By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

6:30 pm to 7:55 pm

It’s been getting harder and harder to spot any falcons on my evening Watches.  After not seeing any falcons for two day (well, I did hear one on Monday) I was happy to find Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT), just below the platform on the south side.  Finding a falcon there is very hard.  If you don’t get the right angle, you will not find them.  So, the Watchers have learned that they need to search the FCT from all directions. Today I was able to see Beauty from the Hochstein parking lot on the south side of the FCT.  She was tucked in just below the platform, in a small spot of sunlight.  Most of the framework below the platform was in shadow.  I set-up the scope to verify that it was indeed Beauty. (6:30 pm)

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Kathy O joined me and while we were chatting with Rob, who stopped by and was checking out Beauty through the scope, Kathy spotted Dot.ca who flew in and landed on the top arm of the FCT.  (7:14 pm)

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At approximately 7:30 pm, fellow Watcher Joyce tweeted that she was at the BS location and that Pigott was on a west extension windowsill completely across from the cubby.  So we had all three adult Rochester Falcons in view during the evening Watch.

Dot.ca stooped off of the FCT over City Hall.  He pulled up and continued flying east, flapping his wings rapidly.  He was on a mission.  Kathy and I lost sight of him when he flew over the river, still heading east. (7:40 pm)   There had been no vocalization by him or Beauty.  When Kathy and I ended our Watch at 7:45 pm, Beauty remained where she had been, under the platform dozing.

On my way home, I did a quick check of Kodak Park.  No falcons seen there.

I’ll leave you with a few pics I took last night.  One of the deer at the BS location and a couple of the Great Blue Herons I spotted on the river near the Broad St. Bridge.  Goodnight everyone!

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON ANY PICTURES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE LARGER

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This mornings weather was pretty much like yesterday-humid,dark,overcast with the same temperature of 68 (F) 20 (C).  A little fog but not dense like yesterday.

I found Beauty on the southeast corner of HSBC in hunt mode for sure. She stooped to the east and flew back to the same spot then 5 minutes later she stooped to the southeast as I was watching from Chestnut St. in front of Manhattan Square Park. Then from right below her on Court St.

The Beautyful one returned and switched to the front of HSBC on the railing of the southwest corner.  Soon after taking off to the southeast again.

Take off sequence>

Beauty came back and landed on the railing of the southeast corner. She stayed there for the next 15 minutes and just before 7am she flew northeast and that would be the last I saw of her on my watch.

As I faced the east I couldn’t help but notice the fantastic sunrise happening before me.

Don’t forget to click on my pics for the full version

15 minutes later as I searched for Beauty I spotted a falcon on the north corner top ibeam of OCSR from the Andrews St. Bridge. I was very excited since this is a favorite spot of Dot.Ca (DC) and I haven’t seen him in 2 or 3 days. I drove to Bragdon St. for a closer view so I could ID him. He didn’t give me much time as I got one pic before he was off to the northeast. I could barely make out the heart shape on the side of his face but the white chest confirmed it for me.

Due to poor light conditions today, my pics are not very clear. After a trip around downtown with no sign of a PEFA I left for the Brighton Site (BS). Pigott was on the west end of the south side vent all scrunched down and poofed out.

Miss Pigott started preening and at one point seemed like she would take off but she faked me out and went back to preening.

<Click it for the fake out

I shared space with her for the next half hour and then she flew off for real heading east and she didn’t return.

I waited a bit before heading back downtown. I did a search of the city but couldn’t find any falcons so I ended my watch at 8:45am. I saw all 3 current resident Rochester Peregrine Falcons on my watch this morning so I had good reason to smile as I headed out! 🙂

Just one video link below for you to click and view today

http://youtu.be/dsEHsQlQQd8

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Talk about being in the soup-the humidity today is thick enough to cut it and it created some dense fog on the building tops making it hard to find falcons in the second half of my watch. The beginning temperature when I arrived downtown at 6am was 68 (F) 20 (C)

My routine since the juvies fledged was to check the frontier Communications Tower and Kodak Office first but I have changed that just like Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) have changed their routine since the kids left. I now start on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB)and work my way to the east where lately I have found the Beautyful one on HSBC and today was no exception as I found her on the east side of it.

