Friday Late Afternoon Falcon Watch – High Winds – 10/3/14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
When I started my watch at 4:30 pm, it was 72 degrees (F) with high winds and sunshine. When I ended my watch at 5:30 pm, the temp had dropped to 68 degrees, it was windy, cloudy and lightly raining. Tomorrow will be much cooler than the temperatures of the past week, with high temps in the 50’s.
My first stop when I arrive downtown is to always check out the Kodak Tower. Before arriving, I received the following tweet from MAK, “Rich from Federal building reports 2 sightings in the last hour over Kodak Office, Main & State St.” It wasn’t until I got to the east side of the K-Tower that I 1st spotted Beauty on the east side launchpad and a few minutes later, Dot.ca on the 20th floor or letter level.
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It was really windy. I never tire of seeing these beautiful creatures go into a high speed stoop, especially with a high wind boost! Dot.ca took off and almost immediately tucked his wings back. He was like a missile as he stooped over me, heading north. He swooped over the metal frame shell of a building and a cloud of Starlings rose up after he passed over. Dot.ca dove over and over again on the area the Starlings had come from and then gained altitude, flying east over the river and then turning south. I lost sight of him when he flew behind the RG&E Beebee plant.
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I turned around to watch Beauty, who remained on the launchpad. I’m sure she was watching Dot.ca from up there. After a few moments, as I was taking pictures of Beauty, I saw her crouch down like a cat. Sure enough, she was reacting to Dot.ca’s return. He landed near her on the northeast corner of the launch pad.
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They both relaxed and remained near each other, until Dot.ca again took off. Joyce had joined me and tweeted “Down the street from CP, I saw DC chase a bird then came around and flew high to the north over gorge, then I lost him in clouds”. Beauty stayed where she was for a little while longer.
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The clouds were moving in and it started to lightly rain. At a little after 5:00 pm, Beauty took off and flew around the south side of the K-Tower. Neither Joyce or I saw where she ended up. We drove around the tower looking for her, but never did find her. Joyce had to head out and I drove around trying to find falcons. I only found one, with its back to me on the north side of OCSR top I-Beam. It was raining harder now and I could not verify if it was Beauty or Dot.ca. I was unable to find a 2nd falcon.
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At 5:30 pm, it was time to end my watch. All was peaceful and quiet. On my way home, I drove down to the lake to check the Russell Station, where Dana and I had seen the unbanded juvie last weekend. Luck was with me. I spotted a falcon on the top catwalk of the west stack.
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It was too far a distance and the lighting was bad, so I could not positively say this was the juvie or not. But I do believe it was. The falcon took off and hovered over the east end of the building and then lower, where I could no longer see it. It then reappeared on the lower catwalk of the west stack. Now it was really time for me to end my watch! Goodnight everyone!
