By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

A dark, gloomy morning with spotty light rain at times and a starting temperature of 65 (F) 18 (C)

Click on my pics if you want to see the full version

As I stepped out of my apartment at Seneca Towers I saw a beautiful sunrise sandwiched between clouds out the east side 16th floor balcony-that’s the last I saw of the sun.

Dan was not a happy camper this morning when I joined him on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) because he hadn’t seen a falcon. He was having trouble staying awake  and he finally gave up and left a little after 7am as a few raindrops started to fall. After checking all the usual spots downtown I tried my luck on the east side near Main St. where I was lucky enough to find Mercury on the Sibley Tower Building-he was perched on the billboard frame up on the roof.

I was enjoying all the potted plants in the area plus there was one lonely sunflower on East  Ave. near E. Main St. where I was parked.

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Dana came along around 8am and told me Beauty was behind me on the RGS antenna. Mercury flew off the billboard after some pigeons right above us.

A few minutes later the Beautyful one took off to the east-another juvie appeared and followed her as Mercury also took off after mom. We lost them all quickly as we were surrounded by buildings in this area of downtown-a lot like being in the hole. 2 juvies came back thru-Tesh landed on the south side roof of the Sibley building and Nettie showed up on the east side roof.

Tesh gave a wave good bye and flew off toward Midtown around 8:15am-Dana went to look for her and I noticed some pigeons tucked up on a window ledge in hiding. Dana returned having no luck finding anybody and Nettie went in on the roof so only the tip of her tail showed before flying off and around to the billboard.

As a very light rain started falling we decided to pack up our chairs and go look for the rest of the family leaving Nettie on the Sibley billboard with her back to us. As I was stopped on the Andrews St. bridge (ASB) I spotted 2 falcons on the Frontier Communications tower (FCT) about 9:30am. Dana tweeted that they were both juvies.

As I arrived on Fitzhugh St. I could see that 1 was on the south side platform railing and the other on the north side, not on corners as I reported from the ASB. Things are not always as they appear when falcon watching!

A couple minutes later I heard a series of very loud pops which scared the kids off FCT. When I caught up with Dana she said she heard them too but we didn’t know if it was gunfire or fireworks or what. Anyway, I took off toward the south and spotted a falcon flying above Crossroads and as I came up on Widows Walk I spotted Tesh on the east side railing and Mercury on the southeast corner. Dana pulled up and pointed out Nor’Easter on the northeast corner of the lower ledge.

Nor’Easter then walked down to the southeast corner below his siblings before flying off.

I left to look for him and checked to see if Nettie was still on the billboard but she was gone so I returned to the parking lot next to Times Square where I had left Dana. Mercury flew south after I got there leaving Tesh all by herself. I decided to end my watch at this time-a little after 10am. I was all smiles as I drove away after having seen all 4 juvies and Beauty on this overcast Sunday morning! 🙂

Click on the links below to see more pics and videos from todays watch
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqj1S

http://youtu.be/_kiL3teuFwQ

http://youtu.be/KmRcC-nCHAk

http://youtu.be/4GuJOY89V38

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a bit hazy this morning with a starting temperature of 65 (F) 18 (C) and you could feel the humidity moving in by the end of my watch

Click on my pics to see the full version of them

I hadn’t seen my mentor Dan in a couple days, so when I rounded the corner onto the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) and saw him in his spot I instantly smiled. He told me Nettie was up on the head of the Mercury statue and that he hadn’t seen anyone else. She wasn’t there for long when she took off fast across the river heading northeast between the Radisson Hotel and the Andrews Place apartments. Pigeons came flying out from every direction in what we call panic mode.

All was quiet for the next 5 minutes until Dan spotted 2 falcons flying near Xerox. The 2nd one didn’t stay long and left the female (most likely Nettie) after half a minute or so. Then we settled in for the show as she kept trying to land on one of the skinny antennas and ended up on the usual antenna that the juvies like to land on and hover above. Dan spotted one of the Black-crowned Night Herons in the tree near the Rundell Library-leaves were blocking its face.

