By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was partly cloudy with a chilly wind out of the north making the 60 (F) 16 (C) feel much colder to start my watch this morning.

I saw more deer today than falcons but that’s ok because I did see both Beauty and Dot.Ca and 2 out of 3 fledglings. I found Beauty on the east side of HSBC 15 minutes into my watch at 5:55am.

I got to be with her about 5 minutes before she stretched and took flight heading southeast until she turned into a speck in the early morning sky.

I looked everywhere between the east side and Kodak Office (KO) and turned up not one falcon so I went down to Browns Race and walked out on the Pont De Rennes pedestrian bridge at the High Falls. Dan was on the east end when I started my trek across from the west end. I  asked him for the scoop and he told me that there were 2 juvies and an adult flying off to the northwest earlier but that was all he’d seen. At 6:45am I was watching a big flock of gulls flying over by the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) and behind them I spotted  a falcon who flew to the 2nd arm west side and landed.

Dan and I thought the posture looked more like an adult but from that distance we couldn’t say for sure. We missed it fly off and as I scanned KO with my binocs I spotted a falcon on the southeast corner of the launchpad. Closer inspection showed another was back on the ledge farther. DC was on the corner and Beauty was in the back crouched down like maybe she had food she wanted to keep for herself.

Less than 5 minutes passed when DC took off and Beauty came out to the corner of the launchpad. Dan watched DC fly directly to the FCT and land on the platform railing near the southeast corner.

Click on my pics for full version

Just about 7:30am DC flew off and Dan left for home ending his watch. At that time I walked down to the west end of the bridge to get closer to the Beautyful one.

10 minutes later as I was reading a tweet from CarolP Beauty left KO and I missed it so I have no idea what direction she went. I walked back to the east end of the bridge to meet Carol who had texted me of  her arrival. Around 8am I noticed a falcon on the northeast corner of the KO launchpad-it was DC and he had some fresh red meat below him.

He took off soon after and this is when I had my first deer sighting-it was a whole family on the west side of the falls.

<click it>

They walked back behind the buildings out of view and then I saw 2 more young ones at the edge of the gorge on the island that is in the gorge below the bridge. The young buck still had that velvety fuzz on its antlers as the doe walked in the water to get a drink.

Before I left to check the Brighton site DC made another appearance-this time on the southeast corner of the launchpad.

I returned to High Falls after seeing no PEFAs at the Brighton site. I decided to check out the view from the observation deck (my first time on it) which is on the east side of the falls before rejoining Carol on the pedestrian bridge.  I could see Lou had joined her while I was gone.

It was around 9am when I spotted 2 juvies flying over the gorge-one of them flew over me and I lost track of the other as I started recording the flight of the one nearest to me. I had some trouble keeping up and the camera had trouble staying focused as this young fledgling was moving fast!

The juvies disappeared as quickly as they appeared but it was thrilling for the minute they were there showing us their flight abilities. I then spotted another deer down in the thick greenery of the island munching on the foliage. And before I left the deck I took a pic of the falls and KO for a perspective from the observation deck.

I made my way over to the bridge with Carol, Louigi and Dana but we wouldn’t see any falcons in the next hour.  I saw some crows that at first I thought might be our fledglings and a Great Blue Heron down in the river fishing.

I ended my watch a little past 10am having spent time with nature in the heart of the city and you know that put a smile on my face as I left for home! 🙂

Click on the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqia2

http://youtu.be/9LppLij5mL4
http://youtu.be/aNB-iRrhgxU
http://youtu.be/VDKjNTCrUmM
http://youtu.be/ulY8IoqVX8c

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

After a night of rain this mornings weather had cleared up nicely. Partly cloudy skies and a starting temp of 63 (F) 17 (C).

The day would dawn in the east as it always does but it would bring a day of firsts for this watcher as I saw my first juvie on Midtown Plaza, I would have my first watch with Donna from Florida and I would see Peregrine Falcons flying in the gorge at High Falls for the very first time!!

Click pics for full version

Arriving about 5:35am I checked the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) first then made my way to Kodak Office (KO) followed by the Times Square (TSB) and Broad St. Bridge (BSB) areas with not a falcon to show for it. Things were about to pick up as I drove to the east side and found 2 juvies in the air near HSBC and Dan sitting in his chair on the corner of Court and Chestnut St. in front of Manhattan Square Park.  One of the fledglings landed on Midtown Plaza and the other on the Frontier building after chasing a pigeon right in front of us.

