Morning watch 3-25-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
This mornings watch was chilly at 19 degrees (F) -7 (C) but there was wall to wall sunshine and blue skies with a bit of a breeze
As I was about to leave the house I heard echupping at the nest box coming from my computer as I leave the livestream going this time of year. I ran in to find Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) at the scrape so off I went downtown to start my watch, but when I got to the Broad St. bridge (BSB) DC was nowhere to be found and Beauty was still at the nest box.
A couple minutes later Beauty flew to the base of Mercury for a couple more minutes and then flew to the south side of the Times Square building (TSB) and dive bombed a crow that had gotten too close to her nest box. She chased it around to the back of the TSB and past Widows Walk before returning to land on the northeast corner of the roof above the well on TSB.
<Click on pics to see full version
I had driven down to the hole to share space with the Beautyful one simply because there was no better place to observe her and I saw more than I expected. Around 7:30am she pooped and turned around to face me.We Rochester watchers love to get the poop shots! lol
<Click it
Shortly there after Beauty saw something to the north and got in the crouched down, there’s a falcon coming in position and there he was-DC bringing food!
Beauty was squawking up a storm as she flew over to the nest box and DC took his small package up under the northwest wing of the TSB.
DC started eating and Beauty flew over to the Mercury money bag (MMB). Beauty didn’t stay long before flying to the northwest wing ledge. DC had either left or was up there where I couldn’t see him. Beauty picked up one tiny tidbit of food left behind and down the hatch it went in one gulp!
I left to look for DC with no luck, and when I got back, I spotted Beauty flying to the base of Mercury from the BSB. After a few minutes she started eating so I believe DC may have dropped it off there while I was gone looking for him or she took it there herself. I had gotten a tweet from Donna saying there had been a tussle at the nest box over food. In any event Beauty got something to eat. DC was under the northeast wing. And Larry tweeted no falcon seen at the Brighton site.
I went down to the hole to be centrally located between the 2 of them and at 8:05am DC flew over to the base of Mercury startling Beauty, who stopped eating and hussled to get ready for DC to mate with her. There was quite a bit of hurried maneuvering that I didn’t see very good because the sun was directly behind them but I snapped off a shot of them before DC flew off to the nest box and Beauty followed right behind him.
<DC lands on deck
<Beauty on deck
Almost a minute later DC came shooting out and went to the base of Mercury and started eating what Beauty had been enjoying before their little rendezvous. I thought this would be a good time to go to the Brighton site (BS) so I went up to the BSB first to see if Beauty was still at the nest box-she was and DC left Mercury while I was en route. After I left, Annette tweeted that Beauty and DC were bonding at the nest box.
I arrived at BS just about 8:30am to find Pigott on the northeast corner of the northeast extension with her back facing out. For the better part of an hour that I stayed with Miss Pigott she didn’t much but look north toward downtown, probably watching for DC.
I left her to it and headed back downtown. I stopped on Exchange Blvd. by Plymouth Ave. to have a look at the south side of things and saw Beauty fly behind TSB and then go to the nest box. Annette tweeted that Beauty was at the scrape so that’s how I knew it was Beauty. Just as I approached Times Square at 9:15am Beauty flew out of the nest box area and headed east. I drove up on the BSB and after a few moments spotted a falcon (probably Beauty) flying south of Xerox and then it disappeared into the sun. 5 minutes later Beauty was under the northeast wing of TSB. I went and parked in front of the Blue Cross Arena to see her better as she did some serious preening.
I want to thank Donna and Annette for their help from behind the cams today. Beauty was looking especially lovely which sent me on my way smiling thus ending my watch at 9:30am. 🙂
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