By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

After a chilly 44 degree start this morning it turned out to be a beautiful sunny first full day of Fall! I got off the bus in darkness at about 6:15am and wondered if the new tiercel(NG) would still be around.

Since it was still dark out I thought I would walk straight over to the east side to look for Beauty on either Xerox or HSBC. Standing by Clinton Square I found her on the northeast corner of HSBC with a star in the eastern sky behind her and breakfast under talon.

As the sun came up it was interesting how her colors changed as the sun got higher and brighter. Beauty took some time to prepare and consume her meal as I stood below watching. I wasn’t ready for her abrupt departure when she flew off to the west slipping behind Midtown where I couldn’t see her. I knew she wouldn’t be back cuz this is her early morning spot for hunting and eating then she starts her day over near her nest box somewhere. Today was no exception as I found her at the nest box with another falcon under the northeast wing of the Times Square building(TSB). This I could see from the intersection of South Ave. and Broad St.

Once I got to the middle of the bridge the action picked up when I saw another falcon fly in front of the the one under the wing. One of them landed under the southeast wing and the other flew by it and around the back of the TSB while Beauty remained by the nest box. As I was crossing the street the wing bird left so when I got down to Falcon Watcher Central(FWC) I only had Beauty at the nest box. She flew off to the north and a couple minutes later a falcon landed under the northeast wing. As far as I could tell it was NG.

I shared space with him for half hour watching  by He’s Chinese which is located below the Wilder building on Exchange St. He then took off heading south really fast.

Turns out that would be the last time I saw NG. I watched him until he became a dot and disappeared into the southern sky. When I took my binocs away from my face I saw the flash of a set of wings go to the nest box but I couldn’t see in it from my location. I walked back up to FWC as both Donna and Jeanne let me know Beauty and Dot.Ca(DC) were at the nest box bowing.  Thank you to all the cam watchers that help us in the field. Your help is greatly appreciated! 3 minutes later DC flew from the deck over by Crossroads and returned to the TSB landing under the northeast wing.

For the next hour and a half it remained Beauty at the nest box napping with DC above her under the northeast wing preening and looking around his territory and sneaking in some shut eye as well.

Dana and Lou joined me and a few minutes later DC flew off chasing after a Blue Jay above Broad and Exchange Blvd. They both flew over the Thomson Reuters parking lot and as the building got too close DC broke off the chase and the poor Blue Jay hit the building and dropped to the parking lot. DC came back thru and tried to scoop it up on the fly but cut that off as well when the Blue Jay got slid toward the little cement wall in the front of the parking lot. He left it and flew west out of view and that was the last we saw of him.

Dana,Lou and I walked up on the Broad St. bridge for a better view and Aaron came by for a photo op. He found the Green Heron in the river below the Thomson Reuters building. It blends in so well and is so small to find. As I was chatting  with Aaron Dana yelled that Beauty was flying. The Beautyful one flew out over the river and vanished behind the OCSR.. Dana and Lou left to take a look around and I left Aaron to catch my bus home.

It would seem that NG may have moved on and so this is how it will probably go all winter if DC doesn’t migrate. Hopefully ending just as quietly with the next possible suitors that come to town which should make for a smile by having no blood shed. 🙂

Click the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrJQg

http://youtu.be/Y69rcTcK__8
http://youtu.be/it0zWSHtqIY
http://youtu.be/4liQAKWJr38
http://youtu.be/effPXrfBebM
http://youtu.be/PaaFnNmKUxo

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2012 at 6:36 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.