By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

After having a taste of spring yesterday, winter has returned in full force to Rochester, NY.  Talk about the winds of change!  When I walked into work this morning, I had a little help with 50+ mph wind gusts pushing me towards the building.  We humans may not like high winds, but Peregrines love them.  I hoped to see some high flying pefas and my wish came true.

I arrived downtown a little before 4 pm and found Beauty on the top I-Beam of the OCSR on the SE side.  She was facing into the building and her feathers were being whipped every which way.

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From where I was parked, I could see that the OCSR elevator was up at the top.

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After a few moments, I headed over to the BS location.  The sky was darkening to the west and I wanted to try to see all three Rochester Falcons before I headed home.  I was in luck.  Pigott was on the tree ledge on the east side of the building and she was enjoying her dinner.  BST was on the north side of the east extension aka their nighttime roost.

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I circled the building one more time and found BST on the tree ledge with Pigott.  He was just to her left and I’m sure he was hoping for just a little nibble of what she was eating.  By this time it was going onto 5:00 pm, so I left P&BST to their meal and returned downtown to see what Beauty was up to.

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As I was driving north down Exchange I saw a falcon fly up to the top of the Time Square Bldg landing at the base of the SE wing.

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I parked on the Broad St Bridge where I had a good view of Beauty.  Lots of folks were getting out of work and being blown across the bridge by the very cold winds.  I saw fellow falcon watcher Pat rush by on her way to her car.  Hi Pat!  🙂

Beauty took off and headed towards the OCSR.  She did her regular maneuver, as she swooped up towards the elevator shaft.  Wings back, talons out and reaching up towards the ledge and out she flew.  For close to a 1/2 hour, Beauty flew all over the place, racing with the wind, up into the elevator shaft and out.  Over the river, towards the apartments on St Paul, hover, kite, swoop.  Back over the river to the elevator shaft and out.  Buzz the south side of OCSR, fast towards the TSB, bank to the left and stoop on an unsuspecting Starling, missing it and continuing over the Blue Cross Arena.  The pigeons that had been there were now gone.  Beauty zoomed over me low and down towards the river on the north side of the Broad St. Bridge and yet another attempt to go up into the elevator shaft and out.

If you hadn’t guessed by now, Beauty seemed to be uneasy about landing on her normal spot in the OCSR elevator shaft, which was now occupied by the OCSR elevator.

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I sat back and watched this high flying pefa just totally enjoying the high winds before finally swooping up into the OCSR elevator shaft and remaining there.  From near the Radisson, I could see that Beauty made it to her favorite nighttime roost, the south ledge of the OCSR elevator shaft.

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I was happy to see her finally settle for the evening out of the weather.  Tonight we are supposed to get a few inches of snow, so back to winter we go.  Oh, well, spring is just around the corner.  Keep warm everyone and keep yours eyes to the sky!

Oh, and remember to click on any pictures you would like to see in a larger version.  Thanks!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2013 at 10:09 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.