Morning watch 5-17-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
A cold start to the morning at 41 degrees (F) 5 (C) but nice and sunny
Well you can imagine how ecstatic I was to look at the livestreaming video and see white under Beauty as I was getting ready for my watch this morning. Carly and I were the early birds that caught the first glimpse of our first 2014 hatch. Needless to say I left a little later than usual to see more, but Beauty stayed put after giving us a little peek. I also had 67/AR aka STJ, the Seneca Towers female fly past my window whining as well. What a morning already!
As I arrived downtown at 6:35am I checked from the Andrews St. Bridge first and saw Dot.Ca (DC) on the southeast corner of the Kodak Office (KO) launchpad. As I approached on State St. I saw him stoop to the north out of sight. At 6:40am I got a text from Donna saying DC had been by the main cam then left. Thanks D! I came across Larry on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) by Falcon Watcher Central-he left to walk his dog Harold and I left to find DC. It wasn’t until 7:39am that I finally found our new daddy DC-he was on the northwest side 2nd ibeam of OCSR with food. I was on State St. across from the Rochester Plaza Hotel.
DC flew off while I was taping him and as I drove down State St. I spotted a falcon fly from the nest box heading toward Mercury. I thought for sure DC had delivered food and it was Beauty taking it to the base of Mercury to eat. I was half right for when I got to Broad St. I pulled over by the Blue Cross Arena to find that it was DC not Beauty.
He nibbled on his food a little and then I got a tweet from Larry about a falcon on Mercury. I went farther up the bridge for a different angle on DC and found Larry was back from his walk with Harold. At 7:51am DC picked up his small package and flew off with it to the deck.
Larry and I watched the livestream on his phone to see that DC would not let Beauty have the food after seeing his first born 2014 eyas for the first time. I believe he wanted to feed the young one. They had a tug of war and quite the conversation about it all and then DC took the goods and left 3 minutes after arriving at 7:55am.
Larry had to get going so I went to look for DC once again and found him on the top ibeam near the west corner of OCSR. He was looking straight toward the Times Square building.
A few minutes later DC turned around, then turned back again, walked a few feet, stopped and had a quick wink then turned to the north and flew off at 8:18am heading west.
Try as I might-I never found DC again and called it a watch at 9:10am. I wasn’t done yet for when I approached home at Seneca Towers I spotted a falcon on the northwest corner perched on the railing. I pulled over on Seth Green Drive where I could see clearly without the trees blocking my view and took a pic to ID this falcon as the unbanded tiercel we call STT.
He seemed to be in hunt mode and when I wasn’t looking he flew off and a minute later his 1 year old female mate with band numbers 67/AR flew in from the south squawking up a storm and landed on the west side railing.
At 9:49am she turned around and flew off.
I went up to my 16th floor west side balcony to check the Veterans Bridge but neither one was there. Now I was done with my watch and smiling after starting my day off with a glimpse of an eyas and spending a great morning with Rochesters’ Peregrine Falcons!
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May 18th, 2014 at 12:23 AM
Great pictures MAK! So glad to see your tweet this morning. So glad you are enjoying your new place and how wonderful to have a pair so close to you!
May 18th, 2014 at 5:41 AM
Thanks NCA! Yes, I’m living with the falcons in my nest up in the sky! 🙂