KathyO joined the watch around 6:45am and got to see the tail end of the aerial show before the juvie landed on the northwest corner of Xerox. I’m sure you get tired of the silhouette pics-unfortunately the mornings are usually kinda dark and with the sun so low it’s hard to get around it-so I put some color in one of my pics to brighten things up a bit.

A few minutes later CarolP came by to watch with us but the action was all over except for a couple white balloons carrying a camera with a long tether on it over by Chase. I took a walk to the east side of the BSB to get a better angle on the heron in the tree-he watched me the whole time as I approached.

Around 7:30am the juvie flew off Xerox without letting any of us know lol, so we had no idea what direction it went. I checked out the river and found the ducks were returning as the water level had gone down and the river wasn’t running as swiftly as it had been earlier this week after the 4 plus inches of rain we got.  A guy was getting the window washer apparatus ready to go over the edge of the Xerox roof-this is most likely why there were no falcons around there.

Gulls were gathered on the south side of the Court St. bridge and there was some foam on the river bank-I’ve seen this up by Seneca Towers at times too. It looks like snow! Larry and Harold stopped by to see no falcons with us. Dan left soon after and we decided to go look for falcons. I checked the east side, Larry checked the west side then joined Carol and Kathy on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge. I joined them after I came up empty.

Our falcon family had flown the coop-perhaps mom and dad took them to some of the unknown hunting grounds that we watchers don’t know about. The High Falls were not gushing as hard as earlier in the week and there was a Great Blue Heron on the small building at the south end of the river island below us standing on one leg. Dana joined the watch as well.

A small bird tried catching a very loud Cecada in the air near us and that’s all the action we had until Carol noticed a juvie walk from the southeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad to the northeast corner and vanish to the north. I was ready to end my watch so i said I’d check it out on my way out of downtown. I was able to see tail feathers of a falcon tucked up behind the northeast rocket of the launchpad.

The police had all the west side roads blocked for the Puerto Rican festival parade as I left downtown at 9:45am. There were no tweets after I left so I assume the falcons had not appeared for the other watchers. Even though it was the slowest fledge watch I’ve had since the kids started flying I still had a smile from having some company on my morning watch! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/XbNHeH4mQU0

http://youtu.be/uMz5PII5hzI

http://youtu.be/3uxI1pNiQ5I

http://youtu.be/xqetGmihnKY

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Well another morning started with some thunder and rain but it cleared out by 6:30am or so and then it was partly cloudy with a starting temperature of 62 (F) 17 (C)

Click on my pics if you want to see the full version

So I took my time getting downtown today as it was a bit stormy at first but after the rain stopped I was off to the races spotting my first juvie on the 2nd arm of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) from the Court St. Bridge.

I drove over to Fitzhugh St. arriving just in time to see 2 more juvies land on the platform and railing of FCT.

The platform juvie moved up to the south side railing before all 3 juvies took off to the south.

I caught up with 2 of them on the jail tower-at first I only saw one from Plymouth Ave. but when I got to Troup St. I spotted the 2nd one hiding in the middle.

Soon after one of them stooped and the 2nd juvie flew off to the north. As I headed north myself I spotted a falcon fly off the top arm of FCT head north and go into  stoop near the pine trees at the back of the Kodak Office (KO) parking lot. I then found Dot.Ca (DC) on the northeast corner of the KO launchpad.

I got a tweet from watcher Pat that she had seen juvies on Mercury so I left DC to look for them but they were gone when  arrived. I returned to KO to find DC gone as well-these are the trials of a falcon watcher! lol No worries for 10 minutes later a juvie appeared on the northeast corner of the KO launchpad. I was able to ID her as Nettie and she was preening and whining.

I soon found out why she was talking-as she went around the corner to the north side where I couldn’t see her, Mercury suddenly appeared on the east side-from where I have no idea. Nettie then showed herself again. They started running around the rockets after Mercury walked down to the southeast corner of the launchpad. They were really making me chuckle at their antics.

