By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The morning started out a bit cloudy with a temperature of 50 degrees (F) 10 (C) but the sun shone brightly after the clouds broke up

The pattern for Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) seems to be changing a bit as today I first found Beauty on the jail tower 2nd arm down on the southeast side and DC, well you’ll have to read on to find out what he was up to. I spotted the Beautyful one from the Broad St. Bridge on my way back from checking the east side where she usually is early morning and I also saw a window washer on Broad St. cleaning the Thomson Reuters south side windows.

I drove to Troup St. on the south side of the jail for the best spot to observe Beauty. She stayed about 15 minutes then she flew off heading my way over 490 and then as she got overhead she went into a stoop turning on the after burners and leaving my field of vision into the Cornhill district.

I drove around the Cornhill area but didn’t find her so I left to check the Brighton Site (BS) arriving there at 8:20am. As I came up to the west side where the cubby is located I saw a falcon on the front ledge. It flew out going north as I pulled over-it looked small like a tiercel so I figured it was UT (unbanded tiercel). As I drove around to the south (back) side of the building I thought I saw it flying across the roof line and when I reached the east side I found a falcon on the southeast corner of the east extension. I tweeted that it was UT who has been seen with Pigott daily for the last 2 weeks during  which time DC has NOT been seen at BS.

As I was paying attention to him Pigott snuck in onto the 2nd window down on the east side of the southeast extension below the roof top tree. She seemed like she was agitated as she walked back and forth on the window ledge and had a fierce look on her face when she looked his direction. One of them was whining-couldn’t tell which one.

At about 9:10am I got my confirmation when DC flew off showing his leg bands and he was chupping. Pigott did not return his chup as she flew over to the corner he vacated.

<DC leaves  <Pigott moves in

After DC didn’t return I went to look for him and when I got back to the east side he was perched by the roof top tree. Pigott had her back to him while she preened and mostly ignored him as he eechupped softly on and off. She did NOT eechup back and left 20 minutes later flying west and that was the last I saw of her. DC eechupped loudly as she flew away but she didn’t return his call. Hmm…

<DC  Pigott>

I was surprised that DC didn’t follow Miss Pigott. I checked the entire building but she was gone so I pulled over to watch DC from a side angle as he mainly watched over his territory, stretched and scratched.

So, many questions come to mind such as- is Pigott upset with DC for not coming around for so long or has he been at BS when UT was not in the past 2 weeks? Or, was she upset that he chased UT away if that’s what transpired. Is DC now going to spend time with Pigott exclusively like he has with Beauty for the past 2 weeks before he migrates. The truth is we’ll never know the answers because we only spend a fraction of time watching these falconss-so much can happen when we are not observing them. Stay tuned!

I left DC on his own at 10:45am and went downtown before ending my watch. I found Beauty from the Andrews St. Bridge on the northeast side of OCSR on the top ibeam. I drove over to Bragdon St. for a closer look to make sure it was her and take a pic or two.

I ended my watch at 11:05am the same way I started it-with Beauty and smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below if you wish to see more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi0k

http://youtu.be/kr4phmKs0NE
http://youtu.be/6rWwmG-J0zQ
http://youtu.be/PirALcgJZeQ
http://youtu.be/4Tz9qfENioo

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was forecast to be sunny this morning but I only saw the sun for maybe half hour. It was 53 degrees (F) 12 (C) to start my watch

I spotted Beauty on the northwest corner of HSBC around 7:20am from Woodbury St. I drove up to Broad and Chestnut St. and she was gone. I found Dot.Ca (DC) on the northeast corner of HSBC as I went around the back of the building. I then drove to my spot on Chestnut St. near the Hotel Cadillac to observe our handsome tiercel. DC flew west shortly after I got situated.

I went west as well finding DC under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB)-I went down to the hole and parked by He’s Chinese to watch him. He was looking for a tasty treat and he did a partial stoop cutting it off as quick as he started and returned under the northeast wing to continue looking for a meal.

I left DC to go check the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) for Beauty who was not there for when I returned to the hole I found that DC was gone from TSB and Beauty was under the southeast wing. She took off a couple minutes later at 8:15am flying southeast in a flurry.

I whipped up to the Court St. Bridge to see if I could find the Beautyful one and sure enough I watched her cross over the river from the east chasing after DC. They both went to the TSB-he landed under the northeast wing again and she under the southeast wing. She had fetched her mate and life was good.

I thought maybe they would go down to the nest box to bow and eechup but it was wishful thinking. I left them for the Brighton Site (BS) around 9am and there I came across UT (unbanded tiercel) on the northeast corner of the northeast extension.

