By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

I was treated to having wheels today thus affording me the chance to get out of downtown on my morning watch to check both KP and BS. As luck would have it after 2 separate trips to both KP and BS there were no falcons to be found.

I checked the west side as I approached the Times Square area and saw nothing on the FCT,jail tower,KO,OCSR,Widows Walk or the back of Times Square. A quick stop on the Broad St. bridge facing east turned up nothing on Xerox,Bausch&Lomb or Midtown and looking down river to the north  I saw no pefas either. I left for BS and after 2 trips around the building I left unfulfilled.

Returning to downtown from the east side I saw nothing on HSBC,Midtown, Xerox or any of the other buildings over there. I tweeted my findings or lack there of and Donna texted me saying Beauty was next to the main cam. While stopped at the intersection of South Ave. and Broad St. I brought my binocs up to my eyes and spotted the Beautyful one. I then parked on the bridge and stepped out to get a pic.

Beauty then took off flying over to the OCSR landing on the 2nd from the top ibeam at the west corner. I drove down to the hole(Aqueduct St.) to take pics.

At this point I decided to check KP for the falcon that’s been hanging out there lately. No luck finding it and while I was there I was told there was a shift change between Dot.Ca and Beauty. So I thought I’d go back to BS and see if Dot.Ca went over there to pay Pigott a visit. I was disappointed to find nobody there once more. I had a look around downtown on my way through to go back to KP and again could see no pefa but I did watch 2 Turkey Vultures fly through in front of me. The only thing more aggravating than not finding a falcon when you have wheels to search for them is not having wheels to go look for them in the first place! lol As I was leaving the parking lot at KP to return to downtown one last time Donna texted that DC  was back on the eggs. I had time for a quick check and then I would have to leave. I didn’t find Beauty and so ended my watch. I was happy to have seen her earlier, for any time I see the Beautyful one it makes me smile! 🙂

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I just quickly wanted to let everyone know that Kathy O and I made the rounds tonite and saw all four Rochester Falcons. Beauty and Dot.ca at the Times Square Bldg, downtown. Pigott was hunting over at the BS location. We left her on the north side of the building, on the vent. and last, but certainly not least, we found KPT on the east smoke stack. Seems his nightly roosting spot is a metal arm that juts out from the east side of the stack above the catwalk. This is the 2nd time we’ve seen him here after dark.

Always love seeing all four of them!

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Watchers KathyO,Joyce,CarolP,Tim,Lynda and myself made a trek to Canada to watch Quest and Kendals babies get banded. We left Rochester about 5:30 am so we could make a couple other stops along the way. We first checked out a slew of cormorants,gulls and Black-crowned Night Herons nesting near the Burlington Bridge area. We made our way to the bridge itself to visit Cirrus,MacKenzie and their 3 boys-Jimmy,Port Hope and Carrey. We were treated to a team effort when MacKenzie flushed some pigeons out from the bridge to over the open water where Cirrus stooped quickly on one and caught it. I enjoy this site very much each time I come!

Next stop was the Mississauga site where we found one adult and the juvie Janet. We didn’t stay for long as we didn’t know how traffic would be and didn’t want to miss a minute of the banding  at Harlequin so off we went to the site at Don Mills where we found Kendal on the Harlequin building and Quest on a column near the nest box where their 3 babies were sleeping in a pile together at the back of the nest box.

Just before it was time to extract the kids so they could get their special bling Quest decided to feed them. As the trio of  kidnappers made their way up to the nest box she was still feeding them and quickly vacated the nest box when they arrived in front of her.

There were 2 girls named Amora and Mira and a boy named Blaze. All 3 were very feisty, so much so that Cathy from the CPF staff who took them from the nest box sustained some abrasions from them on her hand and wrist area. In the pic below she is explaining her ordeal!

CarolP was chosen to hold one of the babies as it got banded and was told that Mira, the female she was to handle was named after Mariah. How cool is that? And so with another Canadian banding day in the books we all came home with smiles on our faces. 🙂

Click on the links below for lots more pics and a few short videos from the days events

http://pix.kg/p/918098695213%3A1912395511/scl

http://youtu.be/MfqYBTWEizE

http://youtu.be/c5ADDOeqGsE

http://youtu.be/aVQMeTZhkK0

http://youtu.be/GUW_Fp0WdAA

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Joyce picked me up for a watch this afternoon and as we made our way downtown we stopped by the Frontier Communications Tower after getting a tweet that Beauty was on it. Dana and Carol P were there. I was very excited to see the Beautiful one on her favorite spot of the FCT for I hadn’t seen her there since before her battle with Unity back in February.

