By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

All day long at work I kept getting tweets.  Dot.ca  is not downtown.  He’s at the BS location and it looks like he is injured.  Another tiercel (male) was downtown with Beauty, who barely left the eggs except for a few moments.  She did not trust this tiercel and she was not going to leave her eggs.  Needless to say, I could not wait to leave work and check on the falcons.

I arrived downtown at about 3:45 pm and went immediately down to Aqueduct St (aka the hole).  The last tweet said that the new tiercel was on the nest box platform.  From there I had a good view of him.  Here are a few pictures I took from there.

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While MAK and Joyce were at the BS location keeping an eye on Dot.ca, Brian H was keeping watch downtown, so I joined him at the picnic tables next to the Rochester Public Library on the east end of the Broad St. Bridge (BSB).  From the library picnic tables, we could see the unknown tiercel on the nest box platform, but we were not at the right angle to see Beauty inside the nest box.

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The thought was that this unbanded tiercel might be the same tiercel we called UT or unbanded tiercel that was hanging out with Beauty before Dot.ca arrived from migration.  I cannot tell for sure.  There were similarities in their behaviors but I wasn’t convinced it was him.  Guess we’ll never know for sure, because he is not banded.

While Brian and I watched, the tiercel would leave the nest box and do a lot of flying and hunting over the river and the downtown area.  One time he stooped over the river in front of us and hit a pigeon.  The pigeon recovered and escaped.  The tiercel continued his flight and skimmed the front of the library and continued over us and back to the Times Square Bldg. (TSB)

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He flew over us and headed back to the Times Square Bldg.  He landed on the Times Square Bldg on a ledge below the nest box.

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While Brian and I watched, he did a lot of flying and would always return to the Times Square Bldg, most of the time to the platform in front of the nest box.  Just before 6:30 pm, the tiercel landed on the NE Wing Ledge, just above the nest box.  He seemed to be checking for cached food, but we didn’t see him get any.

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Brian had to leave at 6:30 pm.  I decided, since it was quiet downtown, I would head out to the BS location to check on Dot.ca.  When I arrived, I found Joyce and Larry O (MAK had just left) on the SE end of the building.  Dot.ca had just flown there before I arrived.  Joyce described his landing as a little awkward.  His back was to us, but he was standing tall and actively checking out the surrounding area.

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We decided to move to the east end of the building where we would have a better view of him.  I set up my scope to get a close up view of Dot.ca.  He looked good except that he seemed to be favoring his left side just a little bit.  His eyes were clear and bright, I could see no obvious blood or injuries on him.  As I was looking at him through the scope, he lifted his tail and pooped.  It wasn’t much, but I was happy to see it.

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Dot.ca was watching the fields east of the building intently, bobbing his head now and then.  Then he was off!  He stooped low over the field and then pulled up, gaining altitude effortlessly and heading back towards the building.  Joyce, Larry and I were thrilled to see him soaring on the gusty winds above the building, kiting in place and then we lost sight of him as he flew towards the north east over the top of the building.  We weren’t sure where he went, so as I was tweeting what happened, Joyce circled the building a couple times and Larry O headed downtown just in case Dot.ca was heading in that direction.  In my tweet, I warned the on-line Watchers to keep watch for Dot.ca’s possible return and return he did.

My phone lit up with texts and tweets.  Dot.ca was in the nest box for a short visit and when he left, he was heading north.  Joyce and I left BS and headed back downtown.

Here is a picture of Dot.ca in flight when he was at BS.  It’s not a great picture, but I was so happy to see him flying so well.

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Larry O reported seeing a falcon stoop over the river and then head north.  He had just missed seeing Dot.ca at the nest box.  Kathy O joined the search.  She, Joyce and I chose different routes when coming back into the city.  That way we could cover more ground quickly.  I came in from the north, checking out Kodak Office first.  None of us saw any falcons on our way downtown.  We joined Larry on the Broad St Bridge.

Larry had to go, leaving Joyce, Kathy and I to continue the watch.  Joyce decided to check out the downtown area while Kathy and I remained on the BSB.  At 8:10 pm, Joyce tweeted that she found a falcon on the SW corner of the Chase Lincoln Tower and that she did not believe it looked like Dot.ca.  Kathy and I could see the falcon now, but I truly have no idea if it was Dot.ca or not.  As the sun set, it was more of an orange color and cast that color onto the chest of the falcon.  When the sun went down further, the chest seemed whiter.  Funny what lighting will do.

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By 8:30 pm, the sun was setting and it was getting colder.  It was time to call it a day.  Kathy and I left at 8:30 pm and Joyce stayed til 8:50 pm, leaving the tiercel at the top of the Chase Tower.

Tomorrow is another day and I’m sure the Rochester Falcon Watchers will be out keeping an eye on the situation.

Have a nice evening everyone and always remember to keep your eyes to the sky!

Oh, before I end my report, I want to thank all the Rochester Falcon Watchers that were out today on the streets keeping an eye on “our” falcons.  Also a big thanks to the folks that watch from afar.  Your help is invaluable to us.  Thank you so very much!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 at 11:55 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.