By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another late start for my Monday Watch.  It rained on and off all day long, and when I left my house at 6:45 pm, it was still raining.  Temperature  69 degrees (F) with dark clouds moving through.  Even with the rain, I decided to head downtown to look for the Rochester Falcons.

First stop was the Kodak Tower.  I ran into a bit of traffic near Frontier Field.  Red Wing fans were heading into the stadium for an evening game.  The Red Wings have been doing really well and their faithful fans wouldn’t let a little rain stop them for cheering for their team.  I was able to pull over and check the K-Tower.  No falcons seen there.

Next stop, the Frontier Communication Tower.  No falcons there either.  From the Andrews St Bridge, no falcons seen on the north side of the OCSR or any of the surrounding buildings.  I drove around HSBC, B&L, Xerox and Midtown Plaza.  The Crows were lined up on the Frontier Bldg, where Baron and Voyager chased them such a short time ago.

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It was time to head over to the Broad St Bridge (BSB).  It was raining most of the time I was driving around downtown.  Here was my view from where I parked on the BSB.

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The Rochester Library, said to have a ghostly inhabitant, was bathed in beautiful lights.  I really love that they do this now.

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Finally, it stopped raining, allowing me to get out of my car for a quick look around the area.  First I checked out the area for falcons and again found none.  I checked out the river on the north side of the Broad St Bridge and spotted an adult Black-Crowned Night Heron (BCNH).  Just beautiful!

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I spent some time watching the BCNH  in hunt mode, searching for dinner.  Dark clouds were moving in, so I hurried across the street to check the river on the south side of the BSB.  There I found the juvie Black-Crowned Night Heron near the library on a rock.

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It started to rain, so I continued my search for falcons.  Since it was getting late, I headed back over to Woodbury St, parking on the south side of St Mary’s Church.  From there I could see the south side of B&L and the Xerox Tower, where we had seen Beauty after dark recently.  At 8:15 pm, I heard very loud ee-chupping fill the air.  I looked all over for the Peregrine that was vocalizing, but never did  see one.

This is where  I was parked with I heard the loud ee-chupping.  It sounded like it was coming from the B&L bldg.  I did search the building the best I could in the dark, but could not find any falcons.

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At 8:30 pm, it was still raining and very dark.  Time for me to head home.  I believe the rain will end tonight and tomorrow should be a nicer day for looking for our falcons.  Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

As I stepped out the door today the humidity slapped me in the face-it was overcast with rain in the forecast and the temperature was 57 (F) 14 (C)

I found Beauty on the east side of HSBC and not 5 minutes later she flew off to the southwest.

After searching downtown with no sightings I went to the High Falls where I found a Belted Kingfisher hunting off a concrete slab in the river on the north side of the Pont De Rennes pedestrian bridge. He dove into the water 3 different times and came back with nothing. I caught a pic of him landing on the slab. There was also a Cormorant perched on a rock with its wings spread out I assume to dry. No falcons and no Osprey were seen in the gorge.

I went to the Andrews St. bridge after I left there and spotted Beauty on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR just before 8am. I drove to Bragdon St. by the Radisson Hotel for a closer view and walked across the Sister Cities pedestrian bridge where I was right below the Beautyful one.

It started to rain so I went back to my car and left for Brighton. As I pulled in the front drive I could see Pigott on the northwest corner of the west extension around 8:30am.

She flew off as I parked the car and returned to the same spot in less than a minute. It was raining at a good clip and Miss Pigott was thoroughly enjoying it as she spread her wings and started running back and forth on the roofs edge.

It reminded me of watching Orion playing in the rain last summer. Pigott flew around the building and landed on the southwest corner spreading her wings once again and disappeared on the roof then reappearing only to fly off again. I couldn’t find her so I drove out to the back service road and was able to see her on the east side roof running back and forth to the front edge with wings spread. She went back to the west side and back to the east before finally settling on a south facing top window ledge of the east extension.

Even on the window she was on the move walking to the corner and settling.

