By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

On a windy morning with temps in the mid 30’s I arrived downtown at 6:55am.  It was too early for the Aqueduct pigeons  but not for Beauty as I spotted her flying past Bausch&Lomb about 15 minutes later. She went behind it where I couldn’t see her any longer so I went in search of her.

After a check around the usual spots I headed down State St. to check  the Kodak Office Tower. Nothing there so I continued on as it turned into Lake Ave. thinking I’d see if the mystery falcon was near that apartment building where Carol saw it yesterday and where Kathy and I also saw it a few weeks ago. I pulled over at the Volunteers of America parking lot in order to see the south and east side and sure enough there was a falcon on a top window ledge east side first row. I drove down closer but as I was pulling up to park it flew off to the north/northwest quickly leaving my field of vision. I drove around the back but there was no sign of it. The apartment is called Lake Tower (LT) and it’s across the street from the Brown Square Health Center on Lake Ave. probably about half  a mile from Kodak Office (KO). I decided to go to the Kodak Park power plant since I was headed in that direction already. Carol saw a pefa there last night as well so I thought I’d check it out. There was nobody there not even a pigeon!

I returned to downtown and found Beauty on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR so I drove down to Graves St. for closer viewing-it was about 8:10am.

The Beautyful one was a little sleepy when I first joined her but she woke up to do a little preening and have a watchful eye on her territory. I must say I’m a bit uneasy about the mystery falcon being so close to downtown and I believe that this is probably the reason Beauty has been looking north constantly the last few weeks. Hopefully they’ll keep their distance! Beauty seemed to be watching something in Aqueduct Park which was directly to my right but then she lost interest and turned around showing me her back and some leg.

I stayed with her for 45 minutes and when it seemed she was settled in I left for a check of the Brighton Site(BS).  Arriving there about 9:00am I could find no falcons on the building or in the surrounding trees. No deer,geese,crows,hawks or turkeys either. It is a very nature filled location!  I stayed about an hour and left having been skunked by Pigott and BST. Upon returning downtown I found Beauty in the same spot as where I left her on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR. She was in full sun and showing her full front at first.

I was parked in the hole(Aqueduct St.) near the stairs that lead up to Falcon Watcher Central on the Broad St. Bridge as Beauty got kinda fidgety. Beauty had a full crop- knowing she has eaten always makes me happy(I take after my mom that way-she always made sure everyone was fed).  I thought Beauty was going to take off a couple times and then she turned her back to me and settled down. I fully intended to end my watch at that point as I packed up my gear and then  looked one more time to see that she was gone! I would have stayed longer but was supposed to drop my car off for repairs but they were too busy to get to it today so Monday will be the day. I left for home and as I was pulling into my driveway I got a message from Donna(TY) that Beauty was at the nest box looking up. Well we thought possibly Dot.Ca was back from migration or perhaps mystery falcon had come a calling so back downtown I went.  After checking I didn’t find Beauty nor did I find mystery falcon when I checked the Lake Tower apartment one more time. I also checked BS  and came up short there again too.  I’m sure they’re all doing their own thing  but I do hope they are seen later today. And so officially my watch ended at 11:45am having seen 1 falcon that I know very well(Beauty) and 1 that I barely know(mystery falcon). I do have a feeling I may be getting to know  this new one better in the near future. Smile everyone it’s good for the soul! 🙂

I have links for 3 videos below-just click on them and view

http://youtu.be/5e5B4N0_0lk
http://youtu.be/LTOLFeWmJQM
http://youtu.be/sYu0BSBzjmo

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  I am happy to report that I found all three current Rochester Falcons during my Watch plus 1, maybe 2.  Things are sure getting interesting, but so far all is quiet.  Let’s start from the beginning.

After work, as I approached my car, I was greeted by the call of a Kestrel near the parking lot.  It didn’t take me long to find the handsome male Kestrel.