<Click em>

They also did some preening and napping during their stay. They spotted Beauty to the north (I mistakenly tweeted DC at the time) and flew out to greet her. I believe she had food and that an exchange was made to Mercury.

<Nettie  <Beauty>
After a lot of screaming and flying the Beautyful one landed on the southeast corner of the launchpad, Mercury landed on the northeast corner of the 17th floor of KO and Nettie kept flying past Mercury yelling at him cuz he had food.

Nettie finally got Mercury off the building and they ended up on building 10, which is located north of the KO tower. Nettie was on the roof and Tesh was on the edge with Mercury.  They kept going on and off the roof and vocalizing over the food. I believe he ate the bulk of it.

Nettie flew off and knocked Beauty off the launchpad and landed on the northwest corner. After flying past Nettie a few times Beauty went over and joined Mercury as Tesh went on the roof out of sight.

At some point Mercury ended up with a wing and brought it up on the edge. Beauty just stayed perched while she supervised the situation. Nettie came down and joined the mix too. Beauty got yelled at by one of them and having enough flew off to the southeast, then that same juvie rushed Mercury, who mantled his prize.

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I don’t know if Tesh was on the roof the whole time or if she left and I missed it but the boys were on the edge of building 10. Nettie flew up to the north side of the KO launchpad with a full crop and seemed to be nibbling on something still. I believe Nor’Easter was the last one I saw eating.

I figured they’d be ready for naps after they finished eating so I chose to end my watch at 10:30am. Although I never got a positive ID on Nor’Easter I’m pretty sure I saw all 4 juvies plus mom and dad, which totally sent me on my way smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to see more pics and videos
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqj00

http://youtu.be/4Av120hepYU

http://youtu.be/cx77uTMrUO4

http://youtu.be/aQRefZHIJRY

http://youtu.be/OnkoRGngPgY

http://youtu.be/LTwjjglyOgE

http://youtu.be/05XBFtPzZtY

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P. (5:30 to 8:15 pm)

Watchers this evening:  Kathy O, Lisa McK, Brian H, Larry O, Dan & Jeanne (On the Broad St Bridge) and Carla P (on the Pedestrian Bridge).

It was an outstanding evening for a falcon fledge watch.  The weather was just about perfect, with very comfortable temperatures.  The rain had finally ended and there was a bit of a breeze.  Perfect weather for “our” falcons to fly high.

I met Kathy O and Lisa McK on the Broad St Bridge at approximately 5:30 pm.  Tesh was at the nest box.  She had been there for quite awhile.

This picture is courtesy of the RFalconcam Main Camera.  Tesh is turning out to be a gorgeous young falcon!

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Here’s a picture I took from below on the Broad St Bridge.

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While we were keeping an eye on Tesh and talking about moving on to look for the other juvies, two juvies, a male and female, appeared flying above the Chase Lincoln Tower.  It was Nettie and one of her brothers!  They owned the Rochester sky moving between Chase Lincoln and the Xerox Tower.  Back and forth, landing, talon tagging and chasing.  It was a joy to watch these two young falcons.

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I was lucky to get a short video of them flying together.  At the end of this YouTube video, both Nettie and her brother are directly above us, causing for a little shakiness.  Just click on this link to view the video of Nettie and her brother flying high!

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http://youtu.be/zBR0GH5mL5Y

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While they were flying, we found the 4th juvie on top of the Times Square Bldg on the southeast wing ledge.

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During the evening, watchers came and went and the falcons, all six of them, flew above us.  We did not see a food exchange, but we’re pretty sure that Beauty dropped food on top of the Radisson.  We believe that there were 3, maybe all 4 juvies on top of the hotel roof.

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There was a lot of flying over the river and the surrounding buildings.

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We didn’t have to wait long to find out where Dot.ca was hiding out.  Beauty let us know when she flew up into the elevator shaft and two came out.  Yep, Dot.ca was up there and Beauty let him know he was needed.  He took off heading southeast being chased by one of the juvies.  🙂

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Beauty then landed on the OCSR top IBeam and kept an eye on her young ones as they kept landing on the Radisson roof.