Miss Pigott was quite wet and sporting a new spiked hairdo. I think I had as much watching her rain dancing as she enjoyed doing it! I left her at 9:30am as she started preening. It would take a while with as wet as her feathers were. I took a ride around downtown finding Beauty still on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR but I didn’t find Dot.Ca (DC) at all on my watch. Pigott certainly made me smile this morning with her antics! 🙂

Click on the links below for some videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/6dnl0MkErP8
http://youtu.be/aAauawkYsd4
http://youtu.be/13aAuKQyMRk
http://youtu.be/UN_6WiXV-7g
http://youtu.be/K0LwyNYKnqA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Here are some pics from the past 3 days.  I saw all three adult Rochester Falcons, but no juvies.  I keep hoping for one last visit before they take off, but it’s looking more and more like they’ve gone on their way, started their life journey.  Farewell Baron, Rosetta & Voyager.  Fly Strong and Fly Free!

Be sure to click on any pics you would like to see larger.

Friday – August 23, 2013

Osprey in the Falcon Sucking Tree

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Great Blue Heron in a tree on north side of pedestrian bridge.

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The Osprey dove from the falcon sucking tree into the river.  It seemed like the Osprey was under water for so long.  Finally she came up out of the water with a good size fish.  Water sprayed off of the Osprey as she launched herself into the air.  She flew to the bottom of the gorge below the observation deck.  There she moved around quite a bit before setting on a spot to enjoy her dinner.  A Ring-billed Gull (juvie) decided to try to share, but the Osprey wasn’t in the mood.  In some of this series of pics, you can see the young gull on the ground in front of the Osprey.  Brave gull!

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Kathy O, Dan and I ended our Watch and I drove around the downtown area one more time.  It was getting dark, but I was able to see Beauty on the south side of the Xerox Tower on the 5th column in from the SE corner. Dan reported seeing her there Thursday evening also.

Saturday, August 25, 2013

I spent a few hours downtown Saturday afternoon.  I did find both Beauty and Dot.ca.

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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Today I did a late morning/early afternoon Watch.  It was much warmer today and by noon, it was downright hot.  I was happy to see Pigott out at the BS location.  She was preening and snoozing while I was there.

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The leaves are already turning on some of the trees and they are starting to fall.

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I left Pigott to go downtown to see if Beauty and Dot.ca were there.  I found Dot.ca on the top IBeam of the OCSR on the north side.  In the shade, smart.

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The moon was high in the sky next to the Times Square Bldg.

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I wasn’t able to find Beauty, so I headed over to the pedestrian bridge at High Falls.  From there I was able to see that Beauty was again in the middle of the framework of the Frontier Communication Tower below the platform.  Both Falcons were out of the sun.  I spent the rest of my watch on the pedestrian bridge where I could see both Beauty and Dot.ca.

There was a lot of activity on the river below.   I watched Kingfisher dive into the water and come up with a very small fish.  It landed low on the island tree and started hitting the fish on the branch over and over again before eating it.

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I’ll leave you with a few more pictures I took during my Watch today from the pedestrian bridge.  Goodnight everyone!

BE SURE TO CLICK ON A PIC TO MAKE IT LARGER!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Clear and cool with a gorgeous sunrise sky the starting temperature was 56 (F)  13 (C) as I headed to downtown.

Please remember to click on my pics to see the full version

Todays watch features our handsome boy Dot.Ca (DC) since I saw him the most. I spotted Beauty on the southeast corner of HSBC as I was stopped at the traffic light at Clinton and Court St. When I got over to Chestnut St. to watch she was gone. A minute later DC joined the Beautyful one in flight above Xerox. They did some circling in and out of view and then one of them landed on the south side of the roof and the other appeared to land on the north side.

I was hearing echupping and then it went quiet. Then I heard DC doing his distinct chirping sound as he started flying around Bausch&Lomb, Xerox and Midtown. More echupping as he passed over the roof of Xerox many times so I believe Beauty must have been up there. After DC was done sky dancing he flew to Midtown and landed on the 3rd open roof down southeast corner.

