By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

When I received Kathy O’s tweet at 12:50 pm about a big white chested, dark helmeted female Peregrine she had found on an apartment complex on Lake Ave and that it had headed northwest, I knew I had to get out and check KP.  This is the direction she was headed.   I was really excited to think there would again be a falcon at Kodak Park for me to keep an eye on.  Kathy called to let me know she was at KP and that she saw no falcons there.  She did see Big Mama Red Tail and her mate though.  Kathy also sent me this picture she took of the Lake Ave falcon with her Iphone.  Nice picture Kathy!

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It was 2:00 pm by the time I got over to KP.  It was cold, but the sun was shining.  Any day the sun is shining is a good day.  I checked the stacks from all angles and found some new white wash on the east stack.  It was below the catwalk on the NE side of the stack.  Was this from a visiting Peregrine?  Or maybe one of the Red-tail Hawks, although I rarely see them up there.

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I settled in to watch the area and scanned the sky above with my binoculars.  That’s when I spotted a Peregrine soaring high above the KP Complex.  It circled and gained altitude.  Higher and higher.  I lost sight of the falcon when it passed behind a plume of smoke.  Looked like she was in hunt mode.  I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this big girl.

My next stop was downtown, which was very busy.  Looked like the Toronto Rock Lacrosse team was in town.

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I checked everywhere but the elevator shaft, which I couldn’t get close to, but could not find Beauty anywhere.  Next stop, the BS location.

BST was there on a top window on the south side of the east ext.  Pigott was not home.  I parked where I could watch BST and Dana soon joined me.

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BST had his back to us and was very actively trying to hack up a pellet.  He had a white fluff feather sticking to the left side of his head that I just wanted to reach out and remove.  lol  He kept trying to get rid of it.  BST started to do a lot of head bobbing, which told me he was getting ready to leave.  Sometimes they don’t leave for a very long time.  🙂  To be a falcon watcher, you must have patience.  BST finally did take off just before 4:00 pm.  He headed south, not hurrying at all.  Dana and I watched him land in the Pefa Tree in the woods south of the building.

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He was only there for about a  minute before he returned to the building.  Pigott had also returned and she was up on the SE corner of the building close to the tree ledge.  BST had landed on the left side of the vent on the south side of the building.  They were able to see each other from their positions.

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Larry O and his dog Harold joined us.  They took a nice walk in the snow while we all kept an eye on P&BST.

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At 4:50 pm, Dana and Larry left.  I remained a bit longer to see if Pigott & BST would move.  They did.  Pigott moved over to the west end of the south side and BST ended up on a window on the west end of the north side near the scrape.  It was time for me to go.  But first, one more trip through downtown where I hoped to find Beauty and find her I did.

Ms. Beauty was tucked up in her normal spot at this time.  She was up inside the OCSR elevator shaft on the south ledge.  I was very happy to end my watch after seeing all 3 current Rochester Falcons, plus one high flying falcon at KP.

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BE SURE TO CLICK ON ANY PICS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN A LARGER VERSION.  THANKS!

I’ll leave you with one picture I took as the sky darkened and a gorgeous, golden full moon appeared.  Enjoy the weekend everyone!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2013 at 11:16 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.