By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

6:30 to 9:00 pm

Evening Watchers: Brian H, Lisa McK, Kathy O, Joyce, Larry O, Shaky, Carrie and Carol P.

It was a beautiful evening watch.  Many Watchers were able to make it out tonight.

When I first arrived, I found a juvie on the east side of the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) platform, near the southeast corner.  I also found Brian H watching from the City Hall parking lot.  Soon after Lisa McK and Joyce arrived.

We were pretty sure that this was Cadence.  She took off flying over us, heading northeast towards the gorge.  We all headed in that direction, but found that we could not go out onto the Pedestrian Bridge.  People were dining on the bridge for a Greentopia event.  You could not go on the bridge from either end.  Back to the City Hall parking lot.

Soon after we arrived, a falcon flew in and landed on the top arm.

While we were watching this falcon, the rest of the Watchers arrived; Kathy O, Larry O, Carrie and Shaky.  The juvie took off, hovering above us and then returned to FCT, this time landing on the lowest arm.  There was a Robin that was quite vocal up on a lower section of the FCT.  When I took a closer look, I found a 2nd juvie there.  I got out my scope and Joyce took a look through her long-lense camera.  She was the first to spot a blue band on the lower juvie.  It was Cadence.  Genesee was above her on the lowest arm.

At approximately 8:30 pm, Beauty flew in with food.  Cadence was off first.  She flew up to Beauty and went talons up, grabbing the offered meal from Beauty.  It was very white.  Cadence carried the food towards City Place.  Genesee was off, chasing Cadence and easily catching up with her.  He attempted to take the food from her, but there was no way she was letting it go. Genesee gave up and Cadence continued towards City Place, where she landed.  Genesee found Beauty under the platform on FCT and landed below her.  He was not happy that he did not get any food.  He let her know (and all of us) by vocalizing very loudly.  After a few moments, he was quiet.  Genesee flew over to City Place and joined her.  We could not see either of them until one popped up on the ledge, then back again.  The 2nd juvie popped up on the corner and then took off heading towards the Widow’s Walk (WW), where it landed on the railing.  We were unsure who got the food.  Maybe they shared.  After eating, the 2nd juvie flew s0utheast.

While all this was happening, Larry O reported from the Broad St Bridge.  Dot.ca was on top of the Times Square Bldg.

Joyce was able to get some really good pics of Cadence and Genesee fighting over the prey that Beauty delivered.  She will post the pics under this report when she is able.  🙂

At 9:00 pm, it was starting to get dark.  It was time to end our watch.  All was quiet and peaceful.  Beauty was tucked in on FCT under the platform.  All four Rochester Falcons were seen this evening.  Good night everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The sun arose bright and beautiful today with a cool starting temperature of 51 (F) 11 (C)

I begin and end my days looking for Billie, Seth and their offspring whom I call Bith and Sellie, from the west side balcony of the 16th floor where my apartment is at Seneca Towers. Last night I was graced by Billie on the west side railing (south half-I can’t see north half of west side from building). She flew off soon after as she saw her kids had landed on the bridge ledge south side. I believe these are their overnite roosting spots. Bith has the darker front and Sellie much lighter which is about the only way to tell one from the other.

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That’s where I left them at sundown last night. Fast forward to this morning 5:30am same west side balcony and Buffalo Billie was in the same spot as last night looking down at me from the west side railing. 5 minutes into my watch I heard the faint cry of a juvie, as I turned to look north I spotted one on the south side of the bridge. Billie then flew west crossing the river and disappearing near Kodak on Lake Ave.

With its back to me there was no telling which juvie it was but after 20 minutes or so the other one flew in landing near the first one then flying off immediately heading down near the tree tops and out of sight. I left for downtown at this point and as I pulled over on the Andrews St. bridge I spotted a falcon in the Powers nest box. It then went out on the east side railing-I believe it was Cadence.

