By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a warm start to the day with a temperature of 67 (F) 19 (C) and dark overcast conditions

My watch started today at Seneca Towers where I found Billie at 6:30am on  Seth’s favorite spot on  the north side top window ledge.

She wouldn’t be alone for long as Seth came flying in a couple minutes later landing as if he had food and then went to the opposite side from his mate.

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I had thought I heard a juvie whining but I believe it was Billie as she was vocalizing when Seth flew in and continued on and off a little bit afterwards. Seth seemed to get settled in as Billie preened so I guess he didn’t have food with him. I left them for downtown around 7:15am.

When I arrived on the Andrews St. bridge I couldn’t help but see and smell the smoke from a fire at the Buckingham Commons building over on Plymouth Ave. near the Frontier Communications tower. Shaky tweeted it out about the same time I did. Here’s a pic he posted to twitter.

There were police blocking off all the roads in that area as I made my way into the City Hall parking lot but I had to leave because the smoke made for a tough time breathing. I pulled over south of Kodak Office on State St. to watch first. You could see the spray from 2 hoses thru the smoke.

I drove to Main St. and Plymouth Ave. to view from that side. There were fire and police personnel all over the place. There were no more flames but still plenty of smoke as they got it under control.

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It was time to look for falcons but I had trouble finding any as I drove around downtown searching.  Finally just before 8am I found Dot.ca (DC) on the north side ledge of the OCSR elevator shaft. He looked dark and I thought it was Beauty at first as he was crouched down sleeping.

He woke a few minutes later and stood up, turned and gave me a look that told me it was him as I could see the heart shape he has on the side of his face.

I spent the next half hour with DC-he looked like he had food in his crop as he got settled into nap mode again so I left him to look for Beauty. I wasn’t able to find her and thought perhaps she left the area because of all the smoke earlier. As I crossed the Veterans Memorial bridge I spotted Billie on the railing of the northwest corner of Seneca Towers and Seth in his spot on the top window north end.

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Seth watched Billie as she spread her wings and flew off then returned landing on the northwest corner below the railing this time.

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I left them at 9am to check the Medley Center for Big Frank. I was about to leave when he showed up and landed on the round roof cap he was on yesterday above where the carousel is located in the mall.

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He was in hunt mode as he watched pigeons fly past turning to follow them and I thought he would go after them.

Instead, he started preening and pulling a few feathers out as he is in a molt. In between, little Big Frank would look at birds flying thru and would get crouched down and ready to strike only to change his mind and go back to preening. He tried to extract a pellet at one point.

Again, Big Frank looked like he would take off after a pigeon but settled back down. He spread his wings  and  crouched down in the ready position but changed his mind at the last second. Smart bird to conserve his energy for a sure thing!

I left for home with a smile on my face at 10:30am after a busy watch full of falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to view today’s videos

http://youtu.be/B-DGDlla8As

http://youtu.be/Vovwfnc_SKk

http://youtu.be/lZ91M0oW9YE

http://youtu.be/CGegAvK6nrY

http://youtu.be/rjMFyPlJopY

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2015 at 3:58 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.