By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

5:45 pm – 8:15 pm

Another late start for my falcon watch.  I left for my watch at about 5:30 pm.  It was another gorgeous day with temps in the 70’s, blue sky and sunshine.  I really wanted to see Big Frank (BF) again.  In all of the pictures I took of him yesterday, I could not see the silver USFW band that should have been on his right leg.  I asked our Canadian friends about that last night and was told by Carly that he had this band, covered with white tape when he was banded and during fledging.  Other watchers verified that they could not see a band on BF’s right leg.  We will probably never know how he lost it.

When I first arrived, I found an adult on the white vent cap above the section of the mall that contained the carousel.  I quickly took a picture and then he took off, over the mall heading northeast.  I headed to the north side of the mall.

As I drove around the east end of the mall, I could clearly hear the vocalizations of a juvenile Peregrine Falcon.  I spotted a falcon on the roof, just as it took off, heading southwest.  Back to the south side of the mall, where I could still hear the whining call of a juvie.  It was up on top of the same vent cap that had just been vacated by the adult.  I tweeted out that I had an adult and juvie at the Medley Center.

At 6:20 pm, the juvie stooped low in front of old Macy’s store entrance then back over the carousel roof.  I found it on the north end of the carousel roof.  Joyce joined me at this time.

The juvie took off at 6:25 pm and stooped to the south. Returned to Medley Ctr and chased a pigeon.  Now back on the north side of the carousel roof.  Some serious hunting attempts by this young one!

It went down to a lower roof and then to a vent cap on the north side.  Joyce saw the juvie take off yet again at 6:50 pm, heading north.  I drove around to the north side of the mall, while Joyce remained on the south side.  At 7:00 pm, a falcon flew over me, heading northeast.  I believe this was the juvie.  Joyce and I were back on the south side, when Joyce saw an adult fly in from the west then land on the south end of the carousel roof.  It was Big Frank!

First Kathy O, then Lisa McK joined us.  They were there just in time to see Big Frank for a few moments before he flew over to the glass peaked roof at the east end of the mall.  He then took off heading north.  (7:20 pm).

At 7:25 pm, Larry O tweeted from downtown on the pedestrian bridge.  There was a falcon on the netting on the Kodak Tower.

Big Frank returned to the peak of the front entrance where the carousel is on the south side.  He remained there until approximately 8:00 pm, when Joyce saw him head south.  We ended our watch at 8:15 pm.

On her way home, Joyce checked the downtown area and found Dot.ca up inside the OCSR elevator shaft.  She did not find Beauty.

During our evening watch, we had positively ID’d the adult falcon at the Medley Ctr as Big Frank.  I was not able to see any bands on the juvie.  Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a warm start to the day with a temperature of 67 (F) 19 (C) and dark overcast conditions

My watch started today at Seneca Towers where I found Billie at 6:30am on  Seth’s favorite spot on  the north side top window ledge.

She wouldn’t be alone for long as Seth came flying in a couple minutes later landing as if he had food and then went to the opposite side from his mate.

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I had thought I heard a juvie whining but I believe it was Billie as she was vocalizing when Seth flew in and continued on and off a little bit afterwards. Seth seemed to get settled in as Billie preened so I guess he didn’t have food with him. I left them for downtown around 7:15am.

When I arrived on the Andrews St. bridge I couldn’t help but see and smell the smoke from a fire at the Buckingham Commons building over on Plymouth Ave. near the Frontier Communications tower. Shaky tweeted it out about the same time I did. Here’s a pic he posted to twitter.

There were police blocking off all the roads in that area as I made my way into the City Hall parking lot but I had to leave because the smoke made for a tough time breathing. I pulled over south of Kodak Office on State St. to watch first. You could see the spray from 2 hoses thru the smoke.

I drove to Main St. and Plymouth Ave. to view from that side. There were fire and police personnel all over the place. There were no more flames but still plenty of smoke as they got it under control.

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It was time to look for falcons but I had trouble finding any as I drove around downtown searching.  Finally just before 8am I found Dot.ca (DC) on the north side ledge of the OCSR elevator shaft. He looked dark and I thought it was Beauty at first as he was crouched down sleeping.

He woke a few minutes later and stood up, turned and gave me a look that told me it was him as I could see the heart shape he has on the side of his face.

