By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Well I sat on the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) for 25 minutes when the bridge dwelling pigeons finally woke up and flew out from their night time roost under the bridge in the aqueduct. I thought for sure Beauty would come streaking in to grab one of them for breakfast but she didn’t. Donna posted pics of the Beautyful one on the money bag hand of Mercury around 1:00am so I figured she was sleeping in today as she had a late night.  Hmm, maybe Peregrine Falcons celebrate New Years a day earlier than us! lol  I watched Pat who works in the Thomson Reuters building struggle to walk down the BSB sidewalk on her way to work as they did a lousy job of clearing it for walkers. And minutes later DebbieH came by on her way to work and we discussed how bad the sidewalks were for people to walk down. She usually likes to walk but today she accepted my offer to give her a ride to  the Ebenezer Watts building at Broad and Fitzhugh streets where she works cuz the sidewalks were so hazardous. After I dropped her off I took a spin over to the east side to see if by chance Beauty was hunting over there. Turned out to be a good call as I found her on the northeast corner of the HSBC railing. And she was in hunt mode as she struggled to keep her footing up there in the wind.

Beauty stayed up there practically getting blown off many times and waited for her shot at a pigeon. About 15 minutes passed when she dropped off the railing,went into a stoop and disappeared around to the front of HSBC.

All I saw after that was lots and lots of pigeons scattering in fright mode.  Looked for nearly an hour for her but couldn’t find her so I drove over to Brighton as the sun started to shine brightly! I found BST with his back to me on an east side window ledge below the roof top tree that grows there.

LarryO came by for a few minutes with his dog Harold as BST turned to his left so we could see the white front of him.

BST stayed there for nearly 2 hours preening at times but mostly sleeping. I wonder if Pigott goes to the same place as Beauty when we can’t find them. lol

2nd only to Orion as being the most photogenic falcon I’ve ever taken pics of. At 11:00am I decided to leave for downtown to find Beauty before heading home. As I got ready to turn onto Church St. from Fitzhugh to check the Frontier Communications tower  CarolP drove by waving. I followed her to the Andrews St. Bridge and had a short chat with her as I spotted Beauty on the top ibeam northeast side of OCSR. I drove over to Bragdon St. next to the Radisson Hotel for a closer view of Beauty and take a couple quick pics.

I wish Miss Pigott had shown up while I was at the Brighton Site but I did begin and end my watch with Beauty and spent some time with the dashing BST in between. 2 good reasons for this watcher to leave for home with a smile on her face! 🙂

Links for a few more pics and 3 videos are below

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrSDA

http://youtu.be/oWadCm3G4oQ
http://youtu.be/ZTP7C2yXzFA
http://youtu.be/epAfZv5ZvoA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

We got some snow overnight, just a few inches, and it was really cold and windy, but the sun was shinning.  It had been awhile since I’d seen that bright orb in the sky!  lol

First, here are my texts from today:

11:30 am – “BS. Falcon still on same window Mak reported looking around back to me. Lots of ice falling off bldg.”

11:40 am – “BS. Looks like BST to me. He keeps looking southeast.”

12:40 pm – “BS. P just flew in. Lots of glorious ee chupping.”

1:10 pm – “BS. P&BST seem to be settled in. Both preening. Both on east end. Pigott is on window 2 below tree. BST on top window on south side east end”

1:30 pm – “DT and I found Beauty on the top Ibeam of OCSR SE side. All 3 current Roch falcons seen!”

1:50 pm – “DT. Miss B has left the bldg!”

1:50 pm – “DT. B on mercury.”

2:10 pm – “DT. B took off and chased a gull down river. Back on top Ibeam OCSR.”

3:00 pm – “At BS. Left B on OCSR and all her gull friends DT. B&BST have not moved.”

3:30 pm – “BS. Lisa here now. P&BST preening and snoozing. Time to go!”

