By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Another dark dreary morning today but after a touchy start to my watch it felt brighter as I hit the trifecta and saw Beauty,Pigott and BST all doing well.  I took a trip around downtown initially, looking for Beauty as I drove up Exchange Blvd. to Broad St. on my way back to the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) I spotted her. She was on the money bag hand of Mercury.

I parked the car and took a couple pics and started a video when she took off. I didn’t know why until I shut down the video turned around to the south and saw her meet up with a tad bit smaller female intruder over the Court St. Bridge. Beauty hit her once on the back,the intruder went down a few feet and then Beauty went after it again as it turned and they touched talons quickly and separated. Beauty was definitely the aggressor but not overly aggressive. This time of year in the off season they wouldn’t normally fight to the death,they do that when their hormones are raging in the spring and summer as I’ve been told. Anyway, Beauty hit the female once more and then it was a chase upriver to the south,then east toward Xerox and eventually disappearing behind it. The intruder wanted nothing to do with the Beautyful one-I do believe she just wanted to get away. I searched for awhile but couldn’t find either one so I took a drive over to Brighton(BS). My first thought when I saw the 2 was Pigott had come to pay Beauty a visit so I wanted to see if Miss Pigott was home. She was and seemed quite relaxed as I found her on the northeast corner preening and picking at  her beak.

I took a couple pics and a video then drove around to look for BST. Didn’t find him so I headed back downtown satisfied that it wasn’t Miss Pigott who battled with Beauty for I don’t think she would be out in the open non-chalantly preening right afterwards if you get my meaning. I looked for Beauty about an hour and a half unsuccessfully so I returned to BS finding both BST and Pigott. He was on the east side near the rooftop tree and she was on the northeast corner of the east extension and they were able to see each other.

Pigott BST

Pigott flew off to the west out of view and returned a couple minutes later landing on an east facing window ledge while BST  had flown off and landed across from her on an east extension window ledge. He made little squeeky echup sounds as he landed.

BST  Pigott

Pigott flew off to the northeast corner of the east extension and that’s how I left them to go check downtown for Beauty again.

After 25 minutes of searching I finally breathed a sigh of relief when I spotted Beauty on the top arm of the Frontier Communications Tower from the Broad St. Bridge. Do ya think I was smiling!? lol  I sped over to City Hall but then had to go over to Plymouth Ave. to see a front view of her.

I observed the Beautyful one for 15 minutes or so until I was convinced she had no injuries or ruffled feathers from her encounter with the intruder earlier. She was in hunt mode as she checked out the immediate area for prey. Dark conditions made for not so good pics and videos but I must say the world got brighter after seeing our resident downtown matriarch safe and sound. So, on that note I ended my watch with a great big smiley on my face!  🙂

Below are the links for more pics and videos-just click them

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrRHg

http://youtu.be/1uZLDVmY6Vk
http://youtu.be/GcH_I9pvSpo
http://youtu.be/fQ61k6Ley0w
http://youtu.be/Wj3lwZRyv-Y

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2012 at 3:57 PM 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.