By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I checked the weather forecast before I left this morning as I always do and it was a balmy 52 degrees fahrenheit(11 celcius) at 7:00 in the morning!  This is January in western New York folks-it should be snowin’ and blowin’ with sub freezing temps. Well, maybe next weekend! lol Another fine sunrise started my watch off on a good note.

At 7:30am I spotted Beauty on the money bag hand of Mercury as I was making my way back to the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) from the east side.

I only got to be with the Beautyful one for 8 minutes before she spread her wings and flew off after the Aqueduct pigeons who came up out of their slumbers.

Please click the pics for full version

She chased them over the river between the BSB and the Court St. Bridge as she always does, only to break it off unsuccessfully and fly off to the east disappearing behind the Hyatt Hotel. I made a trip around the city but never found her so off to the Brighton Site(BS) I went. Arriving at BS around 8:15am I could see Pigott on the northwest corner of the west extension as I approached the driveway. I positioned myself so I could see the front of this pretty pefa!

She was preening and scratching a little as she looked over her territory I assume for the arrival of BST. These two have bonded quite nicely and keep pretty close tabs on each other. At 8:30am Larry joined the watch with his dog Harold. We watched BST come screaming in from the northeast chasing some Canadian geese that were flying around the area. He thumped one of them a couple times as they quickly dispersed and left his air space.

Click it

Sorry but I have a real hard time getting flight shots so these are the best I could get. BST flew to a south facing corner window ledge on the west extension and landed. Miss Pigott remained on her northwest corner during the whole exhibition acting all nonchalant and unimpressed.

For the next half hour they both primped and preened then without warning BST took flight to the south. Larry kept an eye on him as I watched Pigott.  BST flew to and landed on a tree nearest to the stacks by the back service road. This was NOT the pefa tree but in the same general area. I was so excited to see a falcon in a tree!!!

Larry left as I watched BST in the tree and 20 minutes later Pigott flew off the corner she had been perched on since I arrived. I only knew this because BST started looking that way and was vocalizing. She flew right above BST and checked him out before flying east. A few minutes later she returned coming to rest in the pefa tree. How lucky was I to see not just one but two Peregrine Falcons in trees!

<Click this pic for sure <Pigott>

Some wild Turkeys came strutting thru crossing the road to the now snow free grassy field. For the next 17 minutes I watched this dynamic duo in their tree of choice and then BST flew off  going over Pigott who watched him and followed suit. She looked back over her shoulder toward me before flying off as if to say b-bye MAK!

Both went south and never returned ending my watch at approximately 10:00am. A 3 hour watch packed full of action and excitement for this Peregrine Falcon Watcher. Not only did I see all 3 current resident pefas which in and of itself is enough to make one smile but I saw FALCONS in TREES!!!  🙂

Click on the links below for more pics and videos of the fastest animals on the planet

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrTPg

http://youtu.be/iI62v_z2CJs
http://youtu.be/5u1Wy3b2dHk
http://youtu.be/9FuKRYHnf-Y
http://youtu.be/wJNuoBaxP6A
http://youtu.be/4tzxQ2Zt-bY

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2013 at 4:52 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.