Morning watch 5-10-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
What gorgeous weather for a falcon watch this morning with bright sunshine, wall to wall blue skies, breezy conditions and a temperature of 60 (F) 16 (C)
Just before I left my 16th floor apartment in Seneca Towers (ST) I heard a falcon kakking outside my window-when I got down to the parking lot to check the roof I didn’t see anything so off I went to downtown. I arrived on the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) at 6:30am finding Beauty on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR, I took a pic then headed over to Bragdon St. for a closer view.
10 minutes later she flew off when I wasn’t looking and I caught up with her on the base of Mercury. The Beautyful one was there only a few minutes before she flew over to the Wilder green strip. I first parked in the hole but she turned around showing me her back so I drove across Exchange Blvd. and parked in the lot next to Times Square.
Beauty looked straight at the nest box, then flew over to it at which time Dot.Ca (DC) exited and flew to the Mercury money bag (MMB) almost landing on it, then changing his mind he flew over past OCSR and headed north. I went north too and found him on the top ibeam of OCSR north corner-one of his favorite hunting spots. He didn’t stay long and took off at 6:58am
I tracked DC down on the top arm east side of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT)-parking below him on Fitzhugh St. in front of City Hall he had his back to me and was keeping his eye on a cable that was blowing in the breeze from the center pole of the tower.
I decided to go over to Plymouth Ave. where I could see the front of DC but with the back lighting it was hard to see him as more than a silhouette. DC dropped off the arm at 7:10am blazing above me to the west chasing after a mourning dove. I lost sight of them behind a couple trees I was parked by.
5 minutes later I spotted DC on the Kodak Office (KO) cupola and just after I pulled over on State St. by Platt St. he stooped down toward the High Falls river gorge out of view. He returned empty-taloned coming to rest on the southeast corner of the KO launchpad only to fly off again and return to the same corner.
DC flew off right away and circled the tower a couple times trying to flush out the pigeons then landing back on the southeast corner of the launchpad once more.
At 7:24am DC took off from KO flew over near FCT and back then hovered above the northeast rocket.
DC then circled around the back of tower then past the cupola and landed once more on the southeast corner of the launchpad.
DC flew south a moment later and after looking for him with no success I took a ride over to Brighton. I didn’t see any falcons there but I did see some pretty spring flowers on the corner of Elmwood and Mt. Hope.
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The people marching in the Lilac Festival Parade were parking at the Brighton site and the multitude of pot holes from a rough winter had been filled in sometime in the last couple days. YAY! Upon returning to downtown as I pulled over on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) I watched DC fly to the nest box and Beauty fly out and go to the base of Mercury at 8:18am. 5 minutes later Beauty flew off heading east across the river.
I decided to end my watch at 8:30am as the Times Square/BSB area parking was filling up for the graduation ceremony of St. John Fisher College at the Blue Cross Arena. I left smiling after a busy watch keeping track of DC who tried so hard to catch breakfast! 🙂
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May 10th, 2014 at 11:17 PM
How was your surprise visit from Barb in LA and her brother last night? Did she like the view? Did she see STT or Juvie?
May 10th, 2014 at 11:23 PM
We had a nice visit Donna-Barb is staying with her brother in Sodus so this was the only time she was in town and had an opportunity to see my new place. She loved the views but she didn’t see either ST falcon cuz it was raining at the time she was here. 🙂