Morning watch 12-22-12
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
The worst of the winter storm today is the wind-I’d say less than 4 or 5 inches of snow but the wind blew drifts knee deep in my driveway. No problem getting out and about to look for falcons. It was a tough go finding Beauty this morning but I did see a falcon chasing pigeons on the east side near Midtown and Xerox so I can only assume that it was her. In the first hour of my watch I was hard pressed to find a bird of any kind but as I made my way over to the Brighton Site(BS) I had a crow fly overhead so I felt a bit more optimistic. When I drove in the BS road it was drifted pretty good but I got thru just fine and was able to find a falcon on the east extension perched on a south facing window ledge. It was snowing harder there than downtown and I couldn’t see well enough to ascertain which falcon it was.
I returned to downtown and searched about an hour with no luck so I went back to BS and it turned out to be a good call as I found both BST and Pigott. It wasn’t snowing as hard as my first trip to BS and there was a guy plowing the road and parking lot. BST was on the same window ledge as the falcon I saw earlier.
Miss Pigott was on the north side of the east extension.
I stayed briefly as I wanted to find Beauty before I ended my watch. Another hour of looking found no sign of her. As I sat on the Broad St. bridge facing the east I spotted pigeons flying around in that crazed state that says there’s something chasing them and sure enough a falcon was on their tail. I did drive over there to have a look but no pigeons or falcon were in sight. I do believe it was most likely the Beautyful one so I ended my watch and headed home. We didn’t get as much snow as they predicted but it’s a good start for the season and enough to make this snow lover smile! 🙂
Links for 2 snowy videos below-just click to get a flavor for what I was seeing on my watch
December 23rd, 2012 at 10:41 AM
Interesting. I would think they would find places where they are more protected in that weather, like Beauty did.
I do love your reports.
Sheila
December 23rd, 2012 at 1:15 PM
Yes Sheila, you would think they would since there are many places on that building to get out of the weather but I guess they were comfortable in their chosen spots. I always like to hear that people enjoy my reports and I’m glad you like them! 🙂
December 24th, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Yes, we do. I think there is a sort of trade-off between being comfortable and being to see in most directions…
December 24th, 2012 at 3:19 PM
being ABLE to see.
December 26th, 2012 at 6:54 AM
I agree Alison-it’s vital for them to be able to see the territory. 🙂