Morning watch 4-1-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
What a beautiful April Fools Day morning with wall to wall sunshine, blue skies and a starting temperature of 29 (F) -1 (C)
As I pulled over on Broad St. next to the Blue Cross Arena at 6:35am I saw a falcon fly off the base of Mercury with a small package in its talons and head west past the Times Square building (TSB). So I went over to Fitzhugh St. to see if there was a falcon on Widows Walk (WW). Got there just in time to see a falcon caching food at the back of the northwest corner on the ledge below the railing ledge and fly off toward TSB. Donna (TY) let me know that they had gone to the nest box while I was gone. Next I went to the hole where I found Dot.Ca (DC) on the Mercury money bag (MMB) looking down at Beauty who was on the base of Mercury.
Next thing I saw was DC jumping off and going straight down to Beauty to mate. Usually he flies out first then around to her-he took her by surprise as she wasn’t quite turned the right direction for him or have her tail up yet. He managed to turn himself to mount her correctly and she quickly put her tail up to accept him.
<We got a jumper! 
I didn’t see where DC went and Beauty looked like she didn’t either. She looked a little shook up by his surprise visit then at 6:58am she flew off to the northeast wing ledge of TSB.
She was looking down and when I looked at the nest box area I saw why-DC was on the northeast corner of the deck and he started chirping for her.
DC flew off without me seeing him go but Beauty stayed put under the wing preening. I set out for the Brighton Site at this time but there were no falcons there. Crows were though-since Pigott has been gone they have really made a presence on the roof tops looking for cached food. I was back downtown just about 8am finding Beauty on the base of Mercury and DC on the money bag. She was looking up at him and he would look down to her at times too.
<Beauty 
<DC
I was now parked on the Broad St. bridge (BSB) and out of my car in the warm sun. Seems like every time I looked at the Beautyful one this morning she was all foofed up and she also looked like there was an egg just ready to pop out at any time-we call this egg butt. It’s evident in one of my videos today where she shows her back side.
They stayed put for 10 minutes then DC flew over to the deck again-northeast corner while Beauty stayed on Mercury.
<DC 
<Click it for full version 
Meanwhile, Beauty was napping which said to me she might be conserving her energy to lay an egg. At about 8:20am Beauty slipped off the base and flew to the nest box. Reported by Annette-they bonded in there. Thanks for letting me know. So I got my camera ready for when DC came shooting out like he does when they are done bowing to each other.
DC went right to the MMB
10 minutes later Beauty showed up on the base of Mercury again. We all hung out in the sun together for awhile as I checked out the river on both sides of the bridge. The river was rolling hard on the south side by the Court St. bridge. Around 8:45am DC stooped off Mercury down near the Thomson Reuters building and came back in view with nothing in his talons. Beauty started to ready herself expecting him to come down and mate but he flew right past her and returned to the MMB.
Beauty slipped off the base and flew west around 9am-I caught up with her when I went down in the hole and spotted her on the north side railing of Widows Walk. I left her up there and DC on the MMB ending my watch at 9:15am smiling with visions of an egg being laid real soon! 🙂
Click on the links below to view todays videos
April 1st, 2014 at 6:53 PM
You had quite the lively watch today, MAK! “snakes” and all…Happy April Fool’s Day! Thanks for your report. ;^)
April 1st, 2014 at 7:28 PM
I sure did Barb! Sssssssss 🙂
April 2nd, 2014 at 7:12 AM
Can’t wait for that egg!
Hope Piggot and JY are OK.
April 2nd, 2014 at 11:07 AM
I can’t wait either Nora and I pray Pigott and JY are ok as well! 🙂