By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

4:00 to 8:30 pm

Another gorgeous afternoon with temps in the 70’s (F), blue sky and a little bit of a breeze.  When I was walking out to my car after work today, I said to my friend Patty, it’s a perfect day for falcons to fly.

I’ve fallen into my normal routine of checking out the Kodak Tower first.  After only seeing Beauty and Dot.ca yesterday, I was hoping for a juvie sighting today.  I parked on the side of the Frontier Field Stadium and checked out the west and south sides of the Kodak Tower.  Nothing.  The next thing I do is pull in front of the stadium to check out the Frontier Communication Tower.  Still no falcons.  But what was that sound above!  So familiar, yet I hadn’t heard it for awhile.  I looked up just in time to see three falcons flying overhead.  One adult and two juvies were flying towards the Kodak Tower!  I quickly drove around to the east side and from there I could see Beauty on the 19th floor looking down at two juvies on the southeast corner of the 17th floor.

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There must have been a food exchange that I missed.  One juvie was mantling food, while the other, smaller one, stood nearby.  There was still a lot of loud vocalizing from the juvies.  After awhile Beauty took off, heading southeast over the gorge towards downtown.  One juvie immediately took off and followed.  The 2nd juvie stayed for a little while and then also took off.  Well, that was fun!  🙂

Now of course I had no falcons in sight again.  I took off and drove all over, first checking the gorge from the pedestrian bridge and then driving around the downtown area.  I did spot two falcons flying high over the Midtown area, but soon lost them behind buildings.  I ended up on the Broad St Bridge, where I met Brian H.  Joyce soon arrived and she and Brian went up to the top of the South Ave Ramp Garage for a look around the area from a higher vantage point.  I headed out again and drove around looking for the falcons.  That’s when Kathy O sent out a tweet that there was a falcon on the top arm of the Frontier Communication Tower.

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While we were watching this juvie, we were approached by one of the folks that works inside City Hall.  His name is Alan, and he was very interested in the Rochester Falcons.  Kathy and I answered all his questions and gave him a card.  He promised to come back and join us one day, this time with his binoculars.  🙂

This juvie took off and we didn’t realize that he had landed lower on the 2nd arm down.  Kathy O was the first to spot a juvie eating dinner on the very top of the OCSR.  Based on size, we believe this was a female.  She took a very long time eating her meal and ended up going out of view on the roof with a very large crop.

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Joyce and Brian joined us and let us know that the falcon that had been on the top arm of FCT had flown down to the 2nd arm.  Joyce was able to positively ID this falcon as Mercury!

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Brian and Kathy O left and Joyce and I enjoyed some time watching Mercury moving about the framework of the Frontier Communication Tower.  At one point, he was joined by a very irate Robin that continuously vocalized its displeasure at Mercury’s presence.  The Robin got way too close to Mercury who showed a lot of interest in the brightly colored bird.  Not to worry, the brave Robin finally flew away safely.

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Jeanne joined us and I decided it was time for me to leave.  But, of course, I have a way of not being able to tear myself away from a good falcon watch.  lol  I said goodbye to Jeanne and Joyce and headed back towards the Broad St Bridge where I spotted a familiar figure sitting in his chair.  I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to Dan!  As I approached him, he was intently watching the jail communication tower.  There was an adult on the top arm and Dan told me a juvie was at the very top, but very hard to see.  He said if he hadn’t seen the juvie land there, he probably would not have known it was up there.

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Dan explained to me that this juvie had been following the adult around while it hunted, displaying the behavior of a young falcon wanting to be fed by the parent.  The juvie was flying with its wings drooped down and vocalizing.  Due to Dan’s report, I had to assume that this was a 3rd juvie.  Joyce still had Mercury on FCT and the juvie we had seen eating on top of the OCSR had a very full crop after finishing a meal.  So this 3rd juvie was hungry and looking for food.

The adult took off and headed north.  From the Broad St Bridge, I could see a falcon on the cupola of the Kodak Tower.

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Joyce reported that Mercury had taken off from the Frontier Communication Tower heading south towards the Times Square Bldg.  We did not see where he went.  The juvie at the top of the jail communication tower stood up and we were able to get a better look.  By this time it was getting dark and there was no way to ID this bird.

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Just before 8::30 pm, the jail bird took off and flew over the Cornhill area where we quickly lost sight of it.  It was time for the watchers to end their watch and head home.  I am so glad the weekend is here and that it promises to be a couple of beautiful summer days.  Woohoo!