I took a ride around the building to see if Pigott was around which she was not and as I came around the east side out of the corner of my eye I saw UT flying south. I rode around a couple times looking for him but he didn’t return. As I was exiting via the back service road I came upon some Canadian Geese.

<Click it 

I returned to downtown and found DC on the Kodak Office Tower perched on the launchpad by the northeast rocket. He was in definite hunt mode for after 20 minutes or so he dropped off into a stoop and aborted it as quickly as he started it, going back to the same spot.

I left DC and looked around downtown for Beauty but I didn’t find her and so ended my watch at 10:20am. There’s nothing that makes me smile more than our Rochester Peregrine Falcons!  🙂

Check out the links below to watch some videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/_I68F7RzXx0
http://youtu.be/QdGOpGKHshE
http://youtu.be/l2ckOST2SHw
http://youtu.be/KZ6MZtXGG1A
http://youtu.be/fzdgDyXwSdc

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

When I left work today, it was cloudy and lightly raining.  My first stop was downtown Rochester.  My route takes me by Kodak Office first and as I approached, I saw a falcon on the NE corner of what we call the launch pad at the top of the tower.   I parked on the east side and took a couple pics of this falcon before I noticed that there was a second one up there.  Beauty was on the east side arch ledge, just below the tiercel that had his back to me, that I assumed was Dot.ca.  It wasn’t long before it stopped raining and the sun came out.

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I next wanted to check on Pigott and UT at the BS location.  After circling the building three times, I could not find any falcons there.   I stayed for awhile hoping they would return, but they didn’t.  Kathy O did stop there tonight and found one falcon on the building.  But she could not identify it.

I headed towards the lake to check on the juvie that we assume is Billy, from the Central Terminal nest site in Buffalo, NY.  She wasn’t there when I first arrived, but she did finally make an appearance.  While I was on the south side of Russell Station, she flew in and landed on the west stack catwalk.

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Billy again took off and flew to the top of the stack and landed.  I got some video of her flying above and around the west side smoke stack.  So sorry for the shakiness.

Link to Youtube video of Billy flying at Russell Station.

http://youtu.be/zjDxzi8DxgQ

After landing on the north side, she again took off, this time heading north east.  When she didn’t return, I took a trip over to Charlotte to see if she might be on the Coast Guard antenna.  Pat had seen her there earlier.

I found no falcons at Charlotte, so I returned to Russell Station for one last look.  Clouds had moved in covering the waxing moon and the lights on the stacks were now lit.

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It was too dark to see anything, so I called it a Watch.

During my travels today, I drove through Mt. Hope Cemetery, which I consider to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries.  It’s fun to share images of the Rochester Falcons city with all of you.  Here are some pictures I took.  Fall at Mt Hope. Please remember to click on any pics you would like to see larger.  Goodnight everyone!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This morning as I stepped out the house the first drops of rain started to fall as I jumped in my car. It was a mild start for mid October in western New York with a temperature of 63 degrees (F) 17 (C)

Included in my photo album today are some pics from my first visit to Russell Station last night to see who we believe is Billy, a  juvie from Central Terminal in Buffalo,NY. Also on watch were Joyce,Carol,Lisa,Dana and Joyces’ dogs Casey and Abby. I spotted the juvie fly in from the north and land on one of the 2 stacks shortly after arriving. She did some flying and vocalizing as she landed on different spots at the location never getting close enough for good pics or showing us her back.

<Joyce and her dogs  

A pretty Northern Flicker showed up on a pole announcing his arrival by calling out and a different kind of bird flew overhead.

<Click it

Now we fast forward to this mornings watch. I got a late start and saw a falcon flying past Bausch & Lomb around 7:30am as I was on Woodbury St. I checked around the east side and went to the Broad St. Bridge after not finding a falcon. On the base of Mercury perched in the rain was Beauty.

She stayed only a couple minutes before flying off to the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT). I lost sight of the Beautyful one who was on her northeast cube. After checking around the tower for her  I was able to find Beauty while parked on the Andrews St. Bridge.  Next I drove to Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities  parking garage to share space with Beauty,and after a few minutes DC barrelled thru at a fast rate of speed past the FCT flying eastward and that would be all I saw of him today .

Off to the Brighton Site I went arriving around 8:45am-on my second trip around the building I located Pigott on the west side roof. It was raining at a good clip at this time and after a couple minutes Miss Pigott flew off to the south and didn’t return. She still had that white feather from 2 days ago stuck above her cere.  UT was not around this morning.

