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Eyes to the Skies

Morning watch 8-26-13

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

As I stepped out the door today the humidity slapped me in the face-it was overcast with rain in the forecast and the temperature was 57 (F) 14 (C)

I found Beauty on the east side of HSBC and not 5 minutes later she flew off to the southwest.

img_0001-beauty-on-hsbc img_0002-beauty-taking-off

After searching downtown with no sightings I went to the High Falls where I found a Belted Kingfisher hunting off a concrete slab in the river on the north side of the Pont De Rennes pedestrian bridge. He dove into the water 3 different times and came back with nothing. I caught a pic of him landing on the slab. There was also a Cormorant perched on a rock with its wings spread out I assume to dry. No falcons and no Osprey were seen in the gorge.

img_0008-cormorant img_0014-kingfisher-landing

I went to the Andrews St. bridge after I left there and spotted Beauty on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR just before 8am. I drove to Bragdon St. by the Radisson Hotel for a closer view and walked across the Sister Cities pedestrian bridge where I was right below the Beautyful one.

img_0026-beauty1 img_0029-beauty

It started to rain so I went back to my car and left for Brighton. As I pulled in the front drive I could see Pigott on the northwest corner of the west extension around 8:30am.

img_0037-pigott

She flew off as I parked the car and returned to the same spot in less than a minute. It was raining at a good clip and Miss Pigott was thoroughly enjoying it as she spread her wings and started running back and forth on the roofs edge.

img_0039-off-and-running-in-the-rain img_0044-more-running

It reminded me of watching Orion playing in the rain last summer. Pigott flew around the building and landed on the southwest corner spreading her wings once again and disappeared on the roof then reappearing only to fly off again. I couldn’t find her so I drove out to the back service road and was able to see her on the east side roof running back and forth to the front edge with wings spread. She went back to the west side and back to the east before finally settling on a south facing top window ledge of the east extension.

img_0048-pigott

Even on the window she was on the move walking to the corner and settling.

img_0050-wet-pigott img_0051-pigott-on-the-move img_0053-pigott-teased-her-head-feathers

Miss Pigott was quite wet and sporting a new spiked hairdo. I think I had as much watching her rain dancing as she enjoyed doing it! I left her at 9:30am as she started preening. It would take a while with as wet as her feathers were. I took a ride around downtown finding Beauty still on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR but I didn’t find Dot.Ca (DC) at all on my watch. Pigott certainly made me smile this morning with her antics! 🙂

Click on the links below for some videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/6dnl0MkErP8
http://youtu.be/aAauawkYsd4
http://youtu.be/13aAuKQyMRk
http://youtu.be/UN_6WiXV-7g
http://youtu.be/K0LwyNYKnqA

3 Responses to “Morning watch 8-26-13”

  1. Alison in Indiana Says:

    So this must be how a falcon takes a shower – running flapping through the rain.

    The last juvenile spotted was reported on Aug. 20th. We may hope they are doing well wherever their wandering takes them. Now the adult falcons get to sort themselves out before the long winter hiatus, with Beauty at TS and Pigott holding sway at BS.

  2. Ginny Says:

    I love these videos especially the one of the High Falls and the one of Pigott in the rain.
    Thank you! 🙂

  3. MAK Says:

    Yes Alison, Orion did the same thing-running and flapping in the rain!

    And Ginny I knew you would like the falls video! 🙂


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