Morning watch 1-23-13
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Another cold morning in Rochester with a temperature of 7 degrees fahrenheit (-14 celcius) and a wind chill of -5 when I left the house at 7:00am. The wind was much calmer than yesterday so it didn’t feel as harsh and my fingers didn’t get as cold as yesterday! lol That being said, my camera still thought it was too cold for picture taking and gave me trouble focusing, so todays photos and videos are not too good.
So my watch started on the Broad St. bridge spotting Beauty on the south corner of OCSR top ibeam. I drove to Main St. next to the Radisson Hotel to view her. I just got started taping her when she dropped off into a stoop down in the river out of my field of vision only to fly back up empty taloned and headed southeast upriver. I drove around looking for the Beautyful one and found her back on OCSR about 30 feet further down on the top ibeam from where she had previously been. This time I parked down on Graves St. between Aqueduct Park and the Canandaigua National Bank and Trust-a favorite spot of mine.
Beauty and I shared space for an hour as I watched people go by with one guy stopping to ask if I was watching the falcons. I said I sure am and pointed out where Beauty was on the OCSR building. He thanked me and continued on.
The sun was shining very brightly upon our beloved downtown Peregrine Falcon adding to my difficulty to get a good shot of her when all of a sudden 3 police cars pulled up behind me. They got out of their cars with hands on guns in the ready position and they were looking right at me! I stuck both hands out of my window and asked if they were there for me. The female officer said yes and asked what I was doing with the camera. I explained and pointed out Beauty up on OCSR plus showed them a pic of her on my cameras LCD screen. As the 2 male officers checked the contents of my car she explained that the employees of the bank were nervous after seeing me with my camera-they thought I was planning a bank robbery! lol I was then asked how long I would be there and told that they (cops) didn’t have a problem with me being there but that maybe I should find another place to watch from. I said no problem and left. Sheesh, what a girl has to go thru to watch falcons sometimes! 🙂 I then decided that Beauty was settled for a while so I left for the Brighton Site. Upon arriving there at 9:15am I found Mr. BST on the east extension 2 window ledges down from the top. He was wide awake checking out the airspace and preening his gorgeous feathers.
Today when a plane flew overhead BST had something to say while staring at it. I so wish I knew what he said!
About half hour later fellow watcher Barbara stopped by for a couple minutes and as I was talking to her she saw BST fly across the way to another window ledge. I couldn’t see him from where I was parked so I moved up and Barbara left. 
I departed soon after myself, checking downtown for Beauty before ending my watch. There’s a place to pull over on Exchange Blvd. by the river opposite Cornhill where I sometimes stop to take a look at the city for falcons. I took a pic from there to show you the view.
Make sure to click this and all of my pics for a full version
As I got to the Broad St. Bridge I could see that Beauty was still in the same spot I left her earlier. She was enjoying the little bit of warmth the sun could provide on this cold late January day.
No Pigott again today for me but it’s all good because she has been seen in the afternoons. I left downtown thinking about my encounter with the Rochester Police officers and the thought of me robbing a bank. I’m sure you know that made me smile!! 🙂
I have provided links for 4 videos below-click on them to view
http://youtu.be/8GEodYugzYo
http://youtu.be/Tcw2n0prmqA
http://youtu.be/dhQzPL-jZzo
http://youtu.be/w-aaMIWmJDY
January 23rd, 2013 at 8:28 PM
Oh, for crying out loud, it is not as if you (and probably others) have never before been in that spot (it being a favorite and all) with your Angel Car (what a get away that would be – striaght to heaven) and no one knows about the Rochester Peregrines and their faithful band of watchers. 😛
I think the bank employees should come out and get to know you so they won’t be so afraid of a falcon watcher. After all, as long as you are sitting there with your camera, a real robber would hesitate to make an attempt on the building.
January 23rd, 2013 at 8:38 PM
Oh no….lol…CNB is my bank! Love them almost as much as I love the falcons…:-)
You have to stop looking so suspicious in that get-a-way car!
Think of all the pictures you could capture of “would be” bank robbers! Wow! Tell those police officers that you are helping them out.
January 23rd, 2013 at 9:08 PM
Exactly Alison!
Margaret all I need is Clyde right!? I ain’t changing my name to Bonnie tho! 🙂
January 24th, 2013 at 1:35 AM
MAK-That must have been some experience!
Thank you for braving all this cold weather to bring us this great report!
January 24th, 2013 at 2:46 AM
MAK, Would it help if you had one of those magnetic signs on the side of Angel Car that says “Peregrine Falcon Watcher”, and maybe the website? Sounds like you did all the right things, and that the police were cool…just doing their job when called upon. These days people are just on edge. But I thought that, by now, EVERYONE in Rochester would be aware of the Falcons and Falcon Watchers!
January 24th, 2013 at 6:42 AM
Ginny I’ve had plenty of security people question me but that’s the first time anybody came up to me with their hand on their gun! lol
Barb, I have a peregrine patrol license plate frame on the front of AC but I think GVAS should provide us watchers with ID tags to wear around our neck. CPF has them and it wouldn’t hurt to have brochures of some kind to hand out to downtown businesses cuz not everyone does know about us. 🙂
January 24th, 2013 at 11:17 AM
Those are great ideas, MAK. I was just thinking that something like magnetic signs on each side of the car would have been more visible to the nervous folks at the bank, because you were sitting inside your car. Hopefully, this won’t happen again, though.
January 24th, 2013 at 7:57 PM
Poor MAK! I understand you introduced yourself to the folks at CNB today. You might want to say hello to the good people at M&T Bank and Key Bank as well.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:08 PM
Barb I like the sign idea!
Patsy I forgot to do it today-hopefully I’ll remember tomorrow. The Keybank employees are totally aware of us and our falcons. I’m not sure about M&T but I think all the downtown businesses need to know. 🙂