Evening watch 2-13-12
By Rochester falcon watcher MAK
I’m happy to say the Beautyful one is still with us in stable condition. <3 Hopefully more details will soon be reported.
Joyce and Brian picked me up shortly before sundown and when we arrived downtown I thought I saw a bump under the northeast wing of the Times Square building. As we drove to the Broad St. bridge we saw that there was in fact a falcon under that wing. Joyce drove over to Aqueduct St. for better viewing.
We then drove down and parked in front of the Blue Cross Arena main entrance for a profile shot but the light was just not good enough for very clear pics.
Now if you look at the 2nd pic above, the tail looks a bit beat up to me. Perhaps the sign of a battle with another bird. She certainly seems nervous because she moves around a lot and when she was under that wing her head was on a swivel. I believe on the look out for Beauty to strike.
Now what I am about to say is only speculation – Unity(whom I personally am convinced is the new falcon downtown) may have been scouting Beauty all that time that she wasn’t seen at KP in the past weeks. Watching her patterns, where she stashed food, her favorite perches,etc. Perhaps the male falcon seen the weekend before last, triggered her to move in thinking it was Archer back from migration and the battle started then. Probably a migrating male that kept on going since it hasn’t been spotted since then. Maybe between that weekend and this past Friday Unity and Beauty have been having altercations and finally on Friday Beauty succumbed to the larger Unity. We will never know for sure what took place but this is my thought process with some input from the other watchers. Brian thinks she will go to the nest box soon and claim it while she waits for Archer to return from his migration. I think we are all afraid of if and when Beauty returns what damage may occur. I pray everyone survives. Not much to smile about but I’m going to anyway just cuz that’s what I try to do! 🙂
February 13th, 2012 at 10:28 PM
That’s exactly what worries me MAK, thanks for all your insight & all we can do now is pray.
P.S. Glad to see your back on the watch
February 13th, 2012 at 11:04 PM
It is good, MAK, to see your reports. I just hope you are not over doing it too soon, and I am sorry all of this happened while you were recovering from surgery. Such are the ways of nature (and life).
I think you have it right. I just posted and asked questions about Carol’s comments with her pictures from last week after the Super Bowl battle. I too, think, after looking at pics of Beauty from the last week in January that she was on “high alert”. I think U was scoping out the territory and our B was quite agitated. Not the same happy girl we saw last year when she was having fun with Mr. T. I continue to keep Beauty in my thoughts and prayers. Archer certainly has “mixed it up” with all of our female falcons..from Mariah, to Beauty, Unity, . Such are the ways of nature, and I have to keep reminding myself that we are privileged to get this view. We are mere mortals watching the ways of wild beings.
February 13th, 2012 at 11:25 PM
It’s good to be back on watch tho I don’t like what has transpired. I’m sorry too this all happened while I was down but I’m back now and hope to help all our watchers solve this mystery in whatever capacity I can contribute. When I had my last knee replacement surgery I knew it would be a while before I saw the Beautyful One again but I didn’t think that perhaps I might NEVER see her again. Don’t worry I’m not over doing it. They have been short watches and I prop my leg up in the back of Joyces’ Rav 4 and I never get out the car. 🙂
February 14th, 2012 at 12:45 AM
Thank you so much MAK for your report and your insight on this. I pray our Beauty recovers from this and hope it all turns out for the best.
February 14th, 2012 at 11:03 AM
We all do Ginny. Unfortunately we cannot change the outcome. It will play out just as it was intended to in nature and all we can do is watch and help if needed. 🙂
February 14th, 2012 at 11:06 AM
Thanks for the report, MAK. I agree…assuming this is Unity, as I suspect it is…she’s just been biding her time up at KP waiting for her opportunity to challenge Beauty for the prime territory. Sigh…
February 14th, 2012 at 4:16 PM
Heavy sigh Ei!
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