By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I arrived downtown a little late due to a bad car accident on 490E.  But I eventually made it and found Beauty on the OCSR, top I-Beam at the south corner.  I parked on the Broad St Bridge after checking out the rest of the downtown area.  No other falcons found.  Beauty moved about a foot to her left and turned around to keep an eye on all the avian activity happening around her.  I stayed with Beauty for awhile before heading over to the BS location to check on Pigott.

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When I arrived at the BS location, I found Pigott on the southeast side on the back of the building.  Crows were flying above the west side of the building and a few landed there.

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Pigott did not like this intruder on her building, so she took off and chased them away, landing on the same spot the Crow had vacated.  The SW corner of the west extension.  The Crows continued to CAW CAW CAW above her, but they left her alone.  She settled down to do some preening and kept an eye on her unwelcome visitors.

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While Pigott was busy preening, a Crow flew in low carrying something very long.  At first I couldn’t tell what it was.   The Crow landed in a tree below Pigott.  I took a picture, so I could zoom in to see what the Crow had.  It was a Pigeon wing and I was sure that the Crows had snatched one of Pigott’s cached leftovers.  No wonder they were all over her building!

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While Pigott watched from above, the Crow carried the wing out onto the snow covered lawn and started to eat.  This was the second day in a row that I witnessed a Crow eating a bird.

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After the Crow finished eating, it carried the wing over to some bushes close to the building and hid it under the bush.  The Crow then flew off to the south.

I love observing the behavior of the Peregrines and the other birds around them.  I’ve seen Crows steal caches before, but they usually don’t stay close by to eat it and I’ve never seen them actually hide what remained afterwards.  Smart birds, those Crows.

I had a little bit of sun on my watch, but not for long.  It was very welcome!  I stayed and watched Pigott preen for awhile before the light started to fade.  It was time to head home via the downtown area.

Beauty was still on the OCSR, but she had moved to the west end of the top IBeam and she was looking south.  I went over to the Andrews St Bridge to check out the area to the south.  I could not see any falcons in that direction.

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So we continue to wait for the arrival of Dot.ca or possibly another tiercel. Beauty and Pigott are patiently waiting.

It’s time to Spring Ahead this weekend!  Remember to turn your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night.

Goodnight everyone and remember to keep your eyes to the sky!  There are so many interesting things to see out there!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 7th, 2013 at 10:44 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.