It was a much calmer morning weather wise today when I left the house for downtown. I parked on the north side of the Broad St. Bridge and waited about 10 minutes when Beauty came flying in and landed on the outstretched  money bag hand of Mercury.

She was looking for breakfast turning her head to and fro very quickly to get a bead on prey. She made 3 different attempts at bringing up a pellet before being successful. It was a good size as I saw it pop out and drop. This made room for a meal and made her that much lighter for catching a meal. The wind would blow the feathers on her head forward at times making her look silly like she had gel in them to keep them spiked up. She did a little preening and rousted (term for when they shake their body)but was mainly in hunt mode.

The pigeons that roost at night under the Broad St. Bridge started making their way up into her view and Beauty was very intent on watching that activity. I thought she would take off after one of them but instead she spread her big Beautyful wings and flew after a gull. She attempted to smack it a few times over the river between the Court St. Bridge and Broad St. Bridge-this reminded me of the time I saw her carrying a gull downriver in her talons losing altitude the whole way before settling with it somewhere behind the OCSR building. She followed it over my head as it darted and dove to escape her and eventually she broke off  the chase and disappeared behind the Radisson Hotel. It was that gulls lucky day for she didn’t seem too serious about catching it as she was just wanting to give it a hard time. I checked around for her with no luck and went to the Brighton Site to look for Pigott and BSB. As I passed the northwest part of the building I spotted a deer laying down right below where the scrape that Pigott and Dot.Ca had chosen.

Always click the pics for a full version

I was unsuccessful in finding a falcon at the site after sitting and watching for quite a while. I left for a little over an hour to visit with fellow falcon watcher and friend Jeanne and her dogs. She is going away for  a week during the holidays and I have been familiarizing them with me as I will be dog sitting while their mom is gone. When I returned to the Brighton site the deer was still there only it was standing this time and keeping an eye on me.

I waited a bit to see if any falcons would show themselves which they didn’t so I returned to downtown. I searched around for Beauty but she didn’t want to come out and play with me either.  I had started my day with the Beautyful one and got to see a deer up close and personal which most people can’t say so I had good reason to smile! 🙂

Click on the links below if you wish to hang out with Beauty as she perches on Mercury

http://youtu.be/kruh8uvhLj4
http://youtu.be/LSdgYIBAG8A

http://youtu.be/3lM_AgV_1Qg

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 23rd, 2012 at 2:52 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.