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A juvie that we were unable to ID came in low, passing over us towards the library.  We were amazed to see this juvie fly up to one of the library windows and seem to grab at something there.  We never did see what the juvie was after.  It turned back towards us and made a very low pass over the river on the north side of the bridge right in front of us.  Very cool!

At 8:15 pm, Beauty was in the elevator shaft and the juvies were still flying over and back on the Radisson.  We hadn’t seen where Dot.ca ended up.  It was time for me to end my watch leaving Dan, Jeanne and Brian H on a very busy Broad St Bridge.  There was a political function at the Blue Cross Arena aka War Memorial.  Carla had texted me that she was watching from the pedestrian bridge and seeing all the flying from there.

Take care all and goodnight!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a very dark start to this mornings watch as a thunderstorm was occurring when I left Seneca Towers the rain eventually stopped and made way for partial clearing and a hazy sun broke thru the clouds at times. The temperature was 60 (F) 16 (C) to start

Click on my pics to see the full version

I had to go searching first thing as there were no falcons in sight from the Broad St. bridge (BSB). I found a falcon on the southeast corner of HSBC which I couldn’t ID thru the rain and darkness, plus it had its back to me.

It flew off when I wasn’t looking so I returned to the BSB and found a juvie on the base of Mercury. It didn’t stay much more than 5 minutes before flying off to the south.

I took a ride over to the Frontier Communications Tower where I found a juvie on the northeast corner of the platform railing. I barely got a shot of it before it flew north.

I said ok, I’ll play your silly little falcon games and followed its’ path to the Kodak Office launchpad where it landed on the southeast corner. As I arrived on Mill St. to watch, it walked down to the northeast corner. I was able to see a little red on the right leg so I believe it was Nor’Easter-it’s all in the lighting. 10  minutes later he flew southeast.

I headed in that direction and ended up watching a boy and a girl flying around Bausch & Lomb and Xerox from the BSB. They kept going behind the buildings where I couldn’t see them and then landed on the northwest corner of Xerox.

They started preening so I thought I would go to Woodbury St. where I had a less obstructed view and get ready for more flying. I couldn’t see them on that corner from there and by chance I took a pic to show my view. Lo and behold, while checking the pic on my computer I found 3 falcons flying!

I went down Court St. to the bridge and back up Exchange Blvd. and as I turned onto Broad St. I saw 2 juvies by the base of Mercury. I continued up onto the BSB where I could see one juvie, Nettie on the base-the other juvie vanished. I believe she was searching for food as she checked out the green part of the base as well as the cement part.

Nettie left around 8am-I missed her departure so I had no idea which way to look. After a check around downtown with no sightings I went over to High Falls where I came up empty as well. I left there and stopped on the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) where I spotted Beauty on the southeast cube-she was eating a small morsel, and a juvie was on the small tower top disk with a large morsel.

I drove over to City Hall and tried different spots and angles to see them as Beauty moved off the cube to the beam right behind it. I was too close to see the juvie on the disk so I ended up down on Plymouth Ave. by Frontier Field to observe it.

After a couple minutes a falcon, whom after looking at my pics looked to be Beauty, flew over to the disk and started eating as the juvie flew off.

<Click it

She left while I wasn’t looking so I went to Fitzhugh St. in time to see 2 juvies flying east. I was about to end my watch when I heard all kinds of vocalizing from behind me. As I looked up I saw 2, then 3, then all 4 juvies above me flying south over City Place. 2 of them returned to land on the east side platform railing of FCT-they were Nettie and Mercury. A 3rd juvie flew in past them-Mercury gave chase and returned next to Nettie while the other one never returned.

Mercury jumped down to the platform and another juvie flew in and appeared to land on the north side where I couldn’t see. I checked the north side after a bit of time passed but they all must have left while I was driving over there for when I looked they were all gone.