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It wasn’t until 11 am that I was able to get out for my Falcon Watch.  I decided to head to the BS location first, where BST had been spotted this morning.  When I arrived, BST was in the same spot on the east end of the building on a south facing top window.  It was nice to see him, since no one had seen him yesterday.  BST was sitting with the sun warming him on this cold day.  He was kind enough to show me his unbanded legs, so I knew for sure this was BST.  I remained there for awhile hoping that Pigott would show up and she finally did.

At 12:40 pm, BST announced the arrival of Pigott when she flew in from the SE.  Glorious ee-chupping filled the air.  Pigott landed on the roof just above BST.  They continued ee-chupping until she flew to a nearby window on the east side of the SE extension (under the tree ledge).  They were on the same exact level and could easily see each other.  Here are some pics of BST & Pigott from today’s watch.

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They were both preening and snoozing, so I went to check on Beauty.  I arrived downtown at 1:30 pm.  Beauty was on the top I-Beam of the OCSR on the SE side.

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At 1:50 pm, Beauty took off while I wasn’t looking, but ended up landing on Mercury’s money bag.  She had her back to me, but her head was in constant motion.  There were 100’s of  Ring-billed Gulls swirling over the river north and south of the Broad St Bridge where I was watching from.  Starlings were busy clinging to the the nearby buildings, looking for something to eat.  During the summer, we watch them do this, snatching up spiders and bugs.  Not sure what they were getting on this cold winter day.  The Pigeons were huddled on top of the Blue Cross Arena aka War Memorial.  Every now and then one of the Pigeons would take flight and join the gulls.

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At 2:10 Beauty took off heading north down the river.  She flew past the OCSR and then circled back.  As she passed over the river, one of the gulls drew her attention.  She went into a steep dive and drove the gull down towards the river.  She would gain altitude and then dive again on the same gull over and over again.  Finally the gull escaped, flying low over the water, heading north.  Beauty broke off the attack and headed back towards me.  She hovered directly over me.  I was able to take one picture before the battery in my camera died.  Beauty turned and flew back over to the OCSR, landing on the top IBeam she had been on when I arrived.  She settled in for a good preening.

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I remained for awhile watching Beauty preen and then returned to the BS location where at 3:00 pm, I found Pigott and BST in the same spots they were in when I left for downtown.  Lisa joined me and we chatted while we watched P&BST.  Both were preening and snoozing.  So at 3:30 pm, I said my goodbyes to Lisa and headed home.

Finding all three current Rochester Falcons made it a very good day.  Soon it will be the new year.  The days will get longer and can spring be far away?  lol  OK, lots more winter weather before I should be thinking of spring.  🙂

I’ll leave you with a few pictures I took today.  Remember to click on the pictures if you would like to see a larger version.  Thanks!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Well we got another 5 inches of snow last night so I had to dig out before leaving for my morning watch.  It was about 10 degrees colder than yesterday BUT the sun was shining brilliantly which was a welcome sight since it was last seen days ago. I couldn’t really park on the Broad St. Bridge as the parking lanes were buried in snow so I went to the Main St. Bridge turned on my hazard lights and started watching for Beauty. Still too dark to see if she was in the elevator shaft I did have a good seat in case she flew out and over to Mercury. She did not but as I was looking upriver some 25 minutes after arriving I spotted 2 separate groups of frenzied pigeons flying near Court St. One group broke off to the east and the other group made their way toward Cornhill with Beauty on their tail feathers. After I lost sight of them I checked around for the Beautyful one to no avail so I headed to Brighton. Upon driving around to the east side of the building I found the handsome BST in a corner on a south facing window ledge on the east extension.

He had his back to me as usual but did look around every once in a while so I could see his cute face. He didn’t seem to be interested in leaving his spot where he was protected from the bitter cold northwest wind that was blowing quite vigorously. I shared space with him for over an hour expecting Pigott to fly in but she never showed. BST started to get sleepy as his eyes slowly got heavier until they closed for a nap.