DC stayed there about 15 minutes and flew off between B&L and Xerox going into a stoop toward the river. Right after he left all the east side pigeons scattered breaking off into 3 groups before settling on their various roosting spots. I next found DC  on the top ibeam south corner of OCSR from the Broad St. Bridge (BSB).

He turned around and walked east a couple of feet showing me his back so I left the hole and drove over by the Radisson Hotel and Main St. for a front view.

DC did some preening and watching over his territory in the 10 minutes he was up there. A Great Blue Heron flew thru below him and DC just couldn’t resist going after it. He broke it off quickly and flew up to the north corner top ibeam but didn’t quite have enough lift  to land so he pulled back and flew west out of view.

I didn’t find DC or Beauty on a trip around downtown so I went to Brighton where I found pretty Miss Pigott on a west side window ledge right next to the cubby just before the 8 o’clock hour.

Pigott remained with her back to the world so I left her to it after 45 minutes and returned to downtown. I found only DC on OCSR top ibeam near the north corner. The pooparazzi caught DC  in the act! lol

I ended my watch after that at 9:15am smiling as I pulled away from the curb as I love a good poop shot! 🙂

Click on the links below to view some videos

http://youtu.be/r13dITJpcRw
http://youtu.be/oHoK2p88SgA
http://youtu.be/KytuYER2mOg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

53 (F) 12 (C) cool degrees to start my watch with partly cloudy skies-I had to throw on a sweatshirt!

I was accompanied by my co-pilot Isabella once more as we had no luck finding any falcons downtown this morning. After searching for an hour we went over to the Brighton site (BS) and as luck would have it the divine Miss Pigott was home! She is the star of todays watch as I spent a little over 2 hours with her. When I first arrived she had her back to me on the second set of windows down on the west side kiddie corner to the cubby. Soon after she started stretching.

About 7:15am cam watcher and good friend Donna from New Jersey let me know there was a falcon on the Frontier Communications Tower railing. I thanked her and said I was going to hang out with Pigott since I hadn’t seen her in a few days. Pigott was very alert the whole time as she kept an eye on her surroundings,preened,rousted(shook her feathers),stretched,pooped 3 times and tried to extract a pellet twice.

Click on my pics for full version

The pellet extraction attempts are both on short videos-I think she did get something out on the first one. She did more stretching than usual but then it was a chilly morning-I stretch a lot more when it’s damp and chilly myself!

Poop #2 came along next and then she started watching a squirrel that was scampering back and forth gathering pine nuts from a tree below and stashing them. A young light colored groundhog came out to eat his way thru the tidbits and grass in close proximity to Mr. Squirrel.

Pigott rousted a few times and each time small feathers went flying from her body into the air around her-she,Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) are all molting right now so there’s a lot of this going on in our fair falcon occupied city. One little white feather in particular caught her eye as she watched it float past her. She turned to her right for a little stroll and showed me her pretty profile.

She then preened a little more, pooped for the 3rd time and flew off to the north toward the front of the building hanging a right when she got there and headed east out of view.

I thought she might have landed on a front corner of the roof but after a trip around the building I found that she was gone. I had to drop Isabella off to her owner, another good friend of mine and fellow watcher Jeanne, who lives right around the corner from  BS.

When I left there I headed straight for downtown-I had 2 more falcons by the name of Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) to find and not a lot of time to do it as I had to be going real soon. As I approached from Exchange Blvd. I stopped by Cornhill to have a look and could see a PEFA on the top ibeam west corner of OCSR. I drove to the hole for closer viewing but when I got there I didn’t see it. Off to look on the north side to see if it just went around the corner and sure enough there she was-the Beautyful one a couple feet off the corner and a bonus was that DC was at the north corner. I love it when our beloved falcons cooperate!