She looks a lot like her mother, the Beautyful one, and I had to take a second look at my pic to see if it was Beauty or Cadence. A couple minutes later Cadence dove down and streaked above the Sister Cities garage out of view then popped up again for a split second over the inner loop only to disappear behind the Gorsline building heading north.

That was the last and only falcon I would see downtown this morning. I would spend the next hour and a half searching to no avail. While on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls I watched 3 deer grazing in the tall grass below.

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The water level in the river is very high right now from all the rain we’ve gotten lately so the current is fast in spots. There were 2 separate sets of Canada Geese riding the current-the first set which had 3 young ones went by too fast for me to get a pic of them. I got the 3 adults in the second set before they disappeared below the bridge as well.

I left for home at Seneca Towers- there were no falcons to be found there either. I ended my watch at about 9am smiling-even though it was a slow watch I still had the privilege of seeing nature in the big city! 🙂

Click on the links below to see my videos of falcons and other creatures

http://youtu.be/N7jOfuT9MN4

http://youtu.be/OQiGDE1QAPY

http://youtu.be/eZL8GONRvFw

http://youtu.be/2h-kGbs2STE

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Big change in the weather this morning-a very light misty rain fell for the first part, overcast and chilly with a temperature of 58 (F) 14 (C) and a haze was hovering above downtown

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My watch began on the 16th floor west balcony at Seneca Towers where new watcher Patty joined me at 5:30am. We could see one juvie on the bridge ledge south side. 2 falcons flew near bridge as someone was vocalizing -they went behind the north end of the building out of view. Soon after an adult ( I believe it was Billie) and a juvie appeared on the bridge ledge. The adult flew off and returned from above tree tops on the west side of the gorge and landed next to the juvie with food. She left it for him and flew off .

The adult flew away to the east and the juvie remained -we left for downtown around 6:30am. We didn’t have much luck finding a falcon until checking out the east side of the river. On the south side of Xerox one column from the southwest corner was Dot.ca (DC). He disappeared as we were checking other buildings for falcons.

We ended up on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge after an unsuccessful search of downtown. It was Patty’s first time on the bridge and she was thrilled when I pointed out the Falcon sucking tree (FST) with Cadence perched on a branch. there was a robin buzzing Cadence who didn’t act too bothered by it.

It was cold and breezy on the bridge and we weren’t dressed warm enough so we didn’t stay long. Checking downtown one more time before calling it a watch at 9am as we both had things to do. So we saw one juvie and one adult at both Seneca Towers and downtown. It’s always a pleasure to share  a watch with Patty-we do a lot of smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to see a super short snippet video and one of Cadence and her friend

http://youtu.be/_jVEQY87Kkg

http://youtu.be/Tk7XF6y9E04

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Another warm morning but mostly cloudy and a temperature of 72 (F) 22 (C)

I saw no falcons at Seneca Towers before or after my downtown watch but I’m holding on to hope for later this afternoon/early evening.

I spotted Dot.ca (DC) on the east side top railing of the Powers building as I arrived on the Andrews St. bridge (ASB). I went to the end of Aqueduct St. at Main St. to view him closer.

He soon flew off to the east and as I made my way across the Broad St. bridge (BSB) to the east I spotted another falcon flying near Xerox. My eyes went off that falcon as DC came streaking across from behind the Chase tower stooping on a pigeon right over the RG&E substation.  He came up empty but man he is FAST!!!! DC flew south and as I was passing through the hole I spotted Cadence and Genesee chasing each other behind Times Square (TSB). She ended up on the north side roof of Irving Place (old city hall) and Genesee on the lower roof northwest corner of Widows Walk (WW).

I would find out when Cadence flew off to the southwest in a blur, that she had a small piece of food in her talons. Genesee followed a moment later with a small bulge in his crop and then Cadence landed on the northwest corner lower roof of TSB. She didn’t stay there for long as she flew east.

