By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

On a windy morning with temps in the mid 30’s I arrived downtown at 6:55am.  It was too early for the Aqueduct pigeons  but not for Beauty as I spotted her flying past Bausch&Lomb about 15 minutes later. She went behind it where I couldn’t see her any longer so I went in search of her.

After a check around the usual spots I headed down State St. to check  the Kodak Office Tower. Nothing there so I continued on as it turned into Lake Ave. thinking I’d see if the mystery falcon was near that apartment building where Carol saw it yesterday and where Kathy and I also saw it a few weeks ago. I pulled over at the Volunteers of America parking lot in order to see the south and east side and sure enough there was a falcon on a top window ledge east side first row. I drove down closer but as I was pulling up to park it flew off to the north/northwest quickly leaving my field of vision. I drove around the back but there was no sign of it. The apartment is called Lake Tower (LT) and it’s across the street from the Brown Square Health Center on Lake Ave. probably about half  a mile from Kodak Office (KO). I decided to go to the Kodak Park power plant since I was headed in that direction already. Carol saw a pefa there last night as well so I thought I’d check it out. There was nobody there not even a pigeon!

I returned to downtown and found Beauty on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR so I drove down to Graves St. for closer viewing-it was about 8:10am.

The Beautyful one was a little sleepy when I first joined her but she woke up to do a little preening and have a watchful eye on her territory. I must say I’m a bit uneasy about the mystery falcon being so close to downtown and I believe that this is probably the reason Beauty has been looking north constantly the last few weeks. Hopefully they’ll keep their distance! Beauty seemed to be watching something in Aqueduct Park which was directly to my right but then she lost interest and turned around showing me her back and some leg.

I stayed with her for 45 minutes and when it seemed she was settled in I left for a check of the Brighton Site(BS).  Arriving there about 9:00am I could find no falcons on the building or in the surrounding trees. No deer,geese,crows,hawks or turkeys either. It is a very nature filled location!  I stayed about an hour and left having been skunked by Pigott and BST. Upon returning downtown I found Beauty in the same spot as where I left her on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR. She was in full sun and showing her full front at first.

I was parked in the hole(Aqueduct St.) near the stairs that lead up to Falcon Watcher Central on the Broad St. Bridge as Beauty got kinda fidgety. Beauty had a full crop- knowing she has eaten always makes me happy(I take after my mom that way-she always made sure everyone was fed).  I thought Beauty was going to take off a couple times and then she turned her back to me and settled down. I fully intended to end my watch at that point as I packed up my gear and then  looked one more time to see that she was gone! I would have stayed longer but was supposed to drop my car off for repairs but they were too busy to get to it today so Monday will be the day. I left for home and as I was pulling into my driveway I got a message from Donna(TY) that Beauty was at the nest box looking up. Well we thought possibly Dot.Ca was back from migration or perhaps mystery falcon had come a calling so back downtown I went.  After checking I didn’t find Beauty nor did I find mystery falcon when I checked the Lake Tower apartment one more time. I also checked BS  and came up short there again too.  I’m sure they’re all doing their own thing  but I do hope they are seen later today. And so officially my watch ended at 11:45am having seen 1 falcon that I know very well(Beauty) and 1 that I barely know(mystery falcon). I do have a feeling I may be getting to know  this new one better in the near future. Smile everyone it’s good for the soul! 🙂

I have links for 3 videos below-just click on them and view

http://youtu.be/5e5B4N0_0lk
http://youtu.be/LTOLFeWmJQM
http://youtu.be/sYu0BSBzjmo

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2013 at 3:26 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.