By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

When I left the house this morning one thing was evident-the strong winds that were forecast to usher in a bitter cold front had arrived. I didn’t really expect Beauty would go up on Mercury given the windy conditions so I drove around to look for her. I checked the elevator shaft first but she wasn’t up there taking shelter so onward I went to the east side. There was a very interesting sky as the sun was coming up in the east.

Click on all pics for a full version

Making my way back to the Broad St. Bridge I parked and waited as one by one the pigeons flew up from under the bridge. Less than 5 minutes later I spotted Beauty on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR.

I drove down to the hole to observe her as the sky opened up with a burst of snow making it difficult to do so.

Within 15-20 minutes the snow stopped and the sun tried to come out from behind the clouds.  The Beautyful one was looking for a possible meal to come thru as she was turning her head to and fro.

Beauty had left the building when I wasn’t looking. I took a trip around our fair city but didn’t find her. I suspect she was hunting near the Liberty Pole for I saw pigeons in fright flight near there in my travels. It was off to our Brighton Site to look for Pigott and BST her winter companion. There were no falcons present, in fact there were no birds of any kind around as the wind was worse than downtown. I noticed the parking lot markers and an outhouse had been blown over as I pulled into the east side parking lot.

Click it

Larry came by shortly after I arrived for a quick update and off he went with  his dog Harold. I stayed for a bit to see if a falcon would show up and then I returned to downtown. While I was in the parking lot at City Hall checking the Frontier Communications Tower for Beauty I discovered a speed limit sign on a fire escape.

That was one of the stranger things I’ve come across on a falcon watch. Unsuccessful in locating our resident downtown Peregrine Falcon Beauty I ended my watch just before 10:00am. It is my hope that all 3 of our falcons will have themselves a nice big meal before the days out so when the temps plummet to the teens and single digits they can stay warm. I’m not looking forward to the cold coming to us this week but I will keep smiling thru it! 🙂

2 Links below to view Beauty during and after a snow squall

http://youtu.be/q7SmPjqXIe0
http://youtu.be/ORfhvCSh8fc

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2013 at 1:31 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.