Morning Falcon Watch/Billie at Medley Center 10-6-15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was a balmy 54 (F) 12 (C) degrees with dark, humid, overcast conditions and a fine misty rain on and off
To begin my watch I saw Seth on the N window ledge showing his right leg band that still has the yellow tape on it. Billie was over on the west side railing of Seneca Towers when I got out to Seth Green Dr. That would not be the last I saw of her this morning.
When I arrived on the Andrews St. Bridge I could see a falcon on the base of Mercury-on my way to the Broad St. bridge to check it out, at tweeted that she saw a falcon there as well. It turned out to be Beauty and she didn’t stay very long before she flew off to the north. There was a Great Blue Heron fishing down in the river.
The Beautyful one took off at 7:41am and so did. After checking OCSR,Powers and FCT from the Andrews St. bridge I spotted Beauty on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad. I stopped on State St. near Platt St. first but decided the best angle would be from State and Brown St. It wasn’t until I went there that I noticed Dot.ca (DC) on the cupola.
Beauty turned a couple minutes later so I decided to go back to Platt St. where I could see the front of DC but Beauty left while I made the move. DC remained on the cupola, walking a few feet and settling.
I had a lot on my plate today so when DC flew off Kodak I left downtown to do a quick check for Big Frank at the Medley Center. When I arrived there was a falcon on the peaked glass roof-I went to the east side parking lot since that’s the closest spot to watch that spot but the falcon had its back to me so I went around to the north side of the mall but it was gone when I got there.
I continued around to the south side where I found none other than Billie on the carousel roof! I thought it was Big Frank at first but the more I observed, the more I thought it wasn’t her. This falcon had a darker chest and seemed familiar to me for some reason. I got some leg shots that showed black/green and on my small camera LCD screen I thought I could see 77 on the black. It wasn’t until I got home and saw the band on my computer screen that I could ID her as Billie 77/AX.
Billie flew off to the west at 9:13am going real low over the parking lot and returned to the same spot she had just vacated. She was definitely in hunt mode, looking everywhere.
Buffalo Billie did some preening and at 9:30am I decided it was time to end my watch and be on my way. When I eventually got home there were no falcons at Seneca Towers. I knew it was only a matter of time before Billie and/or Seth would show up at the Medley Center since it’s only 2.5 miles from ST. Hopefully there hasn’t been any battles among our beloved PEFA’s. Meanwhile I’ll keep on smiling! 🙂
Click on the links below to see today’s videos
October 6th, 2015 at 2:58 PM
Great catch on that band id, MAK! And you got Mr. Yellow Tape’s band today too. Now let’s just hope Billie and Big Frank play nicely, or at least steer clear of each other.
October 6th, 2015 at 3:57 PM
Pat, I’ve thought about an encounter between them ever since Big Frank came into the picture. Fingers crossed that all stays peaceful. 🙂
October 6th, 2015 at 9:09 PM
Oh boy…Hopefully nobody gets their beak out of joint with this new wrinkle of crossing territorial boundaries! Great work on the I.D’s. Sherlock…I mean MAK! ;^)
October 7th, 2015 at 6:08 AM
Haha Barb! 🙂