By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

My watch started at 11:30 am at KP where it was snowing like crazy this St. Patrick’s Day morning.  Thankfully it didn’t last too long.  Soon the sun was shining, but it was very cold with temps in the 30’s (F).  The only raptor at KP was a Red-tailed Hawk deep within the nearby wooded area.

On my way downtown, I checked the LT location and found no falcons there.

When I arrived downtown, I found both Beauty and UT on the Wilder Bldg, which is just NE of the Times Square Bldg.

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UT took off flying to the SW.  He circled back and I finally noticed him over on the disk or dish on top of the Telesca Bldg across the street from the Wilder Bldg.

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Beauty flew off once and returned to the green strip at the top of the Wilder Bldg.  UT, as usual, flew back and forth quite a bit, but usually stayed nearby.

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When UT flew to the nest box, I decided to go check the BS location.  After circling the building slowly a couple times, I could not find any falcons.  I headed back downtown and joined Dana & Lou who had arrived while I was gone.

Beauty and UT were back  on the Wilder Bldg when I returned.  At one point, a small flock of starlings, about 6 or 7, flew in and landed on the fire escape below Beauty.  UT flew down from the roof and landed on the east end of the fire escape.  The starling remained on the west end, while UT watched them, head turning this way and that.  He never made an attempt to go after them, he just watched them.

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At approximately 3:00 pm, first UT took off, flying over the river heading NW.  Then Beauty took off 5 mins later, flying low, heading north down State St.  Larry O arrived and he, Dana, Lou and I looked for Beauty and UT, but had no luck finding either of them.  At 3:20 pm, I had to end my watch.  But, that wouldn’t be the end of it.

At 5:22 pm, Donna posts a picture from the nest box on the forum.  It shows two Peregrines there, both banded.  Everyone’s first thought is that Dot.ca has returned.  Here is the picture captured by the RFalconcam Main Camera at the nest box.

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I arrived downtown a little before 7:00 pm.  All was quiet from the Broad St Bridge.  So I drove over to the Andrews St Bridge and from there I spotted a peregrine falcon flying high above the Hyatt.  That’s where I headed.  On my way, I spotted a falcon on the SE corner of the B&L Bldg.  A tweet came through and MAK had also spotted the falcon.  She thought it was Beauty, but couldn’t be 100% sure due to the bright sunlight.

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MAK & I met on the Broad St Bridge.  As we were talking, I spotted two falcons flying towards the jail communication tower.  One landed and one continued to fly, heading south.  MAK decided to go check out the falcon that had landed and I followed the flight of the smaller falcon.  This falcon headed south.  It was time to head over to the BS location.  I tweeted it out that I was headed over there and MAK tweeted that it was Beauty on the jail communication tower.

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At BS, the first thing I saw was a large herd of deer on the south side, about 8 of them.  They were chomping on the grass in the field behind the building.

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I continued circling the building and found a peregrine up on the metal structure at the top of the building on the south side.

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The whole time I was there, the falcon had its’ back to me, facing north.  A couple times it stretched and I could catch a glimpse of bands.  Was this Pigott, which I tend to believe it was, or the banded tiercel that had visited the nest box with Beauty?  Was the tiercel Dot.ca, returned from his migration?  The timing would be right.  Where was UT, the unbanded tiercel that had been with Beauty this afternoon?  So many questions that will hopefully be answered over the coming days.

I returned downtown and found MAK in the parking lot next to the Wilder Bldg.  Beauty was up at the base of the SE wing on the Times Square Bldg.  She seemed restless.  Beauty took off and MAK and I followed.  We found her on the SE corner of the HSBC bldg.  I headed home at about 7:45 pm and MAK stayed with Beauty until about 8:00 pm, reporting that she had remained on the SE corner of HSBC with the moon above her.

Tomorrow is another day and I am certain that the Rochester Falcon Watchers will be out and about checking things out and reporting what they see.

Hope everyone enjoyed their St. Patrick Day celebrations.  Goodnight everyone!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 17th, 2013 at 11:57 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.