By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I got a late start, arriving downtown just a little before 7:30 pm.  It was a balmy, beautiful evening.  When I left downtown at approximately 9:00 pm, the State St clock said it was 75 degrees.  Nice!

When I arrived, I spotted two falcons on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).  There was a juvie, that I believe was Tesh (but can’t be 100% sure) on the south side of the platform railing.  On the second arm, was an adult that I believe was Dot.ca.  I parked on the north side of the tower for a better look.  That’s when a juvie flew in and knocked Dot.ca off.  Dot.ca headed south towards the Times Square Bldg (TSB) and the juvie landed on the east side platform railing.  I was not able to positively ID this juvie.  In fact, due to low light, I was not able to positively ID any of the falcons this evening, except to say they were juvie or adult.

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Right after Dot.ca left, Larry O joined me.  He decided to head downtown to see if he could spot any other falcons.  From the Broad St Bridge (BSB), Larry reported seeing one falcon on the jail communication tower.  It wasn’t long before the juvie on the east side of the railing took off and headed south towards the Times Square Bldg.

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Larry tweeted that a juvie landed on the southwest wing ledge on the Times Square Bldg.  Since the juvie on the FCT seemed to be settled in for a nice preening, I headed over to the Times Square Bldg where I found the juvie located there.

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I met up with Larry O on the Broad St Bridge, where he was checking out one of the adult Black-Crowned Night Herons that have been hanging out on the river.  There were also a whole bunch of Cedar Wax Wings there.

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The falcon that had been on the Time Square Bldg joined the other one on the jail communication tower.  Then both took off and flew towards us and over us heading east.  We last saw them as they passed by Midtown Plaza continuing east.  From the other side of the BSB we could see that there were now two falcons back on the Frontier Communication Tower.

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Larry had to leave, so I decided to get a look at the area near Midtown.  As I passed Geva Theater, I found a Red-tailed Hawk (adult) on a light pole near the park.  Next to the hawk was a Robin and a Finch.  They were shouting their displeasure at having this big bird of prey in their territory.  The Crows got in on the act when the hawk decided to leave chasing it and cawing loudly.

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Continuing on, I found two juvies talon tagging over HSBC.  They both landed on the west side of the building.

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They didn’t stay there long.  By this time it was getting dark and my camera does not work well in low light.  I really thought I saw four flying above Xerox, but I never captured a picture of four.  Here’s one really blurry picture of three juvies chasing each other over the top of the Xerox Tower.

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They flew together for a few moments and then took off in different directions.  One landed on the southeast corner of the Chase Lincoln Tower.  I headed back to the Broad St Bridge, arriving just in time to first hear and then see two juvies chasing an adult.  Pretty sure it was Dot.ca.  When he got close to the OCSR, and the two juvies were directly behind him, he flipped up into the elevator shaft.  It was kind of funny seeing the reaction of the two juvies as they flew past and back around.  Trying to figure out where their dad went.  🙂

I believe they landed on the OCSR somewhere, but it was too dark to see where.  Another falcon flew up to the Times Square Bldg and landed on the southeast wing ledge.  I thought another falcon had landed on the northeast wing ledge, but I could not verify that it was up there.

A little after 9:00 pm, I ended my very active fledge watch.  Although I can’t say for sure that I saw Beauty during my watch, I do know that she spent some time at the nest box, where she was seen on camera tidying up the scrape.  Goodnight everyone!  Enjoy your evening!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This mornings weather was mostly cloudy with a temperature of 66 (F) 19 (C)

Make sure to click on the pictures to see the full view

As I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) I could see Dan turned and facing the east side. When I got parked I could see that he was watching 4 falcons (all juvies) flying above Xerox. I got to see a few seconds of it before they broke up and flew in different directions. One of them landed on the Bausch & Lomb (B&L) building below the spire and another under the northeast wing of Times Square (TSB). A few minutes later the B&L juvie joined it and the other 2 flew to parts unknown.

Dan told me they had been at it for half hour before I got there. The B&L juvie flew straight down in a half stoop position and ended up on the north end of the well wall as the other juvie flew over to the base of Mercury.

Next the wall juvie flew east across the river out of view behind Xerox. Minutes later the Mercury bird flew across the river going in between the Radisson Hotel and Andrews Place apartments out of view. Pigeons were scattering in different directions when nobody returned Dan decided to leave.

