Morning watch 4-17-13
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
WordPress,the site we put our watch reports on is messed up today so no pics in the report.
It was a cool 33 (F) 1 (C) when I left for my watch this morning but unlike yesterday the wind was calm.
I made my way to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) by 6:10am and I found Dot.Ca (DC) under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB). He didn’t stay long leaving about 6:30am after chasing a crow. Dan was on the BSB so I joined him to watch Beauty as she was on the base of Mercury. She went to the nest box at 6:45am. Dan left around 7:15am and since DC didn’t return I went to the Brighton site.
I found him there with Pigott-they were both on opposite corners of the roof above the cubby on the south side. They flew to the cubby and had a loud echup session and then they returned to the cubby roof and mated on the southeast corner. DC flew to the west extension southwest corner and she stayed. An EMT stopped to ask why he has been seeing people look at the building. I told him about the falcons and he thanked me and left.Just before 8:00am Pigott went to the cubby and started echupping while DC ignored her. DC flew to the southeast corner of the cubby roof and Pigott flew to the southwest corner of the west extension and for the next 45 minutes
they both preened.
At 9:00am DC flew over to Pigott and they mated again then DC went in the cubby. Pigott flew around to the south side and landed on a window ledge 4 levels down. DC flew out the cubby and Pigott went in. I drove around to the west side where I could see the cubby and heard echupping going on in there. I got a message from Donna that there was a male at the nest box with Beauty so I left for downtown to check it out.
When I arrived on the BSB I couldn’t see any falcons so I took a ride to the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) to check the north end of the territory. From there I spotted a very white chested tiercel judging by the size on the southeast corner of the platform railing. I drove to Fitzhugh St. for closer viewing. He was scrunched down so I couldn’t see if he was wearing leg bands and I didn’t get any pics to convince me of who it was before it took off. I missed his exit as I was tweeting about him.
I drove to the BSB and found DC on the Mercury money bag (MMB) at 9:30am. He flew to the northeast wing of the TSB so I went to the hole to watch closer. He went to the back of it out of my field of vision so I drove back up to the bridge to find that he was gone. I would hear from Donna and Joyce that Beauty was in the nest box. Thank you ladies and thanks to Annette who tweeted earlier this morning that the Beautyful one was in the nest box.
At 10:00am DC was next to cam 4 and Beauty was next to the main cam near the well wall. I was informed that there was food up there and a few minutes later DC flew to the MMB while Beauty stayed. I went to the hole and hung out by the bottom of the stairs that go up to Broad St. which is what we call Falcon Watcher Central. I had a view of both falcons from there. The 3 of us spent the next 45 minutes in our chosen spots. About 10:50am Beauty flew over to the south corner top ibeam of OCSR. A few minutes later DC went to the deck by the main cam and returned to the MMB a couple minutes later. 5 minutes later Beauty flew off to the north and DC followed behind. I lost them behind OCSR so I took a ride to the ASB to check the north end of the city but no luck. I went back to the BSB and waited for 20 minutes before I spotted a male and female falcon flying high above the TSB area and then they floated out of view. 10 minutes later I noticed several Turkey Vultures soaring near the High Falls area.
I ended my watch at 11:45am just shy of 6 hours. I saw all 3 of our Rochester Peregrine Falcons which always makes me smile! 🙂
Try the links below from my watch.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrdmg
April 17th, 2013 at 5:37 PM
MAK – Wonderful video. Gives a much different perspective of distance between buildings. When cam 1 is focused to buildings in the distance, it seems so much further away then it really is. Great video. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. It’s truly appreciated!
April 17th, 2013 at 7:08 PM
NCA I’m glad it helped! 🙂
April 17th, 2013 at 10:30 PM
Nice tour, MAK. Looked like a nice day in Rochester. Thanks for your report!
April 17th, 2013 at 10:53 PM
It was a nice day Barb. I hope you had a nice day there too! 🙂