She was rain soaked and preening herself and I was so loving this time spent sharing space with her. She soon flew off to the south seemingly to Times Square but when we got to the Broad St. bridge after picking Brian up Beauty was on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR.

We didn’t stay long as we wanted to check KP for the new pefa that has been seen hanging out there. I spotted it immediately as it perched on a railing by the red door of the east stack.

It started to pour of rain and we missed this pefa leave. CarolP and Dana came by to join us. We stayed just a little longer hoping it would come back. Joyce then decided we’d go to the Irondequoit Bay in search of the Bald Eagles nesting there. We didn’t find them but Brian spotted a migrating juvie above the eastern tree line. So we did see an eagle and then on the way back while going west bound down the 104 expressway Brian saw a Peregrine chasing a pigeon over the Medley Center. We doubled back to check the Irondequoit Mall and surrounding area but were not able to locate it. One more check at KP proved fruitless and then Joyce dropped me off home. It was a splash and go watch with all the pop up showers and thunder showers but still we always manage to smile on our falcon watches! 🙂

Click on the links below for a few more pics and a video of Beauty preening on OCSR

http://pix.kg/p/972555595213%3A1567990895/scl

http://youtu.be/smdlnp1uMlk

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Date : 6/2/12 (Saturday)
Time: On and off during the day until 9:00 pm
Weather: It started out sunny. The clouds and rain. Then sunny again. Temps in the 60’s. It actually turned out to be a very nice day.
Watchers: Kathy O, Dana, Joyce, Brian H and Carol P.
Places: Downtown Rochester (Times Square Nestsite) (TS), Brighton Site (BS) and Kodak Park (KP)
Peregrines Seen: Beauty (at TSB), Dot.ca (at TSB and probably BS), Pigott (at BS) and KPT or KP Tiercel (at KP)
Beauty = B
Dot.ca = DC
Pigott = P (the female falcon formerly known as SA or Sub Adult at BS Location)
KP Tiercel = KPT (Male Sub-adult – Not ID’d yet but hopefully we’ll ID this little guy soon)
Times Square Bldg = TSB
Brighton Site = BS
Broad St Bridge = BSB
Baush & Lomb Bldg = B&L Bldg
Old Changing Scenes Restaurant = OCSR
Kodak Park aka Eastman Business Park = KP

Again, today, all four Rochester Falcons were seen. The day started out sunny, but turned overcast and rainy mid-morning. Then back to sunshine and clouds. It actually turned out to be a very nice day with temps in the high 60’s. Very refreshing.

I had a lot of stuff to do today, so I was in and out of Falcon Watching all day.

During the day I met up with Dana and Kathy O. Missed seeing Joyce and Brian when they were out later in the day. We spotted all four Rochester Falcons. First, Pigott at the BS location, then Beauty and Dot.ca at the TSB nest site. Last we saw KPT out at Kodak Park. He was sitting on the railing in front of the red door on the east smoke stack. Later in the day, Kathy O was out at the BS location and she saw two Peregrines there. Dana joined her there and I headed downtown to see if I could find D.C. I could not. So we assume that he was out visiting with Pigott. Although he was not positively ID’d.

Kathy O & Dana reported that the 2nd Falcon was no longer at the BS location and it wasn’t long before D.C. returned to the TSB and took over covering the eggs from Beauty. I saw him land on the nest box and I could hear ee-chupping fill the air. The on-line Watchers reported that Beauty didn’t look or sound happy, but eventually got up and let D.C. take over. From the ground, I saw Beauty fly out of the nest box and head east. By the time I got myself up to the Broad St Bridge, she was gone.

I wasn’t out as much as I wanted to be today, but was very happy to see all 4 Rochester Falcons. It was a very good day indeed!