Goodnight everyone and have a wonderful weekend!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This morning the starting temperature was 55 (F) 13 (C) with hazy sunshine

Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) have raised this years brood different than previous ones as I see it. In the past we watched fledglings on the Frontier Communications Tower a lot-like every day, and I don’t recall it being so hard to find them. Perhaps it’s because there’s 4 of them-they seem much more advanced at this time of their development than previous broods. Maybe it’s because Beauty and DC  are maturing themselves as a pair and just have a different approach-whatever the reason, we’re not seeing them much anymore and they will soon disappear altogether on their life journey.

Click on my pics to see the full version

My first sighting of a raptor this morning was around 8am as I was leaving the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls. Some crows were squawking up a storm and chasing a Red-tail Hawk. One of them landed on a light pole and so did the hawk.

As you can see the sun was behind them making for silhouetted images. I actually changed locations 2 more times to fix that problem.

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A bee came by to hassle the hawk as well, who was just trying to look for breakfast down below.

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The bee left and Mr. Red-tail got back to the business of hunting. He pooped, scratched himself and after a lot of head bobbing almost took  off a couple times.

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I moved around behind him to check his red tail and I was amazed that he wasn’t taking off as they usually do as soon as you get ready to take a picture. You can really see the color and quality difference of the pics when you have the right back lighting.

Next up, a robin came flying in landed on the next light pole down and kept warning the hawk with a verbal assault. The hawk put up with this for about 10 minutes then flew off into a tree in the gorge and the robin, quite pleased with itself flew off as well in the opposite direction.

As I was visiting the High Falls again 2 hours later, I was just about to call it quits and admit defeat when I got a tweet from Dana saying she had Beauty under the Frontier Communications Tower platform. As I was walking to my car to go over there Dana yelled out to me. We had a chat and then I left to check out the Beautyful one before ending my watch.

No juvie sighting this morning-fingers crossed that I see one or more tomorrow. I left Beauty at 10:35am content and smiling, even though she was napping, it was still good to see her and get a falcon fix today.  🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos

http://youtu.be/f3gWeVrmi8A

http://youtu.be/snbxrsAxOxI

http://youtu.be/iacTG3h20Yg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

6 – 8:30 pm  Temps in the 70’s (F)

Watchers: Brian H, Dan, Lisa McK, Dana and me, Carol P.

Another gorgeous evening to watch falcons.  We ended up seeing both Dot.ca and Beauty, but missed seeing any of the juvies.

At 6:00 pm, I joined Brian H and Dan on the Broad St Bridge, after driving around downtown Rochester and not finding any falcons.  Lisa McK and then Dana joined us soon after I arrived.  Brian and Lisa found two of the Black-Crowned Night Herons in the library tree.  One of them was very sleepy with head tucked into his/her chest.

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After awhile not seeing any falcons, I decided to go to the pedestrian bridge.  Dana joined me.  From there, we could see a falcon on the southeast box on the Frontier Communication Tower.

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We drove over to the Frontier Communication Tower for a closer look.  It was Dot.ca!

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While we were taking pics of Dot.ca, Beauty flew in from the north, heading south.  She was carrying prey.  I quickly tweeted that she flew by us heading south.  Hoping that the folks on the bridge would see where she went. But by the time I arrived back on the Broad St Bridge, Lisa was gone and Dan & Brian had not seen where she went.

We were starting to lose light and the Swifts were  out enforce.  The sky was filled with them.  There was a banquet of small moths that were on tonight’s menu for the swifts and the Cedar Waxwings.

While we were watching the Swifts buzzing around and comparing them to tiny falcons, Dana yelled out, “there’s a falcon!”  🙂  Beauty was flying over heading downtown and still carrying prey.  We watched as she flew behind the Xerox Tower.  While she was back there, I am almost certain that I heard the vocalizations of a juvie, but we never did see one.

A few moments later, Beauty appeared on the southwest corner, lower ledge, of the B&L building.  It looked like she may have had what remained of the prey and was caching it there.  But due to low light, it was really hard to tell.

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She was still there when the remaining watchers ended the evening fledge watch at 8:30 pm.  Tonight we saw both adults but saw no juvies, although we may have heard one of them behind the Xerox Tower.

