By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was raining and 34 (F) 1 (C) when I left for my watch this morning at 6:15am. I had planned on making it a short watch due to the weather but due to circumstances it turned into a 7 hour watch.

It took me a few minutes to notice the bump of a falcon on the west corner top ibeam of OCSR from the Broad St. Bridge (BSB). I drove to State St. across from the Rochester Plaza Hotel to view from the front for identifying it.

It was Beauty and I sat there for a few minutes pondering whether to stay. I decided she would be there for a while and so I went to the Brighton Site (BS) to see what goes on there this early in the morning. It turned out to be a big bust as I could find no falcons. While on my way back downtown both Joyce and Donna reported that Beauty was at her nest box. Thanks for the help ladies it’s much appreciated. As I approached from Exchange Blvd. I could see a bump on the northwest corner railing of the Crossroads building. I pulled over in front of the Blue Cross Arena at 7:14am and was able to ID it as Beauty.

This is one of her hunting perches but with the rain pouring down I didn’t think she was going to have much luck with that. She would stay there getting soaking wet for an hour and then she flew off to the OCSR building top ibeam southwest side. She flew off a few minutes later and went to the nest box and Dot.Ca (DC) was also there at some point. As I pulled onto Aqueduct St. I saw him fly off the Wilder green strip toward OCSR. I then drove up to the BSB and located DC on the top ibeam southwest side. He stayed only a minute or two and then flew off. I found Beauty on the west corner 2nd ibeam of OCSR so I went back to my spot on State St. to observe. Turns out that was a good call for I never would have seen DC on the top ibeam on the northwest side.

Click my pics for a full version

At 9:43am the Beautyful one took off  and DC stayed. A few minutes later she flew up to where DC was and as she landed he took off flying southwest.

After checking around for DC I went to BS to see if he went there. I found Pigott on a west facing top window near the northwest corner just out from the scrape. I pulled over and noticed an SUV parked with its flashers on just ahead of me. It pulled away and then came up behind me and stopped. I didn’t know if it was someone just watching or maybe there to disturb the birds so I kept my eye on it.

I was parked parallel to Pigott and couldn’t see the scrape so I had no idea what was going on up there until I drove around the building to look for DC. As I got to the front of the building I stopped and checked out the SUV and saw a DEC emblem on the drivers side door. I eventually pulled up behind it and got out to see that it was Jenny Landry the DEC biologist assigned to our area. She explained to me that she had contact with the building owner and there were maintenance people covering up the window where we believed there to be a scrape. This was done for the falcons safety as there were 2 broken windows up there and any eyasses born would be at risk. No eggs were found-good news that Pigott and DC would not be disturbed in that process. This building is a poor choice for nesting as there are constantly vagrants breaking into it so the idea here is to discourage the falcons from nesting there.

Surprisingly, Pigott was calm while the windows were being covered whining a little here and there. When the job was done she took off from  her window and flew back and forth in front of the scrape vocalizing for a few minutes. DC came in sometime after and joined Pigott vocalizing much louder than her and flying around the area and going up to the scrape ledge then turning back.  Pigott flew to the northeast side of the building and landed on a west facing window. She couldn’t see the scrape or DC who had landed on the northwest window and sat there looking at the scrape.

DC

A while later they both flew off loudly vocalizing to the west and Jenny said she saw a 3rd bird which disappeared quickly. They came back with Pigott landing on the 4th window down and DC the 2nd window down on that northwest side. Just before noon DC flew off and returned 5 minutes later with prey landing next to the window he was previously on. Miss Pigott was whining and DC was chirping.

<Pigott  DC>

Pigott flew up to the northwest corner and DC  left with his prize. Jenny and I stayed a bit longer to observe Pigott. When we were satisfied that she seemed relaxed and not all worked up about the scrape we left. I thanked her for trying to make things safe for our falcons and then I drove downtown to check on things there.

Pigott

Beauty was in the nest box and DC on the northwest wing ring .

He flew southwest fast and Beauty left the nest box only to return when DC came back and landed at the northeast wing above her. DC left after a few minutes and then Beauty left as well. I ended my watch about 1:10pm. Hopefully things will stay quiet and settled and eggs will be laid soon giving all of us a reason to smile! 🙂

Click the links below to view more pics and a video

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrczg

http://youtu.be/MgTZSmIx0vM

This entry was posted on Friday, April 12th, 2013 at 5:53 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.