I left him to it and made my way back downtown to see if I could find Beauty whom has been scarce during the day lately. Today would be no different as I spent the better part of an hour looking everywhere for her. I stopped to check the elevator shaft and she was not up there either. I went over to the Broad St. bridge to find a couple of mini bulldozers working on clearing snow from the sidewalk and parking lane on the north side of the bridge and dumping it into the river.

I ended my watch at this point  as I have a few things to get done today. Keep smiling everyone- it makes people wonder what you’re up to! lol 🙂

One link for a video of the dashing BST

http://youtu.be/QdkVh4Cd1PA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It’s winter in Rochester and it lived up to it’s name today.  Snow all day long, making it very hard to find falcons!  But we did!

Here are my tweets from today:

11:50 pm – “DT. Checking out snowy downtown Rochester. No sign of Miss B yet. Very slick out here so be careful if you venture out.”

12:00 pm – “DT. With this snow its impossible to tell if B is in the elevator shaft or not.”

12:50 pm – “BS. Pigott still on SW corner. No sign of BST. and the snow continues…”

1:10 pm – “BS. P just took off heading south. Waiting to see if she returns.”

1:40 pm – “BS. RTH just flew thru landing in a tree NE of here. No pefas challenged but the Crows sure did!”

2:40 pm – “Back at BS with Kathy O. No falcons seen yet.” (Went looking for Pigott and found a Merlin eating on a telephone pole.)

2:50 pm – “BS. Pefa flew in and landed at east end.” (Larry and Harold joined Kathy and I.)

2:50 pm – “BS. I believe it is Pigott.”

3:50 pm – “Kathy O and I checked the DT area. No luck finding Beauty. With snow its impossible to see if she is in elevator shaft. Time to head home.”

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I started my watch downtown and attempted to find Beauty (11:50 am).  No luck.  I even looked up inside the elevator shaft, but because of the snow, it was impossible to see if she was up there.  The Ring-billed Gulls were very active in the snow.  Flying back and forth over the river.  Starlings too.  The Pigeons chose to huddle together for warmth on the roof tops.  The snowplows were plowing the sidewalks on the Broad St Bridge, but it was almost impossible to get to the sidewalk from the street due to all the snow piled up.  So lots of folks were forced to walk in the street until they could get to a spot where they could climb up onto the sidewalk.  Very dangerous, since the conditions were so slippery.  Brian told me that he had almost been hit yesterday evening by a guy driving and texting!

Here’s what I saw looking up into the OCSR elevator shaft.  Was Miss Beauty up there?  No way to know for sure.

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After checking all over the downtown area, I headed over to the BS location to see if I could find Pigott & BST (12:50 pm).  There was a few inches of snow on the roads, and they were slippery, but as long as you took it slow, you were ok. When I arrived at BS, I found Pigott up on the SW corner.  I drove around a couple times, but could not find BST anywhere, so I returned to where I had seen Pigott.  She had moved over to the other side of the extension, where I had seen both her and BST share a meal.

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At 1:10 pm, Pigott took off, heading south.  I remained at the BS location hoping she and maybe BST would return.  When she hadn’t returned, I decided to search for her in the direction she headed.  I found a falcon eating on a telephone pole.  At first I thought it might be a juvenile Peregrine.  It was snowing so hard, it was really hard to get a good look.  Kathy O found me and we both decided it was a Merlin, not a Peregrine.  First Merlin I’d seen in a long time.  The Merlin finished eating and took off, so Kathy and I decided to head back to the BS location.

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Very soon after we arrived, Pigott flew in, landing on the SE corner of the building (2:50 pm).  Larry O and Harold (his new dog) joined us for awhile.  We looked for BST, but again were unable to find him.  We remained for about an hour, before heading back downtown to see if we could find Beauty (3:50 pm).  Kathy and I searched while it continued to snow, but we could not find her.  I again checked up into the elevator shaft, but again it was too snowy to see if she was up there.

Beauty had been seen earlier today and Pigott is staying close to her building.  It was time to head home, but I would certainly be out again tomorrow to check on the Rochester Falcons.