The Frontier bird flew off almost immediately disappearing behind the building to the southwest. The Midtown juvie flew off stooping on a pigeon missed it and returned to Midtown only to fly off after another pigeon then back to Midtown landing on the east side. Shortly after a 2nd fledgling joined it.

One of them flew off to the north side of Midtown out of our field of vision and the other one walk/hopping sideways (the darnedest thing I’ve ever seen) down to the southeast corner and started eating something. Larry stopped by to tell us he was going to the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls hoping the juvies would go fly in the gorge for him again. Dan and I stayed with the sure thing as we were being treated to all 3 juvies right then and there.

Suddenly the 3rd juvie flew into the picture with number 2 and coaxed the Midtown juvie off to fly around HSBC with them. When they were done 2 landed on Midtown and one on the SUNY building.

<Baron is on the left

The SUNY girl flew over to Midtown and we thought she landed on the roof out of view. Our other girl started eating up there and when she was finished Baron flew off and she joined him taking part in some talon tag as #3  from out of nowhere joined them. One juvie landed on the lower part of Midtown on the northeast corner and the other 2 flew off out of view and never returned.

This one disappeared around 7am and we would not see a falcon on the east side again. At 7:30am Dan left and I headed to Brighton. No falcon sightings over there but I watched a cute little Goldfinch eating some purple weed seeds.

Click it

Right after I left Brighton I got a call from Florida Donna who wondered if I might come pick her boyfriend Jim and herself up to go falcon watching as they were in town for a brief stay. I picked them up at their hotel and we went straight downtown and started searching for PEFAs. I took them to all the regular places including a trip to the top of the Sister Cities parking garage but we weren’t seeing any falcons. When we came down we spotted one on the jail tower below the satellite dish but when we got to Troup St. for a closer look it was gone. Our last stop was to be the pedestrian bridge at High Falls-as we parked at Browns Race there was a cat sticking its head out a 2nd story window.

We were on the bridge only minutes when Donna asked is that a falcon flying near the falls and soon we had all 3 fledglings giving us a show we will not forget. After a little talon tagging they started swooping on a Great Blue Heron eventually driving it down into the water in front of the falls where they continued dive bombing it. It managed to fly away as they lost interest and went back to their flying games which included mini stooping each other as they encompassed the entire gorge area and landed on the rock wall for a little rest. I couldn’t believe our luck as this was the first time I had seen a falcon flying in the gorge and it was Donnas’ as well.

After a few minutes they were up and flying again and there was now 4 of them as one of the adults had entered the mix. They all landed on the rock cliffs on the east side of the gorge. Jim found where 2 of them landed but we didn’t find the other 2 with good reason-they blend in well! Dana joined us followed by CarolP and then KathyO-they too were excited that they could watch PEFAs flying at High Falls again.

Unfortunately I had to trash all my pics because the sun was directly behind the falcons making for some washed out awful photos but I did get a couple other critter pics down in the gorge.

<Kingfisher Click it

Dana and CarolP walked over to the observation deck to wait for the falcons to fly out from the cliffs below them but that didn’t happen so they came back to the bridge with the rest of us.

A couple juvies took off flying on the east side and made their way across the river with one landing on the top of OCSR and another on the FCT.

Donna had to be leaving so I took a couple pics of  her and Jim, then we were on our way.

I ended my watch at 10:45am some 5 hours after I started and I smiled during the entire extraordinary watch from start to finish! 🙂

Click on the links below to see more pics and some videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiaU

http://youtu.be/AghscX0SOS0
http://youtu.be/WQ-Qey3YE3A
http://youtu.be/RBl8HQkjCpg
http://youtu.be/Br_Pu-Wi96g

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Spent about 3 hours Falcon Watching this evening with fellow Watchers Kathy O and Larry O.  We’re pretty sure we saw all three juvies, but did not see Beauty or Dot.ca.  I am sure they were somewhere nearby.  One juvie was on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) and two were at the east end of Midtown Plaza.  I did not see all three together, so can’t be sure we saw all three.

