By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a frosty start this morning a temperature of 32 (F) -1 (C) when I left for downtown but the sun appeared and warmed things up.

As I was walking out the door at 5:20am I got a tweet from camera watcher Campgee saying that Dot.Ca had switched with Beauty on the eggs. Thank you Camp-I had the scoop before I even left my house! When I arrived downtown I went straight to the hole (Aqueduct St.) but Beauty wasn’t on her spot-the base of Mercury or OCSR her other early morning spot. So the search was on and I had an idea right where to look-HSBC, another early morning favorite hunting spot. And that’s exactly where I found the Beautyful one on the southeast corner.

I parked on Chestnut St. by Manhattan Square Park and watched her for the next 40 minutes as she looked below for a pigeon to fly by but it didn’t happen. She stretched a couple of times but she was in hunt mode for the most part.

At 6:14am Beauty spread out her glorious wings and flew off to the west.

Remember to click on the pics to view a full version

I followed suit and drove over to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) and found Beauty on the base of Mercury.

I drove back down to the hole to observe Beauty while she preened, scratched and looked for a possible meal to fly by. 20 minutes later she flew to the deck and waited for DC to get off the eggs. He flew over to the Mercury money bag (MMB).

<Beauty>

At 7am DC stooped down to the river out of view and when he didn’t return I left to check the Brighton Site (BS). I went in the back way and as I drove down the access road near the PEFA tree I spotted a falcon in the western sky flying south. I turned around to follow but soon lost it behind trees. I then checked the BS building and didn’t see or hear a falcon. I returned to downtown arriving around 7:45am just in time to spot DC on the top ibeam southeast side eating. I barely got settled in the hole when he took off -food in talon and flew over to the Times Square building and gave Beauty his prize at the nest box. She in turn took it to the base of Mercury. Beauty didn’t stay there long before flying off with this tiny treasure.

Beauty returned a couple minutes later and started eating. She had her back to me so I went up to the BSB to watch her polish it off quickly.

When she was finished she cleaned her beak off on the concrete base and walked to the other side of the base where I couldn’t see her. I thought she had flown off so I left for BS again. I received tweets from Shaky and Annette that Beauty was still on the base and Donna reported DC on the eggs. Thank you one and all! This time around at BS I found Pigott on the southeast corner of the southeast extension.

Miss Pigott would stay there for the next 40 minutes watching over her territory and then she flew to a place I’ve never seen her perched. On a window to the east of the south side vent just under the rooftop.

I think there are starlings nesting up in that area and she was looking to grab one. She stayed only a few minutes and then flew to the west end of the south side vent.

At 9:20am Pigott flew around to the front of the building landing on the northwest corner of the northeast extension. I received a tweet from Annette that Beauty was on the eggs and DC was off so I opted to end my watch at 9:30am knowing that all Rochester Peregrine Falcons were accounted for. I took a couple shots of the Highland Park horse who had been given some bling in the form of a wreath around its neck and some vendor tents and lilac bushes in the park for the Lilac Festival-truly worth smiling about! 🙂

Remember to click pics to see a larger version

I have included links below for some videos from my watch-enjoy!

http://youtu.be/5HQF1cWJfg8
http://youtu.be/SZbLPSydj3M
http://youtu.be/5tP0gMGVF6Y
http://youtu.be/oPa_kOcp4wU
http://youtu.be/3B51bA4y4Lk
http://youtu.be/dYK7yF7IaJc
http://youtu.be/eJdpnKu8PZY

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 at 7:05 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.