By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

What can I say? It was an adventure I’ll never forget from start to finish. Joyce picked me up at around 7:ooam Friday morning. We stopped in Buffalo on the way to Canada and saw BB and her 3 eyases at UB. Next we went to Central Terminal and saw one adult and could barely see the white of an eyas in the nestbox. From there it was to the grain elevators with no sightings. We had better luck at the Statler building in downtown Buffalo. Joyce got the idea to go up in a building across from the nest site. We told the guy at the front desk we wanted to go up to the 26th floor to take pics of the falcons and he gave the ok! What a great idea that was tho it was through windows and not too clear we did get some pics of the eyases. No adults were visible to us.

Next up was across the border to Canada with the first stop at the Burlington bridge. We saw the female adult(not sure of name) and the 3 eyases. We also met up with Sue McCready and her husband who were there for a fledge watch. We stayed briefly for we didn’t want to be late for the banding. After a nerve wrecking ride down the QEW with backed up traffic in more than one spot we finally arrived with about 15 minutes to spare! PHEW!!! Carol,Dana,Kathy and Lisa were there and the CPF were already at the nest site getting the eyases with Linn and Reuben flying back and forth overhead. After observing and taking pics we went in for the banding ceremony. My very first and hopefully not my last! It was wonderful to be so close to the little cuties. Afterward the 6 of us from Rochester went to have a bite to eat with CPFers Mark and Marion Nash,Big Frank and Tracy. When we were done we got our hotel rooms and then went to see Quest,Kendal and Harlequin. What a falcon and fun filled day as we saw a total of 19 adults and eyases!

Saturday morning the 6 of us enjoyed a continental breakfast together at the hotel before going to find Stormin. We parked at the top of a parking garage to view this nestsite and the female(not sure of name) was there watching over her babies. A short time after Stormin came flying in and we all marveled at how much he looked like Kaver with his dark head. When we left this site Carol,Dana,Kathy and Lisa were headed to the Sheraton and Rhea Mae and Tiagos’ site for a fledge watch. Joyce and I had planned on going there eventually after we checked a couple other sites. We found our way to the nest site of the infamous Jack (who has families with 2 females) and Angel where we met Carly. It was great to meet her and share a few minutes of falcon watching. Joyce had decided to go get her car and bring down to where we all were and in the process got into an accident. This pretty much ended our falcon watching as we spent the next 7 hours going through the Canadian accident process. Carly called Bruce from the CPF to come give us assistance and he couldn’t have done more. He stayed with us through the whole deal and even got a tow truck to take the car to the Collision Reporting Center. In Canada unless there’s an injury or damage to city property the police don’t come and you have 24 hrs. to go to this center to report your accident where they deem whether your car is drivable. Joyce was very adament about driving her car home and so she followed the tow truck driver in her car with Bruce and I behind her. She quickly found out that she wouldn’t be driving it home. She said the steering was horrendous but she did get to the center with it arriving a nervous wreck to say the least. After you report to the center people you get a police report from one of the officers on duty at the center. Joyce had a hard time finding a rental car that we could cross the border in but Bruce was a tremendous help as he drove her to the airport to get one there.  I stayed at the center because he had room for only one in his vehicle. An hour and a half later they returned with a vehicle with Michigan plates. Joyce and I got everything out of her car including her license plates as she didn’t want to worry about anything being stolen. She couldn’t wait to get out of there and after having a late dinner we made our way home arriving between 2;30-3:00am.

I want to thank all the CPF peeps for their efforts and friendship and a special thank you to Bruce for all of his help and compassion and to Carly who missed out on alot of her fledge watch to show us support.

Here is the link to my photo album (as always no sign in needed):

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

This will be my last report for a few days since I and a few other Watchers will be heading up to Toronto to visit with the Rochester Gals, our CPF friends and Stormin.

On Saturday and Sunday morning, 4 Rochester Fledge/Falcon Watchers will join the CPF & keep an eye on Rhea Mae and Tiago’s little ones. We are really looking forward to it!

OK, back to my evening Falcon Watch. I arrived at KP around 7:15 pm and found both Unity and Archer on the stills. Since I just missed Kathy O and all was quiet, I drove downtown to see how Beauty was doing. At 7:30 pm., I found Beauty sitting in the nest box looking out on her domain. Again, all was quiet. So back to KP.