Kathy and I left the one juvie on the east end of the platform on the FCT to check out the downtown area.   We eventually found Baron and one of his sisters at the east end of Midtown.  They did some nice flying for us before they both took off, one to the east and one to the south.  Now we had no falcons to watch.  It was time to find us some falcons.  lol  Larry joined us for a short while before he had to leave.  I was driving down Woodbury heading east.  I stopped in front of the parking lot next to Geva Theater to check out the surrounding area.  As usual at this time of the evening, the Crows were streaming in and landing on the Frontier Bldg next to Washington Square Park where they roosted during the evening.  There aren’t too many Crows yet, not like the numbers that will come in later.  So I’m looking at the 30 or so Crows lined up on the Frontier Bldg and wondering why some of the Crows are diving on each other?  Well that wasn’t too unusual.  They do like to harass each other.  Something made me take a closer look.

Through my binoculars, I could tell that one of the birds on the building lined up with the Crows was actually a juvenile Peregrine Falcon.  Oh, boy!  I quickly called Kathy to let her know and I found a parking spot where I could get a better view, near Washington Square Park.  Kathy joined me and we settled in for what turned out to be an incredible showing of just how well “our”  juvie falcons are doing.  Over and over again, the juvies, one of them being Baron, took off from the building and chased the Crows all over, including into the trees of the Washington Square Park.  This aerial dogfight was exciting to see.  They were tearing up the sky and the Crows were no slouches, making dives and turns to avoid the falcons.  The Crows on the building and in the trees were vocalizing their displeasure, loudly.

There was no way for me to get any pics of this dogfight.  They are just too fast!

As we were losing light, Baron and his sister, who I was never able to ID, left the Frontier Bldg.  One flew to the NW towards the Times Square Bldg and the other landed on the cross on top of St Mary’s Church on the other side of the park, facing NW.  About 15 mins later, this juvie also left following the path of the first juvie.  Kathy and I got into our cars and we checked the downtown area.  The only falcon we could find was a juvie on the FCT east side of the platform.  It was after 8:30 pm and it was getting dark.  Kathy left and I tweeted out that there was a falcon on FCT and that our Watch was ending.  As I was pulling out of the parking lot, the juvie took off and flew to the Kodak Tower landing on the south side of the cupola.

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I’ll leave you with a series of pictures I took of Baron and his sister with the Crows on the Frontier Bldg near Washington Square Park.   Goodnight!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This morning the weather was outstanding with clear and calm conditions and a temperature of 56 (F)  13 (C) to start.

Our young fledglings must have felt the same way for they were scarce this morning. I saw only 1 juvie and Beauty on my 3 1/2 hour watch. No worries tho because watcher LarryO saw all 3 juvies including some talon tagging in the High Falls gorge!

I started out searching the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT)  first, then I moved on to the Kodak Office with no sightings. I then worked my way back to the south checking the Times Square and Broad St. Bridge (BSB) areas-still no PEFAs. I finally saw a  Beautyful sight on the northwest corner of HSBC.

Beauty was looking for a pigeon breakfast but they weren’t willing to come out and play while we were there. She did some stretching and then flew northwest at 6am.

As I made my way around downtown looking for falcons I came across a worker on the Crossroads building.

It would take me 25 minutes to find another falcon -as I was looking around from the BSB I spotted one on the bottom arm west side of the jail tower. I drove to Troup St. for closer viewing and was able to ID it as a juvie. I think maybe Baron because it looked small to me. He was catching a few winks while perched there for the next 15 minutes when he took flight heading west.

I had gotten a tweet from Larry saying there were fledglings flying in the High Falls gorge-unfortunately I didn’t get there in time to see them. Larry said they flew toward Frontier Park and then he lost them. I did take a few pics while on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge-it’s almost impossible not to!

Click pics to see full version

We both drove over there to check it out but no falcons were around. Larry left for work and I left for Brighton. On the way, there were Jehovahs Witnesses making there way into the Blue Cross Arena. This is their 3rd event this summer and should be the last for this year as they will be in our fair city thru Sunday.

I got to the Brighton site to find that Pigott wasn’t home so I drove back downtown around 7:30am.  I searched everywhere and as I arrived at High Falls once again I got a message from watcher DebbieH saying she had a juvie on the FCT. Thanks for the heads up Deb!  I whipped over and found the youngster on the northwest corner of the platform railing.

