By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Today after leaving work, I first checked out the KP area.  I could not find any falcons in the area, so I my nest stop was downtown, Rochester.  After checking KO, FCT and the north side of OCSR and finding no falcons, I headed towards the Broad St Bridge (BSB).  On the way, my phone tweeted!  It was Ei and she said the B&DC were on the top IBeam, south side of the OCSR.  Thanks Ei!

There was only parking on the south side of the BSB, and it was getting really crowded, so I ended up down on Aqueduct St aka the hole.  This area gives you a great view of the south side of OCSR, the Wilder Bldg, the Widows Walk, the Mercury Statue and the Times Square Bldg (TSB).  You lose the falcon really quickly when it flies away from the TSB. Both Beauty & Dot.ca took off from the OCSR.  She flew to the nest box and he flew to the base of the NE wing on the TSB.  Beauty left the nest box quickly and landed at the base of the SE wing on the TSB.  A closer look at DC showed that he had food and he was eating.  After finishing his meal, he walked in towards the bottom of the wing to cache the remainder.

After preening a bit, Dot.ca took off and went back to the top IBeam of OCSR.  After awhile, Dot.ca sounded the alarm and kakked all the way up to the top of the NE wing on the TSB landing on what we call the “wing ring”.

Dot.ca settled down and preened for awhile, although he remained vigilant.  I have no idea what upset him.  Maybe a hawk passing through?  During all of this, Beauty was not bothered at all.  In fact, she walked around the corner of the base of the wing and laid down for a nap.  All I could see was her tail feathers as she soaked in the last of the late day sun.  DC on the other hand, took off yet again.  This time heading SE.  Maybe towards the BS location?  After he left, I was approached by Amerks fans asking if I were watching the falcons.  They wondered what happened this year and I explained and they continued on their way.  It was the Amerks (Rochester’s hockey team) home opener.  I wished them luck.

Well, now that DC was gone and Beauty was snoozing, I decided it would be a good time to check out the BS location to see if DC headed that way.

At the BS location, I circled twice, finding nothing.  All was quiet.  One last time around.  I was on the south side when a bunch of Crows landed on the building and they were CAWING very loudly.  In the middle of all the CAWS, I heard a very loud answering EE-CHUP KAK KAK KAK.  It got louder and I kept looking around for the source of the sound of a very irate Peregrine Falcon.  Finally, I found one sitting on a window near where the Crows had landed.

Just as I was trying to get a good look at this falcon, another, smaller Peregrine flew in fast!  It was Dot.ca and we all know how much he dislikes Crows!  He was off like a shot!  Chasing Crows here and there and before long he had them cleared out of the area.  Pigott remained on the windowsill, until it was all done.  Then Dot.ca took off, but I didn’t see where he went.

100’s of Crows continued to stream in from the south, heading north towards the city and their nightly roosts.  Every now and then, some of them would come down to check things out, but they all eventually continued on their way.

Kathy O joined me earlier in the Watch and we settled in to watch as Pigott came off of the windowsill and and landed on the corner of the building above us.

We were losing light when Dot.ca returned.  He landed on the south side of the building and Pigott went to the cubby on the west side of the building.  She was vocalizing by ee-chupping softly.  Maybe calling Dot.ca.  Pigott is very grown up now.  No more whining continuously when DC was around.  She has turned into a very lovely adult.

Pigott left the cubby and ended up on the corner closest to where Dot.ca was located.  As it got darker, P took off and stooped to the west.  She returned empty taloned.

Dot.ca again took off.  He did not return as far as we know.  Maybe heading back to downtown Rochester?  It was getting dark, so Kathy and I decided to go home, leaving Pigott on the SW side of the building.

It was nice seeing Pigott again.  and Beauty and Dot.ca too!  No sightings of KPF today though.  Hopefully the Watchers will see all of them this weekend.

Have a nice weekend everyone and keep your eyes to the sky and stay warm.  Temps down in the 20’s overnight here in Rochester.  Make sure to grab an extra blanket?  Goodnight!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2012 at 11:34 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.