Beauty flew off before I could stop and I next found her on the southeast corner of HSBC. There were crows in Manhattan Square Park (I was parked in front of it on Chestnut St.) sounding off and I also heard a cardinal chirping and so hoped it stayed out of Beautys’ sights. It did and Beauty took off fast after 10 minutes to the southeast in break neck speed and I lost her behind the trees quickly.

I drove down to Woodbury St. near Washington Square Park where I found Beauty on the southwest corner of Xerox. The fog hadn’t dropped down on our fair city yet. She stayed about 5 minutes then flew out above Bausch & Lomb and doubled back flyimg behind Xerox where I lost sight of her.

As I went to find her I stopped on the BSB and found a Great Blue Heron down in the river who had a very large fish in its mouth and trying to swallow. At first I thought it was drinking as it had its beak in the water but then I saw that it had a fish. He would try to swallow  then put it down in the water again repeating this several times until he eventually got it down. You can see the big bulge in the top of  its neck after he swallowed the fish. BIG GULP!

I left at 7am when I noticed Beauty up on the  top ibeam west corner of OCSR  and headed to State St. to view her. I pulled over took a pic then tweeted it out and when I looked back up she was gone!

This is when the fog started to quickly take over the tops of the buildings in our fair city so I decided to go to the Brighton site (BS) in hopes to find not only Pigott but DC as well-he wasn’t seen yesterday.

Click on it to see the full version

As I made my way past the west side at BS to the back (south) side of the building I spotted a falcon on the roof of the west extension and it flew off and around to the east side out of view before I had the car in park. I waited a bit before driving around to look. I thought it looked small and thought maybe DC but never found him. I did however find Miss Pigott on the east side 2 windows down below the roof top tree. She was soaked just like yesterday!

And just like yesterday she was on the run going back and forth along the window ledge a few times before settling where she started from. I sooo love watching Peregrines walk and run-it’s funny as all get out!

I shared space with Miss Pigott for an hour or so then headed back downtown. The fog had gotten worse while I was gone so if Beauty or DC were up on the building tops I couldn’t see them.

<East side <Kodak Office

I called it a watch and headed home at 8:50am with a smile for having seen our 2 female resident Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to view videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/KwsWpKQnk_w
http://youtu.be/OQbmY1jPuJw
http://youtu.be/QqHkcqaoNjw
http://youtu.be/PN7Wnu-Xgk8

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another late start for my Monday Watch.  It rained on and off all day long, and when I left my house at 6:45 pm, it was still raining.  Temperature  69 degrees (F) with dark clouds moving through.  Even with the rain, I decided to head downtown to look for the Rochester Falcons.

First stop was the Kodak Tower.  I ran into a bit of traffic near Frontier Field.  Red Wing fans were heading into the stadium for an evening game.  The Red Wings have been doing really well and their faithful fans wouldn’t let a little rain stop them for cheering for their team.  I was able to pull over and check the K-Tower.  No falcons seen there.

Next stop, the Frontier Communication Tower.  No falcons there either.  From the Andrews St Bridge, no falcons seen on the north side of the OCSR or any of the surrounding buildings.  I drove around HSBC, B&L, Xerox and Midtown Plaza.  The Crows were lined up on the Frontier Bldg, where Baron and Voyager chased them such a short time ago.

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It was time to head over to the Broad St Bridge (BSB).  It was raining most of the time I was driving around downtown.  Here was my view from where I parked on the BSB.

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The Rochester Library, said to have a ghostly inhabitant, was bathed in beautiful lights.  I really love that they do this now.

