By Rochester Falcon Watch Carol P.

Another really HOT day on this last day of May.  The record temperature for this day was 91 degrees (F).  We were really close, but I’m not sure if we beat that record or not.  Again, I waited til evening before heading out.  Today I arrived downtown at about 7:00 pm and found Dot.ca on the Mercury statue on the extended moneybag hand.

*

*

*

*

*

Larry O joined me at about 7:30 pm.  We were parked in the lot next to the Wilder Bldg, just off of Aqueduct St. (The Hole).  From there we had a great view of the nest box on the Times Square Bldg (TSB), the Mercury statue, the Wilder Bldg, the Widows Walk, and the OCSR.  All the spots they have been hanging out on lately.  Of course if they fly away from the area, we lose sight of them pretty quickly.  But there was shade here, making the 90 degree evening bearable.

At 7:45 pm, Dot.ca stooped off of the Mercury statue heading towards the Wilder bldg.  He pulled up short just before the iron fire escapes located on the south side of the building.  There were lots of Starlings nesting in this area and it was a favorite hunting spot for our falcons.  Dot.ca turned back towards the Mercury statue and landed on the base where he pulled out some cached prey and started to pluck and nibble.

*

*

*

*

*

A few moments later, Beauty left the nest box and flew up to the base of the Mercury statue next to Dot.ca.  She grabbed the cached prey from him and took the food up to the nest box to feed the young eyases.  Dot.ca returned to Mercury’s moneybag hand.  After feeding the eyases, Beauty returned the remainder of the prey to the base of the Mercury statue and then right back to the nest box.

*

*

*

*

*

After Beauty returned to the nest box, I started to tweet out what happened.  Larry was attempting to get his phone to show live streaming video from the nest box.  That’s when I heard a loud “SMACK!” just above us.  I looked up just in time to see Dot.ca, who was not that far above us, fly back towards the Mercury statue with a Starling clenched in his talons.  I quickly yelled out to Larry to look up!  We both watched Dot.ca land on Mercury’s money bag hand with the Starling.  He didn’t wait long before again taking off and landing on the the 2nd IBeam down on the OCSR near the south corner.  Feathers started raining down.

*

*

*

*

*

We were both amazed to have such a close up look at the hunting abilities of a Peregrine Falcon.  Larry and I both heard the sound of the impact between Dot.ca and the Starling.  Pretty incredible.

At a little after 8:00 pm, Dot.ca finished prepping the Startling and flew up to the nest box with it.  He went in with it and Beauty came out heading south.  We were able to watch Dot.ca feeding the eyases with prey we had just seen him catch, on the Rfalconcam live streaming video on Larry’s phone.  We’ve come a very long way in how we report our falcon watch observations.  In most ways it great, but sometimes I miss seeing things because I’m too busy texting and tweeting.

Larry had to leave, so I drove up to the Broad St Bridge and found Beauty on the jail communication tower, south of the TSB.  She was on the 2nd arm down.  Beauty didn’t stay long.  She took off and headed back towards the TSB and so did I.  By the time I turned right on Exchange and up to Aqueduct St, I was greeted by both Dot.ca and Beauty on the Mercury statue.  Dot.ca was on the moneybag hand and Beauty was on the kicked back heel.  It was a lovely sight. (8:10 pm)

*

*

*

*

*

You will have to click on this picture to see both falcons.

Beauty returned to the nest box and Dot.ca remained on the Mercury statue.

A big thank you to Rfalconcam Watcher Ei for the heads up on what was happening in the nest box during my Watch.

It was so peaceful and quiet at 8:20 pm, when I decided to call it a Watch.  Tomorrow will be warm again with temps in the 80’s (F) and rain on and off.  Enjoy the weekend everyone and remember to keep your eyes to the sky!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 1st, 2013 at 12:04 AM 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.