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This KP Kestrel was definitely on the hunt.  I checked the area for the Peregrine I had seen yesterday and could not find it.  Next stop, downtown Rochester to look for Beauty.  I looked everywhere.  Finally I found her on one of her past favorite spots.  She was up on top of the Xerox Tower on the 5th column in from the SE corner on the south side.  You got all that?  lol

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Beauty took off and flew around the Xerox Tower.  She circled it a few times before stooping over the HSBC bldg.  I only had to wait a moment before she came back into view, nothing clutched in her talons.  She flew over me heading back in the general direction of the Times Square Bldg (TSB).  It was getting close to rush hour, lots of folks heading home after a long day at work.  It took me awhile to get back to the Broad St Bridge.  Beauty was not on the TSB or anywhere else within view.  I drove around looking for her but had no luck finding her.  It was time to head over to the BS location to find Pigott and BST.

Pigott was on the NW corner of the building and BST was on a windowsill on the south side of the west extension.

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All was quiet at the BS location and it had started to rain.  It was time to go back downtown to see if I could find Beauty.  I circled the downtown area a couple times and still could not find her.  She definitely had her hiding spots.

I didn’t have much time until the sun would be setting and it was raining harder.  It was time to head home via KP.  My route took be down Lake Ave, past the apartments that Kathy O had found a Peregrine on a couple weeks ago.  While I was stopped at a light, I checked out the building in question.  No obvious bumps.  No falcons seen, but lots of Crows passing through.  As I was passing the building, I looked up and saw a Peregrine zip in from the right side of the building and up to one of the balconies.  I turned down the next street and circled back around.  It was starting to get dark, but I could definitely see the head and shoulders of a Pefa up on the balcony.  My pics didn’t turn out good, but here’s a picture showing the Peregrine.

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I left this Peregrine and headed to KP for one last look before heading home.  By this time it was too dark to see anything, although I thought there may have been a falcon on the railing in front of the red door on the east stack.  It had been a very productive couple hours of Falcon Watching and I was very happy to find all three current Rochester Falcons, plus the mystery falcon.  Remember to keep your eyes to the sky!  There’s  a lot to see this time of year!

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON ANY PICS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN A LARGER FORMAT.  THANKS!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

When I left work today, I did my normal check of the KP area, especially the catwalks on the stacks, a favorite perch for the Peregrines that have spent time there.  Was that lump what I thought it was?  It had to be!  I took a picture before heading over to verify that there was a Peregrine Falcon on the west stack catwalk.

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Why yes!  It was a Peregrine Falcon!  Adult for sure.  Bright white chest, dark helmet and very poofed out due to the cold.  The Falcon was on the south side of the west stack catwalk.  I took some pics and watched the falcon through my scope for awhile, hoping to see if this bird was banded or not.  I could not verify that there were or were not any bands.

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After lots of preening and looking around, the falcon took off, flying directly over me, heading NW.  The Pefa (Peregrine Falcon) flew in large, lazy circles, gaining altitude, definitely in hunt mode.  It flew slowly out of my view.  I moved to another spot to watch from, waiting to see if the falcon would return.  It did not.

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While waiting to see if the falcon would return, I watched two Red-tail Hawks soaring gracefully east of the stacks.  Right after that, a Kestrel came buzzing through heading towards the west end of the complex.  Things will start to get interesting around here from this point forward.

The sun was setting, so I decided to head home.  Tomorrow was another day.  The Watchers will definitely be keeping an eye on things as all this unfolds!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a pretty mild morning weather wise in our fair city with temps near 30 degrees fahrenheit (-1 celcius) and calm winds. My only complaint is the overcast skies-it’s hard to get sunshine in the morning around here in the winter.

Arriving on the Broad St. Bridge at 6:55am Beauty was nowhere to be seen so I took a run around to have a look. Upon returning to the bridge I watched the Aqueduct pigeons flying above the river in a frenzy and thought for sure I would see Beauty in their airspace. They settled down on the roof of the Blue Cross Arena  so I took a ride over to the Court St. Bridge  and as I came up on the intersection with Exchange St. I noticed Beauty flying toward the jail tower. She landed on the 2nd arm west side. I snapped off a pic and headed out to Troup St. for a closer view, unfortunately while I was on my way over there Beauty left.

