Saturday Late Morning/Early Afternoon Falcon Watch – 1/10/15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Hooray for the weekend! I couldn’t wait to get out and get a falcon fix. 🙂
It was cold, only 9 degrees (F) when I left the house. Brrrr! Can’t wait for Spring!
Because I saw a falcon at KP West the other day, that’s where I started my watch. As luck would have it, I found a falcon on the lower catwalk of the east smoke stack.
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I stayed there for 1 1/2 hours, hoping that this falcon would take flight and maybe come a little closer. No such luck. The whole time I was there, the falcon preened, pooped and looked every which way. But it did not moved from its spot on the catwalk.
At 12:30 pm, I decided to head downtown. I found both Beauty and Dot.ca up inside the OCSR elevator shaft. Dot.ca on the south side ledge and Beauty on the north side ledge. When I first arrived, parking in front of the Radisson, they were ee-chupping to each other. My first clue that they were up there. lol
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While I was keeping an eye on Beauty and Dot.ca, I heard the unmistakable chittering of a Kestrel. This is the vocalization a Kestrel will make when it is upset. It was stooping over and over again over the trees on the other side of the river. A quick check with my binoculars and I could see what was upsetting the Kestrel. There was a Coopers Hawk in the tree. After about 15 minutes, the Coop took off and so did the Kestrel. Beauty and Dot.ca never moved during all of this.
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At 1:30 pm, I headed out of downtown to check Seneca Towers (ST). From far back on Seth Green Dr, I was able to see a falcon on the northwest corner.
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From the north side, I had a better view of this falcon, but at too far a distance to make an ID.
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After checking out all sides of Seneca Towers and not finding a 2nd falcon, I headed back to the west end of Kodak Park. The falcon I had seen there earlier was gone.
I was happy to get out after a busy work week to finally see some falcons!!! Yay!
I’ll leave you with a few pics I took while downtown. The river is almost frozen over. Enjoy!
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January 10th, 2015 at 6:24 PM
Sounds like a pretty good watch today, Carol! Cold, but good! Wonder if that KPW falcon could be one of the ST falcons? Wrong side of the river? Enjoyed your shots of the frozen river, too! 🙂
January 10th, 2015 at 6:27 PM
Wow, that was a busy watch, Carol. So glad you saw a falcon at Seneca Towers. Of course, I’m wondering if the Kodak falcon is either Billie or 99. Perhaps we’ll never know.
January 10th, 2015 at 7:53 PM
I too am wondering if the falcon at the KP location in Billie or 99. Funny that when there was one at ST the one at KP was gone……Just as long as no one fights with B & DC.
January 10th, 2015 at 10:17 PM
Thanks so much for the comments Patty, Pat and Ginny! I really appreciate them. It is possible that the KPW falcon is one of the ST falcons. It really is not that far as the falcon flies. Maybe some day we’ll know.