Tomorrow is Friday, and it sounds like it’s going to be a wonderful weekend.  Take care and goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

There were very few clouds  with mostly sunny skies and starting temperature of 63 (F) 17 (C) this morning

I had to go searching this morning again but unlike yesterday when I saw no juvies I managed to locate 2 today. My first sighting was around 6:35am-I spotted the back of a juvie on the RGS antenna from Main and Chestnut St. in the same spot I’ve seen Beauty a couple times in the last week.

I looked for a better spot in which to view this youngster and the next place I watched from was Lawn St. by the Columbus building. This turned out to be the best spot but the juvie was not showing any leg or feet to allow me to ID it.

I then went to Euclid St. behind Midtown and the Hotel Cadillac-this spot gave me a frontal view but the sun was behind the bird making it dark and silhouetted. A couple minutes later it spread its wings and flew north.

The next sighting I had was at about 10am when I spotted a juvie in the falcon sucking tree from the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge.

I couldn’t ID it because it never showed its feet or legbands and then it moved further into the branch to near the gorge wall where there was foliage and I figured it was going to settle in for a siesta.

That’s all she wrote folks as I ended my watch at 10:15am or so, happy and smiling that I had seen 2 juvies on watch on this day! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a couple videos

http://youtu.be/VMxKe4O0sk0

http://youtu.be/Tqe_qN5U_nU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I was just getting ready to head downtown when I received a text from Brian.  He was downtown and reported seeing Beauty and female juvie on the Kodak Tower.  By the time I arrived, they were both gone and Joyce was with Brian.  I checked all sides of the Kodak Tower, but found no falcons there.  While there, another tweet came in, this time from Dana.  She reported that a juvie (we believe male) was on the northwest corner of the Xerox Tower.  I headed down to the Broad St Bridge and found the juvie exactly where Dana said it was.

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He kept moving in and out of view until he took off heading north over he old Midtown Plaza.  I was joined on the Broad St Bridge by fellow Watchers Larry O, Lisa McK, Joyce, Brian, Dana and Dan.  It was an absolutely gorgeous evening to be out looking for falcons, with temps in the 70’s (F) and no rain or rain clouds.

For awhile, we had no falcons in sight, but we did have two Black-Crowned Night Herons in the library tree and in different spots on the river.

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One of the Black-Crowned Night Herons flew under the Broad St Bridge to the north side.  A few of us walked over to the north side of the bridge.  We couldn’t find the heron, but we did spot a falcon on the top arm of the Frontier Communication Tower.  Too far to see if it was an adult or juvie.

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It didn’t stay there long.  We believe this was the same falcon that minutes later landed on the jail communication tower.  It was an adult, but we could not tell if it was Beauty or Dot.ca.

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The adult took off and again we were left with no falcons to watch.  But that didn’t last long.  Soon a juvie flew over the river from the east and landed on top of the jail communication tower.  Joyce thought this was a female.

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I ended my watch at 8:30 pm and this juvie was still on the jail communication tower.

During my 6 – 8:30 pm watch, we had Beauty, a female and male juvie (not ID’d).

Dan reported that he was on the pedestrian bridge at lunch and a juvie was in the falcon sucking tree.  I was glad to hear that.  Gives us hope that we may still have the privilege of seeing them in the gorge before they leave.  🙂

Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The starting temperature today was 64 (F) 18 (C) with fog when I first arrived-the sun shone bright and burned that fog off in short order

Click on my pics to see the full version

It was a perfect morning for a fledge watch with wall to wall sunshine and blue skies-the only problem was our Rochester Peregrine juvenile Falcons forgot to show up! It’s time to resolve ourselves to the fact that they are growing up, learning all the skills they need to survive and branching out of downtown.

I was out last night for a short time-there were some Cedar Waxwings down in the river shrubbery flitting from one spot to the other and the Black-crowned Night Heron was in his tree by the Rundell Library preening.

Now for this mornings watch-around 6:30am I thought I saw a falcon chasing pigeons toward the Cornhill district. I drove that way but didn’t find either falcon or pigeons. I then did my usual route around downtown starting near the Times Square building and Broad St. Bridge area, then to the east side by Xerox, HSBC,Midtown including the heart of downtown-Liberty Pole Way and the Sibley Tower Building. From there I made my way to Plymouth Ave. by Frontier Field-where it showed the fog that was being eaten up by the sun.

I checked the Kodak Office Tower, Frontier Communications Tower and then to the Andrews St. Bridge and finally the Pont de Rennes pedestrian Bridge at High Falls at 7:05am. It was there that I spotted a very leggy falcon on the northeast wing of  Times Square and it looked like it had food.

