Late Tuesday Afternoon Falcon Watch Plus Beauty & Dot.ca Copulation Video – 3/26/13
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
Arrived downtown at my normal after work time at a little before 4:00 pm. I searched all over and found absolutely no falcons anywhere. Hmmmm. Where did they go? Since I couldn’t find any falcons downtown, I headed over to the BS location. Pigott was in one of her favorite spots on the SW corner of the west extension near the nook, which we believe will be their chosen scrape this year. She had her back to me and she was looking north, towards downtown Rochester. (4:30 pm)
*
*
*
*
*
Her soft vocalizations filled the air. I have really come to love hearing her “sounds”. It’s amazing how many different vocalizations peregrine falcons make. Some of the Watchers have learned to recognize their different alarm calls. Did you know that their alarm call for another peregrine is different than the one they use for other threats, like hawks. It’s quite amazing.
Five minutes after arriving, I found Dot.ca on the SE corner of the building. Before I could take a picture, he flew to the front/north side of the building. Pigott took off and flew in the same direction. By the time I drove around to the north side, both were gone. It was very quiet. I waited a little while to see if they would come back. They didn’t. Time to head back downtown. On my way I received this tweet from NCAFalcons, a member of the forum: “B at box 4:35. Arrived very vocal. DC is under SE wing TSB per Patsy.” Thanks NCAFalcons and Pat. Your tweet and the tweets of all the other online watchers to the watchers in the field are very helpful. Now I knew where Dot.ca headed and that Beauty had returned to the nest box.
When I arrived, Beauty flew into the nest box and Dot.ca was up on the SE wing ledge at the top of the Times Square Bldg (TSB).
*
*
*
*
*
It was a beautiful afternoon, with temps in the mid-40’s and blue skies. I parked down on Aqueduct St. aka the hole, where I had a view of the TSB and the surrounding area.
At 5:55 pm, Beauty came out of the nest box and went to the top IBeam at the south corner of the OCSR. Five minutes later, Dot.ca joined her and they copulated. It caught me by surprise, but I was able to get a short video snippet of them. The quality’s not very good, not like Joyce’s awesome series of pictures from the other day. If you haven’t had a chance to check them out, please do. You won’t be disappointed.
Here is the link to the B&DC copulation video that I put on Youtube.
Afterwards, Dot.ca went back up to the TSB’s SE wing ledge and Beauty flew off to the west. I found her on the SE corner of the Widows Walk preparing prey she had either just caught or had cached there. (6:05 pm)
*
*
*
*
*
At 6:20 pm, Dot.ca joined Beauty on the Widows Walk and just watched her eat. He made no attempt to take her food, he just watched. A few minutes later, Dot.ca took off and headed NW. Beauty continued to eat. The next time I saw Dot.ca, he was soaring high above, either hunting or patrolling the territory.
*
*
*
*
*
Beauty finished her meal and flew over to the money bag hand on the Mercury statue.
*
*
*
*
*
Beauty took off and flew up to the SE wing ledge on the TSB at 6:25 pm.
I spotted Dot.ca flying high and fast, heading south at 6:30 pm. Fellow watcher Kathy O was out at the BS location, so I tweeted that he was probably coming her way. At 6:35 pm, This tweet came in from Kathy O, “he is here.” Well, they are the fastest creature on the earth. lol
At 6:40 pm, Kathy O tweeted; “BS falcon report – one on south vent with fresh food .. Feathers flying .. Second on west extension rooftop.” So both Dot.ca and Pigott were at the BS location and they were prepping prey for a late afternoon meal.
I stayed until 6:50 pm, watching Beauty up on the TSB. She was looking south, like Pigott had been looking north when I first found her at the BS location in the beginning of my watch.
*
*
*
*
*
I am happy to report that I saw absolutely no aggression between Beauty and Dot.ca this afternoon. They copulated the one time during my watch and he did not try to steal her food, like he had done the other day.
Larry O arrived downtown after I left and reported that at 7:35 pm, Beauty was still on the TSB on the SE wing ledge.
Goodnight everyone!!!
March 26th, 2013 at 11:51 PM
Great report Carol. So glad that the aggression is calming down. When I sent the tweet, I was surprised since you had just tweeted DC had arrived at BS and it was approximately 5 minutes later when Beauty arrived at the box, very vocal. For a second, I was worried there was another falcon coming in. So glad it was just DC, especially after the several days Beauty has just endured. Question for you (I posed the same question to MAK), do you think there is more mating this year with B & DC? Last year, it seemed there was more mating observed with P & DC vs. B & DC. I wondered if it may have contributed to Beauty only having one fertile egg. I realize they just started mating a few days ago, but just wondering what your opinion is. Thank you!
March 26th, 2013 at 11:58 PM
Add to that another question on that topic – didn’t Beauty also copulate with UT before he disappeared? Is there any chance that any of her eggs will have been fertilized by him?
March 27th, 2013 at 5:47 AM
I’ll let the on the ground watchers answer NCAfalcons.
Diana…in theory yes, but. Female peregrines do store sperm between copulations and then release an ovum to be fertilized when the time is right. Generally speaking they discharge stored sperm with each new copulation so the freshest is available. Some could be left behind, but the longer she goes between her copulation with UT and egg laying the less likely it will be that an egg would be UTs.
March 27th, 2013 at 6:52 PM
We have to throw Unity into the mix last year. After Archer departed, Dot.ca arrived. He and Unity also copulated quite a bit if I remember correctly. They were becoming quite the bonded pair, before we lost Unity. Then Beauty came in that same day. Dot.ca’s behavior towards Beauty’s arrival was very aggressive. We will never know if he or Unity were involved in any battles with Beauty when she tried to come back to her territory. We don’t know if this is why he was so aggressive with Beauty. No one witnessed anything.
Pigott was very young last year, still sporting some of her juvenile plumage. We had wondered if she and Dot.ca came in together. Again, no way to know for sure. I remember Pigott coming in to the downtown area a couple times while Unity was there. Unity “pushed” Pigott out of the area. I never saw a true territorial battle between them. Believe me, once you’ve seen that, you will never forget it.
NCAfalcon – Because of the three female peregrines involvement last year, I’m not really sure if he is copulating more with Beauty than Pigott this year. Plus the Watchers aren’t at both sights all the time to witness every copulation. But from what I’ve seen, Dot.ca is a very busy tiercel. 🙂
Also, one of three eggs in the Times Square nest box last year was Unity’s, not Beauty’s. It remained exposed to the cold far too long, so probably never would have hatched. When Beauty started incubation last year, I was happy to see her pull all three under her. This was our first time having eggs from two different females in the nest box.
Good question!
March 27th, 2013 at 9:04 PM
Don’t you have to wonder how unique Rochester is, or do we just see too much because of the great cameras and the wonderful watchers? I often think of this. Are we privy to more information because of all of this? I still stand in awe of all you watchers do! Bravo! Brava!