By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Now that Daylight Savings Time has ended, it’s lighter earlier in the morning, but gets dark muck quicker at night.  I used to have until between 6 and 6:30pm before it got dark.  Now it’s getting dark between 5 and 5:30 pm.  Oh, well, I have to make due with the time I have.  I first checked out Kodak Park to see if I could find KPF.  I looked at both sides of the building and could not find her anywhere.  I had checked early this morning and during the afternoon and did not see any falcons.  Just a Red-tail Hawk and a bunch of panicky pigeons.  I decided to check on Beauty and the downtown area next.

Nothing at Kodak Office or the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) or the OCSR or Times Square Bldg (TSB) or Jail Comm Tower.  Where could the falcons be.  Just I settled on the Broad St Bridge (BSB), I saw a falcon fly out from behind the TSB, heading very quickly towards the Cornhill area, south of the TSB.  I lost sight of that falcon and started looking around the area.  A falcon flew towards the FCT and looked like it was going to land on the OCSR.  At the last second the falcon veered off and headed towards the Mercury statue, landing on the money bag hand of the outstretched arm.  I quickly texted that out just in case other Watchers were out and about.

I wasn’t at the best angle, so I drove down to Aqueduct St (aka the hole) and parked my car where I had a decent view of Beauty and the Mercury statue.  She had her back to me, but this would have to do.  I was already losing light and it was very, very cold.  I wasn’t dressed properly for the conditions, having come straight from work.  I took turns getting out of my car for a few moments of picture taking and then jumping back in to warm up.  For the hour or so I was there, Beauty remained on Mercury, until I left at 5:15 pm.

During that time, 1,000’s of Crows were streaming into the downtown area from the west.  They passed over the TSB and Beauty and I.  Cawing loudly to announce their arrival, as Crows do.  They are not shy.  Interestingly, I noticed that about a half dozen of them broke ranks and bee-lined for a closer look at Beauty who just watched them from her perch.  They didn’t come too close (smart Crows), just a bit of a look see.  Now if Beauty had been a Red-tail Hawk, they would have probably swarmed her.

I have rarely seen Crows outright attack an adult Peregrine Falcon.  Once when I was watching Mariah, who was up on the Kodak Tower, about 6 Crows decided it would be fun to mouth off to her.  They landed on the catwalk of the north stack and looked up at her.  CAW CAW CAW!  Mariah would just give them her trade mark fierce look.  They would look a bit nervous and then start CAWING at her again.  This went on for about 5-10 minutes before Mariah had enough.  She took off from the top of the tower and stooped directly at the Crows who all took off in different directions.  She chased them out of the area and then resumed her spot on her tower where it was now quiet.  I had a good chuckle after witnessing that.  🙂

I have also witnessed them going after a young, newly fledged Peregrine and watched the adults chase the Crows away.

So, was it curiosity on the part of the Crows that they checked Beauty out?  Realizing that she was a Peregrine, did they decide it was better to just leave her alone?  More interesting behavior to consider.

For the remainder of the hour, as it got darker, Beauty remained on the Mercury statue.  I decided to leave at 5:15 pm and just as I was pulling out of the parking lot, Beauty took off and flew towards OCSR.  I looked on the south side and could not find her.  It almost looked like she either flew over to the south side or up into the elevator shaft.  I am starting to think that she might be spending more time up there.  It is a very sheltered spot that has been used by most of the Rochester Falcons over the years.

This was my view tonight.  Please click on the pictures if you would like to see a larger version.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2012 at 12:06 AM 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.