By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I was at work when I started getting tweets and lots of them.  Seems Pigott came for a visit to the Times Square Bldg nest box and the virtual watchers were wondering who the visitor was.  Forum member Kris G was the first to post a picture asking “Who is this?????”  NCAFalcon asked “Is This Pigott?”  Shaky answered “Yes”.  This happened at about 12:30 pm and soon after Pigott left, Beauty entered the nest box.  No battle between the two females was witnessed.  Here is a picture from the Rfalconcam main camera of Pigott in the nest box.

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A few of the Rochester Falcon Watchers that were able to, went downtown as quickly as possible.  Joyce & Brian H went over to the BS location where they found Pigott and MAK remained downtown where she reported that Beauty and Dot.ca were on the Times Square Bldg.  All was quiet at both locations.

When I got out of work I immediately went downtown to see if I could find any falcons.  All of the Watchers that had been out earlier were no longer there.  I drove all over downtown and could not find Beauty or Dot.ca.  My next stop was the BS location.  No falcons there either.  Hmmm, where had they all gone.  An hour and a half into my watch I finally found my first falcon.  It was Pigott and she must have just arrived at 5:15 pm.  I parked my car and watched as Pigott found a cached meal and ate it on the NW corner of the west extension.

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After finishing her meal, Pigott took off and stooped on a Red-tailed Hawk that got a little too close for her liking.  She thumped it a few times and then returned to the NW corner of the west extension.  Kathy O joined me and we kept watch together at BS while Joyce and Brian H texted that they were downtown with Dan & Susan C.  Larry O joined Kathy O and I for little while before he had to leave.

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Pigott remained ever vigilant until something got her attention to the north.  She took off and flew in that direction.  Kathy O was able to keep her in view with her binoculars.  When she was pretty far north Kathy saw that she had intersected with another peregrine falcon and they were battling.  Kathy watched them for a long time before they split up and she lost sight of both of them.  I texted at 6:06 pm that there was a battle SE of downtown, but none of the downtown Watchers saw anything.  At 6:20 pm, Joyce texted that Beauty had arrived on the nest box platform.

Kathy had to leave, so I stayed until about 6:45 pm, just missing the arrival of Lisa McK at BS.  While I was on my way downtown, Lisa reported that both Pigott and Dot.ca had arrived at the BS location and that they were both in the cubby/scrape ee-chupping.  By the time I arrived downtown, no watchers remained on the Broad St Bridge, so I went searching for Beauty.

At 7:26 pm, Joyce rejoined the search after dropping off Brian H.

After much searching, I finally found Beauty at 7:30 pm up on the top NW arm of the Frontier Communication Tower.  She was facing north towards the Kodak Tower, so I found a parking spot in the City Hall Parking lot and texted out that I had found her.  Joyce joined me and we chatted while watching Beauty.  In the fading sunlight, Beauty glowed.

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Within 10 minutes of finding her, Beauty took off heading east.  She did not seem in any hurry, but by the time we drove over to the Andrews St Bridge, we could not find her.  Joyce had to leave, but I was determined to find her one more time.  It’s what we watchers do.  lol

After checking out the downtown area thoroughly, I returned to the very crowded Broad St Bridge.  There were no parking spots due to yet another function at the Blue Cross Arena, so I pulled over as far as I could and took a look at the Times Square Bldg (TSB).  It was 8:00 pm and it was getting dark, but I could still make out Beauty’s shape on the SE wing ledge at the top of the TSB.  She was preening and keeping a watchful eye over her territory.

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So after Pigott’s brief visit at the TSB nest box this afternoon and a battle between Pigott and another peregrine falcon (unidentified) later in the afternoon, my evening watch ended quietly.  At the end of the day, all three Rochester Falcons were seen with no apparent injuries.  This is a good thing.

Many thanks to ALL the Rochester Watchers that came out today to keep an eye on Beauty, Pigott and Dot.ca.  You all are the best!  🙂

Be sure to click on any pictures you’d like to see larger.  Thanks!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 4th, 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.