By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It seems that every year, we have to have some drama.  This year is no exception.

Let me just start by saying that Beauty and Dot.ca are just fine.  My day started on a happy note when Beauty laid her 3rd egg this morning at 9:19 am.  I planned on getting downtown for a quick falcon watch after work.  It was cold, but the sun was shining and the sky was blue.  My planned two hour watch turned into a four hour watch.  That’s ok.  I’m glad I was there to witness what happened.

After parking my car on the Broad St. Bridge at 2:45 pm, I could see that Beauty was still on the corner of the nest box platform. DC was still on the eggs in  the nest box.  This is where they were when I left work.  Beauty entered the nest box (thanks to all that let me know that!) and Dot.ca flew over to the OCSR, 2nd IBeam down at the south corner.  It was easy to spot him on a bright sunshiny day with his white chest glowing.

All was peaceful and quiet, just how I like my watches.  Sorry to say that didn’t last long.

Dot.ca took off and headed east towards the old Midtown Plaza.  He didn’t seem to be in a hurry and there was no vocalization. I thought he might be out on a hunt.  Beauty remained on her eggs.

At 3:55 pm, I received the following tweet from forum member NCA; “Anyone DT? B uspet very vocal. Keeps leaving/returning to box.”

I looked up in time to see two falcons flying above the Times Square Bldg.  Dot.ca had returned to the OCSR, so this was Beauty battling another female Peregrine, very close to her size.  There were some talons up maneuvers as the one above dove on the lower one.  I lost them behind a building as they headed towards the OCSR where Dot.ca was located on the top IBeam, south corner.

One of the females flew around to the elevator shaft side of OCSR and around to the north side.  Now I could not see either of them.

These are the only two flight shots I took of the females.  No way to tell who was who.  One looks like it might have a missing flight feather in the right wing.

After a couple minutes, a falcon returned and landed on the OCSR roof above Dot.ca.  I believe this was Beauty.

Beauty again took off, this time heading northwest.  I waited to see if she would return.  Dot.ca flew to the nest box to protect the eggs.  When Beauty did not return, I headed over to the Andrew St Bridge to check out the direction Beauty had taken.  From there I could see no falcons, so I returned to the Broad St. Bridge at 4:20 pm.  When I arrived, it was reported that Dot.ca was no longer in the nest box.

At 4:16 pm, MAK had tweeted that a falcon she thought was 99 flew by her window.  I had been wondering if this might be Billie, but I don’t believe that it was.

I remained on the Broad St. Bridge, to keep an eye on the Times Square Bldg (TSB) and the nest box.  At approximately 4:30 pm, a falcon flew in and landed on the ledge below the north east wing on the TSB.  It was Dot.ca (DC).  He was intently watching something something north west of the building.

At 4:40 pm, a 2nd falcon flew in from the south west and landed next to DC on the NE wing ledge.  Beauty had returned.

They remained together for a few minutes and then Dot.ca flew down to the nest box (I thought it was Beauty at first).  Beauty flew over to the TSB and then back to the Pan Cam (aka Camera #1).  Dot.ca came out of the nest box and landed on the west end of the OCSR Top Ibeam. Lisa McK stopped for a short time and promised to return a little later.

Beauty made her way into the nest box after DC left.  I was joined on the Broad St bridge by fellow Watchers Pat, Joyce and Kathy O.  Then Lisa returned to help with the watch.

After checking their smart phones, it was decided that Beauty was gone again and Dot.ca was now on the eggs.  It was 6:00 pm and I decided to call it a watch, leaving it in the hands of Kathy O, Lisa and Joyce.  I said I would look for Beauty on my way out.  As soon as I turned the corner onto Exchange heading north, I spotted a familiar tail sticking out on top of the northwest corner of the Wilder Bldg.  It was Beauty and she was enjoying her dinner, while DC watched over their eggs.  I quickly tweeted it out and was soon joined by the other Watchers.

After finishing her meal, Beauty flew down to the north end of the green strip on the west side of Wilder and cached her food there.

After caching her leftovers, Beauty took off and headed towards the Mercury statue, landing on the base.

This is where I left her at the end of my watch.  Kathy O was the last to leave at 7:20 pm and reported that Beauty had returned to the nest box, Dot.ca was on top of the Mercury statue and that all was peaceful and quiet.

We can only hope that Beauty was able to chase the other female out of the area and that she will not return.  We will be watching!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 at 10:52 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.