I left directly and shot straight down St. Paul St. to the Broad St. Bridge where I arrived just in time to get a pic of Dot.Ca, king of downtown Rochester! He did have food and flew off before I could say falcon-it was a small package, maybe a sparrow, and that was the extent of my time with a PEFA today.

I spent the next 2 hours searching unsuccessfully for our elusive falcons. The river level was up again as the west lock, south of the Court St. bridge was flowing fast. The only flat rock above water was on the south side of the bridge giving the gulls and ducks somewhere to hang out and preen.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I drove around the city looking but I threw in the towel at 9am deciding to save some gas for future watches. Keep smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to view videos from todays watch

http://youtu.be/24IQq-hUR2U

http://youtu.be/z2xqWdYoq64

http://youtu.be/PcyVdkO9aKs

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

4 – 7:30 pm – Temps in the 70’s.

Yet again rain was in the air this afternoon.  My first check was Kodak Office, where I found no falcons, but I did see the crane working nearby on the roof at Carestream Health.  This is the crane the viewers of the Rfalconcam Camera #1 are seeing behind the Frontier Communication Tower when it’s pointed in that direction.  It is quite a distance away.

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Around the corner, I was able to get a good view of the Frontier Communication Tower.  Dot.ca was on the top arm, looking north.

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Pat had tweeted that there was a falcon on the heel of the Mercury statue.  I headed there next and found Beauty.  She was preening and looking very relaxed.

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I parked on the Broad St Bridge and checked out the surrounding.  Where were the kids?

The pedestrian bridge at High Falls was next.  Because of all the rain that Rochester and points south have received daily, the falls were running hard, but the island below was not covered by water like it was the last time.

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I could see no falcons from there, so it was time to check out the downtown area.  Again, no luck finding any falcons.  Back to the Broad St Bridge.  While there, a juvie finally appeared on the south end of the Cross Rds Bldg.  A 2nd juvie flew in and playfully dove on the Cross Rds juvie a few time before landing the Times Square Bldg, northeast wing ledge.  It moved close to the base of the wing, probably looking for scraps.

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While I was speaking with a passerby, both falcons took off.  From the Andrews St Bridge I could see a falcon in the center of the framework on the Frontier Communication Tower.  Pretty sure this was a juvie.

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The juvie took off heading south towards the OCSR bldg where it met a 2nd falcon.  There was some vocalization before they flew around to the other side.  I do believe that the juvie received a food transfer from an adult.  MAK and Margaret had arrived on Aqueduct St aka “the hole”.  They reported that a juvie had landed on top of the Cross Rds Bldg.

There was some flying over OCSR by a juvie, we believe was a female.  she landed on the Times Square Bldg on the southwest wing ledge.

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MAK, Margaret, Kathy O and Jeanne met me up on the Broad St Bridge.  The juvie from the Times Square Bldg flew over to the jail communication tower, landing on a “drum” on the right side.  There was a 2nd juvie at the same level on the south side.

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While we were keeping an eye on the two juvies on the jail communication tower, Joyce tweeted from there.  She was able to positively ID the juvie on the south side.  It was Mercury.  She was unable to ID the falcon on the “drum”.  Based on size, we believe this was a female.

At 7:3o pm, Kathy O and I ended our watch.  Here are a couple more pics from my watch.  Enjoy and goodnight!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a sunny morning with a starting temperature of  64 (F) 18 (C)

Click on my pics to see full version

It took me a while to find my first falcon today-as I was parked on the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) I spotted Beauty on the top ibeam north corner of OCSR. She had her back to me so I drove to State. St for a side view but the sun was silhouetting her so I went across the river to Bragdon St. by the north side of the Radisson Hotel.

The Beautyful one was paying attention to everything around her and snuck in a little nap too. She did some stretching of her wings as well.  It was nice to spend this time with her.

Beauty flew off around 7:30am to the east in a very big hurry-I left and looked for her in the area she disappeared to but couldn’t find her.

20 minutes later I came across 2 juvies on the east side of HSBC-Nettie was on the northeast corner and Mercury was down further on the east side with food.

At first their backs were to me but Mercury moved around to where I could see his side and eventually the front of him. Once I saw his dark front I knew who it was. Nettie roused and preened-that’s when I was able to see a tiny bit of green on her right leg band in order to ID her.

Nettie was surprisingly patient as her brother ate-she waited 15 minutes before making her move. She flew over landed next to Mercury who mantled the food for a split second, she then tried to take it and he flew off with her right with him. They flew around to the south side of HSBC and vanished.