I barely had time for a pic when it flew off in a hurry to the south. As I followed behind trying to find where it went I stumbled across Beauty on a north side beam of the jail tower. While I was pulled over on Troup St. in front of the Catholic Family Center at School Alley an unmarked black SUV drove by slow and then backed up stopping by me. It was a detective who wanted to know what I was doing with my camera pointing at the jail. I told him I was taking pictures of a Peregrine Falcon and with a puzzled look on his face he said “oh, I thought you were planning a jail break for one of your friends”. I smiled and then he took off. lol

I left the Beautyful one to look for her brood as she preened, taking note of her full crop . I haven’t seen her with a full crop too much since her kids have grown up. It’s been a busy time for her and Dot.Ca feeding and teaching the gang all the skills they will need to survive in the big bad world. Soon  (if it hasn’t already happened) the fledglings will start making their own kills and then it will only be a matter of time before they leave the territory. Until then I’m going to enjoy them as much as possible-at least as long as they show themselves! I ended my watch at 9am smiling despite only having seen 1 juvie and Beauty-and why not, that’s more than most people get to see!  🙂

I have provided links for 2 videos below-just click and view

http://youtu.be/7qUrMLHe-ok
http://youtu.be/kjH6AxmPMQU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Larry O

Went to the Pons Du Rennes this a.m. with Harold to see what could be seen. The first looks around were negative, but as is often the case, while looking into the gorge at the High Falls, I caught sight of something in among the gulls, that was not a gull. It took a bit more watching, and getting the binocs on it, but it was a juvie. In fact, I quickly had 2 juvies flying back and forth along the waterfall wall, climbing and diving on each other, and chasing the gulls and even one poor blue heron who got in the way.

The flying demo was beautiful to watch against such a scenic backdrop. The eventually alit on the east wall, but if you had not been watching, you would not have seen them there. Perfect camoflauge.
The next time I saw them, one was heading west over the river, then State St to Frontier Field. While following the juvie, I watched one come in from the south and then the third appeared over Frontier also. For the next five minutes, the three were playing over the ball field. They went down below the building roof line, and I no longer saw them.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Watch Time:  A little after 6:00 pm to a little before 9:00 pm.

Watchers: Kathy O, Shaky, Lisa McK & Carol P.

Another gorgeous evening Falcon Watch with temps in the 70’s (F) and a light breeze.  Just beautiful.

For almost an hour both Kathy O and I searched the downtown area.  Neither of us had seen a falcon anywhere.  Kathy O texted me that they were fishing off the Broad St Bridge.  I said, “the falcons”!  Hahaha!

While I was searching, a tweet went out.  Kathy had a falcon on the west side railing of the Fronter Communication Tower (FCT) platform.  I got there as quickly as I could and saw that there was a juvie below an adult.  All I could see was a tail sticking out.  Rfalconcam cam wathcer Ei tweeted that she could see falcons on the west side of the FCT platform.  Well that just confirmed that there were two up there.

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Beauty spread her wings and tail feathers and took off, flying slowly south towards the Times Square Bldg (TSB). We could no longer see her.

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The juvie that remained on the FCT stepped out from behind the rail and looked like s/he may have found a small tidbit of food.

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After finishing the small bit of food, the unknown juvie took off heading west and chased a screaming gull.  The juvie ended the attack quickly and returned to the FCT  landing on the NE corner of the platform.

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Kathy O left to try to find Beauty and the other juvies and I drove over to the City Hall parking lot for a better look at the juvie on FCT.  I had hoped to ID this bird, but due to the bright sun and distance, I was unable to get a good picture.

Shaky joined me and we received a tweet from Kathy O that she had found two falcons on the jail communication tower (JCT).  That’s where we headed.  We joined Kathy in the Cornhill area, which is directly south of the JCT.  Lisa McK joined us and we settled in, keeping an eye on, we’re pretty sure Beauty, in the center of the JCT structure, and the juvie who was on one of the arms near the top

They remained there for quite awhile, until we were losing light.  Then Beauty took off and flew slowly back towards the downtown area.  The juvie remained on the JCT.

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We were very close to this memorial.

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Now the the sun was getting lower in the sky and our light was fading.  The Watchers broke up, Shaky heading home.  Kathy, Lisa and I decided to ride around the downtown area one last time, leaving the juvie on the Jail Comm Twr.

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We found one juvie on top of Xerox on the SW corner.  It was close to 9:00 pm, so we called it a Watch.