Now that I had no falcons, I ended my watch just before the 10 o’clock hour. I sure will miss these young falcons when they leave on their lifes’  journey but while they’re still here I’ll keep on smiling about them and their entertaining ways! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/fG8elKZ6ZfI

http://youtu.be/ik91ibZXsSo

http://youtu.be/rEAaHbNY5hc

http://youtu.be/-c1iwIDMpww

http://youtu.be/hr3yNiEHmVY

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

A much cooler, fall like evening.  I arrived on the pedestrian bridge at about 7:00 pm.  The water cascading over the falls is subsiding just a bit and some of the island below is starting to show again.

I was joined on the bridge by Kathy O, Dan, Jeanne and Larry O.  Kathy and Dan had been on the Broad St Bridge and reported seeing a falcon on the base of Mercury.  They couldn’t tell if it was an adult or juvie.

From the pedestrian bridge, we could see two juvies together on the northeast corner of the Xerox Tower.

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Larry O reported that while he was walking down the bridge, he and others had seen a doe escort a fawn from the island to the shore.  Everyone cheered when they both made it safely to dry land on the west side of the river.  I had been worried about the fawn I had seen over the last few evenings on the island before the heavy rains hit.  Happy to know s/he was now safe.

Rfalconcam forum member Ei reported that there was a falcon on the Frontier Communication Tower on the railing at 7:30 pm, seen on camera.  That made four falcons seen at the same time.  But, there was no way to know if they were all juvies or not.

Kathy had to leave so Larry and I decided to head downtown to look for the falcons, leaving Jeanne and Dan on the pedestrian bridge.  While I was driving around, both Larry and Jeanne tweeted that there was a falcon on the Times Square Bldg on the northeast wing ledge.  I made my way over there and found a juvie up there.

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At approximately 8:30 pm, Jeanne reported from the pedestrian bridge that she and Dan could see a falcon on top of the OCSR elevator shaft.  Larry reported a falcon on the HSBC building.  While I still had the juvie on the Times Square Bldg.  Unlike yesterday, tonight’s watch was a quiet one.  Not much flying.

We were losing light, so I decided to end my watch at 8:40 pm.  It was a nice quiet watch, just the way I like them.  Take care all and have a nice evening.  Goodnight!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The morning started out cloudy and dark with a temperature of 59 (F) 15 (C) and rain in spots and turned partly sunny

Click on my pictures to view the full version

As the 6am bell tolled and I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) I spotted 2 juvies fly over the South Ave. garage heading north and out of view behind buildings. As I turned to face the Times Square building (TSB) I spotted a falcon on the southeast column, 1 level above fledge ledge. I went down to the hole tom observe but then decided in front of the Blue Cross Arena (BCA) gave a better look.

This juvie was eating at first as I saw another fly over Mercury and head north. the TSB juvie finished eating, cleaned itself up, pooped then flew southeast.

I drove around the city including a stop on the west end of the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge where the High Falls were rumbling.

I found no falcons until I returned to the BSB. There, I spotted a juvie flying above Xerox-as I started to tape it another popped into the picture and then the fun started. They chased each other and talon tagged all over the top of Xerox going in and out of view. It was a boy and a girl sky dancing for me.

Even tho the sun was behind them, silhouetting their images, you can still appreciate their beauty and maneuverability in the air.  I lost them to the east so I left the BSB and shot them from Chestnut St. in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Park (formerly known as Manhattan Square Park). The female landed on the east side roof of Xerox near the northeast corner as the male kept flying at her and buzzing by from every direction until they both vanished from my sight.

Next up, I spotted a falcon on the 2nd arm of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) from the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB). It had its back to me so I went to Plymouth Ave. to see the front, but the sun was right behind it making it impossible to ID.

This juvie flew north and I followed right behind to find falcons on the 19th and 20th floors of Kodak Office (KO).  They were on the southeast corners and at least one of them was a juvie-they were screaming at Dot.Ca (DC) who was on the 20th floor northeast corner. They took off before I could get a shot of them- the juvie , whom I identified as Nettie knocked DC off and chased him behind KO  then landed on the 17th floor southeast corner with food.

