Morning Falcon Watch/Hawkeye pair is back 10-19-15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was a sunny but chilly morning with a temperature of 31 (F) -1 (C)
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I started my watch at Seneca Towers at 7:30am with Seth on the north window ledge and Billie on the northwest corner with her back to me from the north end of my parking lot so I drove out to Seth Green Dr. to see the front of her.
I left them and as I came up to the Kodak Hawkeye plant on St. Paul St. I spotted an unbanded male falcon on the north end of the roof eating. I pulled into the driveway of the Rochester School for the Deaf to observe and as I was there a bigger falcon flew in from the north and landed on the west side of the ring where the nest box is located.
I couldn’t see it very well so I went across St. Paul St. to the parking lot across from Hawkeye (HE) to the east. I couldn’t see the ring falcon at all from there so I kept taking pics of the male who had stopped eating after the other falcon showed up.
As I was looking to the ring the male left and then a female took over the spot where he had been eating. She had a black/red left leg band and a purple right leg band. She didn’t eat anything while she was up there so I don’t know if she was not interested or if the male had left with the food since I didn’t see him leave.
The female spotted something and turned around before flying west toward the river then south behind the building out of view at 7:54am.
I thought I had better go check on Billie and Seth since HE is only half a mile from Seneca Towers. Seth was still on his north end window ledge and Billie was on the roof above him facing Hawkeye at first then she turned around before flying out over the bridge then back to the roof facing me.
At 8:18am Lisa reported seeing a falcon at the Brighton Site. I left for downtown at that time and on the way found the HE female on the ring right behind the nest box. She flew east out of view at 8:20am.
Finally made it downtown and didn’t find any falcons during my first 2 trips around. I was on the Andrews St. bridge (ASB) when Donna reported seeing a falcon on cam 1 so I headed over to Times Square. I found a Kestrel on the Mercury Money bag and I believe that’s who Donna saw on cam 1.
The Kestrel flew off and so did I, ending up back on the ASB where I spotted Dot.ca (DC) on the northeast cube of the Frontier Communications tower (FCT). At the time I didn’t see her but when I was checking my pics on the computer screen I noticed Beauty on the large drum and it looked like she was eating in the pic.
Not knowing the Beautyful one was present I drove over to FCT and positioned myself in the City Hall parking lot for the best angle on DC.
DC flew off real low toward Kodak Office where I lost him behind trees and buildings. I left to check the Medley Center around 10am where I found nothing. When I got home to Seneca Towers Billie and Seth were on the north window ledge preening together.
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I ended my watch at 10:30am smiling after seeing our 2 pair of resident Rochester Peregrine Falcons safe and sound! 🙂
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October 19th, 2015 at 1:46 PM
That Hawkeye female sure has a cute face and big round eyes. Great pics as always! Thanks, MAK.
October 19th, 2015 at 7:27 PM
Hmmm…they have 3 sites potentially to challenge for…boy that makes me nervous and it may not be the most obvious either. Mind you they may just be ‘wintering’ here, guess we’ll see soon enough.
October 19th, 2015 at 10:11 PM
No problem Pat! 🙂
October 19th, 2015 at 10:14 PM
Kathy, I know the Toronto sites are close to each other but are there any that are only half a mile apart? And there’s no tall buildings to separate them here. I love having more falcons in the neighborhood to watch, but I wish they’d just move on for all our resident birds’ sake and their own. 🙂