Morning watch 3-14-15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
There was a misty rain falling at the start with dark overcast skies and a temperature of 38(F) 3(C)
Click on the pics to see the full version
When I arrived downtown this morning it was still pretty dark as I pulled over on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) to see Dot.ca (DC) on top of the Mercury money bag (MMB). Luckily he was facing me but unluckily he took off while I was tweeting his whereabouts.
When he didn’t come back I made a U-turn to check the east side and I spotted Beauty on a northwest corner of Legacy Tower (LT) eating. I decided the best place to observe her was from the top (8th floor roof) of the South Ave. garage.
When the Beautyful one was finished she did a lot of feaking and cleaning up before she perched facing me for a while.
At 8:10am Beauty started vocalizing and flew off over the river toward the west corner OCSR and vanished to the north behind it. After a scan with my binoculars I spotted DC under the northeast wing of Times Square.
DC snuck off again while I was tweeting and so it was time to get back down on the ground to look for them. Just before 8:30am I found Beauty on the northwest side of OCSR near the west corner right where I lost sight of her from up on the garage. She had her back to me but she did turn so I could get a fairly decent pic of her before she started kakking and flying off after DC, who had just flown past her heading south.
I made my way through the traffic that was getting busy for the St. Patrick’s Day parade and a 5K run that was going on to check the Times Square area . I saw a falcon come bolting out of the nest box area and head north and I followed but never found it. I decided to get out of downtown before roads started getting blocked off and headed for home. I stopped on the Driving Park Bridge by the Kodak Hawkeye plant to check out the lower falls which I haven’t done in a very long time because it was so cold. They have thawed out nicely from the frozen state they were in last time I was there. A flock of Canada Geese flew out from behind Hawkeye while I was there.
I arrived at the Northridge Church parking lot at 8:45am where I spotted who I am pretty sure was 99 on the northwest corner with his back to me. I never saw his leg bands because I mainly only saw his back side today, but judging from his behavior and the malar stripe area on his head I’m pretty confident it was him. Billie was up on the east side roof above the east side balconies of Seneca Towers where she was working on a big breakfast.
Buffalo Billie was looking quite large today as she kept moving her prey from one spot to the other-I guess she likes to eat on the go. teehee!
99 just would not stand up or turn anything other than his head. Billie stopped eating and flew off with her prey as I just started to record a video, I tried to follow her but lost her quickly and seconds after that 99 stooped down in the river gorge like a bolt of lightning. I got it all on tape so if you would like to see a stoop, check it out at the end of my report where I post the links for my videos.
I was getting ready to go run an errand when Billie came flying back from the north without her leftovers-this is the 2nd time this has happened so there is a place north of Seneca Towers that they like to cache their food. So she flew above Seneca Towers and came down to the northwest corner to land and soon after 99 came in and landed a few feet away from her on the railing.
I left them to run my errand and when I returned they were still up there only 99 had come down off the railing to join Billie on the roof and once again he had his back to me.
I left them to it and ended my watch at 11am. I must say our falcons have been keeping me busy this past week now that the weather has finally warmed up. I’m happy to say that I saw all 4 Rochester Peregrine Falcons this morning thus sending me home smiling! 🙂
Click on the links below to see today’s videos
