By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Joyce and Brian picked me up this afternoon to go over to Kodak for a watch. When we arrived Dan,Lynda and Dana were there. Lady Pefa was on the tall still. Dana and Linda left and Joyce and I decided to go down to parking lot 73 for a closer look at Archer who was on the corner of the blue building black strip near the nook and Lady Pefa was in the pigeon poop hole where we think their scrape is.

As we were taking pics Archer took off flying east and Lady Pefa flew to the antenna on the building at the east end of lot 77. We lost track of Archer and jumped in the car to go up there. Joyce knew this was a chance to positively ID her because she had on another occasion with CarolP gotten a pic of Lady Pefas’ legband. We needed another confirmation of the legband to make it official. There she was looking magnificent in the late day sun. We clicked away with our cameras until she left and flew to the tall still.

We joined Dan and Brian and looked at our pics in anticipation. BINGO we both had pics that when we zoomed them it was clear that her legband read the same as Joyces’ previous ID: Black 71 over Red H. From this point forward she would be known as Unity from Toledo,OH!

CarolP was down in parking lot 73 so we drove down to join her and share our news with her. We left to go downtown for a check of things and we found Archer on the top ibeam south side of the OCSR building. He was snoozing and I remarked that he should be for all the energy he is expending these days. We dropped Brian off home and came to my place to look at our pics on the computer screen. What a thrill it was to be part of IDing our newest Rochester falcon Unity! 🙂

For all my pics at Kodak follow this link   http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=785511922213%3A620068218&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK
Happy Mothers Day to all!
Fittingly my first sighting this morning at 5:55am was downtown Rochesters resident mom Beauty.

She was near the southeast corner of the HSBC building. She left and I didn;t see her again until about 8:00am. BrianH had joined me while we watched Beauty fly to and land on the main camera.

Shortly after Archer flew out of the nestbox and Beauty flew in. He went over to the Wilder building and parked himself on the fire escape ladder.

After a little preening and scoping out his territory he flew up to the northeast corner of the Crossroads building grabbed some cached food and flew to the Times Square building to prepare it for consumption under the southeast wing.

Archer flew down to the nestbox and it seemed like he was trying to lure Beauty off the eggs with prey. He then flew out to Mercury and dropped the small mothers day gift on the base of Mercury and flew over to the top ibeam of OCSR south corner. Beauty flew out to Mercury gobbled down this meager morsel and returned to her eggs less than a minute later.

Seeing that Beauty went back to the the nestbox Archer flew to the northeast corner of Crossroads and looked to the north where Kodak and his “other woman'” reside.

Archer flew back to the top ibeam south corner of the OCSR building where we left him. I dropped Brian off at home and went home myself to end the watch 🙂

For more pics of my special Mothers Day morning watch follow the link to my album.  http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=318597822213%3A348466902&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Good day to everyone!

Dan was on the Broad St. bridge when I arrived at 6:05am this morning. I had spotted Beauty on the base of Mercury as I drove through the intersection at Exchange and Broad streets. Just as I got out of the truck to join Dan she flew off to the east and out of sight. Dan left at 7:00am and I decided to go look for the Beautyful one. I found her on the southeast corner of the HSBC building looking lovely in the morning sunlight.

She was in hunt mode looking around for prey. She flew off in a half stoop toward Xerox and I followed to find her on the base of Mercury eating.

Beauty flew off as soon as she was done eating headed northwest and ended up landing under the northeast wing of the Times Square building.

BrianH and LarryO with his dog Cleo showed up to join me as Beauty and Archer switched on the eggs. Archer flew to the base of Mercury very briefly and took off heading north. Larry left and I gave Brian a ride home before heading home for a breakfast break.

Bobbie from Ireland called to say she would be on the Broad St. bridge at 11:30am to say goodbye as she will be leaving Rochester on Monday to go to her nieces’ in New Jersey until Thursday when she leaves for her home in Ireland. I got there about 11:00am with Dan coming shortly thereafter. Less than 5 minutes after Bobbie arrived we had 2 falcons flying over the river. Beauty was kakking up a storm at Archer. She flew to the nestbox and he went after 2 crows around the back of the Thomson Reuters building. He came to rest under the southeast wing of the Times Square building.

