By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

So I had a little stomach bug all week but I’m better now and boy what a welcome back watch it was from our beloved Rochester Peregrine Falcons for me! They kept me busy for pretty much the whole 8 hours I was out . It was 37 (F)  3 (C) with a brisk wind and overcast when I started at 6:45am. The sun came out and it turned out to be not a bad day at all.

I made a trip around the city as I didn’t see any falcons right away, but after 15 minutes Beauty appeared on the Mercury money bag (MMB) as I came up on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB).

After 20 minutes passed Beauty flew to the nest box which clued me in that Dot.Ca (DC) was on his way. Sure enough he came flying in and landed under the northeast wing of the Times Square Building (TSB).

25 minutes later Beauty went to the MMB and Donna let me know DC went to the nest box as I missed that. Thanks D! Beauty then flew to the nest box and DC back to the northeast wing. 10 minutes later Beauty was on the base of Mercury briefly and then to the east side railing of Widows Walk and DC went to the heel of Mercury. Busy!

Remember to click my pics to see the full version

Beauty caught breakfast over by Widows Walk a minute later and took it to the north side of the TSB on a west end column and of course DC showed up immediately. I parked next to Keybank in the hole to watch.

He first landed on the first column toward the front  and then decided he had to be next to her. She started plucking and eating as he did his best to act like he wasn’t interested. HA! We know better and so does she as she seems to lure him with food all the time!!  You know what they say-the way to a mans heart is thru his stomach! Less than ten minutes of that and DC couldn’t take it anymore so he flew off to the northwest. Beauty squawked something to him,cached her food back on the ledge she was eating on and then she too flew northwest.

<DC  Beauty> Click em

5 minutes later Beauty was on the MMB and as I drove up to the BSB I caught DC fly in and attempt to mate with her but she wasn’t ready for it.

Click it to see Beauty

They both flew to the nest box after that. DC flew over to the MMB after a quick moment and 5 minutes later they were both gone.

Did I say they were busy this morning!? 5 minutes later I spotted Beauty flying to the east side railing of the Widows Walk  while DC landed near that column Beauty stashed her food.So I went back to the hole to observe again.

Beauty quickly flew north and DC went over to Widows Walk below where Beauty had just been-I think he was looking for that food!  Unfulfilled,DC flew north as well!

Donna let me know that Beauty was in the nest box 5 minutes later so I drove back up to the BSB where I still couldn’t see her but no worries for a couple moments later she flew up to the southeast wing facing toward the southwest.  This is another cue I take from the Beautyful one that means DC has gone to Pigott at the Brighton Site (BS). Off I went and as I drove past the cubby on the west side I heard loud echupping. I stopped and listened for several minutes and then DC came shooting out in his usual missile launch style going to the southwest corner. Pigott appeared on the front edge of the cubby a half minute later and then she flew to the southeast corner.

<Pigott   DC>

They both left the building 20 minutes later and didn’t return and I know why. They were afraid of the crazy geese that are taking over the roofs at BS! lol

Oh yes they are busy too!  I left to return to downtown and as I approached I spotted 2 falcons flying northeast and out of view behind the OCSR. After no success in finding a falcon I returned to BS and found Miss Pigott on the northwest corner of the west extension. She got fidgety after just a couple minutes and took off to the northwest which is the direction of downtown. She didn’t return so back downtown I went arriving just before the 11 o’clock hour finding Beauty at the southeast wing looking southwest. I parked on the BSB and 5 minutes later she took wing headed northwest. Busy!?

I drove over to the Andrews St. bridge to have a look at the north end of Beautys territory when Donna(TY) once again let me know that Beauty was at the nest box. I found DC at the southeast wing as I parked up on the BSB. He flew down to the deck  and then went into the nest box. Beauty had snuck out when I wasn’t looking at some point. Beauty showed up a few minutes later at the nest box and DC beat feet outta there flying up to the southeast wing. Beauty had food at the nest box and DC dropped down to the deck-a tug of war ensued with DC winning and he took it up to the back of the northeast wing ledge to eat.

When he was done he took off to the north and Beauty was also gone. Since I had no falcons downtown I thought I’d try BS one more time and driving in from the back I spotted 2 falcons battling high above the building. I stopped to watch from a great distance because if I had gone near the building I would have missed most of it. It reminded me of DC diving on Beauty early in the season with no aggressively hard hitting. They seemed to be the same size from where I was as they went further east away from me and after several minutes I lost them in the sky. I then moved in closer to the service road behind the BS building to see 1 of the falcons swoop very low on the south side barely clearing the tree tops. I would see this male do this many more times before all was said and done. They were gliding on the busy winds above the building until I lost them so I drove around to the north(front) side of the building. I found an unbanded male on a northwest window ledge.

Unbanded male

He took off and started circling and patrolling above the building when I heard what I thought was an alarm call and then I saw nothing for like 20 minutes. I was about to leave when I saw this male chasing what turned out to be Pigott all around and above the building. I was watching from the south(back) of building. Pigott landed on the roof above the south side vent while the unbanded tiercel(male) flew continuously above the tree tops on the south side and around the building making some awesome maneuvers.

Pigott

If Pigott wasn’t impressed I sure was! He took a short break landing on the east end of the south vent and then they both flew to the front of the building.

Unbanded male

Pigott came to rest on the west end of the south side vent and watched while this fancy flier put on another flying display for us.  He eventually vanished to the north after an hour of practically nonstop action. Pigott flew south out of view around 1:20pm and then 20 minutes later I went downtown to wait for Joyce to tag in for a watch. There were no falcons to be found in the downtown area as I sat on the Andrews St. bridge. Joyce let me know she was going to BS first so I ended my watch at 2:30pm just 15 minutes shy of 8 hours. I’ll tell ya what-I couldn’t ask for more reasons to smile on this day! 🙂

I have provided links below for more pics of my watch and a few videos-just click and view

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrbcg

http://youtu.be/3u0ths4w-Lw
http://youtu.be/nJ-0Q5bGwDM
http://youtu.be/cN_gVlw2gP0
http://youtu.be/KHGOvfqVBaw
http://youtu.be/JgnuGlHd3ZY

This entry was posted on Friday, April 5th, 2013 at 9:17 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.