I follow my own advice and always keep my eyes to the sky! There be Falcons up there! 🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

So I was sitting in my recliner all cinched in for the night or so I thought, when the phone rings. It’s KathyO calling to tell me about the new spot she saw Beauty perched on tonight. Then she says she’s going to check KP before going home and then it’s-hey you want me to come get you and we’ll both go? I’m like-of course! So off we went. We arrived there about 7:00ish and found nothing,even the whitewash(poop trail)  was all gone from the rain today where the pefa hangs out there. So as we sat there in the rain with darkness coming fast Kathy said lets go look downtown-ok by me since I didn’t get down there today cuz of the rain.

As we approached the back(west side) of Times Square we pulled over on Broad St. near Washington St. and Kathy pointed out where she had found Beauty earlier in the grid work. It made me wonder how many times I had sat on the bridge wondering where she could be when she could have been right back there. Sheesh! Anyway, she wasn’t there anymore so we went searching. Parked on the Andrews St. bridge facing west looking toward the Frontier Communications Tower when Kathy says what’s that up on that building? I put my binocs up to my eyes and lo and behold it’s the Beautyful one!

It was raining a bit and kinda dark so the quality of the pics is awful but I like taking pics of her so I got out the car and walked closer to improve my view. Checking from both sides.

I walked around the building to see what the name was but it didn’t say. All I can tell you is that it was on the corner of State and Andrews streets marked 150 State St. I had been to this building a couple times with Joyce as she had to pay a bill to I believe an insurance company located in it. And that’s about it for my quickie watch. Kathy took me home as it was too dark to keep hanging out. I must tip my hat to KathyO for finding our Beautyful girl in not 1 but 2 new spots tonight. Good job girl! And I thank her for getting me out to share time and space with my favorite falcon which always makes me smile! 🙂

Click the link below for a few more pics

http://pix.kg/p/182296395213%3A878731042/scl

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Took a break today from checking on the Rochester Falcons. It rained on and off all day and was cool & cloudy. This gave me a chance to actually go through my pictures from this past week. I have many more pictures to go through, but this is a start. This album includes pictures of Beauty, Dot.ca, Pigott and KPT (KP Tiercel).

Just click on the link to my KGallery Album. No sign on needed.

Enjoy!
Carol P.

http://pix.kg/p/1464119451105%3A1772945844/scl

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Date : 5/31/12 (Thursday)
Time: 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Weather: Another beautiful day! Sun, a few clouds, temps in the high 60’s. What a welcome change from the sweltering heat, and humidity of the past week!
Watchers: Larry O, Barb, Kathy O, Lisa, Jeanne & Carol P.
Places: Downtown Rochester (Times Square Nestsite) (TS)
Peregrines Seen: Beauty (at TSB), Dot.ca (at TSB and maybe BS) & Pigott (at BS) and time to officially add #4 a tiercel sub-adult with black over black bands (at KP)
Beauty = B
Dot.ca = DC
Pigott = P (the female falcon formerly known as SA or Sub Adult at BS Location)
KP Tiercel = KPT (Male Sub-adult – Not ID’d yet but hopefully we’ll ID this little guy soon)
Times Square Bldg = TSB
Brighton Site = BS
Broad St Bridge = BSB
Baush & Lomb Bldg = B&L Bldg
Old Changing Scenes Restaurant = OCSR
Kodak Park aka Eastman Business Park = KP

It’s time to officially add a 4th Falcon to the Rochester Falcons family. He’s a small tiercel out at KP. I’ve found him out there twice now and there is evidence that he’s been there for awhile. I am pretty sure this is the same bird I saw last Friday, but due to the distance, I can’t be 100% sure.

Today I started my watch out at the BS location with a very active Pigott. When I first got there, she was on the east side of the building. She then flew around to the front (north side). I remained with her for awhile before heading downtown.

When I arrived downtown around 5:00 pm, Dot.ca was on the eggs and Beauty was, well somewhere. Probably in her secret place. Someday, we Watchers will figure it out. 🙂 She’s a tricky one! Larry O joined me and then Barb.

My on-line Watcher helpers were ezsha, Kris G and Ei. Thank you ladies!

It wasn’t until 6:20 pm that Beauty flew up to the TSB and landed on the platform. She remained there until 7:00 pm before letting it be known to D.C. that it was her turn to warm the eggs. He took off, flew around a bit and landed on the ladder on the Wilder Bldg, a little below the roof level. I said my goodbyes to Barb and Larry O and headed down to Aqueduct St to watch D.C. who was preening every feather he had one at a time. At 7:20 pm he finished. It was time to do some Crow chasing, and that he did. He stooped off of the Wilder Bldg and chased the Crows out over the river. I lost sight of him behind the buildings and did not see him again this evening. I decided it was time to go home after checking the BSB to make sure no other Watchers showed up. Nope.