I spent the next 15 minutes looking in every direction until I spotted a falcon on the jail towers’ 2nd arm-just as I was about to drive over to Troup St. for a closer look another juvie flew out from the tower followed by the one on the arm. They met up with 2 falcons near the Wilder building and disappeared behind OCSR. There may have been a food transfer because Nor’Easter and Mercury showed up on Crossroads and were tugging and sharing a small piece of food.

Nor’Easter gave up early and walked back and forth before joining Mercury again. They spread out a bit then Mercury flew off very low over the river to the southeast and out of view from my vantage point at the Radisson Hotel by Main St. I took a look at Kodak Office and spotted a falcon on the Kodak Office cupola.

I drove over to find it was Dot.Ca (DC) with a full crop-so had he left that smell bit of food for the juvies after eating the lions’ share of it? Hmm-could be!

I left him to look for juvies and found Nor’Easter was gone from Crossroads and I had a juvie on the south side platform railing of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) with its back to me. I tried 3 different angles to see the leg bands with no luck but it had yellow feet and looked big to me so I believe it was Nettie. She flew southeast after 20 minutes passed.

From the BSB I spotted a falcon on the 2nd arm of the jail tower-I arrived just in time to ID it as Nettie before she flew off to the east.

As I made my way down Plymouth Ave. toward FCT I spotted a falcon on the south side platform railing but it left before I got there. I then checked KO with my binoculars and saw a falcon on the southeast corner of the launchpad. Getting a closer view I was able to ID it as DC.

I ended my watch just about 9am but I wasn’t done yet for as I approached Seneca Towers I saw Veteran on the northwest corner. He  walked down the railing out of view after a few minutes.

I could go up to my 16th floor apartment smiling after a 6 falcon watch! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos

http://youtu.be/pbrh0vPWml0

http://youtu.be/Zs5-b95kgW8

http://youtu.be/JwpyGmHk0W0

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

A little catch up from Friday’s Watch (7/18).  Here are some pictures I took that afternoon/evening.

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Today’s watch (Sunday, 7/20/14) from noon til close to 8:30 pm.  During the afternoon, it was very quiet.  Dana and I did have lunch at the Genesee Brewery.  We sat out on the deck, which gives you a stunning view of the gorge and the High Falls area.  While we were there, a falcon flew in over the pedestrian bridge and landed on the northeast corner of Kodak Office’s Bldg 10.  This is the building we gave the name Acon’s Peak.  It was a favorite spot of M&K’s daughter Aconcagua.  We are fairly certain it was a juvie that landed there.  A second falcon flew through the gorge and landed on the north east corner of the launch pad on the Kodak Tower.  An adult, but we could not ID it due to the distance.  These pictures were taken from the Genesee Brewery which is directly across the river from Kodak Office.  We were thrilled to have some flying in the gorge and at the Kodak Tower.  🙂

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Shaky joined Dana and I after lunch and we all moved to “the hole” (aka Aqueduct St).  It was warm and humid with a nice breeze.  We had hoped that there would be some flying, but no such luck.  The falcons didn’t show up until after Dana and Shaky left.

I was on the Andrew St Bridge, when the adult from Kodak Office flew overhead, heading towards the OCSR.  The adult flew directly up into the elevator shaft.  It wasn’t long before I heard the vocalization of a juvie which flew in and landed on the south end of the Cross Rds Bldg.  I moved back to the hole after checking out the downtown area.  I was able to ID the falcon on the Cross Rds Bldg.  It was Nettie with her green tape.

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Nettie was the only falcon I saw during most of the afternoon.  It wasn’t until later that an adult flew over heading south.  I am pretty sure it was Dot.ca.  I checked out the jail communication tower and found a falcon at the very top.

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This is how it remained until the evening watch, when things picked up a bit.  Joyce and Brian joined me.  Nettie remained on the Cross Rds Bldg, Dot.ca on the jail communication tower and now two were on the top arm of the Frontier Communication Tower.  Joyce ID’d them as Tesh and Mercury.  Not to worry about Nor’easter.  He showed up a little later when food came in.  I missed the food transfer because I was over at the Frontier Communication Tower.  But when the juvie there took off, I followed.  Joyce reported that all four were on the B&L bldg, so that’s where I headed.  From near the Geva Theater, I had a nice view of all 4 on the southwest end of the building.  It looked like the two girls were sharing a very small piece of food, while the boys looked on.  Whatever it was, it didn’t last long.

