By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Ooo, it was a cool -2 (F) -19 (C) when I stepped out of Seneca Towers this morning. The sun was up and shining brightly but it didn’t do much for warmth. Clouds moved in and covered the sun shortly after I arrived downtown but it was nice to see it for a while

Click on the pics to see the full version

When I stepped out from my 16th floor apartment at Seneca Towers and saw the sun out the east side balcony I knew it meant good things were ahead for me. As I parked in my spot on Seth Green Dr. I saw 2 falcons on the northwest corner-Billie was on the railing with the sun hitting her and 99 was right below her on the roof. A beautiful sight!

Soon after at 7:49am Buffalo Billie flew off and startled 99 into flying off with her as she stooped into the gorge. They both returned as they do most things-together. They came to rest on the northwest corner of the roof-99 where he had been before and Billie next to him.

While I was taping them it looked like Billie might have had food from the way she was moving. On my little camera screen things don’t always look as they really are, for when I watched the video on my computer I could see that there was no food as she walked past 99 to the north side out of sight. I love how 99 watches his girl cranking his head sideways and practically stands on his head. He’s very cute!

99 eventually joined Billie on the north side of the building out of my view so took that as my cue to head downtown and get my car warmed up to thaw out my fingers. There were trucks parked all around the Radisson Hotel on Bragdon Place and in their driveway so I didn’t have anywhere to park so I made my own parking spot to check the south side of the OCSR elevator shaft. There was a falcon up there on the ledge showing its back-I thought it might be Beauty but couldn’t say for sure. This is the point where the sun disappeared.

I left to check the north side ledge of the elevator shaft but again there was nowhere to park so I stopped on the Main St. bridge but I didn’t see anyone up there. I left to take a look around downtown but that was a waste of time-no falcons were seen so after checking the north side again I went back to Bragdon Place to see that the falcon was still there and it was standing a bit more sideways as it preened a little.  At 9am I checked the north side one more time and as they say, the third time’s a charm. This falcon looked a bit smaller to me, so based on size I’d say this was Dot.ca and the south ledge bird was the Beautyful one.

Mission accomplished, as I saw all 4 Rochester Peregrine Falcons and since I’d had enough of the cold I chose to end my watch at 9:10am. I stopped on the Driving Park bridge on my way home to check out the Lower Falls. They were pretty much frozen but there was still some water getting through. I took a few pics and a video for your enjoyment.

So this frozen falcon watcher smiled all the way home after seeing four falcons and some gorgeous frozen falls! 🙂

Click on the links below to see today’s videos

http://youtu.be/agVE2SaTDV4

http://youtu.be/8yIa0VGk9gI

http://youtu.be/tbP6qvO6sbE

http://youtu.be/AhFumFI8gYk

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2015 at 1:16 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.