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Finally, it stopped raining, allowing me to get out of my car for a quick look around the area.  First I checked out the area for falcons and again found none.  I checked out the river on the north side of the Broad St Bridge and spotted an adult Black-Crowned Night Heron (BCNH).  Just beautiful!

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I spent some time watching the BCNH  in hunt mode, searching for dinner.  Dark clouds were moving in, so I hurried across the street to check the river on the south side of the BSB.  There I found the juvie Black-Crowned Night Heron near the library on a rock.

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It started to rain, so I continued my search for falcons.  Since it was getting late, I headed back over to Woodbury St, parking on the south side of St Mary’s Church.  From there I could see the south side of B&L and the Xerox Tower, where we had seen Beauty after dark recently.  At 8:15 pm, I heard very loud ee-chupping fill the air.  I looked all over for the Peregrine that was vocalizing, but never did  see one.

This is where  I was parked with I heard the loud ee-chupping.  It sounded like it was coming from the B&L bldg.  I did search the building the best I could in the dark, but could not find any falcons.

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At 8:30 pm, it was still raining and very dark.  Time for me to head home.  I believe the rain will end tonight and tomorrow should be a nicer day for looking for our falcons.  Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

As I stepped out the door today the humidity slapped me in the face-it was overcast with rain in the forecast and the temperature was 57 (F) 14 (C)

I found Beauty on the east side of HSBC and not 5 minutes later she flew off to the southwest.

After searching downtown with no sightings I went to the High Falls where I found a Belted Kingfisher hunting off a concrete slab in the river on the north side of the Pont De Rennes pedestrian bridge. He dove into the water 3 different times and came back with nothing. I caught a pic of him landing on the slab. There was also a Cormorant perched on a rock with its wings spread out I assume to dry. No falcons and no Osprey were seen in the gorge.

I went to the Andrews St. bridge after I left there and spotted Beauty on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR just before 8am. I drove to Bragdon St. by the Radisson Hotel for a closer view and walked across the Sister Cities pedestrian bridge where I was right below the Beautyful one.

It started to rain so I went back to my car and left for Brighton. As I pulled in the front drive I could see Pigott on the northwest corner of the west extension around 8:30am.

She flew off as I parked the car and returned to the same spot in less than a minute. It was raining at a good clip and Miss Pigott was thoroughly enjoying it as she spread her wings and started running back and forth on the roofs edge.

It reminded me of watching Orion playing in the rain last summer. Pigott flew around the building and landed on the southwest corner spreading her wings once again and disappeared on the roof then reappearing only to fly off again. I couldn’t find her so I drove out to the back service road and was able to see her on the east side roof running back and forth to the front edge with wings spread. She went back to the west side and back to the east before finally settling on a south facing top window ledge of the east extension.

Even on the window she was on the move walking to the corner and settling.

Miss Pigott was quite wet and sporting a new spiked hairdo. I think I had as much watching her rain dancing as she enjoyed doing it! I left her at 9:30am as she started preening. It would take a while with as wet as her feathers were. I took a ride around downtown finding Beauty still on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR but I didn’t find Dot.Ca (DC) at all on my watch. Pigott certainly made me smile this morning with her antics! 🙂

Click on the links below for some videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/6dnl0MkErP8
http://youtu.be/aAauawkYsd4
http://youtu.be/13aAuKQyMRk
http://youtu.be/UN_6WiXV-7g
http://youtu.be/K0LwyNYKnqA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Here are some pics from the past 3 days.  I saw all three adult Rochester Falcons, but no juvies.  I keep hoping for one last visit before they take off, but it’s looking more and more like they’ve gone on their way, started their life journey.  Farewell Baron, Rosetta & Voyager.  Fly Strong and Fly Free!

Be sure to click on any pics you would like to see larger.

Friday – August 23, 2013

Osprey in the Falcon Sucking Tree

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Great Blue Heron in a tree on north side of pedestrian bridge.