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Three were off, while the 3rd remained on the west side of B&L on the top level.  There was some talon tagging and flying by the three.  I was not able to ID any of them, sorry to say.

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The flying didn’t last long.  One by one, they headed west, back towards the Times Square Bldg.  Dan had joined Joyce and Brian on the Broad St Bridge and they saw them pass through.  One landed on the jail communication tower and took off.  Another landed on the Frontier Communication.  It was getting late, so I said my goodbyes and headed out.  When I passed the Frontier Communication Tower I could see one falcon sitting on the east side of the platform.  It seemed small, so I thought it was either Mercury or Nor’easter.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Goodnight all!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I woke up to rain and fog with a temperature of 64 (F) 18 (C). It rained on and off during my entire watch with humid and dark conditions

After 2 trips around downtown I finally came upon the Beautyful one -she was on the heel of Mercury. I started in the hole at Bank Place and Aqueduct St. then I went up on the Broad St. Bridge to share space with her. She took off 25 minutes later flying very fast over the river to the south.

Pigeons scattered and I thought perhaps Beauty had caught one but I didn’t see anything in her talons and a split second later 2 juvies appeared out of nowhere to chase Beauty over Blue Cross Arena and the Democrat and Chronicle buildings before disappearing behind the Times Square building.

As I was on Broad St. at Plymouth Ave. I saw Nettie fly to the west side railing of Widows Walk (WW). She was quite alert as she did a little preening and looking over her surroundings.

Nettie had started out with her back to me but turned around to face me thankfully. She had a nice bulge in her crop to show that she had eaten recently. She did some posing for me.

<Click it

Miss Nettie then turned around again to give me her back doing it in style by spreading her wings and making a show of it.

I left her to look for the other 5 Rochester falcons. I eventually found Beauty on the top ibeam west corner of OCSR and after a bit spotted Nettie up under the northeast wing of Times Square. After a few minutes she started squawking and flew off to the north. I figured Beauty had left OCSR and that’s why Nettie had vocalized.

I drove over to Plymouth Ave. to check around and ended up on Fitzhugh and Church St. where I found Beauty on the northeast corner of City Place, one of the juvie girls on the beige roof and Mercury on the north side roof. Dana was also out watching and I joined her by the Sister Cities parking garage.

Mercury was eating as his head would pop up and down, in and out of site. When he was finished he stood up into full view, feaked on the roofs edge and walked east to take a look at his sister.

<Click it

Beauty flew off to the Frontier Communications Tower across from City Place and landed below the large disk near the northeast corner.

I decided to call it quits and told Dana I would take a ride around to look for the other juvies before heading out. I didn’t find any but as I approached Seneca Towers where I live on the 16th floor, I spotted Veteran from Seth Green Drive on my way in-he was on the northwest corner railing. This is his and Luzernes’ favorite spot to hang out on the building.

I ended my watch with a big old smile after seeing him! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos

http://youtu.be/cCE-qBYz918

http://youtu.be/diwProfRMVo

http://youtu.be/3Uh0rqIYNMA

http://youtu.be/hQLUdF7ihn8

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This mornings weather was overcast with a starting temperature of 60 (F) 16 (C)

As Donna and I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge we could see a juvie on the base of Mercury but the parking was all full as the Jehovahs Witnesses were in town. We ended up in Aqueduct Park where we could see the juvie. Dot.Ca (DC) flew past his offspring which prompted it to start sceaming at dear old dad. DC continued on to land on the 3rd ibeam south corner of OCSR.

I was able to see the red tape on this juvies right leg band telling me that it was Nor’Easter.

I spotted Dana on the Broad St. Bridge with her long lens-after a bit she started looking down in the river by the RG&E substation. I couldn’t see what she was taking pics of so I took a couple random shots. She came over to join Donna and I in the park and told us of a duckling a Black-crowned Night Heron had eaten. Well come to find out one of the pics I took had the heron in it but he was just standing there -no duckling.

Dana also said there was a juvie up on the Wilder building. I spotted a juvie on the northwest corner  of the Granite building, but it left soon after.I was able to get a shot of it thru the trees in the park.

Then we saw one under the northeast wing of the Times Square building-it eventually flre off to the north. Beauty was on the top ibeam south corner of OCSR amd Nor’E was getting restless.

He left so we went up to the hole where Brian met up with us to watch the Wilder bird.