I stayed on the west side as I looked for her and it worked out great for  8 minutes later at 7:30am I found her on the platform railing northeast corner of the Frontier Communications Tower.

Parked on Fitzhugh St. next to the Sister Cities parking garage I could see that she was in hunt mode scoping out something below her. This went on for 10-15 minutes and then she was off fast to the west going into a stoop over Plymouth Ave. where I lost sight of her.

Beauty caught whatever she went after for  I found her 8 minutes later plucking feathers in earnest on the southeast corner of Widows Walk.

I watched the Beautyful one for 15-20 minutes and knowing she was going to be busy for a while with her task at hand, I took this opportunity to go check the Brighton site. When I first got there I stopped to check out some Canadian Geese and got a bonus of seeing the wild Turkeys that live in the woods nearby right behind them.

Click the pics for full version

After being entertained by the turkeys running around-boy they’re fast I got down to the business of looking for falcons and I found one.  Pigott was on a window ledge below the roof top tree ledge in the corner by the east extension 3 levels down. Phew!

40 minutes later after I watched her preen and keep track of her territory she flew off to the west via the south (back) side of the building and land on the southwest corner of the building.

Pigott didn’t stay on that corner for long when she flew out to the west and turned back to land on a west side window ledge near the nook.

It was apparent that she was in hunt mode with an empty crop she kept looking down at a pine tree that was below her and across the road from me. I could hear a woodpecker drumming on the tree and I also heard a nuthatch calling a few times drawing attention to themselves. At 9:30am as I was looking away Miss Pigott took off on me so I have no idea what direction she went. She didn’t return in the few minutes I remained there so I left to check on Beauty one more time before ending my watch. As the Crossroads building came into view while driving down Exchange Blvd. I could plainly see Beauty up on the northwest corner of the railing.

I pulled over by the Philipone building across from the Times Square building to have a look/see. Beauty had a full crop and she took off within a couple minutes heading west pretty nonchalantly.

Click it

I had a very active watch this morning and enjoyed every minute of it as I always do. The fact that Beauty is visiting more spots than she had been in the morning shows a new routine as her hormonal calendar may be starting to kick into gear. Hopefully the transition into a new mating and nesting season will be a calm one unlike last year which couldn’t have been much worse as far as I’m concerned.  I won’t be going on an early morning watch tomorrow as my car has to stay overnight in the repair shop for some work but hopefully it’ll be done in time for a watch later on. Until then I’ll keep smiling and you do the same! 🙂

Click on the links below for a photo album and 7 videos from todays watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrVsA

http://youtu.be/geWKsfPRco0
http://youtu.be/msvi_RLiZeY
http://youtu.be/udq4T-qFwtk
http://youtu.be/02BxWYWpiG0
http://youtu.be/JiAxUkU8DlU
http://youtu.be/J_XjfVSNgXQ
http://youtu.be/-vPcWD4grJk

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Beauty! Kak!

Pigott! Ee-Chup!

BST! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m here already!

All three current Rochester Falcons accounted on my late afternoon Watch.

When I arrived downtown at about 4:00 pm, I found Beauty on the OCSR, top IBeam, SE side.

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It was lightly snowing, but thankfully the high winds of the previous day had subsided.  She seemed to be settled in, so I headed over to the BS location to find Pigott and BST.  I did find them both on the building.

Pigott was on a window one level below the tree ledge on the SE side.  BST was on the north side of the east extension three windows down.  He was already settled in their nighttime roost.

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I spent a little while with them before heading back downtown to spend some more time with Beauty.  I returned downtown to find out that Beauty had moved to Mercury’s moneybag hand.

