By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

As the saying goes-what a difference a day makes! At 35 degrees (F) 2 (C) and less wind than yesterday it virtually felt like a heatwave this morning when I left the house. Overnite we had gotten an inch or two of  snow/sleet/freezing rain/rain and everything was slushy and no big deal.

The cloudy conditions made for a dark sunrise but it didn’t hinder me from finding Beauty on HSBC southeast corner at about 6:50am.

She was facing southwest which is not the norm as she usually faces east-that side has more pigeons flying around. I watched her for about 10 minutes and then she took off flying southwest. 10 minutes later I found Beauty on the jail tower and she was facing southwest which isn’t abnormal but it was going along with the pattern this morning.

At 7:30am Beauty flew off the tower headed north toward the Times Square building (TSB).  I was on Troup St. observing her so I drove straight away to the TSB via Exchange Blvd. On the way over Donna let me know Beauty had gone to the nest box(TY Donna) and as I approached I saw 2 falcons-1 was circling above TSB and the other around it. Pulling over in front of the Blue Cross Arena I barely had the car in park when Beauty came shooting out of the nest box coming in my direction(south) and immediately a smaller falcon was on her. Swooping at her as she went above the Democrat and Chronicle and they both continued on to the west out of view. I have no idea where the other PEFA went. I drove immediately up on the Broad St. Bridge(BSB)  and spotted 2 falcons flying fast to the north between the OCSR and Crossroads buildings.

Larry came by on his way to work and we had 2 falcons over the high falls. Then we had 1 falcon really cranking above OCSR. A couple minutes later  a male landed on the northwest corner of Chase for only a brief moment as it took off when Beauty came screaming out of nowhere from the west. She crossed the river heading right at him so he took off then she was right on him chasing to the southeast. Beauty broke it off and came back flying above us patrolling the area and then headed northwest toward Kodak Office. When she got there a falcon swooped on her and they disappeared to the north. Larry left after that for work and then I had 2 falcons fly thru from the north heading south on the west side behind the TSB. Pat walked by on her way to work stopping briefly and at that point I had lost the falcons behind buildings to the southwest. I decided it was time to go up on the South Ave. Garage(SAG) for a better view of downtown. At 8:30am Beauty landed under the northeast wing of TSB.

Beauty flew off 10 minutes later flying low to the west and returned then off again behind TSB a couple minutes later out of view. I believe she was hunting. Around 9:30am I decided to come down from the SAG and look for Beauty before heading out to Brighton for a look/see. I did see a falcon flying above Xerox briefly and then it was gone to the southeast. When I arrived at the Brighton Site there was on the northeast corner what looked to be a male Peregrine. It was crunched down with poofed up feathers,the chest looked too white to be Pigott to me.

It flew off after just a couple minutes heading east. When it didn’t come back I circled the building and found Miss Pigott was on the northwest corner just down from the scrape.

I circled the building to see if the male came back and then went back downtown to see if Beauty had any visitors. Phew-they’re keeping old MAK busy! I found Beauty under the northeast wing and she was looking for a tasty treat.

Beauty stooped behind the TSB out of view as it began to snow lightly. An hour later as I was driving down Exchange St.  I spotted the Beautyful one on Widows Walk south side below the railing. I quick pulled in the parking lot by He’s Chinese food in time to see her fly off with prey in her talons. She headed straight toward Mercury and I thought she was going to land on the base but instead changed direction and headed south behind the Thomson Reuters building out of view. 10 minutes later I found Beauty on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR. She had a full crop but no prey so she either cached the leftovers or finished them up before I arrived.

I shared space with Beauty until 12:30am then I headed back to Brighton. I asked KrisG to let me know if  Beauty left while I was gone, as pan cam was locked on Beauty and I figured unless somebody drew her off she would just stay there and rest a while after eating. TY Kris for helping. I found Miss Pigott home alone on a top window ledge under the rooftop tree southeast side.

She too had eaten and was sporting a full crop. I left her after half hour or so as no other PEFA showed up. Returning downtown I found B to be still on OCSR. Everything seemed quiet so I ended my watch just before 1:30pm. But I wasn’t done yet for when I found out that KathyO had 2 falcons at Brighton tonight I finished up with some business and drove over to see if we could get the male ID’d. CarolP was there too when I arrived. Pigott was eating on the tree ledge and the male was on the northeast corner watching.

Unfortunately I only have the 3 pics and  no leg shots. I don’t believe this is Dot.Ca-it actually looks more like BST to me. Shoot, we really want to get this bird identified so we can close the books on that mystery and hopefully ID the downtown mystery falcons. We’ll keep trying until we do!!! Once again, seeing Rochesters Peregrine  Falcons has put a smile on this tired watchers face!  🙂

Click on the links below to view pics and videos from todays events

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrYyg

http://youtu.be/6XyfjwWdx_0
http://youtu.be/gOHDxJV5FmE
http://youtu.be/Zo0oDfyLoMA
http://youtu.be/xwPRrCng7Ug
http://youtu.be/K6zrH5bGT7Q
http://youtu.be/WtMbLsN5700

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 at 9:38 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.