Kodak Falcon Watch, 11:40-12:45

I thought I'd begin my first watch of the 2005 season from the same vantage as my first watch of 2004-- the roof of Kodak's building 9, which is just south of the tower, and affords a good view of the nest box. Despite the assurances of the local meteorologic prognosticators that it was a balmy 35 degrees, I found a blustery, cold day, though it was quite bright. Kaver was right where I'd seen him in the Birdcam's main cam view, perched on the left side of the nest box:

Mariah sat above him, on the east side of the "Launch Pad", between the two rockets:

I took a series of pictures, but the falcons didn't seem inclined toward action, preferring to soak up the sun, so I left the windblown roof and headed out to the equally breezy Pont de Renne pedestrian bridge. I met Dan Stiehler walking across from the other end of the bridge, and we watched together for perhaps 15 minutes. We were joined by Carol P, Granny, Lisa McKeown (Falcon Flyer), & Diana R who came late to the party, but were nevertheless in time to see what action there was for the day.

Soon after their arrival, Mariah relinquished her perch, winged her way northwest for a short distance, then executed a deft turn into a beautiful stoop. Perfectly vertical was she, and we followed in our excitement, every binocular-augmented eye straining to follow her headlong path downward until-- she disappeared behind the interposed RGE Beebee station.

Herdlike (though I assure you the heritage of rugged individualism runs strong in our veins), we watchers trekked up to the Kodak Visitor Parking Lot to see if we could spy Mariah. Alas, despite many minutes of searching, she seemed to have left the area. Dan left, and Kathy O joined us. Still, Kaver was unperturbed, and undisturbed as well, keeping to his perch, until some minutes later when Mariah returned to her eastern roost.
Then it was Kaver's turn to take to the sky, only it wasn't food that was on his avian mind:

He went into what watcher Larry O'Heron has aptly termed his "State Street dance", making a few passes in the air before returning to Mariah for a "nuptial visit". We were ready, of course, and the shutters clicked in furious chorus. Here's a sequence of six shots that captures the entire two-second episode:



Then Kaver took his victory lap...

...and landed on the southeast corner of the launchpad:

Carol, Granny and I had to return to work. It's very inconvenient when meetings are scheduled at 1:00PM-- don't these people know we've got falcons to watch??? Anyway, we headed back inside, leaving Mariah and Kaver to enjoy what warmth there was in the afternoon sun:

One couldn't hope for a better watch, only better weather in which to do it. Now that the season has begun in earnest, though, you can expect many more such reports, weather be damned ;-)