From the BSB I spotted the Beautyful one on the 3rd arm down of the jail tower-I drove over to Troup St. for a closer look as she would be facing me over there. She stayed but a few minutes and then she casually flew off to the northeast.

After that I drove around for about half an hour before finding Cadence on the northeast corner top railing of Powers from the ASB. I parked in the exit driveway of the Rochester Plaza Hotel to see her closer and as I watched her feathers started appearing over State St. I looked up at the Ellwanger & Barry building and spotted DC plucking prey on the east side of it (one of his favorite dining spots). He ate a good amount of whatever he had.

At just about 7:30am Cadence flew off to the southeast and I suspect she was after dad who was now gone. While stopped on the BSB someone in a SUV drove past me too close and knocked my driver’s side view mirror off my car and kept going. After I collected myself I was able to locate DC on the north side railing of Widows Walk with a full crop. DebbieH stopped on her way to work as I was parked on Fitzhugh St. DC flew northeast around 8am and I wasn’t able to find any falcons after that.

I left for home smiling as I had seen all 4 downtown Rochester Peregrine Falcons, ending my watch at 8:45am.  🙂

Click on the links below to view today’s videos

http://youtu.be/70OESwyz6Zk

http://youtu.be/zAvG84VJsyI

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a warm 66 (F) 19 (C) already when I walked out the door today and when the sun came up it got steadily warmer

Before getting on the elevator to go down to my car I stepped out on the west side balcony of my 16th floor at Seneca Towers (ST) to check for falcons. I wasn’t disappointed as I saw both juvies on a bridge ledge. While I was taking a pic of one the other flew past in front of it and landed further down on the same ledge as you will see on my snippet video today if you check it out. That would be my only falcon sighting at ST this morning-mom and dad have been scarce lately. The  following are pics of Sellie (Se for Seth and llie for Billie), the new juvie from last night when he was on the west side railing where Joyce, Jeanne and I saw him.

I headed downtown arriving on the Andrews St. bridge a little after 6am and spotted a falcon with its back to me on the west corner top I beam of OCSR.  I left for the hole to get a front view of it but it was gone when I got there. When I looked up at Times Square I spotted an adult who I think was Beauty under the northeast wing for a moment and then a juvie flew in out of nowhere and knocked her off, landing on the ledge. I watched Beauty fly east over the Blue Cross Arena and when I looked back to the wing the juvie was gone. Coming from behind me appeared the juvies I believe-they flew over Thomson Reuters crossing the river to the east out of view.

I crossed the river as well and found Beauty on the southeast corner of HSBC where she was being swooped on by a smaller bird, a Kestrel I believe. She put up with that for less than a minute and took off heading west. I followed behind and caught up with her on the heel of Mercury. I pulled over on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) to share space with her.

Around 7:20am Beauty flew after some pigeons over the river behind the Court St. bridge and gave up when they scattered and returned to land on the Mercury money bag (MMB).  I then noticed Genesee on the northeast corner of the Mercury loser railing and then Cadence made an appearance next to him. They had a lot to say to each other and Beauty!

Cadence eventually moved closer to her brother and they had a little squabble and both flew off. I expected one of them to knock Beauty off the money bag but they ended up on the base of Mercury. Genesee clearly had food in his crop so he shouldn’t have been hungry as they both went up on the green part of the base and started picking at leftovers.

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They started picking on each other again and then Genesee flew off coming to rest on the Mercury staff. He was sca-reaming at mom as she looked down at him from the money bag. It was quite comical, but then juvies in general are very funny and entertaining.

Suddenly Genesee flew off, then Beauty and followed by Cadence heading west and out of sight. I drove down to the hole and found one of the juvies on the northeast corner of the Widows Walk railing with it’s back to me-it stretched it’s legs out good as it flew off, enabling me to see that it was Genesee. 10 minutes later I found the Beautyful one on the top west corner of OCSR. As I was parked on State St. across from the Rochester  Plaza Hotel watching Beauty, I couldn’t help but notice the reflection of the Powers building on the Crossroads building windows. It looks good to us but imagine being a newly fledged falcon and seeing that, thinking I’ll just go land on that and smack, they run into a window.  It’s a big problem for these babies that don’t know any different.

