By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Once again my watch began with mild temps in the middle 60’s with humid conditions and a bit of a breeze.

I made my way downtown by 5:15am but there was no sign of Dot.Ca (DC) so I took a spin around the city. As I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) from the east side I could just make out a falcon on the south corner top ibeam of the OCSR. I went down to the hole (Aqueduct St.) and was able to identify it as DC.

He stayed up there 15 minutes just looking around when at about 5:45am DC flew off went into a stoop down toward the river after a crow.  Unfortunately, just as he caught up with the crow I lost sight of them behind the Thomson Reuters (TR) building. DC resurfaced landing on the Mercury money bag (MMB) and to my surprise Beauty flew into the picture landing on the base of Mercury. There was much vocalization out of our Mercury Matriarch, I suppose asking where breakfast was.

DC flew to the nest box to cover the eggs and Beauty walked around to the side of the base where I couldn’t see her-I missed these activities as I was tweeting. Campgee one of our very capable cam watchers confirmed what I thought, that DC had gone to the nest box as Beauty reappeared on the base of Mercury for me.

Beauty did some wing stretches and preening occasionally looking for something to catch and she spent almost 15 minutes gaping (throwing her head back and opening her beak). She must have gotten a feather stuck in her throat while preening which would explain the gaping. Janie, a coworker of forum member Pat, who works in the Thomson Reuters building came by and said hi on her way into work.

About 6:15am she flew off  heading west above the hole to the Widows Walk where she landed on the northwest corner. I could only see her tail feathers from the hole so I drove over to Fitzhugh St. where I could see she was plucking feathers from cached food she had up there. I then drove up to Broad St. and parked near the entrance to the Civic Center Parking garage to observe her.

She picked at her find briefly and then around 6:30am the Beautyful one flew off to the northeast with her cache in talon.

I found her next on the base of Mercury where she had obviously eaten, for she had a full crop and was wiping her beak on the edge of the base to clean off scraps.

Right around the 7 o’clock hour Beauty flew over to the Times Square building and came to rest on the column directly above the nest box and then down to relieve DC of incubation duties. He flew out to the Mercury money bag and started preening.

DC spent 15 minutes up there  rousing,preening and spiffing himself up as I watched him from the BSB. He flew off to the southeast around 7:20am.

I thought perhaps he was going to the Brighton location (BS) so I went there.  My first trip around I didn’t see or hear anything but as I drove by the west side on my second try I heard whining. I pulled over and looked to the cubby but didn’t see anyone-the whining was definitely coming from there. I sat there for 20 minutes as the whining continued on and off and then I drove out to the access road behind BS to see if there was a falcon on any of the rooftops. There wasn’t and I returned to my spot to hear more whining. I heard a mans voice calling MAK and behind me was LarryO pointing to the northeast corner of the northwest extension. I walked back there where I could see and ID’d the falcon as Pigott.

Larry left for work and then Miss Pigott flew off to the southwest corner of the southwest extension. She was still whining and then I heard echupping coming from the cubby. Again I didn’t see a PEFA but when it started chirping I knew it was DC-there’s no mistaking his unique chirping sound. The curious thing is that Pigott never flew down to join him but rather flew off to the southeast flapping quite nonchalantly until I could no longer see her. The noise in the cubby had stopped so DC had left while I wasn’t looking.  I returned to downtown at 9am to find DC on the MMB.

< Click it to see DC with his head on. LOL

I watched him for 15 minutes and decided to call it a watch with things quiet and settled after seeing all 3 Rochester Peregrine Falcons. We’re in the home stretch, as hatches will begin real soon and we’ll all be smiling when that happens for sure! 🙂

Click on the links below to view videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/3lUcYQz9dgo
http://youtu.be/VATeAtLj1cY
http://youtu.be/YcYr0mIFBK4
http://youtu.be/7HOR4_JkZzc
http://youtu.be/VSoCG3NA430
http://youtu.be/q2Kj1r3sf_o

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 at 3:58 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.