By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Mostly cloudy skies prevailed with patches of blue sky here and there and a temperature of 26 (F) -3 (C)

Click on the pics to see full version

I’ve been using the Court St. Bridge (CSB) as a vantage point a lot lately as Beauty and Dot.ca (DC) have been hunting and flying on the east side in the morning. It gives a better view of the east side than the Broad St. bridge. So as I pulled over on it today I spotted a falcon on one of the many northwest corners of Bausch & Lomb (B&L).

I thought it was DC and reported as such, but I couldn’t be sure from that distance so I drove to Broad St. parking next to the Central Library below B&L for a closer look. After taking off at 7:38am I could tell it was the Beautyful one by size and dark underside.

I went over to Court St. across from the Court St. garage to watch as Beauty flew above Xerox and started her hovering hunting style. I watched her stoop to the southwest over my head and behind me toward Cornhill.

I decided the best spot was the CSB and after Beauty returned to hover above Xerox she stooped again-this time back behind HSBC to the east. She appeared above Xerox again before another stoop in which I had a front row seat for as she whizzed thru the airspace like a missile, descending lower and lower as she passed thru the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge between the arch and Route 490 below it with sensational precision. Here’s a pic of the bridge to give you an idea of what I’m describing-the fastest animal on the planet in a stoop that was easily over 100 miles an hour.

She just missed her target, a pigeon, near Cornhill Landing them returned to the air above Xerox, circled around B&L and back near Xerox at 8am. Beauty stooped to the east toward the University Ave. area vanishing quickly and didn’t return this time. I found her half hour later on the northeast corner of Crossroads as I was pulled over on the Andrews St. bridge.

She was eating with her back to me so I went to Graves St. next to Aqueduct Park at Main St. where I had the best view of her.

I only stayed a few minutes as I had an appointment to get to. I’ve been wanting to check out High Falls so I wanted to stop there real quick before I left downtown. I got a bonus sighting of workers stacking kegs in a tree shape at the Genesee Brewery-I think they were stringing lights on it. The falls were flowing slowly.

I checked Seneca Towers on my way past but saw no falcons. I ended my watch just before 9am with a smile! 🙂

Click on the pics below to see todays videos

http://youtu.be/GEsAMdYMuk0

http://youtu.be/-NUmJiz0V00

http://youtu.be/StLMbH6Agok

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2014 at 2:28 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.