By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Todays starting temperature was 29 (F) -2 (C) with overcast conditions including snow showers on and off  throughout my watch

Around 7:10am while stopped at the traffic light at South Ave. and Broad St. I could see a falcon at the nest box. I reported that it was Beauty but Donna let me know it was Dot.Ca (DC)-Thanks! DC flew out and around to the back of the Times Square building (TSB) and out of view. A few minutes later I spotted Beauty under the southeast wing.

Beauty flew east so I went east as well, but I found nothing until making my way back to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB). Beauty was on the Mercury money bag (MMB) so I went down to the hole to observe her about 7:35am.

As I was sharing space with the Beautyful one DC  flew in and was about to mate with her but changed his mind at the last second. Beauty wasn’t ready for him as he circled around to try again and so he aborted once more. You can see in the series of pics below that she didn’t get her tail up when he was ready to make his move. Be sure to click on the pics to see full version

After circling TSB, DC flew north and Beauty followed behind with me bringing up the rear. I caught up with them over at the Kodak Office (KO) tower where they were on the launchpad. She was on the southeast corner and he was on the southwest corner.

<Click it

At about 7:50am DC flew over for another attempt at copulation but once again passed by and landed on the east side then walked to the northeast corner of the launchpad.

At 7:57am DC successfully connected with Beauty and flew up to the cupola after copulation took place. You can see it in a video I made.

<Click it-they are looking at each other-so cute

DC walked to the southwest side of the cupola only to return to the southeast side above Beauty

Soon after Beauty flew southwest and a couple seconds later DC followed.

5 minutes later I found DC on the Wilder buildings fire escape as I landed down in the hole on Aqueduct St. Beauty was at the nest box at the time but unbeknownst to me flew over to the southwest corner of the Wilder building while I was watching DC on my camera screen. He was in hunt mode and keeping an eye on little birdies below him.

DC flew to the nest box with Beauty right behind him. I imagine they did some bowing in there as I couldn’t see them from where I was stationed in the hole. Half a minute later I caught DC flying out and heading south.

<Click it

I then went up on the BSB to confirm Beauty in the nest box.

I thought perhaps DC went to the Brighton site (BS) since that’s the direction he flew so I went there to check. When I got there at 9am I found Canadian Geese and 3 crows who were checking the roof tops I assume for cached food that belonged to Pigott and DC. Twice in the last week I’ve witnessed crows stealing cached food at BS. Anyway, no falcon sightings so I returned to downtown and after a couple trips around with no success in finding a falcon there I ended my watch at 9:30am. And what a busy watch it was as love is in the air for our downtown falcon pair, which you must know, puts a smile on my face! 🙂

Click on the links below to view some action scenes by Beauty and DC

http://youtu.be/zXpAmsjY4_8

http://youtu.be/SHHQl5CTqQ8

http://youtu.be/XXeG5rsE-5s

http://youtu.be/WVMhoySZxHs

http://youtu.be/APiYBXbW3bU

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2014 at 1:26 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.