By Rochester Falcon watcher MAK

When I stepped out of the house this morning I wondered if the sweater,fleece pullover and gloves were going to keep me warm enough but once I got to walking that question was answered. My outdoor thermometer said 49 degrees fahrenhiet, some 30-40 degrees cooler than what we’ve been seeing around here. Once I got downtown and the sun came up it turned out to be a beautiful morning with sunny blue skies much like 9-11-01. Let’s not EVER forget that day!

So it took me about 7 minutes from stepping off the bus to finding my first falcon. From the Broad St. bridge(BSB) I could see a pefa on the Frontier Communications Tower(FCT) on the 2nd arm tucked in close to the tower. I started my trek over to City Hall to ID it with the thought in the back of my mind that I might get over there and it would be gone. I stopped on State St. as I always do in front of the Rochester Plaza Hotel where the tower comes into view from behind buildings to see that it was gone from the arm and now there was a falcon on the platform railing. It had a dark front and so I got a little excited thinking that it could be Orion.

After getting by the City Hall building that blocks my view of the tower as I walk down Church St. I could see that my instincts were correct-no falcon. As I was checking the rest of the tower and contemplating going up on the Sister Cities Garage I got a text from Donna saying Beauty was at the nest box. So off I went to the Times Square building(TSB).  Once there I found Dot.Ca(DC) under the northeast wing looking very white in the bright morning sun.

I had to go to Falcon Watcher Central to be able to see Beauty up at the nest box. At first I could see one whole side of her but then she moved in closer to the nest box.

Then I couldn’t see DC anymore so I walked up to the middle of the BSB to see if he had just moved back on the ledge. He was gone as far as I could tell and I decided to go down by the front entrance of the Blue Cross Arena(BCA) to watch the Beautyful one at closer range.

Just before 9:00am Beauty left the nest box area so once again I went up to the BSB to have a look around. I found DC on the top ibeam of OCSR at the south corner(one of his favorite spots).

While I was up on the bridge I checked out the river residents and took some pics. When I was done I noticed a bump on the west corner 2nd ibeam  of OCSR. Beauty had joined the mix so I left the bridge to go to Aqueduct Park for a closer encounter with our resident Peregrine pair.

Click the pics for the full version

45 minutes later DC left and I couldn’t see Beauty anymore so I decided to call it a watch. I really was hoping Orion would come for a visit but I do believe he has started the wandering stage of his young life. I have no doubt that he will beat the odds and have a long successful life. I’m grateful for the time spent with him and there’s always video of him to look at when I/we need a fix. Keep smiling everyone! 🙂

Click on the links below for pics and videos from my watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrINA

http://youtu.be/K4S7ZYY65UQ
http://youtu.be/f6Kc_JHA0_E
http://youtu.be/8qHsH7EIoHI
http://youtu.be/V1XM0VL5VwY

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 at 5:20 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.