<Beauty   DC> <Click them all>

It made me smile to finally see Pigott again and spend a substantial amount of time with her as I haven’t since the juvies fledged! 🙂

Below are the links for videos of Pigott-just click on them and view

http://youtu.be/IXOT_-agr40
http://youtu.be/ruyL_RBCK9Q
http://youtu.be/YAtErulNKAY
http://youtu.be/6Af1LC9oHGk

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Clear blue skies less humidity and  a starting temp of 66 (F) 19 (C) this morning as I stepped out for my watch.

I had picked up Isabella at 5:30am and we went around the corner to the Brighton site in the dark to see if Pigott was in her night time roosting spot. No such luck so I believe she is either on a road trip or she is sleeping elsewhere. At 6am I found Beauty on the northwest corner of HSBC. She stayed about 15 minutes then flew west.

As I arrived on the Broad St. bridge (BSB) I spotted her on the west corner top ibeam of OCSR. Since she had her back to me I drove over to State St. across from the Rochester International Hotel to view her.

I got a tweet from Larry who was on the pedestrian bridge that he had a falcon on the Kodak Office launchpad so I left Beauty to go find that it was Dot.Ca (DC).

DC was on the northeast corner and he flew south at 7:14am. I lost sight of him quickly as I was parked on Mill St. behind buildings that blocked my view. From there I went to the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) where I found the Beautyful one on the 2nd arm east side. I observed her from Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage.

Beauty preened and plucked white feathers from her chest as she is molting, which will make way for her dark bronze color that we all know and love. She is already much darker than when the kids were still here. DebbieH stopped by around 7:45am on her way to work. After she left, Beauty turned around on the arm turning her back on me for a minute and then she moved in close to the pole.

Beauty started napping so I took this opportunity to go back to Brighton to see if Pigott was around. She was nowhere to be found so I returned to FCT. I found her under the platform sleeping.

I had checked around downtown and didn’t find any other falcons on my way home thus ending  my watch at 9:45am. I was happy to start and finish my watch with Beauty including a little of DC in the middle to send me down the road with a smile on my face! 🙂

Click on the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiia

http://youtu.be/tY3LqVqXfr4

http://youtu.be/gcLA4evzm7s

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Thought I’d get an early start today.  When I left work, it had just stopped raining, which brought the temperatures down a bit, but the humidity rose.  There were still dark clouds all around, so I wanted to make sure I got some Watch time in before it rained again.  It never did.

I arrived downtown a little before 4 pm.  About 20 minutes after I arrived, I finally found an adult falcon on the south side of OCSR near the south corner.  Definitely and adult, but the falcon was facing the building, so I couldn’t ID it.

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I decided to continue my search, to see if there were any other falcons hanging out downtown.  After parking my car at the east end of the pedestrian bridge, I walked out onto the bridge to see if any falcons might be in the gorge.  No falcons, but there was lots and lots of  High Falls wild life out and about, including several Cormorants, ducks, Great Blue Herons, one deer, 2 Kingfishers chasing each other and all kinds of critters.

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An Osprey vocalized, flying near the east gorge wall.  It flew towards the Falcon Sucking Tree, but veered off and continued south.  She gained altitude and headed downtown, following the river.  There were many gulls flying over the river, south of the Broad St Bridge (BSB) and she joined them, until I could no longer see her.

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At 5:40, about 15 mins later, the Osprey returned from the south and she wasn’t alone.  Hot on her tail was a female Peregrine Falcon we call Beauty.  I could see her missing tail feathers.  Beauty chased the Osprey under the pedestrian bridge and continued to chase her further north down the river.  The Osprey continue north and Beauty turned back and flew over the BeeBee Station, heading south.  She eventually landed on the SE corner of the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) below the platform.

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By the time I got over to FCT to see if I could find Beauty, she was gone.  Kathy O had arrived just before me and did not see her leave.  That’s when we got a tweet from Rfalconcam watcher Donna that Beauty was at the nest box and then another one from Ei, saying that Beauty was now on Cam 4 at the nest box.  Thanks for the heads up gals!

