By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This mornings temperature when I left for my watch was 51 (F) 11 (C). It was very overcast and the sky spit a few raindrops here and there.

Let me just start by saying this new male we call UT (unbanded tiercel) is wearing us all out. I don’t know how Beauty is keeping up with him as he does not stay still for very long. That being said let’s get to my report-I made my way to downtown arriving in the dark at 7:05am. There were no obvious bumps on any of the buildings in the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) area with my first scan using my binoculars.

I then took a ride to the east side coming up empty, but as I returned to the BSB I spotted the dark silhouette of a falcon under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB). I drove down to the hole (Aqueduct St.) but when I stopped to look it was gone. I’m thinking it was UT cuz this is his style as we have learned in the time since he arrived in Rochester on Friday-he doesn’t stay in one place for very long. I would find out when I got home that he had gone into the nest box for a bowing session with Beauty. 15 minutes later I spotted him on the column above the nest box and again I got to the hole too late  to see him. Gone again into the nest box with Beauty for more bonding.

When they were done he flew to the east side and came to rest on the southwest corner of Xerox just before the 8 o’clock hour. He was gone when I got over to Court St. to view him closer. UGH! Back to the BSB where DebbieH joined me on her way to work. Beauty was in the nest box and UT was terrorizing all the birds on the east side. Suddenly she flew out and over us with UT catching up with her from behind as they headed east.  Beauty landed on the northeast corner of  Bausch&Lomb and then rejoined him before UT went  to the southwest corner of Xerox again after they both did some flying together. Debbie had to leave for work. This time when I got to Court St. to observe him he was still there. Phew!

He was looking to hunt something in the trees of  Washington Square Park to the south. He fooled me by stooping straight down the west face of Xerox like a little turbo charged torpedo.

I lost him behind buildings and as I returned to the BSB 5 minutes later I could see Beauty soaring above Xerox and to the south. I started taping her as she flew near a flock of geese. At a couple spots she was going so fast my camera couldn’t stay focused. She disappeared back to the east so I turned around  to face the TSB. 15 minutes later UT landed next to the main cam for maybe half a minute and then he was off to the east. He had joined Beauty to soar high above Xerox near the clouds. They vanished into the overcast sky so I decided this was a good time to go check for Pigott over at the Brighton Site.

I arrived there around 9:00am and was greeted by the Canadian Geese that dwell on the property and lower roofs.

Make sure to click on all my pics for the full version

I hung out with the geese and some crows for a little while and just as I was driving out of the place on the back road I saw Miss Pigott come streaking across the sky from the west and land on the west end of the south vent. Yay, I don’t think I had seen her in a week or better.

5 minutes later she flew off to the south and returned a minute or so later landing on the vent again.

Pigott preened and looked around for a meal, she also watched a plane flying overhead and stretched out her wings a couple of times.

10 minutes later Pigott flew east and didn’t come back so I left for downtown at 10:00am. Shortly after I arrived on the BSB UT showed up next to the main cam and he actually stayed put for a while. He did some preening and looking around the territory and when he spotted Beauty coming in from the east he looked at the nest box and went in it as she landed on the front of the deck.

They were in the nest box for about 3 minutes and then he came out like he was shot out of a cannon flying low and went after a pigeon by the Wilder building that just happened to get in his way.

He missed the startled pigeon and kept flying east out of my line of vision. I snapped off a couple pics of the Beautyful one before ending my watch at 10:45am. I certainly had plenty to smile about this morning as I saw 3 very fine falcons doing their thing! 🙂

Click on the links below for more pics and videos from my watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrYBg

http://youtu.be/rMM78IaCTyI
http://youtu.be/NI54LQpad0U
http://youtu.be/95FVISeiEJk
http://youtu.be/FjEu1Gl6n2M
http://youtu.be/m5QKrI5d7pk

This entry was posted on Monday, March 11th, 2013 at 2:36 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.