By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It’s the day before the first day of spring.  But, it sure doesn’t feel like spring.  It was cold and windy and it snowed on and off during my watch.

About one and 1/2 hours before I arrived downtown, at a little bit before 4:00 pm, a tweet came from the forum that Beauty was at the nest box and she was under attack.  When I arrived, I found her on top of the Times Square Bldg (TSB) at the base of the SE Wing.  Before I could get a picture, she took off.  Beauty flew over the river and headed north down the river.  I lost her behind the Radisson Hotel.  I remained on the Broad St Bridge (BSB) waiting to see if she would return.  I spotted one falcon high above the OCSR and one even higher.  The lower one flew towards the TSB and flew over it, well above the beautiful art deco wings at the top of the building.  How appropriate for a building that holds a peregrine falcon nest box and cameras.    Both falcons turned towards the north and I lost sight of them behind the OCSR.  I drove over to the Andrews St Bridge (ASB) to see if I could find them.

From the ASB, I looked north.  High above the Genesee Brewery, were two falcons soaring with no aggression.  To me they seemed to be a pair.  I could only follow the flight path of one, so I chose one and kept watching it until the falcon flew higher, heading north towards the lake (Lake Ontario). I kept watching until I could not see the bird any longer.  Well, that was interesting.  Was this the pair that kept coming into the city?  Were they an established pair that followed the river from the lake into downtown Rochester?  So many questions with no answers.

I returned to the Broad St Bridge and found Beauty on the OCSR, southeast, top IBeam. (5:10 pm)  She remained there for awhile before taking off and going up to the nest box, where I found her on the platform next to the main camera. (5:40 pm)

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At 6:00 pm, Beauty left the nest box and flew slowly heading east.  She seemed to be in no hurry.  Beauty flew behind the B&L bldg and I saw her pop up over the Xerox Tower.  That’s when Larry O joined me with his dog Harold.  I caught him up on what was happening.  He remained on the BSB while I went to search for Beauty.  I found her on top of the B&L Bldg on the southeast corner and she was eating.  Not sure if it was a cached meal or not.

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I left Beauty to enjoy her dinner and went back to join Larry O on the Broad St Bridge.  It was getting really cold and it was snowing intermittently.  We stayed there for awhile before it got too cold and Larry had to leave.  I was planning on heading home also, but I wanted to first see if Beauty was still on B&L eating.  She wasn’t.  I looked for her and found that she was back on the top IBeam on the OCSR.  That was 6:40 pm.

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At 6:30 pm, Kathy O tweeted that she was over at the BS location and that there were two peregrine falcons there.  Well, I couldn’t go home now!  I had to see what was going on out there.  lol

When I arrived at the BS location, I found Kathy on the east side of the building.  She just looked at me and said “they’re gone”.  Oh, no!  Where did they go!  lol  She explained that first one and then the other had left and that I had just missed them.  lol  So we circled the building looking for Pigott and the tiercel that had been there earlier, that Joyce had seen the night before.  I had just made a full circuit of the building and arrived back on the east side just in time to hear ee-chupping above me.  Pigott (we weren’t sure who it was at first) flew in carrying a pigeon and the tiercel was right behind her.  She landed on the tree ledge on the east side and the tiercel landed on the SE corner of the east extension.  Immediately feathers started floating down on the bitter cold winds.  The male watched as Pigott prepped the meal.

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MAK arrived and took some pics of both of the falcons.  She was hoping to get pictures of the tiercel’s bands to ID him.  The tiercel did not cooperate by showing his leg, so we’ll have to wait to find out who he is.

After MAK left, Kathy O and I remained for awhile longer, although by this point, we were staring to lose light.

The tiercel could wait no longer.  He flew over to the tree ledge and landed near Pigott, lunging in to grab a small piece of the prey.  He flew to the south end of the ledge to eat his small tidbit.  It didn’t take long, he was still hungry.

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He slowly moved down the ledge towards Pigott, who at first allowed his approach.  Closer, closer.  Then he made his move.  Kathy and I could hear the loud vocalization from above.  It got louder and louder.  There was an actual tug-o-war going on up there.  Now, I’ve seen peregrines fight over food before, but this was something I had never seen before.  I saw a wing flop over the ledge and then the rest of the peregrine followed, not just one peregrine, but two!  Kathy and I watched in amazement as both Pigott and the tiercel fell from the ledge, both holding onto the prey with their talons, neither wanting to let go.  There wings were flapping, trying to pull the food away from the other one and they were falling towards the ground below.  All the time they were falling, the vocalization got louder and louder.  Finally about 5 feet above the ground, the tiercel let go of the prey and he and Pigott beat wings hard to gain altitude.  I really thought for sure they were both coming down to the ground.

Pigott launched herself and her hard earned meal up to the top of the building, where she landed on the NE corner of the building.  The tiercel wasn’t finished though.  He landed next to her.  It was getting hard to see, but it looked like both were getting there share of the meal.  After a few moments, Pigott again took off carrying the prey back up to the tree ledge.  The tiercel landed nearby and then took off and flew around the building to the west end, leaving Pigott alone to finish her meal.

Kathy and I just kind of looked at each other and said, WOW!  That was something you didn’t see every day!

It was time to go home after that.  Goodnight everyone!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 at 11:01 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.