Kathy O and I had arrived on Broad St at about 6:10 pm, in time to see her leave the nest box and go up to Cam 4.  By 6:22 pm, she took off flying northeast.

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Now we had no falcons in view again.  I had tweeted out that Kathy and I were signing off at about 6:40 pm, but of course we decided to check downtown one more time.  lol  When we checked the FCT, we spotted a Falcon on the Kodak Tower launch pad, SE corner.  That’s where we headed.  It was definitely an adult.  Probably Beauty, but I can’t say for sure.  She stooped on a pigeon flying near the KTower on the south side and hit it.  The pigeon flew/fell to one of the lower buildings and the Falcon again landed on the SE corner of the launchpad.  At 7:30 pm, it was time to go.

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I didn’t see any juvies, but watching Beauty chase the Osprey out of her territory was awesome to see.  Really wish I could have gotten some video of that.  It happened too quickly and absolutely no vocalizing by either Beauty or the Osprey to alert me that they were coming.  lol

I’ll leave you with two more pics I took on my Watch this evening.  There were two ducks that had synchronized bottoms up maneuvers down perfectly. hahaha!  Plus X marks the spot above the Times Square Bldg.  Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Todays starting temp was 67 (F) 19 (C) with humid and mostly clear conditions

I had trouble finding any falcons today. After no success downtown I went to the Brighton site where I had the same luck-nobody there. Finally on my return trip to downtown an hour into my watch I found the Beautyful one on the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT). She was on the lower red section east side with food.

Beauty finished eating after 20 minutes and cached the leftovers on the beam she ate on then walked down a beam connected to that one and stopped about a foot away. She rousted (shook her feathers) a couple times and did some feaking (wiping her beak to clean it) on the beam. She also did some calling out and I wondered if she was calling Dot.Ca or the kids-in any event she was the only falcon around this morning that I saw.

Around 7:30am Beauty flew off over my head as I was in front of City Hall heading southeast quickly leaving my field of vision.

<Click it

I took off on the hunt for our girl and found her within minutes as I stopped to have a look from the Andrews St. Bridge. She was on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR. The sun was on her washing out my pics so I drove over to Bragdon St. by the Radisson Hotel which is directly across the river from where she was and still the sun was making her glow. I then ended up by Main St. and the entrance to the Radisson where I was able to get some half way decent pics of her.

I hung out there for over an hour while Beauty did a lot of preening as she is molting-she was pulling some of her white chest feathers out to blow in the breeze.

Beauty flew off when I wasn’t looking and I ended my watch at 9am. Tho it’s kinda rough going from 5 falcons to watch to seeing only one today but I’m good with spending time with Beauty as she always makes me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to watch my videos from the day

http://youtu.be/_ENcbLaNBPk
http://youtu.be/vuLIuJylsAA
http://youtu.be/uQjgwE3MuPk

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Until I see a young falcon, I have officially changed my watch report category from Fledge Watch to Falcon Watch.

It was an absolutely gorgeous evening.  I arrived downtown just before 6:00 pm and found one adult falcon on the Frontier Communication Tower.  Dana joined me at the benches in front of City Hall and although we did not see her bands we are reporting that it was Beauty.  She was under the platform above the SE box.  She remained there for my 2 1/2 hour watch (6:00 to 830 pm).

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Kathy O joined us, after spotting an adult Peregrine on the Times Square Bldg.  Probably Dot.ca, but no bands were spotted.  Just once Beauty ee-chupped a few times and then fell silent.  That was the only vocalization I heard while there.

Beauty was content to preen and stretch and we were content to just sit and watch.  lol  Would have been nice to hear a juvie, but it didn’t happen.  Joyce drove by on her way home after grocery shopping for a short visit, for a falcon fix.  At 8:00 p.m., Dana and Kathy O left and I decided to drive around downtown to take a look.  No luck finding any falcons.  Next stop, the BS location to see if Pigott was home.  Nope, no falcons seen there either.

