Morning watch 4-20-13
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
What a difference a day makes! This morning the temperature was 30 degrees colder than yesterday at 36 (F) 2 (C) and cold winds. The weather conditions were changeable to say the least-overcast to start, then a snow and rain mix followed by sun and blue skies and back to snow showers. That’s spring in Rochester,NY folks!
I started my watch on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) at 6am arriving just in time to see Dot.Ca (DC) on the ledge above the nest box and Beauty fly from the nest box over to the base of Mercury as I was making a u-turn so I could face the Times Square building (TSB). I barely had the car in park when DC flew over to mate with Beauty so I had no chance of getting any pics or video. They both flew off afterwards with Beauty going to the southeast wing and DC to the northeast wing of the TSB. I drove down to the hole as the Beautyful one went to the back of the ledge looking for cached food and when she found none she started squawking and walked out to the front ledge. DC perched across from her went to the back of his ledge also while Beauty went to the nest box.
DC looking for Beautys’ breakfast
He quickly took action by stooping to the west behind buildings. I only knew Beauty was in the nest box because cam watcher Donna let me know. Thanks D! I went back up to the BSB for a broader view of things to see if I could locate DC. No luck but 10-15 mintes later I spotted Beauty fly out of the nest box and go low losing her behind the Philipone building only to resurface under the southeast wing with prey. I drove back down to the hole and saw DC fly to nest box so I’m thinking he brought her food.
His reward-laying on his eggs! 🙂 Well he must have decided he was hungry too for 5 minutes later he flew to the northeast wing briefly then took off out of sight only to return a few minutes later with his own meal. He would take it to the back of the northeast wing ledge to start preparing it-sending feathers every which way but loose!
Make sure to click my pics for full version 
Beauty was across from him at the southeast wing still working on her breakfast. You know what they say-the family that eats together, stays together!
At approximately 7am Beauty flew west with her leftovers-I followed to see if I could find where she was caching it. I parked on the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) to get a look at the area west and north of the TSB and I was able to spot Beauty on the south side of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) platform.
I then drove to Church and Fitzhugh streets to observe but she was gone when I got there. Donna again helped me out by letting me know she was at the nest box taking food from DC or maybe she took her cache with her when she left FCT. At any rate I drove to the BSB and could see no falcons so I left for the Brighton Site (BS). On my way Annette tweeted that Beauty was by the main cam. Thank you! I arrived at BS just before 7:30am finding Pigott on the southeast corner of the east extension.
She was very alert, looking to and fro I believe for a meal. I rarely see Miss Pigott napping as she is always actively watching her territory or whatever is going on in the near vicinity. Today was no different as she would make my neck hurt watching the positions she was putting her head in.
While I was at BS I experienced sun and blue sky, rain,snow/rain mix, ice pellets,just snow and strong wind. Yikes! Pigott flew off at 8:10am chasing a Turkey Vulture (TV) to the northwest and came back to circle the building before landing on an east extension north facing window ledge for maybe 30 seconds.
Oops-lost her head lol 
She went after another TV to the east then broke it off to fly above Highland Park and eventually go north out of view. I left for downtown at this point hoping Pigott wasn’t going downtown, which is the direction she was going when I lost sight of her. As I approached the TSB on Exchange Blvd. I could see a falcon by the main cam so I pulled over in front of the Blue Cross Arena to watch. It had its back to me and I thought it was Beauty but Donna informed me that it was DC and Beauty was on the eggs.
At 8:40am DC stooped on a small bird in front of the Philipone building,missed it and proceeded up to the northeast wing. I drove over to the hole to see him better and then he flew to the southeast wing and picked at leftovers a little bit at the back of the ledge and then he moved to the front.
At 9am DC flew off to the south out of view and I ended my watch at that time. All 3 resident Rochester Falcons were very comical today making me smile a lot! 🙂
Click the links below for more pics and videos
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWreAA
http://youtu.be/oK2RNYRbd5o
http://youtu.be/H2Y6tEw-muc
http://youtu.be/uHfK0vaHRTA
http://youtu.be/HC4wXg36tgE
http://youtu.be/cDhfroTwjc0
http://youtu.be/xI2FzWop8fo