KathyO arrived in time to see Archer go after a Turkey Vulture that was flying over the river quite non-chalantly as TVs do. He didn’t come in contact but just escorted it out of his territory. I told Kathy and Bobbie it was Dans’ birthday and we broke into singing the birthday song to him. He probably wished he had a chance to turn his hearing aids off! lol  As Bobbie was leaving Archer flew back under the southeast wing on Times Square. BrianH joined the watch as Dan left. Archer stayed on Times Square for an hour before flying straight down the face of the building after something we couldn’t see. Brian walked down to the stairs where we call falcon watcher central to find Archer on the fire escape ladder of the Wilder building. We all decided to go home ending this watch.  🙂

For more pics of the day here’s the link to my album.  http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=782091822213%3A50732737&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Hey everybody!

As I drove up to the Broad St. bridge this morning I first spotted his car and then I saw him. Who you ask? Why none other than Mayor Dan. My early morning fellow watcher Dan sitting in his lawn chair on the south side of the Broad St. bridge in his spot. What a feeling of joy that came over me. It was a long winter by myself in the darkness and cold of each morning. He greeted me with his larger than life smile and a big old bear hug and suddenly the cool 43 degree temperature felt warm to me. I caught him up on Quest,Lady Pefa  and Linn in Toronto and showed him my new camera. He was thrilled to see the pics I took of Beauty eating a small morsel who incidentally was on the base of Mercury when I arrived.

There were a couple people walking to work that stopped by and asked us if the falcons were back again this year. I guess when you set up your lawn chairs on a bridge at dawn to watch Peregrine falcons you are remembered! So back to my watch…Beauty flew off Mercury over the river heading east over the Rochester Convention Center(RCC)Chase Lincoln,Midtown and behind Bausch and Lomb and out of our view. Dan left at 7:00am and I got in the truck and cranked the heat to get warm as I made my u-turn to the north side of the Broad St. bridge facing the nestbox. DebbieH appeared just in time to see Beauty flying over the river and Rundell Library. She went into a stoop over the Dinosaur Barbeque where she left our field of view. Debbie went to work and I did a couple drive arounds without success ending my watch for the time being.

Fast forward to Kodak Park about 2 hours later. Sue decided to go on a watch with me while we were out running errands. She spotted a falcon fly to the pigeon box. It flew off  low near the ORB and up to the tall still landing on the back(north side) where we couldn’t see it from the parking lot. A few minutes later a falcon flew from behind the tall still to the second railing northeast side of the tall still. No doubt Lady Pefa judging from the size.

After about 45 minutes a falcon which I assumed was Archer flew out from behind the tall still heading east/southeast picking up speed as he flew and going out of sight. Lady Pefa stayed on the tall still but changed positions now facing where Archer had gone. 15-20 minutes later I spotted Archer flying from the southeast over the parking lot where Lady Pefa joined him. They flew together for a few minutes with Lady Pefa flying right over the top of us before they both flew to the northeast and disappeared. We had to leave but later on our way home we stopped by the parking lot of the bar My Apartment for a quick look at the back of  Kodak Park spotting Lady Pefa on the top railing of the still directly to the west(left) of the tall still. That’s all she wrote! 🙂

For more pics of todays watch here’s the link to my album

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=824067722213%3A508564103&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Hi everyone!

My morning watches lately have consisted of alot of  sit and wait for not too much action. I’m lucky if I even see Beauty and Archer but that’s okay. I consider this to be the rest period for soon business should pick up with the hatching of our 3 beautiful eggs.

I checked the cams before I left to find Beauty on the eggs. I sat in the truck on the Broad St. bridge with my eyes glued to the nestbox waiting for Archer to show up for over an hour. Around 7:30am I noticed DebbieH walking up the sidewalk toward me. It was at this time while I was not paying attention that Archer and Beauty made the switch! I watched Debbie as she got past the Thomson Reuters building and looked toward Mercury. I panned my eyes over to see the Beautyful one on the base of Mercury.She blended in well and you could only see her tail from the angle I had on her.

We watched her eating something very small and then she took off flying in the direction of the Frontier Communications Tower. Debbie left to go to work and I headed over to City Hall. Sure enough when I arrived Beauty was on the southeast corner of the platform railing.

I watched her preening herself until she flew off heading toward the Times Square building. I went home at this point ending my watch. 🙂

Here’s the link to a few pics of Beauty this morning.     http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=955202622213%3A484793388&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Happy May day everyone!

This morning when I arrived downtown I was met by lots of traffic,police and a blocked off Broad St. bridge. There was a marathon going on with the start and finish lines on the Broad St. bridge

It was half hour into my watch before I made it over to the Andrews St. bridge to get a vantage point. I raised my binoculars just in time to see Beauty flying over the river between the OCSR building and the Rochester Convention Center. Suddenly she went into a stoop scattering  pigeons everywhere! Seconds later she was out of sight flying behind the Convention Center. Another half hour passed before I saw her again on the money bag hand of Mercury.