Beauty was now on the northeast corner of the 17th floor and DC, ended up on the northeast corner of the launchpad. I’m not really sure when, where or by whom, but the food was exchanged and Nettie had it!

At first Nettie was noisily mantling the food but she settled down to start eating. Then DC flew off and got her all riled up again and eventually he landed next to her and started eating a piece of food himself. Meanwhile, Beauty just watched from afar as Nettie mantled her food from dad.

DC flew west and left Nettie to eat her treasure-at times she would stop eating and for no apparent reason start whining, then continue eating. Beauty also whined a few times too-like mother, like daughter I guess.

I left them to look for the other juvies but I had no luck finding anybody else so I called it quits at 9:30am. It was quite an entertaining watch that left a smile on my face! 🙂

Click on the links below to view more pics and videos
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqj0W

http://youtu.be/bJDlDAgZEh8

http://youtu.be/assRlgenUpw

http://youtu.be/9U5d0_oY1sg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

What a difference a day makes.  No rain today, but cooler temperatures and raging water over the High Falls were the same as yesterday.  I arrived downtown close to 7:00 pm, first checking out the downtown area.  No luck finding any falcons there.  Brian H texted from the pedestrian bridge that he had a juvie male at the north end of the Beebee Station (just across the street from Kodak Office), so that’s where I headed.

By the time I arrived at the pedestrian bridge, the juvie was gone, but there was a juvie on the Frontier Communication Tower platform and another falcon (maybe adult) on top of the apartments on the corner of St Paul Blvd and Andrew St.

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During the time I spent on the pedestrian bridge, I was joined by Brian, Lisa, Dana, Shaky and Carrie.  Joyce and Kathy O reported from downtown.  Everyone but Shaky, Carrie, Brian and I headed downtown when all the falcon activity was happening there.  From the pedestrian bridge we were able to see a large part of all the activity, including a food transfer that one juvie carried to the old IBM Bldg on State St.  We could see Beauty on the southwest corner of the of the Hyatt and Dot.ca on the top arm of the Frontier Communication Tower.  Most importantly, we saw all 4 juvies go for the food transfer and do some talon tagging over City Hall and the City Place Bldg!  That was the highlight of my evening watch.  🙂

At 8:40 pm, it was time to join the others.  We all gathered on Aqueduct St aka “the hole”.  Another juvie was eating on the east side ledge just above the nest box level.  The others were flying here and there, one knocking Beauty off Mercury.  There was some talon tagging and Beauty chasing a small bird that got away.  Not sure where Dot.ca ended up by this time.  Maybe up in the elevator shaft?

After 9:00 pm, we all said our goodbyes and headed home.

The following pictures were taken during the evening watch.  They are all of the falcons downtown, taken from the pedestrian bridge.

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It was fantastic seeing the whole family this evening.  I’ll leave you with one more picture, this one showing all the spots we saw falcon land during the evening watch.  It’s not all the spots, but I wanted to give you and idea of what we saw tonight.  Goodnight everyone!

*Note: All my pics were taken from the pedestrian bridge.  The far distance and low lighting explains the poor quality of the pics in my report today.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a gray cloudy morning with a starting temperature of 55 (F) 13 (C) but so much better than yesterday when we had a deluge of rain

Click on my pictures to view the full version

After being sidelined the last 2 days with a sore back and neck, I was happy to be able to get out to watch our fantastic falcon family!

It was a slow start as I wasn’t able to find any of our feathered friends at the start from the Broad St. Bridge (BSB). I then joined Dan on the Pont De Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls and he wasn’t having much luck either. He saw 1 falcon on Times Square (TSB) when he first got there and another one flying from near Xerox toward Cornhill but that was it for him. I spotted a falcon on the northeast corner of HSBC just before Dan called it quits.

It left before I could get over there and after a trip around the city in search of falcons, I finally found a couple upon returning to the east side. Dot.Ca (DC) was on a south side column of Xerox and there was a juvie further down on the roof-both had their backs to me.