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The Osprey dove from the falcon sucking tree into the river.  It seemed like the Osprey was under water for so long.  Finally she came up out of the water with a good size fish.  Water sprayed off of the Osprey as she launched herself into the air.  She flew to the bottom of the gorge below the observation deck.  There she moved around quite a bit before setting on a spot to enjoy her dinner.  A Ring-billed Gull (juvie) decided to try to share, but the Osprey wasn’t in the mood.  In some of this series of pics, you can see the young gull on the ground in front of the Osprey.  Brave gull!

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Kathy O, Dan and I ended our Watch and I drove around the downtown area one more time.  It was getting dark, but I was able to see Beauty on the south side of the Xerox Tower on the 5th column in from the SE corner. Dan reported seeing her there Thursday evening also.

Saturday, August 25, 2013

I spent a few hours downtown Saturday afternoon.  I did find both Beauty and Dot.ca.

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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Today I did a late morning/early afternoon Watch.  It was much warmer today and by noon, it was downright hot.  I was happy to see Pigott out at the BS location.  She was preening and snoozing while I was there.

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The leaves are already turning on some of the trees and they are starting to fall.

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I left Pigott to go downtown to see if Beauty and Dot.ca were there.  I found Dot.ca on the top IBeam of the OCSR on the north side.  In the shade, smart.

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The moon was high in the sky next to the Times Square Bldg.

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I wasn’t able to find Beauty, so I headed over to the pedestrian bridge at High Falls.  From there I was able to see that Beauty was again in the middle of the framework of the Frontier Communication Tower below the platform.  Both Falcons were out of the sun.  I spent the rest of my watch on the pedestrian bridge where I could see both Beauty and Dot.ca.

There was a lot of activity on the river below.   I watched Kingfisher dive into the water and come up with a very small fish.  It landed low on the island tree and started hitting the fish on the branch over and over again before eating it.

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I’ll leave you with a few more pictures I took during my Watch today from the pedestrian bridge.  Goodnight everyone!

BE SURE TO CLICK ON A PIC TO MAKE IT LARGER!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Clear and cool with a gorgeous sunrise sky the starting temperature was 56 (F)  13 (C) as I headed to downtown.

Please remember to click on my pics to see the full version

Todays watch features our handsome boy Dot.Ca (DC) since I saw him the most. I spotted Beauty on the southeast corner of HSBC as I was stopped at the traffic light at Clinton and Court St. When I got over to Chestnut St. to watch she was gone. A minute later DC joined the Beautyful one in flight above Xerox. They did some circling in and out of view and then one of them landed on the south side of the roof and the other appeared to land on the north side.

I was hearing echupping and then it went quiet. Then I heard DC doing his distinct chirping sound as he started flying around Bausch&Lomb, Xerox and Midtown. More echupping as he passed over the roof of Xerox many times so I believe Beauty must have been up there. After DC was done sky dancing he flew to Midtown and landed on the 3rd open roof down southeast corner.

DC stayed there about 15 minutes and flew off between B&L and Xerox going into a stoop toward the river. Right after he left all the east side pigeons scattered breaking off into 3 groups before settling on their various roosting spots. I next found DC  on the top ibeam south corner of OCSR from the Broad St. Bridge (BSB).

He turned around and walked east a couple of feet showing me his back so I left the hole and drove over by the Radisson Hotel and Main St. for a front view.

DC did some preening and watching over his territory in the 10 minutes he was up there. A Great Blue Heron flew thru below him and DC just couldn’t resist going after it. He broke it off quickly and flew up to the north corner top ibeam but didn’t quite have enough lift  to land so he pulled back and flew west out of view.

I didn’t find DC or Beauty on a trip around downtown so I went to Brighton where I found pretty Miss Pigott on a west side window ledge right next to the cubby just before the 8 o’clock hour.