Beauty flew off while I wasn’t looking and according to Donna she went to the nestbox and relieved Archer from egg sitting duties. I never saw him and decided to end my watch. 🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Hi folks! I checked the nestbox cams before I left for downtown to find Archer on the eggs. Half an hour or so into my watch I saw a falcon fly into the nestbox. It looked small to me but nobody came flying out so I was puzzled as to whether Beauty had relieved Archer from incubating the eggs or if he had flown out when I wasn’t looking. I texted Donna to solve the mystery. She said Archer had flown in and out.  It’s so helpful to us watchers to have someone keeping track of who is in the nestbox on the cams so we can report accordingly. For all I knew Archer had left while I was commuting downtown from home.

For the next hour plus, I took a couple trips around the city to look for  Beauty with no luck, returning to the Broad St. bridge each time. Donna texted to find out if I’d seen Beauty(she worries ALOT) and I told her I’d drive around again. As they say… 3rd times the charm! I found the Beautyful one on the bottom arm of the Frontier Communications Tower scoping out her territory.

She took off  heading  in the direction of the Times Square building. On my way over Donna texted that Beauty had switched with Archer on the eggs. I spotted Archer on the heel of Mercury as I drove through the intersection of Broad and Exchange Streets. As soon as I got up on the bridge and parked he stooped straight down the  face of the Thomson Reuters building(river side) on a Starling and they both went back behind it. I don’t know if he caught it but he was very close as they flew out of view. It’s so amazing how fast these birds can turn on the speed. I can never get enough! I waited for him to show up again to no avail. As I drove home to get some breakfast I wondered if he had flown over to the power plant at Kodak Park to visit with Lady Pefa. Dana was on duty over there and if he did she would surely answer my question with a tweet!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Hi all! Well this morning it wasn’t until about 7:00am that I finally spotted Beauty. I drove around in search of her for quite awhile and noticed her on the top ibeam north corner of the Old Changing Scenes Restaurant as I was driving from the Frontier Communications Tower to the Andrews St. bridge.

She took off and didn’t return so I went to the Broad St. bridge. I wasn’t parked for but a moment when she flew in from the east with a small package in her talons landing on the base of Mercury.

She plucked out a few feathers ate her lite meal and preened herself before she flew over to the nestbox. She went in and Archer came out flying due north. I waited a few minutes to see where he might show up. After he was a no-show I decided to drive to the power plant at Kodak Park to see if he had gone to visit Lady Pefa the “other woman”.  It took me 11 minutes to get there from the Broad St. bridge. As soon as I got off the phone with security to let them know I was there I saw Lady Pefa first and then Archer flying between the tall still and the still to the left. It appeared Lady Pefa landed on the back of the tall still as I followed Archer fly due south in the direction of downtown Rochester and out of sight. The time of my tweet on my phone was 8:08am. I called Donna a few minutes later to see if Archer showed up on the cams and sure enough at 8:11am he returned to the nestbox and parked himself on the eggs.  He certainly is a quick little guy! We figure he must have brought take out to Lady Pefa cuz he had leftovers on his beak when he returned!  I stayed about half hour after that without seeing Lady Pefa again ending my watch. 🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Greetings to everyone who follow the Rochester falcons! This report however is about Quest and Kendal in Toronto Ontario Canada. Joyce and I joined CarolP and KathyO at the Harlequin headquarters parking lot on Monday where we met Mark Nash,Tracy,Kathy,Big Frank and a few other members of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation. My apologies for not remembering everyones names. Immediately we were treated to a view of Kendal plucking prey on the corner of a rooftop.

Before entering the building we were given instructions by Mark to speak in hushed voices when we got to the viewing room for it was next to the vice presidents office and after all it was a work day. When we got off the elevator on the 9th floor their was a receptionist there to greet us and show us to the viewing room. There was a mirrored wall behind her desk to the left and straight ahead was a mural of all the published books for the month of April. On the wall just outside the viewing room was a sign informing people this was the falcon room.

It was standing room only as everyone went to the windows to see Quest on her eggs in the nestbox. There was a large glass bowl full of money on the desk for donations to help CPF pay for the nest tray and other work they do. Harlequin said they would match all monies collected. There was a scope set up behind the desk pointed right at our transmitter girl Quest. KathyO was so touched to see her that she cried tears of joy. I must admit it put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye as well. Our wandering falcon had finally found a home of her own after almost 3 years of searching .

