By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

29 degrees (F) -2 (C) and clear with a slight breeze is what the conditions were when I left for my watch.

I found Dan on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) when I got there about 6:05am and said he hadn’t had any action. I checked the cams around 5:45am and saw Beauty on the eggs so when I got downtown and didn’t see any falcons I assumed she was still on the eggs. Annette tweeted that Dot.Ca (DC) was on the eggs so I went looking for Beauty and I found her on the base of Mercury from the Andrews St. bridge. I wasn’t sure who it was from that distance so I went to the hole (Aqueduct St.) to confirm that it was indeed the Beautyful one.

I rejoined a frozen Dan on the bridge who decided to go home and warm up around 6:45am so I went back down to the hole. Beauty took off as soon as I got there flying west out of view and a couple minutes later I thought she returned to the base, but it turns out that she went to the nest box and DC was who I watched land,stretch,poop and take off to the east across the river. Thank you to Annette and Donna for helping me to get things straight this morning. After DC didn’t come back I headed to the Brighton site (BS) and spotted Pigott on the southwest corner of the west extension at 7:23am.

A couple minutes later Pigott flew off and caught her breakfast taking it to the northwest corner of the west extensions lower roof. She started plucking feathers and suddenly stopped looking north behind me so I couldn’t see what had her attention as I was in my car facing her. She took off with her prey heading east flying real low.

I drove around the building trying to see where she went and after scanning the roof tops I found her on the southwest corner of the same lower roof on top of a light with her package.

The lighting was bad where I was parked so I drove around the building and got a different angle on my subject who was fully engaged at preparing this meal with feathers stuck to her beak and filling the air space around her.

A crow landed below her as she started vocalizing her displeasure and flew off  with the food landing on the southwest corner of the west extension. Finally she had found a place that she was comfortable with to start eating her meal.

5 minutes later at 8:10am I heard echupping coming from the cubby-now how did I miss DC go in there I thought. It happens all the time when you are focused on one bird another can sneak in under your radar easily. I was not in the right spot to see in the cubby so I drove around the building again parking where I could see Miss Pigott and the cubby. Well just as I stopped she flew off with her prey yet again and as I watched her DC managed to sneak out of the cubby for when I went to the back of the building I found him on the southeast corner of the south extension.

Only a minute passed when DC stooped down on a crow and flew out of view. It took a couple trips around but I finally managed to find Pigott eating away on the southwest corner of the west extension. I wasn’t sure who it was at first as she had her back to me but I found out 10 minutes later when DC suddenly showed up and mated with her.

DC flew off, Pigott gave her head a shake and went right back to eating and threw in a few echups as well! I managed to locate DC on the southwest corner of the southwest extension across from Pigott who started whining and echupping while she continued to chow down on what was left of her meal.

She was not letting anything get in the way of her eating!  She finished about 8:50am and went to the cubby and started echupping loudly and DC totally ignored her while he was preening.

Pigott gave up after 20 minutes and flew out of the cubby going to the southwest corner of the west extension where DC promptly flew to her and they mated again.

DC returned to the same corner he had previously vacated and Pigott remained whining on and off.

<DC>

Did I mention Pigott was whining!?

Click pics for full version

At 9:45am DC flew above the building and I saw 2 other birds-one was high in the sky and the other DC went after. It looked like a tiercel being about the same size as DC. There was no contact he just chased it out of the territory and when he returned he went in the cubby. Loud echupping echoed from in there as Pigott ignored his pleas now-turn around is fair play don’t ya know!? DC then flew out and headed north at which time Pigott turned around facing north and watched as I did. DC did not return so I went downtown to see if that’s where he went since that’s the direction Pigott and I last saw him. I found him under the northeast wing preening.

I ended my watch at this juncture-it was 10:05am. I have to smile for sometimes observing these falcons is  like watching a comedy and todays watch was no exception! 🙂

Click the links below to view more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWreZg

http://youtu.be/P0BkMBgnlaU
http://youtu.be/xY1vRe52eh8
http://youtu.be/ABdPZ2Ij97M
http://youtu.be/oLzuROAdA8Y
http://youtu.be/Yfv0gwdtbOQ

This entry was posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2013 at 4:59 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.