Approx. 5:30 P.M. (5-03-08) just before leaving the house, I checked a local weather radar site and seen the dopler for the storm front that was approaching. A sever thunderstorm warning was issued at around the same time. On the dopler, I checked the storm tracks and it showed to seperate cells that had vortex signatures. One just south of Grand Island coming over Buffalo from the south. The other vortex track in this storm front was south of Lake Ontario over land also. I left as scheduled and as I was two blocks from home at Niagara and Crowley in the Riverside area, I seen the funnel cloud rotating and it was about half way down the the ground and moving along real quick. By the time I turned and went a few blocks to stop, it started rising as it was getting closer to open water (towards Strawberry Island) as it was passing above the homes in Ft. Erie. In case anyone thinks this may have been a water spout, it definitely was not. I have seen several and this was not above water. The reason it went back up, was the fact it was approaching water.