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I just want to share one more picture.  This was our view of the Kodak Tower from where we were watching the jail communication tower near the Cornhill area.  My picture does not do justice to the colors behind the K-T0wer.  It reminded me of a Maxfield Parrish painting.  Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a very dark morning in the flower city with lots of humidity and rain showers. The temperature at the start of my watch was 64 (F) 18 (C).

I first checked the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) and if there were any PEFAs in it I couldn’t see them as it was so dark out.  After checking from every side I drove north to Kodak Office (KO) where I found 2 fledglings as I pulled over on State St.-1 on the northeast corner of the launchpad and 1 above it on the cupola.

I went down to Mill St. to get off the busy State St.  As I arrived I could no longer see the bird on the cupola but the launchpad juvie was still there. At 6:05am a juvie came flying in enticing  its sibling to fly off with it-they circled KO a couple times then I lost sight of them. I drove to the west side of KO parking on Verona St. and could see a youngster on the southwest corner of the netting that surrounds the playpen.

It stayed for about a half hour when Dot.Ca (DC) landed above on the southeast corner of the launchpad. LarryO  reported from the pedestrian bridge that a falcon had landed there. The juvie flew off heading south followed by DC. I lost sight of them but Larry said they went to the FCT both landing on the top arm. I made the short drive down Plymouth Ave. and parked across from Frontier but I only saw 1 juvie up on the top arm south side of the tower.

It wasn’t until the juvie flew off and I drove down on Church St. that I saw DC on the west side top arm and when I looked on the larger computer screen I could clearly see him in my pics. Just goes to show once again how much difference light and the slightest angle can make. I decided to go up to the top of the Sister Cities Garage for a better view of things and to my surprise when I got up there all lined up in a row on the east side platform railing of FCT were our 3 Falconeers just hanging out in the pouring rain.

Click on my pics to view the full version

Voyager was nice enough to raise her right leg giving me a view of her red over yellow bling so that I could ID all 3.  Judging by size I concluded that the next 2 after her were Rosetta in the middle and Baron on the far right.

Click it

DC took off to the west shortly after I arrived and 10 minutes later Rosetta flew the same direction followed a minute later by Baron leaving Voyager and I all by ourselves.

10 minutes later Voyager stuck her head up looking west and appeared ready to take off and take off she did in a blur flying east very fast and coming up the rear from the west was her brother and sister followed by an adult (I think was DC).

They all flew over to the east side of OCSR where the elevator shaft is located but it is not visible from up on the garage so I made my way down and headed over to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB). From there I spotted a falcon under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB) with its back to me so I then went down to the hole parking behind Keybank. From there I was able to determine that it was a juvie and I also found a fledgling on the lower rear roof of the TSB on the northwest corner around 7:30am.

<click it

I drove over to Broad St. by Fitzhugh St. to see if I could ID the roof juvie but just as I pulled up it flew off to the north quickly leaving my field of vision. At this time I went to the Brighton Site (BS) to see if I could find Pigott home. I haven’t seen her in quite a few days now. She wasn’t there initially but after making a stop in Brighton I re-checked BS and found Miss Pigott on the west side on a top window ledge where it meets the west extension. She had her back to me and what a beautiful back it is after not seeing it for so long!

I spent 15 minutes with her and in that time she did some stretching for me so I could see her still tattered tail feathers. She doesn’t seem to have suffered from her ordeal last month as she is looking just fine otherwise.

I left her prettiness to check downtown one more time to see if I could find Beauty as I hadn’t seen her on my watch. As I approached downtown from Exchange Blvd. I saw a falcon fly from behind the TSB heading east over the river where I lost it behind the Blue Cross Arena. I headed directly over to the east side but found no PEFAs on any of the buildings over there. As I went across the BSB I saw nothing from there and then my last stop was the Andrews St. bridge where I can see many buildings north,west and south. No luck, but I was smiling for having seen 5 of our 6 Rochester Peregrine Falcons  despite the rainy conditions thus ending my watch at 10:15am! 🙂

Click on the links below to view more pics and some videos from my watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiZ6

http://youtu.be/ssW9ma68ZPk
http://youtu.be/osObxEZ1awk
http://youtu.be/Dk0Tgl9tkyo
http://youtu.be/KSnilGQ_-tk

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

6:00 to 9:00 pm Falcon Watch

It was another beautiful day in Rochester, NY with temps close to 80 degrees (F) and overcast.  There were a few sprinkles as I was heading towards downtown but it stopped.  I arrived at the Frontier Communication Tower at about 6:00 pm.  I could find no falcons there, so I checked out the surrounding area.  There was one!  Or at least a tail, because that is all I could see.  It was a juvie on the NW corner of the Launchpad of the Kodak Tower.  You have to follow the falcons, so I headed over to Kodak for a closer look.

