By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I arrived downtown a little before 6 pm to a packed Broad St Bridge and a line stretching half way across it.  I found one of the last spots at the east end of the bridge, near the Rochester Library.  From there, I could look back at the Times Square Bldg and the surrounding area.

It was 33 degrees at that time and the winds were gusting, making it feel like 20 degrees.  I was dressed for the weather, but many of the folks waiting to be let into the Blue Cross Arena for a concert by Green Day, were not.  Some had T-Shirts on and no jackets.  Brrrrr!  They had a long wait to get in.

From the north side of the Library, I could see Beauty at the nest box, but no Dot.ca in sight.

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At 6:20 pm, Dot.ca flew in with the winds.  I first spotted him flying over the river between the OCSR and the Radisson.  Watching a peregrine falcon fly in high winds is incredible.  One of my favorite things.  He was doing all kinds of maneuvers.  Gaining altitude, just to stoop low over the river, chasing the pigeons and pulling up just before reaching the Broad St Bridge.   He turned around, heading north down the river and approached the OCSR, flying up the side of the building,  and reaching both talons out in front of him reaching for and nailing the landing on the top IBeam on the SE side.  Wow!  I could never get enough of watching them fly like this.  I checked the nest box and Beauty was still there.

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At 6:25 pm, Dot.ca was settled on OCSR and Beauty in the nest box on Times Square Bldg.  The line of concert goers had reached me, stretching across the entire length of the Broad St Bridge from the Blue Cross Arena aka War Memorial to the Library and the line was still growing!  Time for me to check on Pigott at the BS location.

I arrived at the BS location at about 6:40 pm and found Pigott on the east side of the building on a window directly below the tree ledge.  She was busy preening and stretching and watching over her territory.  All was quiet there and after finding all three Rochester Falcons safe and sound, it was time for me to head home at about 7:00 pm.

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I’ll leave you with a couple pictures from downtown this evening as I was watching Beauty and Dot.ca.  As always, just click on any pictures you would like to see larger.

Goodnight everyone!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 1st, 2013 at 10:50 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.