By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

We are still in the deep freeze here in Rochester with a temperature of 16 degrees fahrenheit(-9 celcius) when I left for my watch. I had a little snow removal to attend to before setting out as we finally got a couple inches of snow overnite after it has been in the forecast for 2 days now. lol You just never know what those lake effect snow bands are going to do.

The story today was a missing Beauty who had me a little concerned being this is an active time for other Peregrines to wander into the territory. No worries tho- she finally showed up 5 hours after I started my watch! While I was looking for her I noticed right off the bat that the OCSR elevator was down about 10 feet from the top and I thought maybe it spooked Beauty and that’s why she was nowhere to be found. We know that the top of the elevator shaft is her night time roosting spot.

As I was driving southbound on Plymouth Ave. after checking the Kodak Tower I couldn’t help but notice the sun rise behind the city.

Remember to click the pics for a full version

Round and around the city  I went checking the usual spots and a lot of new places too without any luck so I drove to Brighton to check that site. BST was on the east extension at the far east end top window ledge when I arrived at 8:17am and he was awake and fidgeting.

He worked really hard to get comfy in his corner so as to take a nap. He sleeps more than any other pefa I’ve had the pleasure to watch. I stayed with BST for about an hour hoping Miss Pigott would come by for a visit but no such luck. So it was back  downtown to find our Mercury Matriarch Beauty. As I drove around searching and wondering where she was I took a ride down Lake Ave. and ended up at Kodak Park where there was only some pigeons hanging out on the black strip above where the scrape of Unity and Archer was located. I spent the better part of the next 2 hours looking and waiting for Beauty to show up and finally as I was parked on the Broad St. Bridge I noticed a large bird flying in from the west toward the jail tower. I grabbed my binocs and could see that it was the Beautyful one as she landed on the 3rd arm from the top.

I immediately drove over to Troup St. via Plymouth Ave. which is on the south side of interstate 490 where the Cornhill community begins for a closer look.

She was turning her head from one side to the other looking up and down and generally keeping a watchful eye on her territory. She was especially interested in a gull that was flying overhead.

I stayed with her for 15 minutes or so before calling it a watch. Beauty always makes me smile but when I can’t find her for hours and then I do, well lets just say my grin grows especially wide! 🙂

Click the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrU5A

http://youtu.be/pNVb7jUosJM
http://youtu.be/aBJ3YWJ3Aec

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 at 2:37 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.