I left to return to downtown only to find Beauty was still on the northeast cube of FCT. I searched all of downtown but wasn’t able to locate DC. I ended my watch at 9:35am. What makes me smile on a gloomy, rainy day is seeing our 2 resident Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a few more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi0G

http://youtu.be/LLyrm8pp6D8

http://youtu.be/8M9bbOotjAg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was forecast to be clear and sunny but it was kinda cloudy with a starting temperature of 39 degrees (F) according to the local weather station but the bank clock downtown said 50 (F). I guess the ashphalt jungle truly does hold the heat.

As I was driving down Court St. I noticed a falcon fly off the south side of Xerox heading east. When I pulled over on Woodbury St. to check Xerox and HSBC I found Dot.Ca (DC) on the south side of Xerox 4 columns over from the southeast corner. Beauty was over on the northwest corner of HSBC.

<Beauty<DC

10 minutes later DC flew over to the northwest corner of HSBC for a minute then he flew west and Beauty followed right behind him.

<DC> <Beauty>

I drove to the Broad St. Bridge to have a look around and spotted Beauty and DC on the top arm east side of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT).

Click on my pics to view the full version

Onward to Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage first and then closer in front of City Hall around 7:30am.

<Click it   <Click it

A City Hall worker stopped to ask about the falcons and while I was talking to him DC left. I went down to the City Hall parking lot to look for him and found him on the platform of the small tower and he was eating on something and plucking feathers with his back to me. He ate for 5 minutes and then he flew out around the City Hall peak and sent back to FCT landing on the large dish.

I didn’t see Beauty and as I was looking for her DC snuck off the dish. I found that she had moved to the inside of the top arm and DC had dropped down to the support beam of the large dish.

I took a ride over to the Brighton Site (BS) just before 9am and only one falcon was there-the unbanded tiercel UT was on the northeast corner of the east extension and he was plucking feathers and eating.

UT spent half an hour eating and plucking and when he was done he flew across to the northeast extension and cached his leftovers on a window 2 levels down.

<Click it

UT then flew back over to the northeast corner of the east extension to clean himself up after his meal.

I left UT and returned downtown finding Beauty on a north side beam on the north side of FCT under the platform and DC was still on the support beam for the large dish.

I ended my watch at 10am . I took a bunch of fall foliage pictures today, some of which I will post to end this report plus a bonus Red-tail Hawk I ran across in my travels. The rest you can see in my Shutterfly album that I will post the link to below.

Fall colors make me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view my pics and videos

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiz4

http://youtu.be/F6cb-g_7qmc
http://youtu.be/8_21PfeFbTA
http://youtu.be/UJcimwVYsS0
http://youtu.be/83SjzlGmT9w
http://youtu.be/0nzrBqkJRpw
http://youtu.be/m20gB2swfM4

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I only had a couple hours to watch today, so since Beauty, Dot.ca, Pigott and UT had been seen during the day, I decided to go to the lake, hoping to find the juvie named Billy that we’ve been seeing there.  At 4:00 pm, I first checked out the Russell Station and then the Charlotte/Summerville area.  No falcons at either spot.  When I returned to Russell Station, I found fellow Watchers Joyce and MAK.  They told me that the juvie had just flown in and landed on one of the stack catwalks.  We drove over to the north west side of the plant and watched her fly around the stacks, vocalizing.  We found her on the south side of the building on a railing.

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Lisa McK joined us and soon after Billy took off and flew to the north side of the building.  Lisa and I went to the north side of the building and found the juvie on the east smokestack on the middle catwalk, and she was eating up there.  MAK and Joyce and then Dana joined us on the north side.

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She quickly finished the small bit of food she had and flew over to the east side of the catwalk.

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One more time she took off, this time she flew over us and then headed back to the stacks landing on the west stack catwalk platform this time.  When we moved back a bit, we could see that she had more food up there and feathers were flying.  I believe she had retrieved one of her caches.

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At 6:00 pm, we all decided to call it a watch.  It was a very nice afternoon to be out watching a young falcon with my Watcher friends.  Goodnight everyone!

I’ll leave you with one picture that I thought was interesting.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Earlier in the day, and just before I headed downtown, a juvie Peregrine was seen at Russell Station by Dana, Joyce, Brian & Kathy O.  I decided to head downtown.  I found Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) on the SW box.  She was facing northwest.  To get a better look at her, I headed over to the west side of the FCT

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Next, I went to find Dot.ca (DC).  I found a falcon with a white chest on the south side of the OCSR on the top top IBeam near the south corner.  Pretty sure it was Dot.ca.  He didn’t stay long.  DC took off and  headed southeast towards the Xerox Tower, fast.