At 7:50 pm, I spotted both Unity and Archer on what we call the “pigeon box”. Archer was plucking feathers for newly caught prey under the camera at the SE corner of the box. Unity was a few feet to his left watching.

After a few minutes, she got tired of waiting and ran towards him, grabbing the food. He took off and landed on the still and she enjoyed her meal. After about 15 mins of eating, she took off and flew with the prey to the top, west end, of the blue bldg that held their scrape and cached the food. She took off, flew around and landed on the east smoke stack, lower catwalk.

That is where I left them around 8:15 pm. It was a good day. Any day I see all three Rochester Falcons and all is quite and peaceful, it’s a good day. Nite all! Enjoy your Friday and weekend!

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

It was quite overcast and humid this morning in downtown Rochester. There isn’t much to report for I only spent about 20 minutes of my 2hr. 30min. watch with Beauty. When I arrived on the Broad St. bridge she was under the northeast wing of the Times Square building.

I drove down to Aqueduct St. to be closer to her. The Beautyful one had a white feather sticking out of her back. After she rousted (term for shaking her body as told to me by a couple of our watchers) the feather fell off her and floated off into the warm breeze. She went back to preening herself and scratching her head with one of those incredible big yellow feet.

Soon after, Beauty stood up and pooped.  I got ready for her takeoff as they usually fly off afterward.

Beauty stepped out onto the ledge with her right leg, spread her wings and took off over my head and over the Thomson Reuters building out of sight. For the next 2 hours I searched and never found her again. I thought perhaps she had caught breakfast and had eaten somewhere I couldn’t see. Once she eats she usually just hangs out somewhere. So I left downtown happy to have seen our Beautyful one but as always wanting more! 🙂

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
It was an HHH day, hot, hazy and humid. I arrive at Kodak Park around 6:30 pm. Dana was already there and pointed out Unity on the east side of the tall still, sitting on the shady side. We had been receiving tweeted reports from our on-line Watchers. Beauty is in the nest box. Archer just brought food to Beauty. So we knew that Unity was here by herself.
Kathy O joined us and we continued our Watch. At 8:00 pm, the sun was starting to go down and a breeze started. It was very welcome and it kept the mosquitoes away. There have been so many of them lately. Very annoying. As the heat of the day went away, Unity started to stretch and preen. She spread her wings and took off heading south towards the bowling alley across the street, a favorite hunting ground. She stooped and veered up, missing the pigeons that roosted there. Unity landed on the communication tower directly south of our position. She was in hunt mode and this was a good place to hunt from.
At 8:30 pm, Unity flew off of the communication tower and headed back towards the blue colored building that held her scrape. She flew directly into the scrape. Little did we know at the time that Archer had beat her there.
Dana and watched first Archer and then Unity come out of the scrape and land on the west still. he was above her. He then flew off and down to her, landing gently on her back. At 8:35 pm, they copulated. He then flew around a bit and again landed above her on the still. During all of this, there was little vocalization.
It was time for us to leave and as we were driving away, Archer flew back down to the scrape area. It was a good day. All Rochester Falcons, Beauty, Archer and Unity were accounted for and was peaceful.
We will continue to keep an eye on both nest sites and report what we see. Nite all!

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

As I approached the Broad St. bridge today I spotted Dan in his chair on the sidewalk and I started smiling. He hasn’t met me there in the morning in  3 weeks or more. He hadn’t seen any falcons yet when I arrived. We sat there for awhile and getting bored he asked if I wanted to go to the pedestrian bridge at high falls so we went. It’s a nice,relaxing  place to spend time with all it’s natural surroundings. We saw that Mrs. Canadian goose didn’t have any hatchlings yet and Mr. and Mrs. turkey were bonding over in the grassy area.

Anyway, after 20 minutes I finally spotted the Beautyful one on the Frontier Communications Tower.

Can you find her in the pic?  Dan spotted Beauty flying up to and into the nestbox about 25 minutes later and Donna reported a couple minutes later that Archer had brought Beauty some breakfast. I was very happy to hear that to say the least! Dan left at 7:00am his usual time and I drove back downtown to find Beauty on the jail tower.

I sat on Troup St. watching her for only 5 minutes when she flew off in the direction of FCT. I found her over there in her favorite spot below the platform on the east side.