I left Woodbury St. and went over to Chestnut St. for a better angle after the juvie flew around the corner to the east side roof. Another juvie landed near the southwest corner of HSBC and after a few moments walked toward the east , then flew the rest of the way to the southeast corner.

DC and the Xerox juvie flew off going behind HSBC out of view-the HSBC juvie, who I was able to ID as Mercury, flew off while I was watching the other 2 and returned to the southeast corner of HSBC. 5 minutes later he flew northeast and didn’t return.

While I was taking care of some business Nettie visited the nest box area with food, which Beauty took from her as reported by Donna and Shaky. Thanks guys! When I arrived on the BSB Beauty was on cam 1 and Tesh was on the base of Mercury with food.Soon after, the Beautyful one flew over to the heel of Mercury to Teshs’ displeasure as she half mantled the food from mom and had quite a bit to say to her as well.

Next up, I heard another juvie whining and suddenly it landed next to Tesh, who mantled the food. They both flew off-Tesh went down to the east side railing below Mercury with the goods and the other one knocked Beauty off the heel, then went to the well wall briefly. Ei reported to me later that it had been Nettie who had quite the full crop. Thank you!

As I moved from the BSB to Aqueduct Park, Tesh finished eating and walked to the northeast corner of the railing-feaking the whole way. It was then that I spotted Beauty on the top ibeam south corner of OCSR and she was looking really sweet with a feather stuck to her beak.

I shared space with them for about a half hour-Tesh was very alert watching everything around her. She waved good bye and  flew off to the northeast, circling above Andrews Place apartments and the Radisson Hotel then disappeared.

Beauty was preening as she continues to deal with her molt. One of the boys showed up above OCSR,circling a few times then flying north. While I was looking for them I came across a couple people at the Federal building giving horse rides as I passed on Andrews St. Now that’s different!!

<Beauty missing a tail feather or two    

I ended my watch at 11am but I wasn’t done seeing falcons, for as I made my way down Seth Green Drive (my road) to Seneca Towers (where I live) I spotted the very dapper Veteran on a pole near the northwest corner of the building.

After seeing all Rochester Peregrine Falcons except for Nor’Easter, I’d say I had more than enough for a happy return to make me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view more pics and videos
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http://youtu.be/xWAPtSsWCH4

http://youtu.be/xRcgyi6t_wI

http://youtu.be/7f_cqviRq7w

http://youtu.be/zbFdWiCMRQ4

http://youtu.be/2w30qD-QDEM

http://youtu.be/o4Vy9Ne_f2Y

http://youtu.be/JAymJxIkpCs

http://youtu.be/IbymkAPJMds

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Rain, rain and more rain!  Rochester and the surrounding area got lots of rain today with lots of flooding.  Finally, tonight the rain stopped and a few of the watchers made their way downtown.  I met Kathy O, Joyce and Larry O and we all spread out to look for our falcons.  The water was raging over the High Falls and the island below was totally covered in water.  The amount of water pouring over the falls was incredible!  Here is a short video of what we saw.  Just click on the following link to see my YouTube video.

http://youtu.be/-uFhxytGmk0

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Joyce texted that she had three juvies on the southeast corner of the HSBC building, so that’s where we headed.  Just as I arrived, I saw two juvies come off of HSBC and fly together over the old Midtown Plaza shell.  They circled around to the north side of HSBC.  Joyce, Kathy and I followed one of the juvies to the west, where we found Tesh (ID’d by Joyce) on the jail communication tower.

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Tesh left and we all drove around looking for falcons, with no luck.  Kathy & Larry left and Joyce and I met back on the pedestrian bridge, hoping to see a falcon from there.  We were losing light fast, so we both headed back to the Times Square building, arriving just in time to see a juvie fly in and land on the southeast corner of the ledge just above the nest box.  It was too dark by this time to ID this falcon.  I ended my watch at approximately 9:00 pm.

It was much cooler this evening with temps in the 60’s (F) and dark clouds overhead.  Goodnight everyone!