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I turned around and headed in the same direction.  When I arrived on the south side of the Xerox Tower, I found out why DC had been in such a hurry.  Both he and Beauty were on Xerox on the south side.  Dot.ca was 6 columns in from the SW corner and Beauty was 5 columns in from the SE corner.

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I was losing light, so it was time to head over to the BS location.  By the time I got there, it was getting dark.  There was one falcon on the SE corner of the SE extension and it was in hunt mode.  Stooping off of the building and returning.

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Love those low light action shots!  🙂  The falcon ended up at the west end of the south side vent.

I circled the building 3 times, but could not find a 2nd falcon and I was unable to ID the one I did find.

I called an end to my watch due to darkness.  Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Yuck-what a dark, dreary morning with a fine misty rain falling and a starting temperature of 55 (F) 13 (C)

I first found Beauty on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR-she had her back to the world staying out of the misty rain. I could see her tail hanging over the edge of the ibeam from Graves St. so I went to Main St. by the Radisson Hotel for a side view.

<Beauty

I left the Beautyful one to look for Dot.Ca (DC) at 8:16am but I didn’t find him so off to the Brighton Site (BS) I went. As I pulled around to the back (south side) of the building I spotted UT (unbanded tiercel) on the southeast corner of the southwest extension.

<UT

A couple minutes after I arrived Pigott came flying in coming to rest on the west end of the south side vent and she had a fascinator stuck above her cere. Fascinator-a term to describe a feather that is stuck on a falcon. She and UT could see each other well as they were kiddie corner.  About 10 minutes passed when I looked away from Pigott to see that UT was gone and when I looked back to Pigott she flew off heading south. She returned and landed on the same corner UT had been on just before 9am.

<Pigott

Miss Pigott stayed there for half hour looking around her territory and I drove around the building a couple times to see if UT had come back but I failed to locate the little guy. I got some pics of the fall colors in the area as I made the rounds.

Click on the pics to see the full version

Pigott was looking so cute with that feather stuck to her forehead-I was surprised it didn’t come off when she took flight cuz it looked like it was barely hanging on. Anyway, at about 9:20am Pigott flew out and around to the southwest corner of the west extension for half a minute then she took flight northbound and didn’t return.

I went back downtown hoping to find DC but I was only able to find Beauty. She was on the southeast cube and she had her back to me-I guess she wasn’t in the mood today. lol That’s okay, because I was able to get side shots of her from Church St. on the south side and the City Hall parking lot on the north side.

Isn’t it great how these birds can look so pretty despite the dark conditions!? I went over to the Andrews St. bridge to have a look around for DC but I didn’t find him at the north end of the city. I ended my watch at 10am leaving downtown smiling as I always do because of our beloved Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to view 3 videos

http://youtu.be/_8xDUguDidY

http://youtu.be/E2oF-tDjqxA

http://youtu.be/x0nSMjcKuZg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I don’t think we could have asked for a more beautiful weekend, and I and many of my Falcon Watcher friends took full advantage of the gorgeous weather.  First some pics from Saturday.

Saturday – 10/12/13

Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower.

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Beauty and Dot.ca with their backs to me on Frontier Communication Tower

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UT at the BS location

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Pigott flew in and UT started to ee-chup.  He flew to the south side of the building and I found him on the roof just above Pigott who was at the slat window.  A Turkey Vulture flew over and a smaller falcon aka a Kestrel buzzed the building.  UT alarm kakked and took off chasing out of the area.  The first picture below is Pigott at the slat window and the 2nd is UT streaking across the back of the building.

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While I was at BS, I was joined by Jo, and two of her friends that were visiting from Pittsburgh.  They had all watched the nest site at the Cathedral of Learning where Beauty was born.  I was also visited by Larry O and Harold and mile 7 of their Saturday hike.

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After Larry left, I headed over to Russell Station where Joyce, Dana and Lou were watching a juvie Peregrine with a black over green band harassing the Turkey Vultures.

Dana had seen the juvie there earlier that morning and I had missed seeing it.  We were  joined by Sage and Roger from Buffalo who hoped to be able to see Billy.

