Morning watch 10-25-12
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was a warm humid morning in downtown Rochester for this time of year with the promise of a high near 80. My first glimpse of a falcon was that of one flying from east to west over the river,Blue Cross Arena and Hall of Justice/jail. I was on the Broad St. Bridge at the time. I took a ride and saw Beauty fly to the top ibeam northside on the OCSR from the Andrews St. Bridge. I then went over to Bragdon St. so I could walk across the Sister Cities pedestrian bridge to the back side of OCSR for closer viewing.
Beauty was nibbling on something small, perhaps cached food. 10 minutes passed when Dot.Ca flew in out of nowhere and went past Beauty close enough to try to grab whatever she was eating. She diverted his attempt and was quite vocal about her displeasure. After he was denied he flew over to the Crossroads building and landed on the northeast corner to watch her.
Dot.Ca left about 10 minutes later. 20 minutes later Beauty flew over to the Frontier Communications Tower and returned to OCSR landing on the west corner top ibeam this time. I missed her leave and 10 minutes later I watched her fly to the 2nd ibeam north corner and she had a woodpecker which was still alive and put up quite a struggle before succumbing.I believe it was either a male Downy, male Hairy or Red-bellied(which I’m leaning toward) woodpecker judging by the red on it’s head.
For some reason I had a mental block and kept tweeting that Beauty was on the west corner instead of the north-sorry.
I stayed with the Beautyful one for a half hour longer and then I had to leave for a personal issue that came up. Beauty sure looked good in the sun this morning as she gave me a look and got a face full of feathers.
So after a 2 hour watch I left her to finish her breakfast. Keep smiling! 🙂
Links below for 2 videos
October 25th, 2012 at 8:35 PM
Ohhh poor Red-Bellied! Great weather you had, nice report except for……well, you know!
October 25th, 2012 at 10:06 PM
Lol Donna, thanks! You wouldn’t believe the graphic video I took of Beauty and that poor woodpecker and I’m not even talking blood. I didn’t even upload it to youtube…gulp! 🙂
October 25th, 2012 at 10:24 PM
Poor Red-Bellied indeed! But our Beauty-ful one has to eat, LOL!
I love the look on her face in the next to last pic!
🙂
October 25th, 2012 at 11:44 PM
Yeah Ginny I think that’s my favorite pic of the day too! 🙂
October 26th, 2012 at 2:02 AM
Always sad to see the casualties. Case in point, the Snowy Owl Documentary Wednesday night. All reminders of what a tough world it is out in the wild. But, as Ginny mentioned, the opportunity presented itself and Beauty needed to eat. I appreciate that you Watchers see more than you show. Thanks for sparing us the visual graphic struggle, MAK. Good, tasteful, report.
October 26th, 2012 at 6:54 AM
Barb, life can be a struggle for us AND wildlife and it doesn’t all have to be seen. Normally I share everything from my watches but this struggle was meant for my eyes only cuz I can handle nature at it’s rawest. This one was a little tough for me as well. 🙂