That was the last I saw of them. I searched downtown until 8:30am but came up empty. I had to be somewhere so I had to end my watch at 8:30am. I saw half the clan this morning and that was enough to send me off with my daily falcon smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/8wvfzHx3wvg

http://youtu.be/eDDlMvZdG48

http://youtu.be/IOKk-daKP2E

http://youtu.be/cp5yZfqhzRQ

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Temperatures have been pretty consistent as I start my watches and today was no exception at 63 (F) 17 (C) The difference between today and the last several days-the sun was out!

Please click on my pics to see the full version

Upon arriving on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB)  I looked at the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) and spotted Dot.Ca (DC) on the northeast corner of the platform railing. When I got over there I spotted a juvie on the platform eating and making a lot of noise-I parked below the tower on Fitzhugh St.

DC flew up to the top arm east side and the juvie moved out under the platform railing south side and a couple minutes later DC switched to the west side arm.

Once I had a look at it I knew it was Nettie-she moved to the southeast corner of the platform whining the whole time and DC took off and returned to the east side top arm of FCT.

Nettie then flew south screamimg and then there were 3 juvies flying around squawking. They circled the tower and few to City Place where I could see 2 of them on the lower roof on the north side. It was Nettie and Mercury-they flew off with one going to the northeast corner of Widows Walk (WW), one to the top outbuilding roof of City Place and the 3rd juvie was on the northeast corner of City Place.

All 3 juvies flew southeast and I left DC on the top arm to look for them. I was able to locate Nor’Easter on the roof above the well on Times Square.

Nor’Easter did some turning and preening but mostly kept track of everything in the area. A man stopped to ask me about the falcons and Nor’E flew off without me seeing him so I had no idea what direction he went around 8am. It was a while before I saw another falcon-around 9:30am I came across Tesh on the east side railing of WW, she flew west after less than 10 minutes.

10 minutes after that I found Beauty on the RGS antenna, same spot as yesterday. The first pic I took looked very dark and I thought it was a juvie, but after finding another spot to observe her (East Ave.), it became clear that it was the Beautyful one.

She turned away and showed me her back so I left and ended up on Broad St. next to HSBC for the best view .

I shared space with Beauty for maybe 20 minutes total and left her to find the other members of her falcon family. No such luck-they were most likely taking naps so I called it a watch at 10:30am. I managed to see all 6 downtown Rochester Peregrine Falcons and leave with a smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view videos from my watch
http://youtu.be/fJN7f3EHOuk

http://youtu.be/SdJXS7s61qo

http://youtu.be/FiYTtup3JZs

http://youtu.be/RkHOX5hXde8

http://youtu.be/C4-_qWHvUSA

http://youtu.be/g7aFm71MO64

http://youtu.be/9hxjrgeWbGg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Mostly cloudy days, with rain, thunder and lightning on and off.  We did have a bit of sun yesterday, but that was it.

Now that August has arrived, we’ve noticed a bit of a change in the behavior of the young falcons.  They still have their talon tag sessions, but they are becoming more intent on learning to hunt.  These skills will be crucial if they are to survive when they leave their parents care.  It won’t be too long before we stop seeing them.  Sometimes they will leave the area on what we call day trips with the parents, but usually return.

It’s a sad, yet happy time for the watchers here in Rochester.  Sad to see them leave, but happy knowing they are on their way to becoming what they were born to be, a Peregrine Falcon.  So, that being said, I was very happy to hear that MAK and Dana saw all 4 juvies this morning on the early morning watch.  Sorry I missed it.

I did make it downtown this morning in time to see 2 juvies on the jail communication tower.  Dana joined me and as we were watching the two juvies, a 3rd falcon flew out from the center of the tower.  Dana had thought there were three, but was not able to find the 3rd one until it flew out.  We believe that it was Dot.ca who flew south, probably on a hunt.  The two juvies took off soon after.

We spent some time looking for the falcons, but had no luck.  The afternoon is usually their least active time.

I came back this evening for a rainy fledge watch.  One juvie, I believe Tesh, was eating on the base of the Mercury statue and Beauty was on the OCSR, west end of the top Ibeam.  I checked out the downtown area and was unable to find any other falcons.  It started to rain harder, so I ended my watch a little after 8:00 pm.

I’ll leave you with some pictures I took during my watches over the last three days.  Enjoy and goodnight!

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