I’ll leave you with some pictures I took during my Falcon Watch today.

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

There was a steady light snow coming down from the heavens on this mornings watch making everything look clean and white. However, it didn’t make falcon watching the easiest thing to do as my pictures are dismal today. That’s ok cuz if the falcons have to deal with it so should I! Shortly after I landed on the Broad St. Bridge Beauty landed on the out stretched money bag hand of Mercury.

She stayed with me in the semi darkness and snow for 10 minutes and then she was off to the east across the river and out of sight. Happy hunting Beautyful!  As I took a drive around to find her I came across some brave souls who were on a cherry picker getting ready to wash windows on the Powers building at Main and State streets.

I never found Beauty so I ventured over to Brighton. It was snowing a little harder over there but I spotted Pigott on the southwest corner of the west extension looking big as life.

A few minutes after I arrived LarryO came by with his new dog Harold. They went for a walk as I stayed with Miss Pigott. She wasn’t doing much of anything except looking north and shaking the snow off her every once in a while.

Larry left and I ended up hangin’ with Pigott for a little over an hour. I think she was looking for BST to show up-so was I but that didn’t happen. Perhaps he was off eating breakfast somewhere. At about 9:30am after a 2 hour morning watch I ended it with snow falling just as I had started it. And you can be sure I left smiling for I love falcons and snow! 🙂

Links below for a couple snow filled videos

http://youtu.be/bA1foGrLDy4
http://youtu.be/xfNYvUd9G9Y

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Lots of snow on the ground, but thankfully most of the roads have been cleaned up.  The city and the towns did a great job.

No more shoveling to do, so I was free to do my evening Falcon Watch!

First though, here are my tweets and tweets from the other Rochester Falcon Watchers that do not post reports, just to keep you up-to-date.

8:00 am – Larry O – “Brighton Falcon watch drive by. 1 Falcon on the northeast extension.”

4:10 pm – Carol P – “DT. Miss Beauty has returned to Mercury.”

4:10 pm – Lisa McK – “At BS, 1 falcon by tree on SE side.”

4:30 pm – Carol P – “DT. Beauty took off heading NE.”

4:40 pm – Carol P – ” DT. Beauty is now tucked into the OCSR elevator shaft on the north ledge. Night B!”

4:40 pm – Lisa McK – “At BS, P is in attack mode.  Both falcons came off bldg  after a red tail hawk.”

4:41 pm – Lisa McK – “RT hawk mafe the mistake of landing in a tree to the east. Pigott was not happy.”

4:41 pm – Lisa McK – “No birds in sight.  Looking to see if they returned.”

4:41 pm – Lisa McK – “1 falcon on NE corner, checking out the area.”

5:10 pm – Carol P – “BS. Lisa had to leave. looks like Pigott on the NE corner. No BST in sight since RTH incident. Waiting 2C if he returns to roost.”

5:20 pm – Carol P – “BS. P just flew down the night roost NE end 4th window down. No vocalization. Too dark to see much.”

Donna reported this afternoon through RfalconcamNow that Beauty was seen on the Mercury statue:

Beauty on Mercury: 3:24 pm; off Mercury: 3:28 pm and on again at 4:04 pm.- as seen on Camera #1.

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Just before I left to go downtown, Donna had reported that Beauty was on Mercury, but by the time I arrived, just before 4:00 pm, she was gone.  I drove around looking for her and ended up on the Broad St Bridge and there she was, again on Mercury’s money bag at 4:10 pm.  At 4:40 pm, she was up inside the OCSR elevator shaft on the south ledge, her evening roost.

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While I was watching Miss Beauty settle in for the night, my fellow Falcon Watcher Lisa McK was watching over at the BS location.  She had reported that a Red-tailed Hawk had stumbled into the area and both Pigott and BST were on the attack.  Lisa said that the hawk landed in a very short tree on the east side of the building and Pigott was not happy.  She dove over and over again on the hawk until it finally left.  BST was also involved in the attack.

