By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

While I was on an evening falcon watch with fellow Rochester Falcon Watchers Joyce and Lisa McK, Beauty laid a 2nd egg at about 7:40 pm.  WOOHOO!

When I arrived downtown a little after 6:00 pm, I found Beauty standing on the nest box platform in front of the scrape where her one egg was.  She took off and flew low heading east.  I was watching from the Broad St Bridge (BSB) and did not see her come out over the river.  So I drove closer to the Times Square Bldg (TSB) and saw a tail sticking out on the NE wing ledge of the TSB.  At first I wasn’t sure if it was Beauty or Dot.ca or the unbanded tiercel that visited now and then.  So, down to Aqueduct St I went.  From there, I could see that it was a tiercel up there and later determined that it was indeed Dot.ca.

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It was a warm evening with temperatures near 70 degrees (F), and the winds were gusting to close to 30-40 mph.  Dot.ca was having a really hard time hanging on up there!

While I was watching from the parking lot just off of Aqueduct St. (aka the hole), a tweet came in from Joyce.  She was up on the BSB, but soon joined me.  Right after Joyce arrived, Lisa McK pulled up on my other side.  It was nice to be able to chat with them from inside my car.  It was really windy out there.  Beauty came out on the nest box platform next to the main camera base for a few moments and then went back into the nest box.

At about 7:00 pm, we split up.  Lisa went over to the BS location.  When she first arrived, Pigott was soaring above the building and then landed on the NW corner of the west extension.  Joyce headed north to check out the Hawkeye plant, where she and Brian had spotted the unbanded tiercel a few days ago, and some of the taller buildings in that area.  She had no luck spotting any falcons.  I drove up to the BSB, but was still unable to see Beauty inside the nest box.

Since it was quiet downtown, I left Dot.ca and Beauty on the TSB and made my way over to the BS location, where I found Lisa and Pigott.  Lisa had to leave, so I spent a little while watching Pigott on the NW corner of the west extension.  Like Dot.ca she was struggling to remain up on the corner in the high winds.  It wasn’t easy for her, as she almost had to take flight a few times.  But she was determined to remain where she was and she did.

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Just about the time Beauty had laid her 2nd egg (thanks Ei for the tweet!), I was on my way down town to check on Beauty & Dot.ca one more time before heading home.  I didn’t read Ei’s tweet until I was parked on the BSB.  From there I could not see Beauty, since she was laying on both of her eggs.  I could not find Dot.ca.

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I only stayed for about 15 minutes, leaving just after 8:00 pm.  It was getting dark, but it was still warm and very windy.  I took a few pics in the low light of the Times Square Bldg and the nest box holding Beauty and her two eggs.  Goodnight everyone!  It’s a very happy day!

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON ANY PICTURES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE LARGER.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 18th, 2013 at 11:05 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.