The next time I saw a falcon was after 9am when I caught a glimpse of a juvie on the west side of Crossroads while driving down Exchange Blvd. When I finally found somewhere to pull over it was gone and that’s the last falcon I saw on watch today. I went home and saw no falcons at Seneca Towers so I ended my watch at 9:30am. I did see all 4 Rochester juvies on watch this morning (unless there’s more out there waiting to show themselves) which makes me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to see today’s videos-including a quick one of Sellie flying off Seneca Towers last night

http://youtu.be/UoLb2JW-wao

http://youtu.be/Zdh3mm3J50s

http://youtu.be/WOOKPwmPyX8

http://youtu.be/2tdVaRDTIyI

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The weather was sunny and hot with temps in the 80’s both Saturday and Sunday.

The festivities started Friday as out-of-towners arrived in our fair city. Donna from new Jersey with her daughter Kara stayed with me at Seneca Towers. We were treated to a show Friday night and Saturday morning put on by Bith, Billie, Seth and the newest juvie to show up whom I will call Sellie-Se for Seth and llie for Billie. Donna and Carla had a hand in coming up with this name.

Can’t say if that is Bith or Sellie but with the help of Joyce and the pics she took of both juvies on the west side railing of ST Bith is much darker-this will be about the only way to ID one from the other. They are both males with no leg bands so once they leave Rochester we’ll never know what happened to them.

Saturday morning  we arrived at the west end of the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge for our get together with all the watchers a little after 8am. It was great to sit around and chat with everyone and share some food and falcon stories. Unfortunately, our downtown falcons were scarce for this Watcher Weekend but still a good time was had by all. There was a Cedar Waxwing nest near the meeting spot with babies and everyone had fun watching mama come feed them. Lynda made her famous rainbow jello. There was a fawn relaxing in the tall grass below the bridge and a Great Blue Heron out in the river. And of course, there were watchers!

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Our falcons would make sporadic appearances downtown and at around 3pm some of us decided to go to the Frontier communications tower (FCT) to watch in some shade as Beauty and a juvie were on the FCT. Meanwhile, Lisa had her sights on the other 2 so all 4 were accounted for on Saturday afternoon. We all met at Aqueduct Park for pizza and wings provided by the Genesee Valley Audubon Society (GVAS).

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Everyone left for the night with but a couple falcon sightings as the sun went down.

This morning Carla, Ei, Bonnie and Lukka joined Donna and I at Seneca Towers on the ground and on the top floor west side balcony-22 stories up into the heavens. It was reported that a falcon was on one of the FCT arms so I tested my camera to see if we could see it.  There wasn’t any flying but they did get to see falcons on the west side. Donna and I had seen some talon tagging early before the other watchers arrived.

That’s all she wrote-it was a very quiet Watchers Weekend spent with some good people that made me smile on more than one occasion! 🙂

Click on the links below to view videos from the last couple days

http://youtu.be/8t5QMm4dSas

http://youtu.be/441ynVNnm9o

http://youtu.be/oyvOxpEkUrE

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was sunny with blue skies and a temperature of 59 (F) 15 (C)

Just a quick report today since Donna and her daughter Kara, will be here within the hour for Watchers Weekend from New Jersey. I started my watch at Seneca Towers with all 3 falcons. Seth was on the north window ledge and Billie on the northwest corner. Bith arrived screaming at them half hour into it and knocked mom off and took her spot. Billie flew north and Bith and Seth followed soon after.

I left for downtown and found Beauty on the bottom arm of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT). She left about 30 minutes later for the Kodak Office launchpad southeast corner. After I left her to look for the others I found a juvie on the lower roof northwest corner of Crossroads. I believe it was Cadence who I found on the Wilder elevator shaft right after the Crossroads bird left.