Pigott returned to the NE corner of the building, but Lisa was unable to find BST.  I joined Lisa at BS at about 5:00 pm.  Pigott remained on the NE corner.  I was also unable to find BST on the building.

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Lisa had to leave, but I remained until Pigott flew down to her nighttime roost on a window (4th down) on the NE side of the building at 5:20 pm.  There was no vocalization, like I’ve heard other evenings when BST joined her.  It was dark by this time, but I could still make out Pigott on the windowsill.  I drove closer to the building to see if I could see BST near her, but he wasn’t there.  I left soon after that.

The weekend is upon us and I’m sure that, although snow is predicted, there will be many Watchers out and about   I know I will be!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The roads were clear and lovely this morning-a vast improvement  from yesterday because of the foot of snow that fell on us here in western New York. On my way to downtown Donna tweeted that Beauty was on Mercury(thanks D) so as the statue came into view I had a look. She was on the base of Mercury and I could see she had breakfast.

The Beautyful one worked hard on that pigeon to prepare it for consumption, pulling lots of feathers out at a time as you will see in a video I took of her. I stayed with her for 35 minutes parked next to the Philipone building in the hole as she finished up and flew off to the north out of view.

I did a run around the city looking for her with no luck so I departed for the Brighton site(BS).  I was pleasantly surprised to find both BST and Pigott in attendance. And as an added  bonus I could keep track of them at the same time for they were near each other on the northeast ledge where the roof tree grows.  BST was right under the tree.

Click on this pic to see them in a larger version

They were about 25 feet away from each other with their backs to me but I was able to get a few pics as they would look over their shoulder every once in a while.

Pigott     BST

I shared space with these two for 45 minutes as they didn’t do too much other than make eye contact with each other and look out at their territory. Miss Pigott did a little preening but for the most part they were just enjoying each others company as I enjoyed theirs!

Pigott  <BST>

I had to cut my watch short today to take care of some things but  I saw all 3 of our current Rochester Peregrine Falcons which puts a big ole smile on my face every time! 🙂

Links for 2 videos today are below for your viewing pleasure

http://youtu.be/yTtXNB9pPTM
http://youtu.be/wU2jVljKp_E

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Rochester (NY) received close to a foot of snow overnight.  I was unable to get out this evening to check on Beauty, Pigott and BST, but thankfully all three were seen earlier today.

At 3:40 pm, Lisa McK tweeted the following:  “At BS, 2 falcons found.  On SE extension.”

That was the only tweet from this afternoon.  Thanks Lisa!

At 3:32 pm, Camera #1 caught a nice pic of Beauty visiting the Mercury statue.

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I’ve been meaning to download a video I took on 12/23/12.  It shows Pigott on the roof of the building at the BS location.  It shows her reaction to BST flying in from the east and flying directly over her.  Be sure to turn up the volume if you want to hear some lovely ee-chupping! lol 🙂

Just click on this link to view the video.

http://youtu.be/axQ0CBNihpo

I’ll leave you with some snowy images from today.  The first one is a picture from main cam showing a snow drifted nest box at the Times Square Bldg and the last three are from the parking lot at KP.  If you’d like to see any pictures in a larger version, you just need to click on it.  Thanks!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I had to make my way thru 3 foot drifts to get to my garage and snowblower this morning so I could get my car out for a falcon watch. Mission accomplished-next was the trip to downtown as the roads were not ideal but better than expected. Still dark when I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) and the parking lanes were not plowed so it was a bit tricky to sit on the bridge and watch for Beauty. I pulled over as far as I could and hit the hazard lights.

20 minutes later pigeons started flying across the BSB and at the end of it was Beauty chasing after them flying south to Cornhill and out of view. I set out to find her but was unsuccessful however, I did find lots of snow removal going on around the city. Starting at the ice skating rink at Manhattan Square Park.

After looking for Beauty over an hour at around 8:30am I ventured over to Brighton(BS). I was able to find both Pigott and BST-he was on a southwest window ledge and she was on the other side of the building on a southeast window ledge.

