (F) here in Rochester, NY.  During my falcon watch, it was 51 degrees and sunny. What a gorgeous day!

This was a great day for a falcon watch and what a fun watch it was.  When I arrived downtown, I spotted Dot.ca up on top of the Mercury statue.  He took off, heading south.  From the Broad St Bridge, I could see Beauty at the Times Square Bldg (TSB) nest box.

Dot.ca was on the top arm of the Jail Communication Tower (JCT).  He took off and Beauty was gone too!  I moved closer to the TSB and found Beauty on the ledge just above the nest box.

Dot.ca flew in and approached Beauty and ……. Copulation #1! (8:10 am) Let the season begin!  🙂

Beauty remained on the ledge.  Dot.ca entered the nest box and then out to the pan cam (Camera #1).

Dot.ca took off from Pan Cam and flew south.  Beauty took off and up to the ledge under the northeast wing of the TSB.  Dot.ca turned back towards the Times Square Bldg and again approached Beauty. Copulation #2! (8:37 am)

Dot.ca again flew down to the nest box and dug in the scrape, prepping it for his eggs.  lol  He then came out and up to pan cam.

Kathy O joined me at this point. We could hear a high pitched wailing coming from Beauty.

At 10:23 am, Dot.ca took off.

He circled around the Wilder Bldg and up to Beauty.  Copulation #3! No picture this time, but I did a quick video snippet.

Click here:

Beauty and Dot.ca Copulation #3 Video

Dot.ca went to the nest box and scrapped and back to Pan Cam.  Seems to be a pattern here.  lol

Kathy and I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk fly overhead.  Beauty and Dot.ca started to kak loudly, but neither of them left the building.  The hawk flew off to the northeast, and Beauty and Dot.ca were quiet again.

Dot.ca took off at 11:26 am.  He stooped towards the building on the north side of the Times Square Bldg and took a swipe at the pigeons there.  They took off, flying in all directions.  Dot.ca returned to the nest box.

At 11:37 am, Beauty and Dot.ca copulated for the 4th time during my watch.  Again on the ledge below the northeast wing.  Here is another short video.  This time you can hear Kathy and I talking.  🙂

Click here:

Beauty and Dot.ca Copulation #4

Afterwards Dot.ca landed on the southeast wing ledge across from Beauty.  That’s when we ended our downtown falcon watch.

I did check Seneca Towers, Medley Center and Russell Station, but found no falcons at any of those locations.  While I was checking out Seneca Towers from Maplewood Park I saw two adult Bald Eagles flying low over the river gorge.  No pictures because they both went below the tree line.

I’ll leave you with a picture I took before my falcon watch.  Do you see what I see!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 28th, 2016 at 5:56 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.