By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

When I first looked out the window this morning there was a dusting of snow overnight and it was clear. Just before I left for my watch it started to snow and half way downtown it really started coming down. In the 2 and a half hours I was out watching I’d say about 4 inches of snow fell, so that means it was coming down at a rate of about 2 in. per hour. Hence I had trouble seeing little bumps on buildings! lol

Click pics for full version

At 7:35am from the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) I observed the Aqueduct pigeons surface from their sleeping quarters below the bridge and settle on the Blue Cross Arena (BCA) telling me that they didn’t see Beauty around.

I must have driven down to the hole(Aqueduct St.)half a dozen times trying to get close enough to see if the Beautyful one was on the OCSR. Here’s what I could see…

OCSR

Frustrated with not being able to see I opted for making the trip over to Brighton. I knew it would be a slow go and it was – taking me 25 minutes to go the 2.5 miles distance from the BSB to the Brighton Site(BS). It normally takes about 8 minutes which is incidentally the same distance and time frame from my house to the BSB. So at 8:27am I pulled into the property and found a falcon on the east extension on a south facing top window ledge but I could not make an ID on it due to poor visibility.

BST

I video taped this falcon and thought it looked like BST upon playing it back but what really convinced me was when I found a larger falcon on an east facing window on the northeast side of the building.

Pigott

They were both tucked in with their backs facing out so I didn’t think they were going to do much else in the bad weather. I then made the journey back to downtown where I suffered the same frustrations as earlier with the heavy snow. I eventually just stayed on the BSB and as I noticed the pigeons all fly off in panic mode the next thing I saw was a streaking Beauty come popping into the picture from behind the BCA chasing a pigeon. They took a slight left turn heading out over the river after they passed above the Thomson Reuters building and around Mercury, flying  northbound until they veered off behind the OCSR building out of sight.

The snow had all but stopped by this time and the sun was trying to break out. The lake effect snow band was moving back to the north toward Lake Ontario. At 9:45am I ended my watch to make a 10:00am appointment. I would have liked to get a pic or two of Beauty but I did see her,Pigott and BST so I left smiling! 🙂

Just 1 video today due to the weather-click the link below to view BST in the snow

http://youtu.be/_Q-k9xo1RXA