From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Although it was very cold today in Rochester, NY, I still headed out for a late morning, early afternoon Falcon Watch.  You can see and read about it in this KGallery Album.  No sign on needed.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=203954516805%3A1083896848

From Rochester Falcon Watcher, Carol P.

This isn’t actually a Rochester Falcon Watch, but it is a search for one of Mariah and Kaver’s young.  Actually our second “quest” for the very elusive Quest.

Watchers Shaky, Carrie, Kathy O, Joyce and Carol P. first drove up to Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, where Quest had spent most of the summer months.  We missed her by less than a day.  She moved east along Lake Ontario, where she now spends most of her time at the Lennox Power Plant in Bath, Ontario, Canada.

Kathy O, Joyce and Carol P decided to make another attempt to find Quest.  Again, we missed her by a day.  I’m grateful that we have Lennoxman to help keep an eye out for her.  We do plan on “questing” again.  🙂

Here is my KGallery of pictures that I took of “Our Quest for Quest”.  No sign on needed.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=171aim5l.8o9zcbjh&x=0&y=-2kj8j1&localeid=en_US

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

After Kathy and Larry reported seeing Mariah & Beauty yesterday, I headed out for a morning Watch.  You can read about it here.  No sign on needed.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=171aim5l.3h1x3v4d&x=0&y=20xig&localeid=en_US

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P for Kathy O and Larry O:

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning at 9:50 am, I received a call from Kathy O.  She was very excited!  Kathy told me she had been driving down 104 (Keehler St Xpressway), heading east.  She saw a bunch of pigeons flying over the three tall apartment buildings on the north side of the expressway.  She pulled over as soon as it was safe and grabbed her binoculars.  There was a flock of Pigeons flying over the apartments and on closer inspection, a Peregrine was flying behind them.  Kind of just floating up there.  She was very excited when she saw the split wing tip!  Yes!  She is 99% sure she was watching Mariah.

Mariah landed on the railing on top of the east most apartment.  By the time Kathy drove around to get a better view, Mariah was gone.  What a wonderful way to start Thanksgiving day.

At 10:10 am, my phone rang again.  It was Larry O and he had Beauty on the Mercury Statue near the Times Square Bldg.  

So within 20 minutes, we had sightings of both Mariah and Beauty.  Woo Hoo!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Carol P.

For those of you not following on twitter, facebook, kfalconcam, or the rfalconcam forum, Beauty has been sighted several time over the past week in the downtown area.

11/16 – Beauty decided that this territory was worth defending.  RTH goes DOWN! into the gorge.  Kakking heard!

11/17 – Falcon on jail Comm Tower.  Coop in the gorge.

11/18 – Falcon on Civic Center and Frontier Comm towers. Sharp-shinned hawk on Skye’s Building being harassed by gulls.

11/21 – Beauty spotted on Midtown

http://tinyurl.com/yf3yc2a

Well, as you saw from my tweet, we saw Mariah at St Ann’s today.  First I checked downtown.  I scoured the area and had no luck finding a falcon.  Although we’ve had recent sightings of a falcon assumed to be Beauty over the past few days.  Jim P had a falcon on the communication tower on Thursday.  Brian H had one on the communication tower Friday afternoon, he thought Beauty.  Joyce had Beauty on old Changing Scene’s this afternoon.  I have to start wondering if MAYBE Archer has left the area. 

OK, time to head for St Ann’s and Medley Mall.  I was sitting on the north side of the square St. Ann’s when the pigeons took off.  I watched them swerve here and there and then, MARIAH!  WooHoo!  The Queen was in full chase mode.  She chased a few of them over the woods where I lost sight of them, heading towards the Medley Center.

I waited for awhile, but she didn’t return.  So, I decided to head over to the mall.  She wasn’t there, but I did spot fellow Watcher Dan S.  He was just leaving, so I followed him back to St Ann’s.  We found Mariah on an antenna at the top of the circular St Ann’s (which by the way is not coming down for a couple of years).  She stooped to the south and flew back and forth over Rochester General Hospital. We lost sight of her, so we weren’t sure if her hunt was successful.

Did I mention it was raining the whole time?  and very, very windy.  Lots of leaves blowing everywhere.

Kathy O joined us and we went back over to the mall.  After about a 1/2 hour, Dan said his goodbyes and Kathy and I returned to St. Ann’s, back on the north side.

Mariah was back.  She was imitating a kite so well, just floating above the square St. Ann’s bldg.  How does she do that!!!  It’s as if she isn’t moving a muscle, just hanging on the wind.  The pigeons weren’t happy and all took flight.  Mariah didn’t seem interested, so we can only assume that she had been successfull on her earlier hunt.   

She gracefully floated off towards the north.  Kathy and I waited for her to return, but she didn’t.

These Watch reports came in from the weekend.  I wanted to pull them all together in one report, especially since there was a 3rd Falcon sighting downtown.

Saturday – 9/26/09………………

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Dan S:

Approximately 11 am, Dan spotted three birds flying just south of the Kodak Tower.  It was 3 Peregrines and there was a little bit of talon tag going on.  Not overly aggressive according to Dan.  One Falcon landed on the K-Tower and the other two headed north, down the river.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P:

At 11:25 am, I found a Peregrine on the K-Tower, NE corner launchpad.  Five minutes later, the Falcon took off, heading south.  After a little bit of searching, I found two Falcons on the old Changing Scenes Restaurant, north side.

Dan and I both thought the Falcon on the K-Tower was probably Archer.

Sunday, 9/27/09………….

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Joyce M:

5:35 pm – 1 pefa on Changing Scenes north side 2nd I-beam.