By 8:00 pm, I was losing light, but still checked out downtown one last time.  The Crows were coming into the city, but again no falcons.  I went back to the Frontier Communication Tower and it was too dark to see if Beauty was still there.  One last check.  At 8:30 pm, I circled (on the ground, in my car! lol) the Kodak Tower.  No falcons there either.

Well, at least we saw Beauty and Kathy saw a falcon on the Times Square Bldg that was probably Dot.ca.  At 8:35 pm, I left my last tweet and headed home.

I’ll leave you with a few pics, including one of the full moon from last night that they are calling a blue moon.  It may not be blue, but it sure is pretty.  lol  Goodnight everyone!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The heat and humidity is just plain oppressive this week here in Rochester,NY. It was 76 (F) 24 (C) when I started my watch at 5:30am.

As I came off the 490 ramp to Plymouth Ave. I could see an adult on the top arm of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT), it was Beauty. I drove down to the city hall parking lot to check out the interior of the FCT and found 2 juvies on the platform. It looked like they were eating but I couldn’t say for sure. That platform serves as the dinner table for our young fledglings. Each year that she has had babies, Beauty has taken them over to the FCT for hunting training,feeding and roosting.

<check out the tail feathers hanging over the edge

The fledglings soon took off to the south toward Times Square (TSB) and as I was about to follow Dan came by. We set up our chairs in the Hochstein parking lot  but the juvies never came back and Beauty flew off to the Kodak Office (KO) launchpad so we opted to move to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB).

From there we could see Beauty on KO,a juvie on the base of Mercury and another one on the platform of FCT.

Next we spotted the 3rd juvie on the OCSR elevator shaft. It flew off and joined the one that was on the base of Mercury in a game of talon tag over the river. They finished and landed on the elevator shaft of OCSR with one of them taking off again to the west. Larry stopped by for a little while. Around 7am we saw a juvie flying across the river coming from the east side and Beauty was right behind it so we assumed there was a food exchange somewhere. Beauty went to the 2nd ibeam west corner of OCSR and the juvie continued west out of view. I left to see if I could find it and a few minutes later Dan and Larry ended their watch. i found a juvie on the Widows Walk (WW)east railing.

A robin was swooping on it and a little later when DebbieH stopped by she showed me where the Robins nest of 3 was located by her building. I found Dot.Ca on the OCSR top ibeam north corner and when I returned to WW there were 2 juvies there-1 on the west side rail (Rosetta) and 1 on the northwest corner (Voyager).

<Voyager <Rosetta Click my pics to see the full version

Both juvies took off around 8am and Debbie headed to work. I found Beauty on the jail tower and a juvie on the northeast corner of Crossroads. I then spotted a juvie on the northwest corner of Crossroads with food when the other one flew over there. They took off a few minutes later as the 3rd juvie joined them in flight as they played above the Crossroads building. 2 landed on the northeast corner then down to the lower roof on the northwest side. Baron and Voyager were the 2 up there at that time.

<Click it Baron Voyager

DC was gone from the OCSR and the 2 on Crossroads both disappeared onto the roof out of view. I left to check out the Brighton Site (BS). There were no PEFAs present but I did come across a Turkey Vulture on the east extension roof. It wasn’t there for long as it walked from the middle to the north end corner before flying off.

I returned to downtown finding 2 juvies chillin’ on the apparatus on the north side lower roof of the Crossroads building. Beauty was on the top ibeam west corner OCSR and DC on the top ibeam near the north side.

The heat was getting to me so I decided to end my watch at 10am. I’m sure all our Rochester Peregrine Falcons were down for the count as well. Tomorrow should be the last 90+ degree day as the weekend promises to be cooler with less humidity which will make this watcher smile! 🙂

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

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiVo

http://youtu.be/OluEGxGkRgM
http://youtu.be/Xs7QXnNXRiU
http://youtu.be/6ntwLVyfZEw
http://youtu.be/SZzxchdNbCk