Morning watch 9-27-12
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Todays watch was less about falcons and more about just enjoying the crisp clean fall air and surroundings.
As is my usual routine of late I check around from the Broad St. bridge and then I walk to the east side of the river to check on HSBC and the Xerox-B&L area. I could find none of our feathered friends so I stopped at Tim Hortons for a cup of coffee on my way back to the bridge and perched on a picnic table by the library for a while. After a bit I walked over to the southeast end of the bridge to take a look at the river and spotted a Killdeer down on the rocks eating bugs. They are one of my favorites!
After I finished taping this little guy I looked over at the jail tower and spotted a falcon on the 2nd arm south side.
It was too far away to ID with it’s back to me. DebbieH came by on her way to work and suggested we walk down to the new park next to the Hall of Justice for a closer look at the tower. So off we went and as close as we were I still wasn’t sure who was perched on that tower although I was thinking Beauty judging by size and the darkness of the mustache.
Debbie left for work and when I looked back up there was no falcon! I then got a text from Donna that Beauty had just arrived at the nest box confirming that it was the Beautyful one on the jail tower. She was only at the nest box briefly and by the time I got down all the stairs from the new park to Exchange Blvd. it was too late- she was gone. I then took a walk to the Frontier Communications Tower checking the sky and building tops along the way. No luck! I crossed over State St. to Andrews St. and walked along the river checking the north(back) side of OCSR. I went across the pedestrian bridge to the east side of the river by the Radisson Hotel up South Ave. and onward to check the Xerox area without any sightings. I made my way to the Main St. bridge which is near my bus stop and sat on a bench for a while. Lots of folks along the way asked me if I was watching the falcons and in particular Larry Sweet a guy I met back in the spring. We used to chat about the falcons a lot and I hadn’t seen him in a very long time so it was good to flag him down on his bike and visit. He thought our falcons had all split until spring. I brought him up to speed and then he had to get going.
As I looked around for falcons I decided to take pics of the view from that bench on the Main St. bridge so y’all could see what I saw. They are in my photo album from today. I never saw another falcon before leaving downtown, but I did see Beautys back for a while and I enjoyed all the sights and sounds of our fair city which is good for a smile or two! 🙂
Click the links below for a different album and video due to the lack of Peregrines
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrJyg