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She was actively looking all around her, watching the small Starlings flying back and forth below her.  There was a line-up of Pigeons on the river side of the Blue Cross Arena (aka War Memorial).  They were very wise to stay where they were while Beauty was above them.  Beauty took off and flew towards the OCSR.  She veered right and headed over the river flying past the Radisson, heading east.  I lost her behind the Lincoln Tower, but saw her again when she passed behind it, heading south.  Past the Midtown Plaza and the Xerox Bldg.  Beauty flew out from behind Xerox and back again.  In view, out of view, over and over again, gaining altitude.  I thought she might land on top of Xerox, but she never got that high.  She headed south, where I lost sight of her.  I kept looking for a 2nd falcon, but never saw one.

There was no hurry in her flight.  Beauty seemed to be policing her territory, making sure it was secure.  The next time I saw her, she was back near the Lincoln Tower, heading towards the back of the B&L bldg, where she landed on the back of the building.  I drove around, to the north side of the building to verify she had landed there.  Beauty was up on the NE corner of B&L.

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That’s where I left her at the end of my watch.  It was time for me to head home, happy that I had found all three current Rochester Falcons.  Oh, and by the way, the Pigeons that had been patiently waiting for Beauty to leave made their way, one-by-one to their nighttime roost.  Many of them go to a spot on the river wall, just below the Convention Ctr.  There is a section of walkway that juts out over the river and they can fly up under it.  A very well protected spot for sure.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

We’ve had a very windy 24 hours here in Rachacha with gusts to 50mph (81km). Thankfully the temperature got up to 49 degrees yesterday and melted all the snow off trees and utility wires before the winds started whipping.

Arriving downtown a couple minutes before 7:00am I spotted Beauty on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR immediately. I love it when I don’t have to search for her right off the bat!

I left the Broad St. Bridge for Graves St. to be closer to my favorite female Peregrine Falcon. It was still a bit dark out because of the overcast skies. Beauty stayed only 20 minutes before she flew off heading south.

I spent a half hour looking for the Beautyful one to no avail so over to the Brighton Site I went.  BST was the only one home  which is the norm for me in the morning and another norm is that he was asleep. lol He was on the 2nd south facing window down in the corner of the east extension.

BST faded in and out for the first 10 minutes but then he woke up in earnest when he spotted a large raptor in the eastern sky. He left in a blur and met up with it in record time stooping on it 2 times in the tree tops. This was more than enough for the much larger hawk or eagle to handle as it beat feet out of the area. BST then returned and came to rest on the southeast corner of the east extension.

BST spent 40 minutes up on that corner keeping a watchful eye over the territory, preening and pooping but mostly he hung on as the wind gusts almost knocked him off a few times

<BST catching himself after a wind gust

At just around 9:00am BST flew off the corner back to the same window on the east extension as I found him when I arrived.

I left him to check on Beauty before ending my watch at about 9:30am. Beauty made it real easy on me by being on the same top ibeam southeast side spot that I found her on first thing this morning making it equally as easy to smile as I left downtown. 🙂

Click the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrVkg

http://youtu.be/0DpOLUYKXWc

http://youtu.be/j0WYfR_p50Y

http://youtu.be/W15st2fLUPM

http://youtu.be/brkEnrUnqXg

http://youtu.be/N8QPr9XGfMw

http://youtu.be/MTDERmpqWlA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I didn’t have much time to get out today, but I really wanted to find Beauty, Pigott and BST.  With that goal in mind, I headed downtown to find Beauty.  From the Broad St Bridge, I found her on the OCSR, top IBeam, SE side.  The winds were whipping and she had her back to me.  All was quiet, so off I went to the BS location.

The days are getting longer thankfully, but I was losing light when I got there.  One loop around the building and I found Pigott and BST at their nighttime roost on the north side of the east extension, one above the other.  All was peaceful at BS.

I was very happy to find all three current Rochester Falcons.

I’ll leave you with a couple pics from my watch showing all three.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a balmy 34 degrees fahrenheit(1 celcius) when I left for my watch this morning and when I ended it 4 hours later it was 44(7 celcius).  It was quite overcast to start but the sun came thru half way into my watch.

Starting out on the Broad St. Bridge as I always do I arrived at 7:00am. After 15 minutes  half a dozen Aqueduct pigeons surfaced and flew to the Blue Cross Arena roof to perch. This told me that Beauty was not in the area so I went in search of her. I checked the river before I left as the water level is very low and found some interesting ice on the logs.

