Wednesday Evening Falcon Watch – 6/10/15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
6:00 to 8:30 pm
Tonight’s Watchers: Pat, Kathy O, Lisa McK, Dan and Carol P.
Weather: 70’s and, at first sunny, then dark clouds moved in. Lighting, not very good for pictures.
Kathy and Pat beat me downtown this evening. I arrived at about 6:00 pm. We set up at Falcon Watch Central, at the top of the stairs leading down to Aqueduct St. We were soon joined by Lisa McK.
Dot.ca was on Cam #1 (aka Pan Cam) watching over the eyases. We thought it was Beauty at first. There was very little movement by the eyases at the nest box.
For the majority of our watch, it was very quiet. Pat had seen both Beauty and Dot.ca before I arrived, but Beauty was no where to be seen.
At 7:30 pm, we noticed that Dan was out on the Broad St Bridge. I took a walk and joined him. I could see that there were storm clouds over the lake to the north.
While we were talking, Dot.ca flew off of Cam #1 and approached us, flying over low, heading towards the library behind us. He turned and headed back to the Times Square Bldg, again landing on Pan Cam. That’s when we noticed that Beauty was on the corner of the library, eating a Pigeon. We had all noticed that she had become thin since taking care of her growing eyases. This is normal. Dan and I watched as she ate her fill. By the time she finished, she had a very large crop. It was good to see her eat so well.
After finishing, Beauty took off with what remained of her meal and took it to the nest box to feed Cadence, Genesee and Bronx. Dot.ca took off from Cam #1 and flew over to the Mercury statue, landing on the heel.
While Beauty was feeding the eyases, there were a lot of wing flapping.
After she was done feeding, Beauty took off with what was left and flew east towards the river. Dot.ca followed. Beauty quickly returned, flying low. Dot.ca right behind her. He landed on the southwest corner of the Wilder Bldg, while Beauty cached the food somewhere on the Philippone bldg. Dot.ca was watching. Beauty flew up to Cam #1 and Dot.ca flew down to the Philippone bldg and retrieved the cached food. He brought it to the 3rd IBeam down on OCSR and enjoyed his dinner.
After finishing, Dot.ca took what was left up to the nest box. I’m pretty sure, he just wanted to feed the eyases. Beauty flew down to the nest box and loud ee-chupping filled the air. She took the food from Dot.ca and went to the base of the Mercury statue where she ate some more.
At 8:30 pm, we ended our watch. There were storms heading into the area. They’ve passed by us now and I just took a look at the live streaming video. Beauty is on guard on Cam #4 and Cadence, Genesee and Bronx are sleeping in the nest box.
All is peaceful and quiet. Goodnight!
