Morning watch 10-27-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was a cool 37 (F) 3 (C) degrees at the start with sunny blue skies
Click on the pics to see the full picture
For the second day in a row there were no falcons present at Seneca Towers or Hawkeye. I didn’t find any falcons on my first trip around downtown but as I was stopped at the traffic light at Chestnut and Broad St. I raised my binocs to check around. I could see Dot.Ca (DC) under the northeast wing of Times Square, so I went to the Broad St. Bridge where I found Beauty on the base of Mercury eating around 7:45am.
DC flew over to the Mercury money bag (MMB) about 20 minutes later.
The Beautyful one finished eating, did some feaking and walked away from where she was eating. She proceeded to do more cleaning up and pooped before jumping up to the green part of the base.
Beauty turned around to face me after some more feaking, sporting a full crop, then she did a wing stretch and settled down.
In the meantime DC flew off into a stoop toward the river, flew over to Times Square landing under the northeast wing and immediately off into another stoop before returning to the MMB with no food.
DC was very alert and ready to grab an unsuspecting bird for breakfast. Beauty took off around 8:20am and flew downriver and up into the elevator shaft of OCSR. DC spotted something flew out over the river and hit a very small bird twice before going back up to the money bag. This birdie was so small that I couldn’t even see it in his talon.
I could however, see a feather hanging from his beak as he flew off Mercury over to Times Square coming to rest under the northeast wing where he started eating. I drove down to Basin St. in the hole by the Wilder building where I saw him pluck very few tiny feathers before consuming his prey very quickly with his back to me. He spent maybe 10-15 minutes on it then turned to face me and show off his whiteness.
DC stayed perched up there for quite some time surveying his territory and just being himself until 9:33am when he flew north.
I checked Kodak Office and the Frontier Communications Tower but didn’t see anyone. Next, I checked the OCSR elevator shaft but Beauty wasn’t there. I spotted her on the northeast cube of FCT from the Andrews St. bridge as I came back from Bragdon St. on the east side. My thinking is that she had come out of the elevator shaft when DC took off-he keeps close tabs on her and vise versa.
I didn’t have time to look for DC as I had an appointment to get to, but I’ll bet he was up in the tower somewhere near Beauty. I ended my watch at 10am smiling after a bright and sunny watch spent with our downtown Peregrine Falcon pair! 🙂
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October 27th, 2014 at 7:41 PM
Really enjoyed the pictures and videos today,you got some good shots of B and DC.Will they stay here for the winter do you think? They are such beauties to look at and enjoy. Diane
October 27th, 2014 at 8:04 PM
Diane, Beauty hasn’t migrated once since arriving in Rochester in 2009. DC has migrated only once in winter of 2012/13. I think he would have gone by now if he was going and I’m confident in saying that Beauty will remain in her territory for the winter. 🙂