6:05 pm – No pefa on OCS.  1 falcon on top communication tower. Flew off to south.

6:15 pm –
😀 Yippee! I saw a falcon flying! 1 on jail tower. Still looking for 2nd pefa.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Lou C.

Dana and I headed downtown a little after 6:00 pm today and saw three falcons flying around the Widows Peak and the Civic Center.

When we first arrived, we had a falcon on the top arm of the Frontier Communication tower. It flew south towards Main Street. We headed out after it and found who we think was Beauty, eating on the Widow’s Peak. It suddenly abandoned its’ food and flew off going south. After driving around looking for it, we spotted two falcons on the Communication Tower at the Court House.

They then flew off, going north. We drove again and found two on back on the Widow’s Peak. We believe it was Archer and Beauty.

That’s when we spotted a third falcon flying about 30 feet over them, flying south.  One took off and after a minute or so, we heard echups. (?) At one point, Dana thought there may have been four falcons, however, we could only confirm three.

It was getting dark, so we headed off, leaving one on the Widow’s Peak and one on the Communication Tower at the Court House.

Unfortunately, I had my short lens on and didn’t get any detailed pictures. I also missed the picture of the third falcon. But definitely, there were three.

Don’t know what to make of this. We speculated that it was Mariah, or that it was the wintering pair returning, or that it was just one migrating through. Who knows?  But an any rate, it was nice to see some peregrines today!

Here’s a link to some pictures I took:  http://tinyurl.com/yc4cdk2

It just goes to show you that multiple Watchers out and about at the same time can see different things.  Amazing!

Carol P.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

From 9-9:30 am, I sat in front of KP. Barely any birds were flying. My phone rang and it was Brian H. I picked him up and we checked out Hawkeye (no Kestrels), downtown Rochester (no Archer or Beauty), the building that Beauty and Zephyr hung out at (no Zephyr). Then back to the city. We were batting zero. No Falcons, barely any birds at all.

Around noon we headed back to Kodak Park. Brian H and I were watching a couple of Red-tail Hawks hunting the area. Then a white Mourning Dove buzzed through.  Couldn’t tell if it was albino or not.

Just after this bird passed through, I looked back at the Research Lab bldg.
There was a bird flying just to the left of it. I yelled out “FALCON” to Brian
and we watched an adult Peregrine fly higher and higher, passing over us,
heading southeast seemingly on a hunt. It was definitely an adult Peregrine and I’m pretty darn sure I saw a split wing tip. 🙂

The Falcon flew so high, we lost sight of it in the beautiful blue sky. No
clouds to help us keep it in sight.

I can’t be 100% sure that it was Mariah, but I hope it was.

We were soon joined by Kathy O and we waited for close to two hours hoping that the Falcon would return. While we waited, the Red-tails returned. A Kestrel flew over Kodak Park and a Sharp-shined Hawk hunted Pigeons there. It was a very eventful Watch.

I had to get going, so Kathy took Brian H downtown for another look and they found a Falcon on the top I-Beam of the old Changing Scenes Restaurant.

Carol P.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher, Carol P.

Archer and Beauty have been staying very close to the Times Square Bldg and what we believe will be their chosen nest site next year.  I look forward to seeing young Falcons in Rochester again next year, if all goes well.

There have been very few Falcon sightings at Kodak Park over the past few weeks and no positive ID’s on Mariah.  We’ll keep an eye on that area and report any Falcon sightings.

We had an unusual sighting at the Hawkeye nest box on Sunday morning.  Kathy O called me to say that 3 Kestrels were battling with a murder of Crows.  By the time I arrived, the battle was almost over.  The Kestrels flew off to the East and the Crows continued to bicker amonst themselves.  Some of them actually landed on and in the nest box.

Hmmmmm, wonder what that was all about?

Keep your eyes to the sky!

Carol P.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I’ll start by saying that I do not believe that it was Mariah.  That being said………………..

I first checked out the Kodak Park area, but had no luck spotting any Falcons there.  So it was time to head downtown.

I found two Falcons on the north side of the old Changing Scene’s Restaurant (OCSR) at 10:30 am.  I assumed that it was Archer and Beauty.

At 11:30 am, Beauty took off flying up to the nest box on the Times Square Bldg.  Archer remained on the north side of OCSR.  I parked over on the Broad St. Bridge, facing west, towards the Times Square Bldg.  I had a nice view of Beauty sitting on the perch in front of the nest box.

All was quiet.  Until noon that is.  At 12:00, Beauty took off, flying towards the east, over my head and continuing on towards the Bausch and Lomb Bldg.  Archer was right behind her.  Then I saw what got their attention.  A 3rd Falcon had entered their air space and they weren’t happy.

Ee-chupping filled the air as the three Falcons came together above me.  There was some talon-tagging, but it didn’t last long.  Almost immediately, Beauty broke off and returned to the nest box.  Archer flew to the north west, and the 3rd Falcon continued off to the south west.  Again all was quiet.

My opinion is that this was a Peregrine migrating through the area and had no intention of attempting to take over Archer and Beauty’s territory.  I don’t believe that it was Mariah.

At 12:20, Archer joined Beauty in the nest box and I could see them bowing to each other.  A couple minutes later, Archer flew out of the nest box and landed on the south side of the Wilder Bldg.

At 12:30, Archer took off of the Wilder Bldg and flew around the building I was parked next to.  I was not able to find where he went.

At 2:00 pm, Joyce joined me and I left her to keep Watch.  Beauty was still at the nest box.

On my way home, I checked out the Kodak Tower and found a Red-tail Hawk sitting on top of the netting at the playpen level on the NW corner.  That would never have happened if Mariah and Kaver were around.

Carol P.