By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Another warm start at 49 (F) 9 (C) with overcast skies and a busy breeze made for a nice watch.

I made my way downtown at 6:20am today and never saw a falcon until just before 7:00am when I spotted one fly to the north side of Widows Walk. It left while I drove to get closer so I could ID who it was. I was parked on Basin St. by the Wilder building looking toward Widows Walk when a young man named Eric stopped and asked if I was seeing anything good. Well actually I’m watching Peregrine Falcons I said, and then he started asking more questions. I gave him some important information and handed him an rfalconcam card and told him to check us out. He said he studied the environment like wetlands and such and was definitely going to have a look/see with his 18 month old son. So I found Beauty on the Mercury money bag (MMB) and drove up to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) to watch her. She stayed standing leaning forward tail up slightly and her feathers were poofy looking. All a good sign that she may be laying an egg soon.

Click the pics for a full version

Beauty flew to the nest box about 10 minutes later when she saw Dot.Ca (DC) coming from the south. He went to the southeast wing ledge and landed.

DC flew off about 5 minutes later and sometime in the next couple minutes Beauty left the nest box and flew north. A minute later I noticed something up on the money bag but it was small-I raised my binocs to look and could see that it was an American Kestrel. Never saw one on there before and lucky for the Kestrel that Beauty wasn’t around!  5 minutes later I was looking at DC up under the southeast wing and Beauty had gone back to her nest box. DC dropped off the back of the ledge to the south behind the Times Square Building and out of sight. Beauty flew to the MMB minutes after he left and began watching toward the Brighton site (BS).

I left for BS after 15 minutes or so to see if DC had gone there. Arriving at 8:30am I found Pigott on the southwest corner and DC on the southeast corner-falcon bookends.

<Pigott  DC>

DC flew off to the north about 9:00am and Pigott flew to the front of the building. I made 2 trips around and on the second I noticed movement in the window scrape. It was Pigott popping her head up and she was by herself and very quiet going back and forth between the 2 windows.

She stayed in there about 15 minutes and then she came to the outside ledge and took wing.

Pigott flew around to the back of the building and I found her on the southeast corner. I then saw DC come from the north to land on the southwest corner. Minutes later DC flew to Pigott and they mated then he flew northwest out of view.

I left Pigott on the southeast corner to go downtown and arriving just before 10am I located Beauty under the southeast wing looking south toward BS. Oh how these girls watch for their man. So the Beautyful one and I hung out for half hour or so as she seemed restless and fidgety-turning completely around a couple of times. She flew over to the money bag and stayed 20 minutes took off,circled and returned to it before taking off to the nest box when she saw DC fly in from the south and land under the southeast wing.

<Beauty  DC>

Around 11am DC flew off to the north and Beauty followed shortly after-then I saw Beauty go to the nest box area real quick and it looked like she had food in her talons. I watched DC fly in front of the Times Square building just above the nest box area and fly north again, straight up State St. and out of sight. Both falcons would elude me as I drove to the Andrews St. bridge to view the northern end of the territory. No luck in finding them when I returned to the BSB and so I ended my watch at 11:30am as 2 mounted police passed by me.

I left  falconless but smiling, for I had another calm and peaceful (well as peaceful as the city gets on a work day morning lol)watch and I saw all 3 of our Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click the links below to view more pics and videos
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrcZA

http://youtu.be/PS1iFaVNNhQ
http://youtu.be/gDN6j1WHZsE
http://youtu.be/VBVe9TuDp5Q
http://youtu.be/eLmpJvcpHRA

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 at 5:59 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.