Pigott remained with her back to the world so I left her to it after 45 minutes and returned to downtown. I found only DC on OCSR top ibeam near the north corner. The pooparazzi caught DC  in the act! lol

I ended my watch after that at 9:15am smiling as I pulled away from the curb as I love a good poop shot! 🙂

Click on the links below to view some videos

http://youtu.be/r13dITJpcRw
http://youtu.be/oHoK2p88SgA
http://youtu.be/KytuYER2mOg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

53 (F) 12 (C) cool degrees to start my watch with partly cloudy skies-I had to throw on a sweatshirt!

I was accompanied by my co-pilot Isabella once more as we had no luck finding any falcons downtown this morning. After searching for an hour we went over to the Brighton site (BS) and as luck would have it the divine Miss Pigott was home! She is the star of todays watch as I spent a little over 2 hours with her. When I first arrived she had her back to me on the second set of windows down on the west side kiddie corner to the cubby. Soon after she started stretching.

About 7:15am cam watcher and good friend Donna from New Jersey let me know there was a falcon on the Frontier Communications Tower railing. I thanked her and said I was going to hang out with Pigott since I hadn’t seen her in a few days. Pigott was very alert the whole time as she kept an eye on her surroundings,preened,rousted(shook her feathers),stretched,pooped 3 times and tried to extract a pellet twice.

Click on my pics for full version

The pellet extraction attempts are both on short videos-I think she did get something out on the first one. She did more stretching than usual but then it was a chilly morning-I stretch a lot more when it’s damp and chilly myself!

Poop #2 came along next and then she started watching a squirrel that was scampering back and forth gathering pine nuts from a tree below and stashing them. A young light colored groundhog came out to eat his way thru the tidbits and grass in close proximity to Mr. Squirrel.

Pigott rousted a few times and each time small feathers went flying from her body into the air around her-she,Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) are all molting right now so there’s a lot of this going on in our fair falcon occupied city. One little white feather in particular caught her eye as she watched it float past her. She turned to her right for a little stroll and showed me her pretty profile.

She then preened a little more, pooped for the 3rd time and flew off to the north toward the front of the building hanging a right when she got there and headed east out of view.

I thought she might have landed on a front corner of the roof but after a trip around the building I found that she was gone. I had to drop Isabella off to her owner, another good friend of mine and fellow watcher Jeanne, who lives right around the corner from  BS.

When I left there I headed straight for downtown-I had 2 more falcons by the name of Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) to find and not a lot of time to do it as I had to be going real soon. As I approached from Exchange Blvd. I stopped by Cornhill to have a look and could see a PEFA on the top ibeam west corner of OCSR. I drove to the hole for closer viewing but when I got there I didn’t see it. Off to look on the north side to see if it just went around the corner and sure enough there she was-the Beautyful one a couple feet off the corner and a bonus was that DC was at the north corner. I love it when our beloved falcons cooperate!

<Beauty   DC> <Click them all>

It made me smile to finally see Pigott again and spend a substantial amount of time with her as I haven’t since the juvies fledged! 🙂

Below are the links for videos of Pigott-just click on them and view

http://youtu.be/IXOT_-agr40
http://youtu.be/ruyL_RBCK9Q
http://youtu.be/YAtErulNKAY
http://youtu.be/6Af1LC9oHGk

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Clear blue skies less humidity and  a starting temp of 66 (F) 19 (C) this morning as I stepped out for my watch.

I had picked up Isabella at 5:30am and we went around the corner to the Brighton site in the dark to see if Pigott was in her night time roosting spot. No such luck so I believe she is either on a road trip or she is sleeping elsewhere. At 6am I found Beauty on the northwest corner of HSBC. She stayed about 15 minutes then flew west.

As I arrived on the Broad St. bridge (BSB) I spotted her on the west corner top ibeam of OCSR. Since she had her back to me I drove over to State St. across from the Rochester International Hotel to view her.

I got a tweet from Larry who was on the pedestrian bridge that he had a falcon on the Kodak Office launchpad so I left Beauty to go find that it was Dot.Ca (DC).

DC was on the northeast corner and he flew south at 7:14am. I lost sight of him quickly as I was parked on Mill St. behind buildings that blocked my view. From there I went to the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) where I found the Beautyful one on the 2nd arm east side. I observed her from Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage.

