Raptor Romance a Welcome Sight

OK ...so it's not really romance-- Falcons of course, are much too busy to bother with affairs of the heart. Author's license aside though, every spring for the past few years one of my "must have" photo sequences has been to capture Mariah and Kaver in the act of mating. Not out of any prurient interest, but rather because because it's an affirmation of the promise of spring, a welcome harbinger of the season to come. Call me crazy, but I also find the dynamics of the act fascinating.

So yesterday I found myself outside at lunch time for what promised to be the best weather of the week. The forecast in Rochester is for snow, rain and clouds for the next few days, but today featured crisp a crisp azure sky and an abundance of bright sunlight.

Kaver sat near the nest box, resplendent in the sun. Mariah was nowhere to be found. During the first half of the hour that's how things stayed, and I began to think the only activity I was going to witness for the hour was the incremental progress on the construction of the new townhouses across from the Kodak tower.

My waiting was to be rewarded though as Mariah flew in from a her hidden perch somewhere on the east or north side of the cupola at the top of the tower:
     

When she landed tail up on the southwest corner of the playpen, I figured things were about to get more interesting:
     

Kaver didn't make me wait long. He swung out over the construction workers, oblivious to the activity above them, and headed for his rendezvous:


It was a pattern well known to those who've watched these two for a while, so I had no problem getting my camera ready for the landing and subsequent copulation:
          

My Canon chattered away at 6.5 frames per second and the bright conditions helped me grab a great many shots, a mere smattering of which I've included here. One thing I noticed is that for all the care that Kaver appears to take, there's a good deal of jostling going on up there:
          
Look closely and you'll see that Mariah has to work hard to hang on to the edge of the playpen. In a couple of frames I didn't include, she actually lost her footing!

In only a few seconds their brief congress ended:
          

Kaver headed for the High Falls smokestack where he made an effortless landing:
          

Mariah remained where she was for a while, then shook out her feathers and took off:


They both circled over the old Visitor parking lot, then Kaver headed for the communication tower:


I didn't follow Mariah's flight, but I imagine she went downtown because some time later she reappeared, flying in from the south. She landed on the perch rail of the nest box:


Kaver remained on one of the antennas, a sleek silhouette against the blue sky, and that's where I left them as the hour drew to a close.

Back in the office, I checked the images from the Rochester Falconcam's cameras. I'd hoped that the view from Camera 1 would capture Mariah on the corner of the playpen, and indeed there she was in the lower left corner:


Was fortune smiling on us? Did the camera perhaps capture the mating moment? Alas, no. All the action occurred in the minute between the image above and this one:


No big deal-- that's what fast firing D-SLR cameras and long lenses are for. In a bit of a post-script, as I was walking out to my car in the afternoon I witnessed another mating. Watchers are reporting multiple copulations each day. Egg laying should begin in about a week, so everything is on track for another great falcon-rearing season. Of course, the past couple of years have brought mystery and some real drama during egg laying. I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to what we'll see this year, but I'm looking forward to following all the action.

Kaver's Kinesis

I was only able to get away from the office for about a half hour, but for such a brief session it was filled with plenty of action. The fun began almost as soon as I got outside. I met the other watchers including Carol, Shaky, Dan Stiehler, Barb, Dana, Lisa McKeown, Sue and Susan, all of whom were sheltering on the west side of the former Bru restaurant to stay out of the piercing wind. It turned out to be a fortuitous vantage-- Both Mariah and Kaver were perched on the south side of the tower, with Mariah on the southwest corner of the playpen and Kaver on the nest box perch rail. Kaver kicked things off with a short flight which led, not unexpectely, to a round of mating:
          

His obligatory post-coital "victory lap" brought him to the High Falls smokestack. Interestingly, Mariah joined him only a few moments later:
          

Then a move that left us all agape. Ten minutes after their first mating, it was time for a repeat performance!
     

Here's the most amazing thing... In the pictures above Kaver is flying toward Mariah, and the two of them are facing each other. These next two images are sequential, shot only 1/5 of a second apart:
     

His aerobatics are incredible! In a fraction of a second Kaver completely reversed direction. In the second photo above you can see his talons curled up as he prepares to land on Mariah's back. The lighting arrestors ringing the top of the smokestack obstructed the view, but the flavor of the moment is obvious enough I hope:
          

Kaver flew off to the northern smokestack, and in yet another surprise move, Mariah joined him. In the high wind, she floated down onto the top rung of the access ladder, hovering in the air for long seconds.

You could forgive us for thinking another episode of raptor romance was in the offing, but instead both birds took off. Mariah disappeared to the north, apparently to chase a Kestrel. Kaver disappeared too, but he streaked into view before too long, in hot pursuit of a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). His attack was aggressive and sustained. The poor hawk never had a chance:
     

     

Meanwhile, Mariah circled back into view:
     

After a leisurely aerial stroll she flew into the nest box. Kaver came back after his chase, and we'd all have been more than satisfied with the hour's action if he'd chosen to perch a while, but the excitement wasn't over yet. A Coopers Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) crossed the airspace north of the tower and back up Kaver went. We expected him to give chase but instead he flapped upward in a spiral that took him to the west. When he was high over Frontier Field he flipped over into a steep dive, his wings tucked back in a textbook stoop! Through my binoculars I watched as he plummeted ever lower, gaining speed with each passing half-second, connecting with a small bird only forty feet off the ground. At the last instant the prey tried to evade, but Kaver must have clipped it, because he pulled out of his dive and caught the hapless bird a moment later. Having secured lunch, he headed back toward us, and I put my camera into action again:
     

     

His one-footed landing on the High Falls stack was masterful, and he wasted no time cleaning his prey:
     

I watched him eat lunch for a few minutes before I had to get back to the office. I'd spent only a little more than a half our outside, but I had no complaints. Rarely do we get to see such concentrated action. Tonight or early tomorrow morning should bring Mariah's second egg of the year. I can hardly wait for that, and for more opportunities to watch these marvels of nature in action.