On my way home (7:50 pm), I made my usual stop at KP and was happy to find our #4 Rochester Falcon on the east stack on a railing in front of a red door. This was the exact spot I had noticed all the white wash (aka Pefa Poop) on the stack and this falcon was in a perfect position to have caused it. He hopped over to a nearby electrical box and stayed there for awhile. I tweeted out that there was a Peregrine at KP in case anyone wanted to join me.

I decided to stay at KP until dark, just to make sure there wasn’t a 2nd falcon there. There wasn’t. At 8:15 pm, KPT (KP Tiercel) took off heading east. Strong, quick wing beats. I jumped out of my car for a better view as he went further east. Then he stooped and I lost him. Back up into my view and he circled back, but he wasn’t alone. Two Crows were following. That didn’t bother our KPT. He headed back towards the stacks and then did a “U” turn. Now he was chasing the Crows! Another “U” turn and the Crows were chasing him! Another “U” turn and he was chasing the Crows? You get the idea. He then headed back to the east stack, minus the Crows and landed on the back (north side) of the catwalk.

While I moved my car in the parking lot to get a better view, he took off and landed and took off and landed , finally on an arm that juts out from the east side of the stack and this is where he remained until I left at 9:30 pm. Before I left, Lisa McK and Kathy O joined me. It was their first time seeing him. The sun set and it got really cold, so we all decided to call it an evening.

Oh, and during our Watch, we received a tweet from Jeanne that she had 2 Falcons over at the BS location and they were vocalizing. I guess we have to assume that it was D.C. visiting Pigott.

So, FOUR Rochester Falcons seen today. A very good day indeed! This is just another good reason to keep your eyes to the sky!

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

I got picked up just before 9:00am by fellow falcon watcher Lynda. We headed downtown straight away. Dot.Ca(DC) was on the eggs when I left the house so I assumed he was still there when we arrived on the Broad St. bridge. We checked around for Beauty to no avail so I suggested we go to the Brighton site(BS) as I don’t get there often and check for Pigott. She wasn’t around when we first arrived and when I got a tweet that DC was relieved by Beauty at the nest box I thought we should wait and see if  he showed up. I’ve been wondering if he is spending much time with Pigott lately since he spends so much time downtown. After taking another ride around the building I spotted Pigott on the west end of the vent that is located on the south (back)side of the building.

She was leisurely preening and no doubt enjoying the cooler temperatures that arrived last nite after the heat of the last week. We watched her for a little over a half hour when Lynda caught sight of a Red-tailed Hawk flying in from the southeast. Pigott spotted it too and after taking a quick look she started squawking and took off after it. She thumped it a couple times above the building and chased it around the building twice before escorting it to the north and out of the area. She then returned to the vent and came to rest on the same spot as she was before the altercation with Mr. RTH!

I got a tweet that DC was back on the eggs so he obviously wasn’t going to be showing up at BS so we decided to go back to downtown and see if we could find the Beautyful one. We stopped to get a slice of pizza for lunch on the way and parked in front of the Blue Cross Arena on Exchange St. where we were facing the Times Square building and could also see the Crossroads and Wilder buildings. Just as we finished up with our meal Lynda noticed a falcon flying above the Crossroads building. We watched it circle the area above the Powers building and fly west out of sight. Thinking it was Beauty I suggested we drive over to the Frontier Communications Tower since that’s the general direction she flew. She wasn’t there and after checking Kodak Office we left to go back to the Times Square area. On the way I got a call from DebbieH asking if I was around as she was on her lunch break and wanted to join me. We met her by the Broad St. side of the Blue Cross Arena where we saw Beauty up next to the main cam.

Deb and Lynda were meeting for the first time and we were joking about how there’s usually a stand down when Beauty wants DC off the eggs. That boy loves incubation duties and I can’t wait to see how he is with his babies. Lynda has a smart phone and brought up the livestream so we could watch as Beauty hopped over to perch on the deck and stare at DC as he looked away. He eventually gave in and left the scrape flying above the Times Square building circling it twice and landing under the southeast wing.

