By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a miserable start to the day with thunderstorms, fog,dark conditions and a temperature of 64 (f) 18 (C).

When I first arrived downtown at 5:20am it was very dark,foggy and pouring of rain making it difficult to see a falcon. I drove down to the hole and could just make out a falcon figure on the OCSR building top ibeam SE side.I drove back out to Broad St. and parked next to the Blue Cross Arena where I could see Mercury and OCSR better without cranking my neck too much.

I knew it was Dot.Ca (DC) because Beauty was with the eyases in the nest box when I left home and nobody tweeted a switch.  He left a couple minutes later and flew to the deck-north end by the well. Donna let me know he was up there since I didn’t see him leave OCSR. Back to the hole again where I could clearly see DC just perched in the rain.

DC stayed there for 10-15 minutes and then he flew off out over the river and toward OCSR. He made an attempted landing on the top ibeam but didn’t quite have enough altitude which was no surprise since he was soaking wet and probably weighed a bit more than usual. He flew back out and the 2nd landing was successful on the southeast side top ibeam.

By this time the storm had passed and it was lightly raining-bad timing on DCs part for he should have been under the cover of the ibeam when it was pouring. I was parked on Bank Place by the Philipone building facing east where I could see the OCSR  and Mercury but with my back to the Times Square building. Donna reported that Beauty had left the nest box and returned with cached food for the chicks which I missed as I was watching DC. I drove back up to my spot on Broad St. and noticed fog dropping down from the sky like a cloud of smoke enveloping the top of Xerox and Bausch&Lomb.

Make sure to click on pics to see full version

I watched DC on OCSR as it started to rain hard again until 7:30am and then I thought I should go check on Pigott out at the Brighton site. I found the pretty Peregrine on the north side of the east extension on the 3rd window down west end.

This is her night time roosting spot and it was very well protected as she didn’t seem to be wet from the rain. There was fog at the top of the building a first for me at Brighton but it had stopped raining and it was all good for observing Pigott. She was preening a bit and looking around for birdies in the trees below her.

15 minutes later at 8:05am Miss Pigott flew east. I took a drive around and found her in the back of the building on the west end of the south side vent.

She seemed to wave at me so I waved back. lol By this time the dark rainy conditions were moving out of the area and the sun was trying to burn its way thru the clouds. Pigott flew off about 15 minutes later to the northeast. I followed her with my trusty binocs until she melted into the dark sky.

I returned to downtown and parked on Broad St. by the Blue Cross Arena once again,  finding DC on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR and he was eating.

While I was at Brighton Donna reported that another feeding had taken place. These kids are not wanting for food that’s for sure. So since everything in the land of PEFAs was quiet I ended my watch at 9am. Although I didn’t see the Beautyful one myself  I was satisfied knowing she was up in the nest box with the eyases making me smile! 🙂

Below are links for videos from my watch-just click on them and view

http://youtu.be/WeuKdAK8rLo
http://youtu.be/L6oSmujXr54

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 29th, 2013 at 1:44 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.