I found the Beautyful one as I was driving down State St. southbound after checking Kodak Office at 7:25am.  She was on the northwest side of the OCSR building top ibeam with her back facing out.

I parked on State St. across from the Rochester Plaza Hotel where Jemison (Beauty&Archers son from 2010) was found on the ground in the front lawn of the hotel. I met him up close and personal after he was injured from flying into what we think was the Crossroads building after Parking Enforcement officer Jim came to get me to check out the situation. <3 So anyway I stayed with Beauty for over an hour as she preened a bit,slept on and off and looked over her shoulders to the north a lot.

Seems like she’s always looking north which makes me wonder if there’s another falcon that she is keeping an eye on. Could be that’s the direction Archer <3 (we don’t know what became of him after he injured himself) returned from after his winter migrations or perhaps she thinks Unity <3 (fly free big girl) is going to come from Kodak Park where Unity and Archer had a scrape together to attack her again. There’s just so much we don’t know and never will unfortunately.

I missed Beauty take off from OCSR as a bus passed in front of me at that split second but I did see her flying downriver really fast to the north. When the coast was clear I made a u-turn to see if she went to the Kodak Office tower but no such luck. I did a thorough search of the city but couldn’t find Beauty so I journeyed on to the Brighton Site. I was disappointed to find nobody home there at around 9:00am when the sun started to break through the nasty clouds. I hung around there until just before 10:30am without a visit from either Pigott or BST.

I returned to downtown to seek out Beauty before ending my watch around 11:00am but she was off somewhere most likely enjoying the sunshine and warm temps. Keep smiling everyone it makes people wonder what you’re up to! 🙂

The link for 1 video is below for you to click on and view

http://youtu.be/hIIDEHPSDgU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I didn’t get out until about 10 am.  The sun was so bright and the sky was a stunning blue.  With over a foot of snow on the ground and clinging to all the trees.  it was going to be a gorgeous day.  Time to go find some Peregrine Falcons.  I first went over to KP to see if I could find a falcon there.  No luck finding a falcon, but I did find two Red-tail Hawks sitting in a tree next to each other and a very beautiful Northern Mockingbird.  He’s visited with me and other watchers before.  Seems to like the company.  🙂

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My next stop was downtown Rochester.  MAK reported that she left Beauty on the Kodak Tower on the NE corner of the launchpad, so that’s where I headed first.  Beauty was no longer on the corner, she had moved over just a bit to the north side of the launchpad, close to the NE corner.  I only knew she was there, because her tail was sticking out just a bit.  I drove over to the north side which gave me a better view of Beauty.

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Beauty was actively looking around but didn’t seem concerned about anything.  So I decided to head out to the BS location to see if I could find Pigott & BST.  After circling the building, I found BST on a windowsill on the SE side of the building below the tree ledge.  He was sitting in the sun, but a shadow was moving towards him.  As soon as he lost the sun, he immediately flew a short distance to a window on the south side of the east extension.

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I parked in the parking lot on the east end of the building where I could keep an eye on BST.  I could not find Pigott anywhere on the building.

There were piles of snow surrounding the parking lot and something made me look to my left.  Have you ever just felt like you were being watched?

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I was being watched by a beautiful deer with a snow smudge on her nose.  lol  She must have thought I was ok, because her and a friend came  out from behind the pile of snow and walked up towards the building to chew on a bush.

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So now I was watching 2 deer and a falcon.  Life was good.  🙂  I settled in to watch a preening BST.  I love watching them preen.  When all of a sudden BST came to attention, looking my way.  His head started bobbing and I thought maybe Pigott was coming in.  BST took off heading my way.  He tucked in his wings and stooped over me towards the woods at the south end of the parking lot.  I looked over just in time to see him land in a tree right next to the parking lot.  I could hear small birds alarm calling from within the bushes below him.  Obviously BST was on the hunt and the little birds had dove for cover.  He only stayed a moment, but I was able to get a few pictures before he took off heading south.