He preened for a bit and then flaired out his tail before flying off to the southwest seemingly going into a stoop before we lost him behind the Democrat&Chronicle and jail.

Debbie had to get back to work and it was almost time for Lynda to be leaving for home so she said we could go to BS one more time to see if DC went there. It was an unsuccessful trip for neither he nor Pigott were there. I had a great time with Lynda as I always do and we were both smiling as we ended our watch, for not only had we seen all 3 of our Rochester Peregrine Falcons but we had seen all 3 fly as well! 🙂

For a few more pics of todays watch click on the link below

http://pix.kg/p/806065295213%3A1644413189/scl

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Date : 5/30/12 (Wednesday)
Time: 4:00 pm to 7:45 pm
Weather: A beautiful day! Sun, a few clouds, a little bit of a breeze and temps in the 70’s. Humidity way down!
Watcher: Larry O, Dan S & Carol P.
Places: Downtown Rochester (Times Square Nestsite) (TS)
Peregrines Seen: Beauty (at TSB), Dot.ca (at TSB) & Pigott (at BS)
Beauty = B
Dot.ca = DC
Pigott = P (the female falcon formerly known as SA or Sub Adult at BS Location)
Times Square Bldg = TSB
Brighton Site = BS
Broad St Bridge = BSB
Baush & Lomb Bldg = B&L Bldg
Old Changing Scenes Restaurant = OCSR

Another successful late afternoon/evening Falcon Watch with all three Rochester Falcons seen. Love when that happens. I would have liked to see #4 over at KP, but no luck.

My usual route after work seems to take me to the BS location to check on Pigott first. Since other Watchers and the cameras see Beauty and Dot.ca most of the day, I like to put my mind at ease that she is ok. Today I found her on the front (north) side of the building. She was on a windowsill in front of a boarded up window. But, she wasn’t there for long. Pigott took off and circled above me, so graceful. She flew back towards the building and landed on a corner on the north side near the scrape. She was almost directly above me and she vocalized just a little bit. I looked around almost expecting to see Dot.ca fly in, but he was nowhere in sight. She settle down and started to preen.

I stayed with Pigott for a little while before deciding to head downtown. I was happy to see her looking so well.

Next stop downtown Rochester. My on-line Watchers today were Kathy O, Donna, Ei, Joyce and NT aka NCAFalcons. Thanks everyone! Like I said in my tweet, with all of you letting me know what’s going on at the nest box, there’s no need for me to get a smart phone! lol When I ask a question like “is Beauty in the nest box?”, I get a text back almost immediately! “Yes, she is!” I love it. This was such a problem for us in the old days of watching Mariah and Kaver and their young. We had a really hard time knowing what was going on at and in the nest box, from below. Our biggest improvement was to add radios to the watch so we could call each other, instead of yelling! Now look at us! Thanks to all of you that are helping out.

So, I arrive downtown and find out that Beauty is on the eggs and D.C. is on the nest box platform. After parking my car on the Broad St Bridge, I look up to see that D.C. is gone from the NB platform and is now on the base of the SE wing of the TSB above. A text comes through that Beauty is sleeping in the nest box. A true Sleeping Beauty!

At 5:10 pm, D.C. takes off and does not return until 6:40 pm, when I spot him up on Camera 4, with Beauty still in the nest box.

In between, at 5:20 pm, I had driven over to the Andrew St Bridge to check out the other spots they like to visit. Nothing. Back to the BSB, where I am joined by Larry O. We checked out the area for D.C. No luck finding him.

Larry had to leave just before Dot.ca showed up on Camera #4 at 6:40 pm. He texted me that Dan S was out on the bridge. So, I took a few pics of D.C. and then headed up to join Dan for a short while. During that time, D.C. entered the nest box and Beauty left. Shift change!

At 7:20 pm, I left Dan on the BSB. He wanted me to say hi to everyone for him. He does not have a computer, so he never gets to check out what’s going on at the Rfalconcam site.

My last check on my way home was Kodak Park. I checked out the area but had no luck finding the sub-adult Peregrine I saw there last Friday. I will definitely keep checking.

It was another successful Falcon Watch with all three Rochester Falcons seen. Remember to keep your eyes to the sky! There is all kinds of neat stuff going on up there!