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Kathy O was with Dan S on the Broad St Bridge.  Lisa joined me at Kodak and just after she arrived, the juvie took off heading SE.  I was able to follow the path of the juvie’s flight all the way to the other side of the Chase Tower.  Time to move and check out the area the juvie was last seen.  Off we went.

Kathy tweeted that there were two falcons on Midtown Plaza, plus a 3rd.  The juvie’s were on top at the SW corner and the other falcon was definitely an adult.  I parked near the S Clinton/Broad St intersection.  I could see the adult just fine, but only got glimpses of the two juvies on top at the SW corner.  Every now and then a wing would appear.  lol  As you can see in the picture, Midtown Plaza is a literal shell of itself.

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After awhile, Dot.ca joined the two juvies and ate a little bit himself.

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Near Midtown Plaza is my favorite downtown clock tower.  Not sure what building this is on.

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I joined Kathy O and Lisa near the library on Broad St.  The same place we had Watchers Weekend.  All three stopped eating and it was time to fly.  We watched them enter the building and come back out.  There are lots of pigeons there, so chasing them seemed to be the thing to do.  Lots of hunting practice for them.  At one point we saw a bunch of pigeons fly out of Midtown and dive.  We were all viewing them through our binoculars and saw that there was at least on falcon in the center of the panicky pigeons.  The falcons were doing most of their flying down at the east end of Midtown so we decided to head over that way.  Just as we were leaving, Shaky joined us.  We all drove over to Chestnut St and parked in front of Manhattan Square Park.  From there we have a great view of Midtown and the surrounding area.

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Kathy O, Lisa McK, Shaky and I watched from there for awhile.  Dan S passed by on his way home and Larry O tweeted that he was over at the Andrews St Bridge and could see no falcons.

After a long time, Both juvies took off from Midtown and headed NW around the north side of the Chase Tower.  Shaky checked the cameras on his phone and saw that there were two falcons on the Frontier Communication Tower.  That’s where we all headed, except of Lisa who had to leave.  We left Dot.ca on the SE corner of Midtown Plaza.

On the way over, I stopped to confirm Shaky’s sighting of Beauty on the Jail Comm Tower.  She was still there.

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Kathy, Shaky and I met at the Hochstein School of Music Parking lot, where we had a great view of the two juvies there.

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Both were constantly looking north, until they both took off and flew quickly in that direction, towards the Kodak Tower.  That’s where they met a 3rd.  It was too far to see if this was indeed the 3rd juvie, but their behavior was typical juvie meet and greet.  It was time to play and talon tag, until two landed on the cupola and the 3rd flew around to the south side.  We circled the K-Tower but none of us could spot the 3rd falcon.  It was getting dark and really hard to see.  Kathy left and Shaky and I continued to search.

We met on the west side of the K-Tower to get a better look at that side.  Now where did s/he go?  Because they were both looking north, I have to wonder if the 3rd juvie was hanging out in that direction somewhere.  I will be sure to start checking the Kodak Park area, the same place where  Unity, Archer and other Peregrine’s have been seen.  They can easily see the tall stacks of KP from KO and with their speed, it would only take a few minutes.

As darkness descended, I saw one of the two juvies up on the cupola take off and fly over me heading west.  This juvie was on a night hunt, chasing a small sparrow-sized bird over the Kodak Parking Lot, missing by inches!  The juvie pulled up and headed SE.  The hunting juvie landed on the top arm of the Frontier Comm Tower.

When Shaky and I left at 9:00 pm, we could only see one on the Kodak Cupola.  I cannot verify 100% that there were 3 juvies at Kodak, but based on behavior, I do believe there were three.  We know we saw both Beauty and Dot.cat during our Watch.  I think we had the whole family.

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Goodnight everyone!  Tomorrow is another day to get out and see what’s going on with the Rochester Falcons!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Today started out with mostly clear blue skies calm conditions and a temperature of 56 (F)  13 (C).

