Morning Watch 11-22-14
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
As I stepped out of my apartment I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful site of a new day dawning out the east side balcony windows. Naturally I went out and shot a couple pics!
Todays starting temperature was 25 (F) -4 (C) with mostly cloudy skies and a busy breeze out of the south
Click on the pics to see the full version
After a trip around downtown with no luck finding a falcon I went back to Kodak Office and while checking the west side from Verona St. by Frontier Field I spotted the familiar shape of a falcon on the northeast wing ledge of Times Square (TSB) around 7:25am.
So I drove directly down to the hole parking lot and to my sweet surprise both Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) were up there facing each other.
The wind was ruffling their feathers as they preened together-seemingly copying each other as they would stick one leg forward and go back to preening.
At 8:09am the Beautyful one flew north as DC watched her wind up and fly off.
DC followed suit and flew off less than 30 seconds later. I then departed myself to find out where they took off to.
As I drove down State St. I spotted Beauty up on the northeast cube of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT). I parked in the lot next to the Hochstein School of Music for the best view.
I stayed just a few minutes after checking each side for DC who wasn’t up there anywhere. I headed back toward the Times Square area and found DC back under the northeast wing of Times Square. This time he was facing out and perched in a buddha style position with feathers foofed to keep warm.
DC was moving his head very fast from one side to the other, obviously in hunt mode and looking for some poor unsuspecting prey bird to fly in his air space. I had to get going so I left him after a few minutes. On my way out of downtown I stopped by to say good bye to Beauty who was still on the northeast cube of FCT. I ended my watch at 9am.
I didn’t see Billie or 99 at Seneca Towers while on watch this morning but as I put my report together I have seen a falcon fly past my living room window twice-southbound the first time and northbound the second time about a minute later and it was in stoop formation. This makes me smile because I haven’t seen a PEFA here in a few days! 🙂
Click on the links below to see todays videos
http://youtu.be/73GN_45_MAE
November 22nd, 2014 at 12:29 PM
Wow! What a sunrise..The dance they did for their ablutions was amazing! Thanks again for the AM smiles! June
November 22nd, 2014 at 1:53 PM
Love the shots of Beauty and Dot.ca doing the hokey-pokey preen up there on TSB, MAK.
November 22nd, 2014 at 4:06 PM
June, I learned a new word today because of you! Had to look up ablution as I never heard that word before-for anyone else who doesn’t know the meaning, here it is.
ab·lu·tion
əˈblo͞oSHən/
noun
noun: ablution; plural noun: ablutions
the act of washing oneself (often used for humorously formal effect).
“the women performed their ablutions”
a ceremonial act of washing parts of the body or sacred containers.
I’d say Peregrine Falcons bodies are sacred! 🙂
November 22nd, 2014 at 4:13 PM
Pat, I was thinking to myself as the lovely couple preened across from each other, the couple that preens together, stays together! I’ve noticed a lot of people spell DC’s name wrong-it’s Dot.Ca with a capital C. I don’t care how anyone spells it, just thought I’d make mention is all. Thanks for your comment!! 🙂
November 23rd, 2014 at 9:53 AM
I just love watching and reading about this “couple” The pictures and video of them just looking at each other is precious.What a lucky find you had,and perfect timing to obtain that shot.Thanks again for the efforts you give in tracking them.Glad you saw a falcon at ST. Continuing luck with that.Diane
November 23rd, 2014 at 3:34 PM
That was fun for me too Diane-they were awfully cute when they were facing each other on Times Square. I sure wish I could catch both Billie and 99 at home-soon hopefully. 🙂