Morning watch 4-27-13
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
The morning weather is getting better as each day passes today I started my watch 5 degrees warmer than yesterday at 38 (F) 3 (C) with little wind, very few clouds and sweet sunshine.
I’m having computer issues so I couldn’t do a thing with my pics in Picassa or put together a photo album-I hope you enjoy them just the same. You can see larger versions by clicking on the pics.
I just missed Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) make the switch on the eggs this morning by literally seconds. As soon as I saw Beauty on the base of Mercury I knew I was too late. I had stopped by the Blue Cross Arena (BCA) on Broad St. and while I tweeted it out Beauty left so I continued up to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) where I found Dan sitting in his lawn chair waiting for me. He saw the switch but couldn’t see where Beauty went as she was on the blind side of the base for him and he missed her leave. There was a big bright moon in the morning sky.
About half later I spotted Beauty gliding in from the east side over the river in the shape of a stealth bomber with a small package in her talons. I pointed her out to Dan as she made her way to the base of Mercury. She went right to town on plucking the feathers and boy were there lots of them floating every which way.
35 minutes later a little past 7am when Beauty was done eating she flew to the deck and relieved DC of his incubation duties. He then flew to the Mercury money bag (MMB) where he preened a bit. He did a lot of head scratching this morning. He would soon fly off and pass right above the nest box only to return to the MMB as I captured his take off and returning approach.
As Dan was leaving DC flew off chasing a pigeon over the river and quickly aborted it to fly back to the MMB. Only a couple minutes later DC stooped down into the hole, which I couldn’t see from the BSB and having missed returned once more to the MMB. A minute later DC flew over to the Times Square building and came to rest under the northeast wing. He preened a little then took off fast to the east.
About 10 minutes later I spotted DC on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR with a catch and there was a blizzard of the feathery kind all around him. There were many spider webs that were catching all the feathers, maybe they were planted there by the crew that’s going to be filming here next week for the new Spiderman movie. lol
At 8:17am DC flew to the deck and switched with Beauty. I thought he had taken a small chunk of leftover with him but I was wrong for Beauty went to the base of Mercury with nothing.
I left our little darlings at this time to check the Brighton site. I was lucky to find Miss Pigott home perched on the front edge of the cubby.
Pigott stayed there for the next 15 minutes and then flew north. I was just about to leave for downtown when Pigott showed up on the southwest corner of the southwest extension at 9:10am. She stayed there preening for the next 20 minutes of our lives and then she flew west only to return and land on a top floor west side window situated between the cubby and the west extension.
Around 9:30am I said goodbye to Miss Pigott and headed for downtown. I received tweets from Annette and Shaky that Beauty was now on the eggs and DC was on Mercury. Thank you for your support! As I passed by Plymouth Ave. while heading downtown via Exchange Blvd. there were 3 cop cars blocking traffic for a small parade of people led by a bagpipe band. Onward I went to find DC on the MMB.
I called it a watch at 9:45am leaving Beauty and DC in a tranquil city. Keep smiling! 🙂
I was able to upload some videos- the links are below
http://youtu.be/ah__0Sd2OsM
http://youtu.be/qMxv5GNh5Y4
http://youtu.be/Mvbphfr37_s
http://youtu.be/42wgMF9xSAk