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I caught up with everyone, just as Dana and Lou were leaving.  We thought the juvie was gone, but I spotted her on the catwalk of the west side smoke stack.  It was really hard to see her, since we were looking directly into the sun.  Kathy O joined us just in time to see the juvie take off and stoop towards the pond where a lot of ducks were hanging out.  A duck was flying in for a landing and the juvie was hot on its tail!  That was one lucky duck. It landed safely and the juvie pulled up and flew out over the lake.  It turned left and up over the trees at the edge of the lake and started chasing the Turkey Vultures that were flying very low over the area.  For over an hour, this very active juvie was busy chasing and stooping on the birds that flew through the area.  We saw her chase another duck and then towards the lake again and behind the trees.  She did not return.  That’s when Sage and Roger arrived.  We did go look for the juvie, but never did find her again.

We are fairly certain that this juvie was Billy, the same juvie we had positively ID’d.

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Sunday – 10/13/13

This morning I joined Dana at Russell Station for a couple hours.  We also checked out Charlotte and Summerville.  No falcons seen.  I didn’t get out again until later in the day.

Just before 6:00 pm, I joined Lisa McK, Joyce and Jo at the BS location.  Pigott was 8 windows down from the roof on the north side of the building and UT was first on the NW corner of the NW extension and then on a window on the north side of the west end.

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It looked like Pigott had eaten well.  She had a very full crop.  As the light was fading, Pigott flew over to the north side of the east end of the building and landed on a window where it met with the NE extension.  This was a spot we had seen her roost many times.  UT landed on a window on the north end of the NE extension.  It looked like they were going to settle down, so it was time to check the downtown area and end my watch.

Joyce found a falcon with its back to us on Xerox on the north side about 4 columns in from the NE corner.  I found a falcon with its back to us on the Kodak Tower on the NE corner of the launch pad.  I believe it was Beauty on Xerox and Dot.ca on Kodak, but I can’t be sure since it was getting dark.  It was time to end my weekend of falcon watching.

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I’ll leave you with a few pics I took during my travels this weekend.  Remember to click on any you would like to see larger.  Goodnight everyone!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was 50 degrees (F) 10 (C) to start my morning watch with a bit of a breeze and sunny

From the east side I spotted Dot.Ca (DC) on the northeast corner of Xerox-as I was looking for a good place to watch from I happened to find Beauty on the 2nd column east of the northwest corner. I tried many different spots but decided the Broad St. bridge gave me the best view of both falcons.

DC flew east at 7:40am and Beauty remained on Xerox. I took a ride around the tallest building in downtown Rochester to see if he landed somewhere else on it but he was not. I did however come across a beauty of a tree.

Beauty left the building around 10 minutes later which I missed but I quickly caught up with her as she was under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB). I parked in a couple different places before settling on Exchange Blvd. across from the TSB and directly below the Beautyful one.

There was a bee that kept buzzing Beauty as she surveyed her territory and finally she had enough and flew north at about 8:15am.

<click it

I checked the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) and Kodak Office since that’s the direction Beauty flew but I didn’t find her so I headed over to the Brighton Site. Larry had tweeted out that he had a falcon on the northwest corner of the northeast extension. When I arrived just before 9am, I saw the falcon. As I made my way around the building (it’s one way) stopping in the back (south side) of the building where Larry and his dog Harold were having a look on that side. We talked for a few minutes and then they left-so I stationed myself in the east side parking lot to observe the falcon whom I determined was UT (unbanded tiercel).

He did some preening and watching starlings that are usually hanging around for about 20 minutes. UT rousted-shaking loose a white feather and then he spotted something that got his attention. He cranked his neck up and then stooped to the west for the first of 3 stoops he made in the next few minutes.

<Click it

UT returned without the goods landing on the northwest corner of the northwest extension and stooped off there moments later coming back once more empty taloned landing back on the northwest corner of the northeast extension. He stayed there only a minute before stooping for a 3rd time around 9:30am to the east and never returned. It was just me and a starling  in a dead pine tree so I left for downtown.

<Stoop 2 <Click it for stoop 3  <Click it

From the City Hall parking lot I could see Beauty with her back to me to the inside of the northeast cube. I went to Church St. by the Hochstein School of Music to see the front of her and was pleasantly surprised  to find DC below her on the northeast side as well. She was sleeping and he had a full crop.

<Beauty <DC 

DC turned around prompting me to go around to the back of the Open Door Mission at the end of Montgomery Alley to see him. He was half asleep as well so I ended my watch at 10am leaving our downtown pair to rest.

<DC <Beauty<Click it

I’m still wondering why DC hasn’t been over to BS to drive UT out of that territory but I’m not complaining as UT makes me smile as much as the rest of our Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiye

http://youtu.be/0hSfwyXFWC0

http://youtu.be/qFi1aruGSeE

http://youtu.be/l2ciAGZpHUI

http://youtu.be/3d87BemgYuc