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I had to tweak the pictures a bit since the sun was so bright.  BST is such a handsome tiercel!

After awhile, he hadn’t returned, so I circled the building hoping to find him.  Kathy O joined me and we waited together.  Kathy had come from downtown and had been watching Beauty on Mercury’s moneybag.

We waited quite awhile, but BST did not return.  So we decided to check on Beauty.

From the Broad St Bridge, we could see that Beauty was still on Mercury’s moneybag.

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Just after Kathy said her goodbyes and headed home, Beauty took off and flew fast towards the west.  I saw a Red-tail Hawk for just a second before Beauty flew out of sight.  The buildings blocked my view, so I could not see if Beauty went after the hawk or not.  I waited and she did not return.  As usual on the weekends, something was going on at the Blue Cross Arena aka War Memorial.  The Broad St Bridge was filling up, so I decided to go over to the Andrews St Bridge to see if I could see Beauty from there.

She wasn’t on the Frontier Communication Tower, the Kodak Tower or the north side of the OCSR.  I finally did find her on the SW corner of the Hyatt.

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It was time for me to head home.  It was an enjoyable day to watch falcons and all the other critters of Rochester.  Tomorrow it will rain and all this snow will start to melt, probably causing flooding.  Anyone up to building an ark?  lol

Although I did not see Pigott today, MAK did report seeing her this morning and Dana saw her with BST at the BS location late this afternoon.  So all three current Rochester falcons were seen today.

I’ll leave you with a couple pictures from my travels today.  Have a nice week everyone!

BE SURE TO CLICK ON ANY PICS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN A LARGER FORMAT.

By Rochester Falcon watcher MAK

It  was a very clear starlit night which made for some cold temperatures this morning. When I left the house it was 10 degrees fahrenheit(-12 celcius) and no wind to speak of. I was looking forward to some bright sunshine and blue skies for a change. I wasn’t disappointed!

When I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge this morning at 6:55am there was no sign of Beauty so I sat there for a bit to see if she’d show up. I couldn’t help but notice snow that was stuck on the backside of Mercury and the wings of the Times Square building.

Click the pics for full version

So I took a cruise around downtown and as I made my way back from the east side westbound on Broad St. at Chestnut St. I spotted Beauty on the Bausch&Lomb building. She was on the upper northwest corner and she was eating!

I stayed with Beauty as she spent the next 45 minutes working on her meal. Towards the end she pooped to make room to finish it up and then she flew north.

She’s been hanging out at the Kodak Office tower lately so I drove directly over there finding her on the northeast corner of the launchpad.

I first parked down on Mill St. in the Browns Race/High Falls district and when Beauty turned her back to me I went down to Brown St. We shared about half an hour together when I decided that she was going to be there for a while digesting her meal so I left  to check the Brighton Site. I landed there at around 8:50am finding Pigott on the east extension in the middle section of the top windows that face south-she was preening.

With his back facing out from the window ledge that he was perched on it took me a couple minutes to even notice BST with the bright sun washing out his presence to me. He was on the 2nd level of windows down, below where the roof top tree grows and at first he was sleeping. No big surprise there! lol

BST woke up a couple times to yell at a crow and to fly off and up to the top window ledge above where he just flew from.

Click em to view full version

Barbara came by for a couple minutes and left smiling after seeing both pefas. I left around 9:30am when it seemed apparent that Miss Pigott and BST were quite comfy in their spots. Returning downtown I went straight to the Kodak tower to see if the Beautyful one was still there-she was and in the same exact spot! I had 4 reasons to smile as I ended my watch -Beauty,Pigott,BST and sunshine! 🙂

I have included links below for a photo album and 6 videos-just click and view

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrVfA

http://youtu.be/Y5Udopasrcg
http://youtu.be/2VpeRu28MUQ
http://youtu.be/yYNbn19Flwk
http://youtu.be/FNq8fuo18lQ
http://youtu.be/3UnrvRr1L60
http://youtu.be/7NaEP1AsC9Q