Pretty sure this was Mercury on the east side roof of the Wilder building. His brother Nor’E was back on the base of Mercury.

We had to get going as Donna had to return to New Jersey after her week long stay in our fair city-we checked Frontier Communications Tower and Kodak Office on our way out of downtown.

We found DC on the northwest corner of the launchpad to send Donna off with a smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a couple videos from todays watch

http://youtu.be/ajgDuXW-FXM

http://youtu.be/YARmmTzN0bg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Todays starting temperature was 54 (F) 12 (C) with sunny blue skies

Unfortunately the program we use for our reports, WordPress isn’t letting me post pictures tonight so you’ll have to check out my photo album at the end of this abbreviated report. Sorry it’s so short but it’s late and my bed is calling me.

Donna and I watched our Rochester juvies do a little flying today but it was mostly about eating. As we arrived on the Broad St. bridge  Nettie was on the nest box roof and then she went over to the well wall parapet then out to the north end of the wall.The highlights of the watch were Beauty being chased by Tesh,Nor’Easter and Mercury. Tesh flying off Times Square and thumping on a gull twice, making it scream and a food drop by Dot.Ca (DC) on the base of Mercury in which the 3 juvies shared as Nettie watched from across the way on Times Square. Everyone dispersed and disappeared after eating and so did we from our morning session.

As we arrived at Seneca Towers, Veteran was on the northwest corner. Our night time watch was quiet with very little activity after they had eaten a meal. Kathy,Donna,Carol,Joyce,Jeanne,Dick,Brian and myself were on watch this evening. Many smiles crossed our faces while together tonight as per usual! 🙂

Click on the links below to see my pics and videos from todays watches

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqjwG

http://youtu.be/_5CSzfRNY-8

http://youtu.be/MKHi9D02mjU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Could two watches have been any different than today and yesterday’s watches?  Yesterday, there was very little activity until after 7:00 pm.  The evening (7/16) ended with a most awesome display of flying and talon tagging by three of our four juvies.  When you’re watching it in person, it just takes your breath away.  How do they do some of those moves?  It just seems impossible.  I do believe that Nettie is lying low while she recovers from whatever injury she received over the weekend.  But, we have seen her flying well and interacting with her family.  I think she just needs time and that’s ok.

Wednesday – 7/16/14 Pictures – Watchers:  Donna, MAK, Lisa McK, Joyce, Brian, Dan, Kris G, Bill, Nancy, Ed and me Carol P.

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Here is a video I took of the three juvies flying together above the Xerox Tower.  Just click on the following link.

http://youtu.be/Gp4az1-XuSo

Thursday – 7/17/14 Pictures – Watchers:  Joyce, Dana, Carrie, Shaky, Dan and two young friends, and me Carol P.

Tonight was a whole different fledge watch.  We saw 3 food transfers and a food delivery to the nest box for Nor’easter.  The first two food transfers were successful, but the 3rd was dropped by, we believe, Mercury.  To be fair, he was the first to fly up to Beauty who came in with a pigeon.  He flipped up and attempted to take the large prey, but missed.  Beauty continued to the base of Mercury (the statue) and landed next to Nettie.  That’s when Beauty was mugged by two of the juvies that flew in and landed on her and next to her.  A tug-0-war started, and the prey fell to the roof below.  Beauty was able to retrieve it and took it away.

Dot.ca brought in food to the nest box just as it was getting dark and Nor’easter was the happy tiercel who got this evening meal.  It was a fun watch tonight with lots of flying and food transfers.  All 6 Rochester Falcons were seen during my watch.  All are doing very well and the juvies continue to hang out with each other.

Here are some pictures from this afternoon/evening.  Enjoy! and Goodnight!

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One of three Black-Crowned Night Herons we saw last night.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Today was a different kind of falcon watch-Joyce picked Donna and I up and we dove off to Syracuse,NY about 80 miles east of Rochester where our old friend Pigott has a nest site, offspring (successfully fledged) female named Barb and an unanded mate. They reside on the State Tower building. We were lucky enough to see Barb on City Hall across the way from the nest building eating a small snack.

We took a break at a local pub while it rained and when we came back out and took a drive around we spotted Pigott and Barb flying between 2 buildings and disappearing a split second later. That was all the falcon activity we had for the morning/afternoon.

I must say I am so happy that Pigott has filled her life with a family-she sure is in a totally different environment from when she was in Rochester. From almost rural surroundings to a true city bird-my heart grew from this experience today even though we only saw Miss Pigott for a second or two.