The cameras were off and clicking! Tracy and Mark had plenty of stories to tell us, some of which were posted by Big Frank on the CPF website. These Canadians love their birds and are VERY dedicated to them to say the least. We share their passion and devotion as well. There were Harlequin employees stopping in every few minutes to take a look in the scope and ask us questions quite enthusiastically about Quest and Kendal and peregrines in general. We watchers soo like to act as ambassadors to these magnificent birds whenever someone acts interested. There was a rack of romance novels in the viewing room that we were told we could take if we wanted.  Carol,Kathy and Joyce were only to happy to make a few selections. While the four of us went to lunch Mark went to the presidents room and got a clear shot of the nestbox as Quest and Kendal were standing on either side of their eggs. This is his pic which I took a pic of off his camera screen with my camera as I was the first one back to the viewing room.

Joyce came in next and I said look at the great pic I got and she was flabbergasted at how clear and bright it was. You see the windows in the viewing room are smoked and the presidents are not so we all got a big chuckle over that one. I did ask Marks permission to post his pic in my report.

We were informed there was an intruding falcon that Quest and Kendal went after with Kendal returning to the nestbox and Quest escorting it out of the area before returning. We also saw Kendal go after a goose and shortly after that 2 of them landed on the roof of the building the nestbox was on. Surprisingly he didn’t go after them.

Kendal is quite the provider for he was seen alot of the time we were there either bringing in prey, cleaning prey, caching prey or guarding it. Quest and their young will undoubtedly be well fed. Here’s a link to a video of him on the same corner as the geese were on plucking feathers from a Northern Flicker.                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5mBCb1CL_0

The day flew by as it was 5:00pm and quitting time for the Harlequin folks. We said our goodbyes to the CPF gang and Harlequin people and thanked them all for their hospitality. CarolP and KathyO had to return to Rochester as they had to go to work the next day. Harlequin told us we were more than welcome to come back to view Quest and Kendal as Joyce and I stayed over for another day of falcon watching. We stayed at the Weston hotel right around the corner. After checking in we took a ride to downtown Toronto to see if we could find Rhea Mae or Tiago but unfortunately after having some difficulty finding the Sheraton it was dark and raining quite hard. So we rode around taking in the night life and lights of Toronto.

On Tuesday we arrived at Harlequin to have  the viewing room all to ourselves. On this day we met Donna Hayes, CEO of Harlequin Enterprises who came in several times throughout the day to check on Quest and Kendal as did many other employees. Everyone there is really into it watching the falcons and very friendly. We finally got to see Quest fly in between and around the 2 buildings landing on a building kiddie corner from where we were watching to the right of us. I watched from inside while Joyce was outside watching at the time.

We ended our watch at 3:00pm because we wanted to check out the Burlington bridge falcons on our way home. Unfortunately it was so foggy and raining so hard we could not see any falcons but we did come across a couple small islands along the shore of Lake Ontario that were packed with cormorants and gulls. Onward we trudged and as we approached St. Catherines the fog lifted and the sun came out. Such is the luck of a falcon watcher. Joyce decided we would stop at Niagara Falls as it was still light out.

I will end my report by saying thank you to the members of CPF, the staff at Harlequin and my friend Joyce for making it possible for me to see Quest and Kendal in their Canadian home. May they live long and have lots of chicks in the future. I know they are being looked out for by ALOT of caring folks! Here’s the link to pics of my stay in Canada. Enjoy, I know I did!!!  🙂

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=782797122213%3A1921471000&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Happy Easter and I hope everyone has a blessed day!

I’m not sure what time I arrived downtown but Donna reported Archer leaving the nestbox at 6:30am. I missed it while I was putting peanuts and bird seed along the cement below the railing on the Broad St. bridge.  It was a lack luster morning watch for me falcon speaking but I did have some crows and starlings come along to grab up the goodies I left.

It wasn’t until about 8:00am almost 2 hours after I arrived that I saw Beauty fly to Mercury and land on the outstretched money bag hand. She preened, looked around for less than a minute and then flew over to the nestbox and entered it to resume egg sitting duties.

I had to leave at this point for a breakfast date with one of my nephews. I never did see Archer.

After breakfast Sue and I stopped by Kodak where we found Dana and Lady Pefa hanging out with each other. Lady Pefa was on the tall still second railing down on the west (left) side.

We stayed only a few minutes and headed out. Below is a link to pics from today. Enjoy!  🙂

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=774043912213%3A1592132975&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer