By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Today is the first day of spring but you wouldn’t know it here in Rochester with a temperature of 24 (F) -4 (C). The wind was busy making it feel so much colder. I think the ground hog Phil should be fired! lol

I found Beauty on the southeast corner of  HSBC just before 7:00am. As soon as I stopped the car she took off. I drove to the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) and found her under the northeast wing of the Times Square building(TSB). I went down in the hole (Aqueduct St.) to observe closer.

She had to catch herself a couple times as the wind almost blew her off! Beauty flew off  and returned a few minutes later going to her nest box.

Now I was up on the BSB cuz you can’t see in the nest box from the hole. After a few moments she left again when I wasn’t looking.

I went for a ride to try and locate the Beautyful one. After a text from Donna saying Beauty was at her nest box being very vocal I made my way back from the Andrews St. bridge(ASB). At the time I didn’t see any other falcons until Beauty shot out of the box and flew east. I drove up and stopped on the south side of the BSB to take a look at the east side for her. That’s when I saw her and another falcon which flew in from the south, flying above the river near the Rochester Convention Center. Beauty was the chaser this time as they passed overhead going west. I could hear squeeky sounds coming from one of them. They were really moving as they flew out of view behind the TSB.

At about 8:00am I decided to go up on the South Ave. Garage (SAG) where I had  a better view of the city skyline. I saw nothing for about 15 minutes and then I watched Beauty go to her nest box. Then the onslaught of the “swooper” began. More than 20 times Beauty got buzzed while on the front ledge of her nest box. Back and forth like a pendulum did this other PEFA fly. I was able to videotape most of it but from the distance and the speed my camera was having difficulty keeping its focus. The swooper finally stopped and flew up under the northeast wing of the TSB.

I left the garage immediately to get closer for pics to identify this good sized falcon. I was having deja vu as Dot.Ca(DC) did this to Beauty last year-and after Joyce had posted a pic last night that showed his leg band I wanted to confirm it.

Ah, the distinguishable heart shape on the side of the head of DC that helps to ID this big boy from Canada. After a 15 minute break the swooper was off again but this time he only swooped a couple of times before returning to the northeast wing ledge.

5 minutes later he was at it again-a few more swoops and then he circled the TSB 2 times flew high above the Wilder building,circled OCSR and flew out of view over the river. At around 9:10am as I was looking for the swooper Donna let me know that Beauty left her nest box. As always thanks for your help! I thought if this is DC he might have gone to see Pigott at the Brighton site(BS) so off I went to check it out.  Upon my arrival Pigott was the only one there. She was on the same window I saw her on yesterday top row southeast side of building under the rooftop tree ledge. I almost always take a pic and/or video before I tweet in case the birds fly off. This time would be no exception and as I was taping Pigott she started to whine, so I looked away from my camera LCD screen in time to see a falcon land on the roof above her. Moving the camera from Miss Pigott to this PEFA I could see  it was standing next to leftover food. It started to walk with its left side showing out and as the video ran I snapped off a shot. Bingo-gotcha!

I was able to confirm Joyce with a Black over black leg band with a 13 over Y. May I introduce Dot.Ca aka DC, aka Dot, aka the swooper! I was surprised I beat him over here from downtown.  He gave me lots of leg shots.

Click pics for full version <DC  <Pigott

I stayed about 40 minutes as Pigott whined on and off with DC above her preening.  Just before I left DC started to nap.

I had an appointment to go to so I left to make a quick check downtown for Beauty.  Just as I arrived Beauty flew from the southeast wing down to her nest box. DC flew in and swooped on her a couple times and then flew up under the northeast wing of the Times Square building. I ended my watch at this time-10:35am.  Knowing that it is DC swooping on Beauty has eased my mind for he did this last year too and everything worked out. That being said, it doesn’t mean I like it-especially when I see that he treats Pigott totally different. Dot.Ca wants the penthouse nest box at 45 Exchange St. for himself and Pigott-the only problem is, Beauty won’t give it up and that my falcon loving friends makes me smile!!!  🙂

Click on the links below for the rest of my pics and some videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrZFg

http://youtu.be/3-tVyY3HSIs
http://youtu.be/npBNiom66Q8
http://youtu.be/IRQedL_dk-k
http://youtu.be/JA4FQ5i1ZX4
http://youtu.be/2t-VwT5RqTc

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 at 6:12 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.