By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Sunrise at 7:24 am.  Sunset at 7:13 pm.

After receiving up to 20 inches of snow in the Rochester area yesterday, the city did an awesome job of clearing out the snow from the city streets.  It was 15 degrees (F) during my watch.

I did check the Kodak Park area after getting out of work and found no falcons there.

Today I decided to head downtown first.  From the Broad St Bridge (BSB) I could see both Beauty and Dot.ca on the south side top IBeam of the OCSR.

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Dot.ca was eating while Beauty watched.  (Beauty – Left; Dot.ca  – Right)  You can really see the size difference between them.  The female (falcon) is on average one third larger than the male (tiercel).

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When Dot.ca finished his meal, Beauty took the leftovers and cached them up inside the OCSR elevator shaft.  This was a place that Kaver used to cache his leftover food during the spring/summer months when feeding his and Mariah’s young.  Long time Falcon Watcher Dan S named it the cold stone, since it was a cool spot during the heat of the Spring and Summer months.

Beauty returned to the top IBeam.  A short while later, Dot.ca took off heading west.  I waited to see if he would return.  When he didn’t, I headed over to the BS location where I found Dot.ca on the southeast corner of the east extension.  I had just missed Larry O, who reported seeing two falcons on the east extension.  When I got there, Pigott was gone.  Dot.ca kept looking towards the east.

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After preening, Dot.ca took off and flew low going northeast.  I thought he was either going out to greet Pigott or heading back downtown.

About 5 minutes after Dot.ca left, Pigott flew in carrying prey.  She flew around the west end of the building, caching the remainder of her meal there.  She flew back to the east side landing on the south side roof of the east extension.  She had a full crop and evidence of a recent meal on her beak and talons.

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After moving around on top of the roof, she took off and landed on a east facing window on the southeast ext, just below the tree ledge.

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I left Pigott there to go downtown one more time before ending my watch.  Dot.ca had returned to the top IBeam of the OCSR, this time to Beauty’s left.

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I ended my watch a little before 6:00 pm.  At 7:36 pm, Kathy O reported: “BS falcon report – Pigott settled in 6 floors down in nighttime roosting spot.”

While I watch the falcons downtown, I continue to watch the diving ducks on the river below the Broad St Bridge.  They continue to do well as far as I can tell.  I think I hit the Red-breasted Mergansers siesta time though.  I’ll leave you with a few pics of the river and critters that are calling it home this Winter.  Goodnight everyone!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2014 at 9:36 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.