By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P

A quick check at KP after getting out of work (3:30 pm).  No falcons found.  Actually no birds at all, including Pigeons.  It was starting to snow and it was bitter cold.

My next stop was downtown Rochester where I found Beauty on the OCSR, SE side of the top I-Beam.  She was facing the building.  Crows were streaming through, mostly between the Times Square Bldg and the OCSR.  Many of them veered off and swooped down to where Beauty was located.  They were checking her out, but not engaging her at all.  Just checking her out and moving on to their nighttime roost.  I have always found it fascinating to watch the behavior of the Crows.  They would aggressively attack Red-tailed Hawks, but mostly leave Peregrines alone.  They knew better than to provoke the fastest creature on the planet.  🙂

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As always at this time of day, the Pigeons lined the roof of the Blue Cross Arena aka War Memorial.  The hundreds of Crows passing overhead, vocalizing, seemed to make them a bit uneasy.  They took flight quite frequently while I was watching from the Broad St Bridge.  Always coming back to land on the Blue Cross Arena roof.  Beauty was watching everything.

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At 4:30 pm, Beauty took off and flew first over the river heading NE.  She “U-turned” and headed back towards the OCSR and past it towards the Times Square Bldg (TSB).  I lost her behind the buildings between me and the TSB.  Beauty eventually came back into view, flying towards the OCSR and landing just to the right of where she took off from.  Time for me to check on the BS location, where I hoped to find Pigott.

and find her I did.  She was sitting on a window on the south side of the east extension and it looked like she had a pretty full crop.

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This was one of BST’s favorite spots.  I have been wondering if the Tiercel I saw fly through and greet Pigott on Saturday was BST on the start of his migration.  It made sense that he would head north.  It’s too bad he wasn’t banded.  We might have been able to ID him and let the folks at his home territory know where he was wintering.  Of course we will never know for sure.

It was time for me to head home.  On the way I stopped one more time downtown and found that Beauty was still on the OCSR top I-beam, but she had moved to the east end near the elevator shaft.  This was the 2nd day I had seen her in this corner spot.  Was this her new nighttime roosting spot?

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On the way home I checked the LT and KP locations and found no Peregrines at either spot.

Tonight we are expecting some snow and wind.  Not much snow, probably just an inch or two.  Not like the foot of snow we had in the beginning of February!

I’ll leave you with a couple of pics I took in the gorge right after that storm.  Be sure to click on any pics you would like to see in a larger format.  I’ll put the rest in an album to share with everyone soon.  Goodnight all!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 10:17 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.