Morning watch 9-6-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Dark and gloomy was the ticket for this mornings weather as a cold front is in the process of moving thru our area. It rained toward the end of my watch and the temperature was 69 (F) 21 (C)
Click on the pics to see the full version
As I scoped out the east side with my binocs from the back parking lot of the Inn on Broadway, a falcon came out from behind Bausch & Lomb (B&L) and went above Xerox and out of view. I waited a minute and when it didn’t reappear I took a ride in search of. I parked on Court St. near St. Marys Place after I spotted her again-yes, it was Beauty. She was hanging on the wind above Xerox and the surrounding area. I messed with the color of my flight shots as it was very dark out and the originals were not very good, I inverted the colors on the last one below to show her wing feathers are looking pretty much uniform as she is nearing the end of her molt.
There were some pigeons across the street on the Court St. garage watching Beauty too-I was taping her when they flew off and I was surprised she didn’t take off after them. Beauty would hover, flap a little then soar and glide, then flap a little more for close to 15 minutes-it was a spectacular sky dance. Then suddenly around 7:15am she tucked into stoop position and streaked across the river toward Cornhill disappearing from sight quickly.
I drove down to the Court St. bridge to take a look around but I didn’t find her so I turned to the river on the south side of the bridge first and spotted a Black-crowned Night Heron (BCNH). He was just below the lock-there were ducks in front of him and a large gull behind him. I marvel at the way shore birds can stand in fast running water and not get swept away.
I crossed the bridge to check the north side and down river past the Broad St. Bridge was another BCNH fishing-this one looked darker to me, probably from different lighting.
There’s lots of road work being done downtown right now as St. Paul St. which turns into South Ave. at Main St. was milled and ready for a new surface-Woodbury St. was milled too. As I went past Bank Place that goes down to the hole I noticed lots of activity-trucks and men working on the underground pipes there. To my left I spotted Beauty up on a chimney type structure on the roof of Irving Place (the old City Hall) eating. This is the building Widows Walk is on and so I pulled into the parking lot there next to Times Square.
When I first saw the Beautyful one she was plucking feathers and when I stopped to watch she stopped as well. Sometimes after she’s carried her prey a distance she takes a break to catch her breath before preparing it for consumption. I guess today she plucked a little first, then took her break before continuing the preparation process.
There were lots of little white down feathers which led me to believe her meal choice was a Mourning Dove as the wing that popped up every once in a while didn’t look big enough to be a pigeon. The Yellow Jacket Bees were getting in her face again, they’ve been in full force lately and she wasn’t amused.
I left to look for Dot.Ca (DC) as I knew she’d be a while-checking the OCSR elevator shaft first, as he has been up there the last few mornings on my watch. I wasn’t able to find him anywhere so I returned to Beauty. It started to rain and she finished up a few minutes later after spending the last hour and a half on her breakfast. She flapped her wings many times, I believe to get the rain water off of them, feaked a few times, roused, moved the leftovers to the other side, pooped then flew off to the east at 9:07am.
I checked the Frontier Communications Tower first as that’s where Beauty has been going after a meal to rest and digest but she changed things up on me today. Instead, I found her on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR when I parked by the Radisson Hotel to check the elevator shaft for DC. I wonder where he was this morning-I never did find him.
I suppose Beauty picked OCSR as it would give her more protection from the rain that had stopped for the time being. I left Beauty to take her nap and did my routine of checking Hawkeye, Kodak research building and Seneca Towers before ending my watch just before 10am. I wish I had seen our other Rochester Peregrine Falcons, but never the less, Beauty made me smile on this gloomy morning! 🙂
Click on the links below to catch Beauty in action on video
http://youtu.be/hbtbFs0-JbY
September 6th, 2014 at 2:58 PM
The Beautyful One really shines when she is soaring…Lord she takes my breath away!Thanks again MAK for a nice morning.
September 6th, 2014 at 3:08 PM
You’re most welcome June and thanks for commenting! 🙂