Arriving downtown around 5:35am it took me 20 minutes to find my first falcon and it was Beauty near the northeast corner of HSBC.

She was only there a minute or so before she stretched out her gorgeous wings and took flight going north and she was in a blurry  hurry.

It would be a half hour before I would find another falcon. While I was stopped at City Hall I took a look over to Kodak Office (KO) and spotted a PEFA on the launchpad. I drove down to Mill St. and was able to see yellow on the right leg band meaning it was Baron I had found.

He was walking back and forth toward the back of the ledge coming in and out of view at first, but then he parked it on the northeast corner. Suddenly a larger fledgling came flying in that Baron had been watching above him-one of Barons sisters, and she coaxed him off to play with her. They talon tagged around the tower and came squawking over the apartments near where I was parked then went back to KO across the front of the south side.

Baron circled the building and landed briefly on the southeast rocket then resumed the fun and games. They disappeared on the west side where I couldn’t see them.

I checked every side of KO but didn’t see any falcons, after searching downtown and coming up empty I opted for going to Brighton but there were no PEFAs there either. Upon returning to downtown as I was driving toward Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) on Plymouth Ave. I spotted a falcon on the top arm of FCT. As I pulled over on Church St. I had a small window of time to get pics and ID it. I reported Beauty but it was in fact Dot.Ca (DC).

DC returned landing on the 2nd arm west side of FCT and as he did I could hear a juvie whining but I never did find it. DC kept looking down and I don’t know if he was watching a fledgling or a prey bird.

DC stayed with me for about 20 minutes then he stooped down to the north and never came back into view. That would be the last glimpse of a Peregrine for me today.

I searched for the next 20 minutes and came up falconless so I ended my watch at 8:45am. I’m seeing less and less of our fledglings as the days pass and soon they will leave on their life journey. I saw Beauty,DC,Baron and one of the girls on watch to send me on my way smiling even tho I would have liked seeing all 3 juvies. 🙂

Click on the links below to view a couple videos

http://youtu.be/TPYFkjQkc8E
http://youtu.be/BV5wNcoVmPM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

The weather this afternoon was almost perfect.  Temps in the 70’s (F), blue sky with big, fluffy clouds and just a hint of a breeze.  I arrived downtown just before 4:00 pm and searched downtown Rochester (NY) for our falcon family.  It took me awhile, but I finally found a juvie on top of Xerox on the west side and Beauty on her favorite spot on the south side of Xerox.  I hadn’t seen her on the 4th column in near the SE corner in awhile.

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Beauty left before I could get a picture.  Soon after the juvie took off vocalizing loudly, heading NE.  I drove in that direction, but had no luck finding any falcons.  Back to the Broad St Bridge (BSB), where I found a falcon on the OCSR, 2nd IBeam down, just right of the south corner.  Based on size and coloring, I am almost certain this was Dot.ca.

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This was my view from the center of the Broad St Bridge looking north.

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It wasn’t long before Dot.ca took off.  He headed up, soaring higher and higher, probably in hunt mode.  The sun was too intense for me to watch him for long.  I decided to drive around downtown one more time.  Still no falcons seen.  Next stop the Andrews St Bridge.  From there I could see that there was one, maybe two falcons on top of the shorter FCT.  Kathy O had arrived and she was able to verify that there were two there.  Kathy and I met in the parking lot next to the Hochstein School of Music.  There we found a 3rd Falcon on a small extension jutting out from the center pole of the taller FCT.  These were our three juvies.

I was able to ID, after looking at my pictures, that it was Rosetta on the taller FCT and Voyager & Baron were side by side on top of the shorter FCT.  I do love when we see all three together!

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First Shaky and then Larry O joined us.  Both Voyager and Baron took off and headed south towards the Times Square Bldg.  One returned and landed on the SE corner of the platform below Rosetta.  We found the other juvie on the east side lower ledge of the Widows Walk.  I believe it was Voyager.  She looked like she might have food, but she didn’t stay long.  Voyager returned and did a lot of flying around the area, sometimes heading west. Eventually she returned and landed next to Baron on the SE corner of the platform.  Now all three were close together on the tall FCT.

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Everyone but Shaky left just before 8:00 pm.  He was going to stay another half hour.  So my Watch ended after seeing the whole family.  Seeing the three juvies together, PRICELESS!

This duck family and I say Goodnight Everyone!