20 minutes later she flew over to Widows Walk coming to rest on the north side railing and after a few minutes jumped down to the roof inside the railing. I believe she was looking for food at all these places.

I left to check around and ended up on the Broad St. bridge where I spotted Cadence on the upper roof northeast corner. She was being buzzed by the fly catchers up there. Her head was on a swivel as she watched them coming from every direction.

I think she finally had enough of being swooped on by those little buggers and she flew northwest around 7:50am. I had to cut my watch short in preparation for my weekend visitors without having seen Genesee or Dot.ca but as I write this Dana has reported both juvies in the gorge with dad. After running an errand I arrived home to Seneca Towers and found Bith with an adult on the upper railing west side-both had their back to me. Bith flew off and buzzed the adult a few times.

When he was done harassing mom or dad he landed below the railing on the west side then walked in on the roof out of sight. The adult, who I think was Seth, jumped down and joined him. So I saw 5 out of 7 Rochester Peregrine Falcons and Watchers Weekend is upon us. What more could I need to put a smile on my face?! 🙂

Click on the links below to see today’s videos

http://youtu.be/ayR0Jv29LLw

http://youtu.be/7nCb_JPANYw

http://youtu.be/QaWnlypMD3g

http://youtu.be/CMXoYavsd68

http://youtu.be/bV8lJBIwlk0

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

5:00 to 8:00 pm

No other watchers out with me this evening.  The weather was pretty lousy.  It rained most of the day and when I arrived downtown there was a steady mist falling, making it hard to see.  But, I was determined to find the downtown falcons.

Just as I arrived I received a tweet from Joyce, who had been downtown before me and had found no falcons.

From the Broad St Bridge, I found a falcon on OCSR on the west corner of the top IBeam.

I saw what I thought was a Peregrine on the Powers Bldg, but after checking my pic, I believe it was a Kestrel.

I drove around looking for more falcons.  From the Andrews St Bridge, I spotted a falcon flying over the Cross Rds bldg and around to the south side of OCSR.  Back to the Broad St Bridge.  It was Dot.ca and he was now on the south corner of the top IBeam on OCSR.  It was probably him that I saw earlier on the west corner.

OK, where were the others hiding out?  It was time to head to the pedestrian bridge.  It was misting pretty heavily at this point, so I put on my rain jacket and put my camera inside it to protect it from the rain.  It was very quiet, only a few people ventured out onto the bridge.  I checked out every tree branch and nook and cranny, but could not find a falcon anywhere.

Then I saw one.  It was heading towards the gorge from downtown.  Closer and closer it got.  At first I thought it was a juvie. Imagine my surprise when it landed in the falcon sucking tree and I got my first look.  It was Beauty!

A robin started to alarm call and dive on Beauty over and over again, just like it did yesterday when the juvies were there. Beauty kept a close eye on her “little attacker”, probably hoping it got just a little closer.  Robins are very brave and protective of their young.

After about 10 minutes, Beauty took off.  She flew along the gorge wall and over the observation deck.  She then flew across the falls and headed south towards downtown.  Beauty made her way around OCSR, over the Cross Rds Bldg and headed straight for the Powers Bldg.  When she approached, a juvie flew up to her and had a bit of a talon tag with his or her mom.  Both landed on the east side railing of the Powers Bldg.  When I looked through my binoculars, I could only see one falcon there.  It was Beauty.

I tweeted it out and headed back to the Andrews St Bridge.  From there I could see Beauty on Powers and Dot.ca on the tall FCT, 2nd arm.  From City Hall, I could see that there was a juvie on the short FCT, below the disk.  I was not able to positively ID this juvie.

Now I had three in view.  I really wanted to get all four together, but I never did.  I suspected that the 2nd juvie was on the Powers Bldg with Beauty, but I could not find it after one landed there with her earlier.

