By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I’d like to dedicate this watcher report to our good friend from the Canadian Peregrine Foundation-Frank Butson aka Big Frank, who passed away suddenly  on Wednesday. He was a truly wonderful man and ambassador for wildlife.

I’d rather ignore the weather part today because it is dismal out and 20 degrees colder than yesterday morning. 40 (F)  4 (C)  misty to light rain with some wind and very dark dreary conditions.

I made my way downtown by 5:20am and drove down to the hole to have a look around-no Dot.Ca (DC) yet. I got restless after 15 minutes so I went up to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) to check things out. Around 5:45am I spotted a falcon fly in from the east over the Thomson Reuters building (TR) and vanish behind it heading northwest. At 6:05am I saw DC fly to the deck and stand there waiting for his first sitting of the day-Beauty would have none of it as reported by Donna. Thanks! I believe she wanted to be bribed with food!  lol DC left when I wasn’t looking but I found him on the Wilder green strip when I drove back down to the hole.

DCs head feathers were all slicked back like Dracula from being so wet. He was looking to catch  a meal and was watching for the starlings that nest at the Wilder and Philipone buildings. After turning a couple times for a better view,stretching and almost falling off the ledge  he settled in for over an hour as we waited for the victim of his future attempt.

Just about 7:30am that attempt happened as DC stooped over the Philipone building but came back empty taloned. Back to the drawing board as they say but it wouldn’t be a long wait for 5 minutes later DC took flight going very fast toward the river over the Thomson Reuters building. I spotted him 5 minutes later on OCSR top ibeam southeast side and could see that he wasn’t alone. DC  had caught something and it was still kicking and flapping and giving him a tough time.  He finally quieted it and started plucking feathers.

I parked over by the Radisson and Main St. for the best view of DC who ate a good amount of  his catch. At 8:30am he finished up and flew off with his spoils to the Times Square building (TSB) to share  with Beauty.

Remember to click on my pics for a full version

DC landed on the southeast corner of the deck and Beauty came out of the nest box,grabbed the grub and flew to the east end of the Wilder green strip to chow down.

I drove down to the hole for closer viewing at this time as Beauty ate breakfast for the next 15 minutes.She would end up saving some to cache for a later date, perhaps for the babies that were on their way out of the eggs soon.

The Beautyful one took flight and went east across the river as I lost sight of her behind buildings. It was just before 9am as I took a ride up to the BSB to look  and right after I parked facing the TSB Beauty flew in from behind me (east side). I lost her momentarily and then she showed up on the OCSR south corner top ibeam.

I thought since everyone ate I’d go to the Brighton site to look for Pigott. Unfortunately, Miss Pigott had stepped out. I got a tweet from cam watcher Campgee who said  switch was made-daddy was out and mommy was in on the eggs. Thanks! I waited for a while to see if she would show up and then returned to downtown. DC was on the Wilder green strip with his back facing out. I ended my watch at 9:45am heading home smiling as I wondered if there were any pips in the eggs yet-ooooh babies are coming soon! 🙂

Click on the links below to view videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/BL-FgPM_SOk
http://youtu.be/eKa-xl1QM_w
http://youtu.be/FouIE4T1764
http://youtu.be/X_UpDwXrvmE

This entry was posted on Friday, May 24th, 2013 at 4:18 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.