I stayed with them for about an hour as they were not doing much and had their backs to me. Both seemed settled in for a while so I returned to downtown. After searching all the open areas for the Beautyful one I finally found her up in the elevator shaft of the OCSR building where she is quite protected from the elements.

I couldn’t really stay as there was snow removal activity all around me so I ended my watch and left for home. I was totally ecstatic to have found all 3 of our current resident Rochester Peregrine Falcons safe after the storm. A very good reason to smile on this day! 🙂

Links for a photo album and 3 videos are below-click em and observe

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrRtA

http://youtu.be/9KZPa08u4oA

http://youtu.be/REaKrvfkM38

http://youtu.be/kcnHXyIG2SQ

By Rochester Falcon (Flake) Watcher Carol P.

On this day after Christmas, Rochester and the rest of Western New York is under a Winter Storm Warning.  Heavy snow and high winds are expected to hit the area overnight and tomorrow.  They are reporting that we may get over a foot of snow by tomorrow afternoon.  Of course this kind of weather is not unexpected.  It is Rochester and it is winter after all.  We Rochesterians are sturdy folk when it comes to winter weather.  The Rochester Falcon Watchers aka Falcon Flakes love this weather!  lol 🙂

That being said, I wanted to make sure I got downtown to check on Miss Beauty.  She had been seen earlier and so had Pigott and BST.  So due to the limited daylight, I decided to find Beauty tonight.

Tweets from me and other Rochester Falcon Watchers that do not report:

2:30 pm – Lisa McK – “At BS, both falcons on south side, perched on upper windows only 3 windows separating them.”

3:29 pm – Brian H – “Brrr Dude wandered around downtown.  I think I had B on Alliance Bldg.  It’s getting windy & chilly outside.  Enjoy the snow!”

4:30 pm – Carol P – “DT. I have searched the DT area for about a half hr and had no luck finding her. Brian saw her on the Alliance bldg just before I arrived.”

4:50 pm – Shaky on RfalconcamNow – Beauty is on Mercury’s money bag.” – as seen from Camera #1

5:00 pm – Carol P – “DT. I have been staring up into the OCSR elevator shaft and I cannot tell if she is there or not. Time to go.”

5:00 pm – Carol P – “DT. And there she is on Mercury as the snow starts to fall!”

5:01 pm – Carol P – “And up into the elevator shaft. Night Beauty!”

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I arrived downtown a little before 4:00 pm.  After reading Brian’s text, I contacted him to find out exactly where the Alliance bldg was.  It’s on Main St on the corner of Stone.  My first stop was the Andrews St Bridge, nothing seen from there.  Then I went over to Main St and drove past the Alliance bldg.  Due to traffic, it was hard to get a good look, but after passing it a few times, I can be fairly certain Beauty was not up there.  Next stop the Broad St Bridge, after checking the east side.  Nothing on the Times Square Bldg, or the jail comm tower or the OCSR or the Mercury statue or the Frontier comm tower or the Hyatt.  I decided to go over to the OCSR area to check up inside the elevator shaft.  Nope, not there either.  Where could she be?

From my parking spot near the Raddison, I had a good view inside the elevator shaft.  I was bound and determined to see her before I left.  At the same time I was leaving my text that I was getting ready to leave  (I am a very slow texter, lol), Shaky was tweeting that Beauty had landed on Mercury’s money bag.  I looked back over my shoulder and saw that, yes, Beauty was there!  I took a couple pics and she took off and I had a great view of her swooping up into the OCSR elevator shaft, landing on the south ledge!  She had gone into her protected roost just as it started to snow.

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I just looked outside and the snow is coming down fast and furious! Something tells me there’s going to be a lot of snow to dig out from tomorrow morning!  Be careful out there everyone.  Be safe!

I’ll leave you with a few pics I took while I was out Falcon Watching and another picture of a neighborhood house all decorated for Christmas.  🙂