I spent half an hour with her until she suddenly looked up over her shoulder,then flew off toward me.

As she flew practically right over me it was then that I spotted Archer coming up the rear right on her tail. They both flew in the direction of Times Square so I tweeted it out and high tailed it over to Broad St. Nobody on Times Square,Mercury ,Wilder,Widows Walk or the jail tower so I decided to check Kodak Office. On my way back from there driving south on N. Plymouth St. I spotted Beauty back on the same perch as before on the FCT. I pulled over in front of Frontier Field(our Rochester Red Wings baseball teams field) to look through my binocs and lo and behold Archer was up there with her!

I stayed and watched them preen until 8:30am and then it was time for this falcon watcher to get home. It was so nice to see Archer spend some time with Beauty. Keep your eyes to the sky everyone! 🙂

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=8578947360105%3A1187273505&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

Some catch up of pictures and reporting from the last few days. These are from both nest sites, Downtown Rochester and Kodak Park. I and other Watchers have been driving back and forth quite a bit, trying to keep an eye on all 3 Rochester Falcons, making sure all is well.

No sign on needed.

Enjoy!
Carol P

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Hi to all you Rochester falcon fans! When I first arrived on the Broad St. bridge this morning at about 5:35 I could just barely see Beauty up on the front perch of the nestbox.

Beauty left when I wasn’t looking of course and the hunt was on for her. About 20 minutes later I spotted her on the northeast corner of the launchpad on the Kodak Office Tower.

As I sat there watching the Beautyful one she started to whine! I thought Archer might be somewhere close. No such luck! I guess Peregrine falcons talk to themselves too or maybe she was whining to me. lol We hung out together for about 20 minutes there and then she flew off in the direction of Times Square. As I approached I could see that she had landed under the northeast wing of the Times Square building, so I drove down to Aqueduct St. and parked the truck.

Beauty and I spent the remainder of my watch here. Have a great day everyone!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

After a busy weekend and taking the day off yesterday from watching I made my way downtown this morning. It took about 20 minutes before I spotted the Beautyful one. I was on the Andrews St. bridge and Beauty landed on the money bag hand of Mercury. I reached for my camera and when I looked back she was already gone. I found her after about 10 minutes on the jail tower second arm down on the south side. Again she left almost immediately.

After searching about 40 minutes I saw her on the Frontier Communications Tower and she flew off there rather quickly too! This is so NOT typical Beauty behaviour. Next, I found her over on the deck next to the main camera and she was talking up a storm. I thought perhaps Archer was around somewhere but it was wishful thinking on my part. She then went into the nestbox being quite vocal the whole time. Then, she was off again heading toward the jail tower one more time.

Sure enough I found her there on the second arm only on the north side this time.

I went over to Troup St. to be closer to her and after a few short moments she flew off into a stoop behind the jail where I couldn’t see her. I went looking for her to find that she had doubled back to the jail tower and was in the middle of the structure.

I had noticed Saturday morning that Beauty was hanging her right wing a little lower than the other when she was on the FCT,but she seemed to be flying just fine so I dismissed it. Now, today again that right wing seems to be hanging lower. It didn’t seem to affect her stooping skills so I really don’t know what to make of it.

This is where I left her ending my watch on a warm, bright morning in Rochester,NY. Just in case anyone was wondering what became of Beauty and Archers’ last egg that I found on the sidewalk, after an attempt over the weekend and finding it closed I was able to deliver it to the DEC field office in Avon,NY this afternoon. Have a good one! 🙂

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

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It rained most of the morning and into the afternoon. I joined Dana and Dan at KP and we checked out KP and downtown at different times. All three Rochester Falcons are doing well.

If you’re interested, you can take a look at today’s Watch report at the link above.

Enjoy!
Carol P.

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

A short but sweet report this morning. I couldn’t find Beauty right away so I went to the Dipaolo bakery to pick up rolls for Sues’ graduation party today. When I got back downtown I finally spotted her on the FCT.

After less than a minute she flew off into a stoop toward State St. returning without any prey. I could see she was on high alert for any movement over that way when she stooped again! Once more she returned empty taloned landing on her favorite spot  below the platform on the FCT.

I stayed as long as I could with her about an hour or so before I had to leave. It was overcast and started to sprinkle when I left downtown. Have a great day everyone! 🙂