The rain had finally stopped and there was a hint of sun behind the dark clouds.  Tomorrow and the next few days, promise to be great weather.  Sun, with temps in the 80’s (F)!

Can’t wait to see everyone that is coming in for Watcher’s Weekend.  Safe travels!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was gloomy and overcast with a temperature of 60 (F) 16 (C)

Well folks were it not for Seth and Beauty I would have been skunked this morning on my watch for they are the only Rochester Peregrine Falcons I saw. I started at the north end of Seneca Towers where I looked up and saw Seths’ back. It was still pretty dark out making it hard to decide whether it was an adult or juvie. I suspected an adult since I wasn’t seeing the signature light colored feathers on the tip of the tail.

I drove out to Seth Green Dr. to get a positive ID and that I did. There’s no mistaking the heart on the side of the face of Seth. Dot.ca has one too but I think his is a little smaller than Seths’.

I could hear Bith,the juvenile son of Billie and Seth  whining but he wasn’t in view on any part of the building that I could see-probably on the roof. I waited a while and when he didn’t show himself I left for downtown. I searched quite a long time before I found a falcon on the east side of the Genesee River. Beauty was in an old haunt of hers that she likes to hunt from-the southeast corner of HSBC. I hadn’t seen her there since last year.

The Beautyful one flew off when I wasn’t looking and when I caught up with her she was on the top arm of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT).  I left her to look for Dot.ca and the kids but I never did find them. As I was out searching I came across Beauty near the southeast corner of Crossroads and she was eating.

Beauty kept getting lower and lower on the roof until I could no longer see her so I thought I’d try the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls since the juvies had been seen there yesterday but I had no luck in finding them. Perhaps they took a day trip with dad. I saw a Great Blue Heron that seemed like it was gesturing “which way did they go?” I ended my watch at 8am.

Anyway, some days luck is on your side and some days it’s not. I was grateful to see Beauty and she always makes me smile! 🙂

Click on the links to see today’s videos including one of the High Falls

http://youtu.be/4X-4LJnIsUA

http://youtu.be/XCya7c-9vg0

http://youtu.be/dwDGJqcI0fc

http://youtu.be/WMCbMxUnwSM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Watchers: Carrie and Carol P.

It was a much cooler day in the 70’s (F) and sunshine!  I spent a few hours this morning and early afternoon downtown, mostly watching a juvie (I believe it was Cadence) on the Frontier Communication Tower.  Visits by both Dot.ca and Beauty, but no sightings of Genesee.  I headed home at 12:30 pm for a lunch break.

A couple hours later, I received a call from fellow watcher Carrie.  She was on the pedestrian bridge, and there was a juvie in the falcon sucking tree, a tree on the east side of the gorge wall.  This tree was given this name many years ago by falcon fan Dale P., because it seemed to suck in every falcon that passed by.  lol

From 3:00 to 4:30 pm, we enjoyed watching the juvies practice there peregrine skills in the gorge.  The gorge at High Falls is the perfect playground and training ground for young falcons.  They were all over it, snatching at leaves, zipping along the gorge wall, chasing each other and landing in all sorts of places.  We thought one juvie was going to fly under the bridge, but it surprised Carrie and I when it flipped over the top, passing directly over us.  The gulls were not happy.  We heard one scream as it was driven into the water in front of the falls.  Here are some pictures from our watch.  Sorry they aren’t the best, due to the very bright lighting.

Other watchers arrived (Brian, Dan, Kathy O, Pat, Carla and Shaky) hoping to see more flying in the gorge, but sadly, they did not return.  They were seen downtown after that.

I truly hope that they return to the gorge so that all the watchers and the visitors arriving for Watchers Weekend will be able to see them there.  We decided it would be best to meet Saturday morning at 8 am at the west end of the pedestrian bridge.  From there, we will have a nice view of the gorge and the downtown area.

When we ended our watch at 9:00 pm, all was peaceful and quiet.  Goodnight!