By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

The weather people were calling for a cold front to pass through Rochester (NY) today.  When I left work to go downtown to check on the falcons, it was still warm, but that was soon to change.  On the way, I passed Kodak Office and saw that the scaffolding on the High Falls stack was almost up to what remained of the catwalk.

Next stop the Broad St Bridge where I spotted Beauty on the top IBeam of OCSR, south side.

Dark clouds were moving and so was the cold front.  I got out of the car to check out the river and grabbed my jacket.  It was chilly.  Not what I was used to on my afternoon/evening Falcon Watch.  Usually it was oppressively hot with bright sunshine.  This was very refreshing!

I got to talking with a couple folks about the falcons and didn’t notice until 4:30 pm that Beauty had left.  Thanks to Donna’s text, I knew she left at 4:18 pm.  Thanks Donna!

I jumped into my car and drove around downtown, until I found Beauty on top of Xerox on the south side on the 6th column in from the SE corner.  This is the spot we usually see her roosting at night.  Guess the passing of the cold front, which included heavy rain, thunder & lightning and wind, sent her to this spot.  I found a parking spot on the street near the Geva Theater.  From here, I watched the storm pass through.  Beauty did not move the whole time I was there, except for flying from OCSR to Xerox int he beginning of the Watch.

During the time I was watching Beauty, Kathy O was checking out the BS location where she found both Pigott and Dot.ca on the vent at the back of the building.  One on each end like bookmarks.

At 6:20 pm, it was still raining and Beauty didn’t look like she was going anywhere during the storm, so I decided to leave to have some dinner.  But, on the way, I wanted to stop at KP to check on KPT, who I had not seen for awhile.  I have been checking there every day on my way home from my downtown watches with no luck.  But tonight was different.

It started to pour again and it was hard to see the stacks we would normally see KPT on.  I pulled my car over to the side and took a quick look with my binoculars.  Through the pouring rain, I could just make out an object on the railing in front of the red door on the east stack.  Could it be?  It had been so long since I had seen a Peregrine there.  I went up to the parking lot we are allowed to watch from and took a couple pictures.  YES!  There was definitely a falcon there.  WOOHOO!  I really thought KPT might have migrated, I was happy to see him.  Of course, assuming that this was still KPT and not another falcon passing through.  Certainly no way of knowing for sure.

So, between Kathy O and I, we saw 4 of the Rochester Falcons this evening in the rain.  I would have loved it to be five, but Orion was not seen by any Watchers again today.  Miss the little guy.  I will always keep my eyes to the sky in hope of see him some day.  <3

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2012 at 11:10 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.