By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

During my three hour after work watch, I witnessed lots of activity by all three Rochester Falcons.  Of course Dot.ca was seen at both locations, downtown Rochester and the BS location.

When I first arrived downtown, at a little bit before 4:00 pm, I could find no peregrines anywhere, so I went searching for them.  After checking out the whole downtown area, and coming up empty, I headed back to the Broad St Bridge (BSB), parking my car at the center of the bridge, facing west, and looking at the Times Square Bldg. (TSB).  Always at this time of day, I am looking into to the sun as it sets behind the TSB.

I grabbed my binoculars and took a look.  Quickly I found both Beauty, in the nest box and Dot.ca (DC) on the SE Wing ledge at the top of the TSB.

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After awhile, I couldn’t see Beauty any longer at the nest box, but she might have gone in.  A huge thanks to Lisa McK & Carla for answering my question about whether Beauty was still in the nest box or not.  She was not.

My first clue that she was no longer in the nest box was when the pigeons on the Blue Cross Arena (BCA) took off in frenzied flight, like they were being chased by a, well, a peregrine falcon.  Hot on their tails was a blur of steel grey and white with tapered wings.  For those that don’t believe that pigeons are fast fliers, they should see how fast they are when being chased by a peregrine falcon.  They are amazing fliers in their own right.

Pigeons took flight between the Broad St Bridge and the Court St Bridge to the south.  Beauty chased them south down the river, then turned north, chasing another group.  This group of pigeons dove down towards the surface of the river to avoid being captured.  Beauty continue, all out, passing low over the Broad St Bridge, just in front of where I was parked.   It is nearly impossible to follow there flight when they are so close to you.  The pigeons eluded Beauty and she flew back towards the TSB, landing in the nest box.  Dot.ca had not moved from the SE Wing ledge.

Between 4:55 and 5:05 pm, so much happened, it was impossible to get tweets out without missing something, so I just pocketed my phone and watched.  First Beauty and then Dot.ca left the TSB.  Beauty landed on the base of the Mercury statue and Dot.ca joined her to copulate with her.

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He then took off and flew above the river, north of the BSB.  Beauty joined him and they put on an incredible aerial ballet.  Beauty then stooped towards the pigeons on the Blue Cross Arena (BCA) and Dot.ca landed on Mercury’s heel.  He then took off and they tandem hunted, but they were not successful on their hunt.

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After tandem hunting, they both flew up to the nest box.  From where I was standing on the BSB, I could not see what they were doing in there.  Then Dot.ca came out and flew up to the SE wing ledge.  I did not see Beauty come out of the nest box.  While I was leaving the tweet about what happened, I lost track of both Dot.ca and Beauty.  I waited awhile, but when neither returned, I headed over to the BS location.

At 5:40 pm, I found Pigott and Dot.ca flying around the building.  Pigott was carrying a pigeon, which I assume she caught.  She landed on the SW corner of the west extension to start prepping her meal.  This is very close to the cubby they may use as their scrape and seemed to be a favorite spot for Pigott to eat her meals.  Dot.ca continued to zip around the building before landing somewhere out of sight.

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The winds were gusting and it was very cold.  She had to spread her wings quite often to catch her balance while she prepared her meal, feathers flying everywhere.

Now I wish I had gotten a picture of this, because this was definitely a first.  We’ve seen many Turkey Vultures (TV’s) floating over the BS building, passing over on their migration.  Today, one came much lower, heading straight for Pigott and her meal.  I didn’t realize that the TV was so close to Pigott until it looked like it was going to land next to her on the roof.  Just before the TV landed, Pigott started loudly kakking, directly into the face of the TV.  She gave no ground.  I don’t know who was more surprised, Pigott or the Turkey Vulture, who immediately launched itself up and got out of there as fast as possible.  Pigott went back to eating, like nothing had happened.  Another WOW for my watch today.  lol

After finishing her meal, Pigott cached the remainder of her meal on a lower ledge.  I am sure that all the prey cached on this building probably attracts other birds, like the Turkey Vulture today and the Crows I witnessed stealing a meal from her recently.

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Pigot flew into the cubby aka scrape and ee-chupping filled the air.  Dot.ca came from out of nowhere and landed in the cubby also,  The vocalizations got even louder.  I do think that they may have copulated, but I could not see them.  Dot.ca came out, leaving Pigott in the cubby.

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Dot.ca did a lot of flying over and around the building, landing on a window on the south end of the SW extension.

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Pigott remained in the cubby while Dot.ca retrieved the remainder of her meal and took it to the east end of the building to eat up on the tree ledge at 6:15 pm.  I stayed awhile longer and then decided to end my watch for the evening.

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But first, one more check downtown to see if I could find Beauty before heading home.  After checking out the downtown area, I found Beauty up on the TSB on the SE wing ledge.  She was preening and watching over her territory.

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All was quiet at both locations and all three Rochester peregrine falcons were seen making it a very good day.  At 6:50 pm, I headed home.

Good night every one and be sure to click on any pictures you would like to see larger.  Thanks for checking out my falcon watch report!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 at 11:45 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.