Beauty preened and plucked white feathers from her chest as she is molting, which will make way for her dark bronze color that we all know and love. She is already much darker than when the kids were still here. DebbieH stopped by around 7:45am on her way to work. After she left, Beauty turned around on the arm turning her back on me for a minute and then she moved in close to the pole.

Beauty started napping so I took this opportunity to go back to Brighton to see if Pigott was around. She was nowhere to be found so I returned to FCT. I found her under the platform sleeping.

I had checked around downtown and didn’t find any other falcons on my way home thus ending  my watch at 9:45am. I was happy to start and finish my watch with Beauty including a little of DC in the middle to send me down the road with a smile on my face! 🙂

Click on the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiia

http://youtu.be/tY3LqVqXfr4

http://youtu.be/gcLA4evzm7s

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Thought I’d get an early start today.  When I left work, it had just stopped raining, which brought the temperatures down a bit, but the humidity rose.  There were still dark clouds all around, so I wanted to make sure I got some Watch time in before it rained again.  It never did.

I arrived downtown a little before 4 pm.  About 20 minutes after I arrived, I finally found an adult falcon on the south side of OCSR near the south corner.  Definitely and adult, but the falcon was facing the building, so I couldn’t ID it.

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I decided to continue my search, to see if there were any other falcons hanging out downtown.  After parking my car at the east end of the pedestrian bridge, I walked out onto the bridge to see if any falcons might be in the gorge.  No falcons, but there was lots and lots of  High Falls wild life out and about, including several Cormorants, ducks, Great Blue Herons, one deer, 2 Kingfishers chasing each other and all kinds of critters.

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An Osprey vocalized, flying near the east gorge wall.  It flew towards the Falcon Sucking Tree, but veered off and continued south.  She gained altitude and headed downtown, following the river.  There were many gulls flying over the river, south of the Broad St Bridge (BSB) and she joined them, until I could no longer see her.

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At 5:40, about 15 mins later, the Osprey returned from the south and she wasn’t alone.  Hot on her tail was a female Peregrine Falcon we call Beauty.  I could see her missing tail feathers.  Beauty chased the Osprey under the pedestrian bridge and continued to chase her further north down the river.  The Osprey continue north and Beauty turned back and flew over the BeeBee Station, heading south.  She eventually landed on the SE corner of the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) below the platform.

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By the time I got over to FCT to see if I could find Beauty, she was gone.  Kathy O had arrived just before me and did not see her leave.  That’s when we got a tweet from Rfalconcam watcher Donna that Beauty was at the nest box and then another one from Ei, saying that Beauty was now on Cam 4 at the nest box.  Thanks for the heads up gals!

Kathy O and I had arrived on Broad St at about 6:10 pm, in time to see her leave the nest box and go up to Cam 4.  By 6:22 pm, she took off flying northeast.

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Now we had no falcons in view again.  I had tweeted out that Kathy and I were signing off at about 6:40 pm, but of course we decided to check downtown one more time.  lol  When we checked the FCT, we spotted a Falcon on the Kodak Tower launch pad, SE corner.  That’s where we headed.  It was definitely an adult.  Probably Beauty, but I can’t say for sure.  She stooped on a pigeon flying near the KTower on the south side and hit it.  The pigeon flew/fell to one of the lower buildings and the Falcon again landed on the SE corner of the launchpad.  At 7:30 pm, it was time to go.

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I didn’t see any juvies, but watching Beauty chase the Osprey out of her territory was awesome to see.  Really wish I could have gotten some video of that.  It happened too quickly and absolutely no vocalizing by either Beauty or the Osprey to alert me that they were coming.  lol

I’ll leave you with two more pics I took on my Watch this evening.  There were two ducks that had synchronized bottoms up maneuvers down perfectly. hahaha!  Plus X marks the spot above the Times Square Bldg.  Goodnight everyone!