Falcon Watch – No Mariah or Kaver, A New Pair in Town – 12/18/08
So sorry that I haven’t been posting any reports lately. Mariah and Kaver have not been seen for the past month. Kaver usually leaves around that time and returns in the Spring. Mariah is usually seen during the Winter, but sometimes she leaves. An example would be in 2006, when she was injured.
This Winter the Watchers have a new pair to Watch. An unbanded male and a banded female (green/black). We have been working really hard at getting a positive ID on the female, but it’s hard. She rarely comes low enough for us to get a good look at her bands. We’ll keep trying.
The Watchers will continue to keep an eye on things and I’ll report if there are any changes.
This new pair is definitely a bonded pair. They hang out on many of the same buildings that M&K did, including the Kodak Tower. They’ve also been seen on the Powers Building and the Times Square Building, where nest boxes are now located.
The Watchers will keep Watching! Happy Holidays everyone!
Carol P.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:19 AM
Thank-you so much for the much longed-for update. It promises to be interesting. The chances of a new pair taking up one of the new boxes are, in my opinion, greater than the old pair, who might wish to be true to the old nesting site.
While it would be sad to see the Queen dethroned in Rochester, it is indeed the way of the falcon world.
Besides, the watcher reports will just not be the same without the references to rockets and lilies.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:19 PM
Interestingly, this new pair seems to be very attached to the Kodak Tower.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:26 PM
Well, the Tower is still prime real estate with all the benefits mariah saw in it from the first. The only problems would be the scaffolding and workmen, etc.
Maybe this female is from a previous brood here and knows the benefits of the area. There have been sightings of strange falcons flying with Mariah and Kaver over the past couple of years. Perhaps it is one of the girls come home to roost (to the detriment of her mother, unbeknownst to both of them probably).
I eagerly await more identification from the dedicated watchers. I am sure it is only a matter of time before someone gets a glimpse of a letter or number.
December 20th, 2008 at 9:27 PM
I’d sure hate to see our M&K team’s territory taken over by another pair. I’d miss them terribly. Keep us posted.
December 21st, 2008 at 4:10 PM
Its great to know there is another pair of falcons around, maybe they will take up in one of the boxes. But…. I still want M&K to come around again and take up in a box. I have only been on board for three years, but I am HOOKED. I feel a closeness, even if only from my pc. They are magnificant creatures and I hope they will grace our presence, once again, with another family for us to watch. Thanks for the update, looking forward to more.
December 21st, 2008 at 4:12 PM
Happy Holidays to all
December 24th, 2008 at 12:04 PM
Happy Holidays to all of you falcon fans from across the big pond.
December 29th, 2008 at 7:45 AM
When Kaver comes back in the Spring, how long would he wait for Mariah before he would assume she wasn’t coming back? Is there any historical reference to know what a bonded pair would do if one partner does not return to their meeting place after the winter?
December 30th, 2008 at 5:57 PM
I believe I may have seen Mariah the week before Christmas. Although I couldn’t get a close enough viewing, there was a relatively large female peregrine up high in a silver maple in the Mt. Read area near Stone Road. The crows give their presence away each and every time with the squawking and attacks. There is a Coopers Hawk that lives around here, but pales in comparison of size to the peregrine. It’s only once in a great while I will see one of them venture north, although I’m certain they pass through more times than I have actually noticed. It’s when they perch in the trees that the crows go insane and start rallying the troops for support. It gets so loud that if you were sleeping, they would surely wake you.
She was alone, was definitely a female, and large. She was chased back in the direction heading up Mt. Read towards the direction of downtown.
The new pair I have seen near and around the Powers building – again – the crows give them away each and every time, swooping back and forth between the empty building on Exchange and the County Office building.
I hope someone has had a talk with the contractors working on the Kodak refacing job? Have they been made aware of the recent relocation and the fact that they may be “approached” by now what appears to be more than a few falcons? I’d hate to see someone react on impulse and injure one of them.
December 31st, 2008 at 4:04 AM
They are actually quite fickle. Their fidelity is more to the site than the particular partner. Whenever Zenith was tardy in returning to Cleveland (relatively often towards the end), the resident male shacked up with another mate pretty quickly and battles raged with eggs in the nest or in the belly.
In Indianapolis we think the pairing changed after the resident female had already laid the clutch for the year and the new female just picked up where the old one left off – Kinney did not indulge in any visible mourning. At the Rachel Carson Building when the Dad was injured and unable to be released in time for breeding, the Mom found a new partner (li’l Dad, they call him) and breeding went pretty much according to schedule.
December 31st, 2008 at 8:18 AM
Well that blew the happy little family image I had 😀 Thank you, Alison, for the explanation. Very interesting indeed.