We came home and had intentions of going downtown to see our juvies but Luzerne and Veteran were hanging out and flying back and forth in front of Donna and I from the west side balcony and we just couldn’t tear ourselves away from our eye level encounters with these 2. Many passings at no more than 20 feet away they had food and there was vocalizing and a stoop down into the gorge tree tops by Veteran that was pretty great to see. Imagine, we’re used to looking up at them and from my 16th floor Seneca Towers apartment building we watched the stoop below us. Wild stuff!! I got one pic of Luzerne as she was coming right at us with the sun behind her making it a silhouette shot.

We never made it downtown but we were smiling never the less! 🙂

One video link below of Barb eating-click it and view

http://youtu.be/8CBWp-4e_cM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a nice morning for a watch with a starting temperature of 59 (F) 16 (C) and bright blue sunny skies with a few clouds

Click on all my pics to see the full version

Donna and I didn’t find any falcons after checking around downtown so we went to the Pont De Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls where Dan was settled on a bench. Beauty was on the southeast cube of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT), Dot.Ca (DC) was on the southeast corner of the Kodak Office (KO) launchpad and 2 juvies were flying around the KO tower. One of the juvies landed on what Dan named the High ball of the 18th floor on KO.

Dan left after DC flew north so far that he disappeared into the horizon. Donna and I met up with DebbieH on Fitzhugh St. below Widows Walk (WW) where we had Tesh on the northwest corner with food and another juvie on the northeast corner. Eventually all 4 juvies were on WW but Tesh was the only one that ate as she was hogging it all. In time the other 3 left Tesh to it and scattered.

After they all flew off  WW we took a ride and found the Beautyful one on the jail tower 3rd arm down and a juvie was on the west side of the Hall of Justice roof.

Next we were back to WW and had 3 juvies there on the east and north side rails-one by one they flew off with 2 of them playing talon tag and vanishing behind buildings to the north.

Later on I spotted a juvie on the northeast corner of City Place playing peekaboo-we drove up to the roof of the Sister Cities parking garage for a closer view and to look for the other 5 downtown falcons.

We left as there was quiet in the kingdom, to take our afternoon break only to return later in the evening. Lisa and Carol were on watch as we met in the hole. Things were quiet at first with 1 juvie under the southeast wing of Times Square, then 2 more joined it under the wing. More watchers started filtering in-Dan, Nick, Nancy, Kris, Bill and Joyce joined the watch. We all ended up going to the Broad St. bridge to watch the 3 juvies sky dance above Xerox, putting on quite an aerial display.

I taped a 4 minute video of the high flying instead of taking pics as the distance was too far for it. After the juvies finished and flew to the Times Square building under the southeast wing and fledge ledge I spotted a Black-crowned Heron in the river. Carol found one on a log and I saw a 3rd one on a rock-2 of them flew up river to the south.

After a great evening watch we all left at 9pm with smiling faces! 🙂

PS-Donna and I are going to Syracuse tomorrow with Joyce to see Pigott and her new digs so there will be no morning watch

Click on the links below to view more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqjv-

http://youtu.be/ge7bMw0amLM

http://youtu.be/4u7WBuIz0Fo

http://youtu.be/MyEp_-PvgUs

http://youtu.be/k1dYh9pfmuw

http://youtu.be/ImO4d-wmkOo

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I have been so busy over the last few days.  Juvie falcons to keep a close eye on and a most wonderful gathering of folks here in Rochester this past weekend for the annual Rochester Falcon Watch Weekend.

Nettie is again flying high with her brothers and sister after a scare on Saturday/Sunday.  We are all relieved that there was nothing seriously wrong with her left wing.  Whew!

The highlight of today’s late afternoon/evening watch?  One of the juvie males, not sure if it was Mercury or Nor’easter, chased a flock of about 20 sparrows!  We were all quite amazed by this attempt to hunt.  🙂

I am pretty sure that all 4 juvies visited the nest box during the day and evening.  I love when the folks watching the Rfalconcam Cameras are able to see them!

The fledge watch continues.  If you get a chance to stop downtown, this is your chance to see  how Nettie, Tesh, Mercury and Nor’easter are doing with their falcon lessons from Beauty and Dot.ca.

I’ll leave you with some pictures I’ve taken over the last few days.  Enjoy and goodnight!

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