I spent the next half hour with DC-he looked like he had food in his crop as he got settled into nap mode again so I left him to look for Beauty. I wasn’t able to find her and thought perhaps she left the area because of all the smoke earlier. As I crossed the Veterans Memorial bridge I spotted Billie on the railing of the northwest corner of Seneca Towers and Seth in his spot on the top window north end.

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Seth watched Billie as she spread her wings and flew off then returned landing on the northwest corner below the railing this time.

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I left them at 9am to check the Medley Center for Big Frank. I was about to leave when he showed up and landed on the round roof cap he was on yesterday above where the carousel is located in the mall.

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He was in hunt mode as he watched pigeons fly past turning to follow them and I thought he would go after them.

Instead, he started preening and pulling a few feathers out as he is in a molt. In between, little Big Frank would look at birds flying thru and would get crouched down and ready to strike only to change his mind and go back to preening. He tried to extract a pellet at one point.

Again, Big Frank looked like he would take off after a pigeon but settled back down. He spread his wings  and  crouched down in the ready position but changed his mind at the last second. Smart bird to conserve his energy for a sure thing!

I left for home with a smile on my face at 10:30am after a busy watch full of falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to view today’s videos

http://youtu.be/B-DGDlla8As

http://youtu.be/Vovwfnc_SKk

http://youtu.be/lZ91M0oW9YE

http://youtu.be/CGegAvK6nrY

http://youtu.be/rjMFyPlJopY

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Fellow watcher and friend Dana had been reporting that she’d been seeing a falcon at the Medley Center (aka the Irondequoit Mall).  Her first report was on August 25th.  Dana tweeted again this morning that there was a falcon on the roof at Medley Ctr.  MAK was able to check this falcon out and with a clear picture of the the bands, get an ID from our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation (thanks Tracy and Kathy!).  Also, thank you Dana and MAK!

From Tracy:  “This falcon hatched in 2013 at the Etobicoke Sun Life nest in Ontario, Canada, and named Little Big Frank after one of our dear fallen comrades who was a falcon watcher for a decade at this nest site.”

Big Frank was a close friend to many of us here in Rochester and is dearly missed by all of us.  Having his namesake visiting here in Rochester and doing well makes us very happy!  🙂

At 5:25 pm, Dana tweeted that the falcon was back at Medley Center on the glass peaked roof.  I decided it was time to visit with Little Big Frank.

I arrived at the old mall at 6:15 pm.  It took me about 15 minutes to find a falcon.  It was on a white cap on the roof at the center of the mall.  I could only see it from the south side.

We also found out that Big Frank is our Dot.ca’s half-brother.  They have the same father.

Big Frank (BF) took off heading north.  I drove over to the north side and waited to see if he would return.  It wasn’t long before I saw a bullet heading directly towards me!  It was Big Frank and he was skimming the parking lot, about a foot off the ground. He passed me and just missed grabbing a pigeon that had been flying close to the ground.  BF flew towards the mall and over it, landing on the glass peak.

He took off again heading south.  It was time to drive over to the south side of the mall.  This mall has been closed for many years and there is very little traffic.  The parking lot is starting to be overgrown with grass and weeds, and there is a lot of garbage.  The only store still open in the mall is Sears, which is located at the east end.

Back on the south side, I found Big Frank on the roof above the carousel, which you can still see behind the glass.  Here are a series of pics I took while he was there.

At 7:25 pm, he took off again.  I circled the mall twice, but could not find him.  It was starting to get dark, so I called it a watch and wished him good luck on his hunt.

On the way home, I checked out Seneca Towers.  There was one falcon on the north side ledge above the windows.  That’s all I was able to see there.

Oh, and one other thing we learned today.  Big Frank was banded a female, but they were not certain if he was a he or a she.

Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a mostly sunny morning with a starting temperature of 57 (F) 14 (C)

I started my watch at the north end of Seneca Towers with Billie and Seth on the top window ledge across from each other just like yesterday. There was a tiny piece of food hanging over the edge in front of Buffalo Billie so I believe breakfast had been served.

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I got a tweet from watcher Dana that she saw a falcon on the peak  of the roof at the closed down Medley Center mall in Irondequoit. I opted to leave Seneca Towers to check it out. When I arrived at the north side of the mall I could see it immediately as it looked big to me-so probably a female.

I couldn’t get any closer from that side so I went around to the south side parking lot. My first leg shot didn’t show a leg band on this adult but after a few more pics it became visible. It also had a fascinator on its beak.

It was in hunt mode with its choice of starlings, sparrows, mourning doves or pigeons that were flying all over the place.  It was preening, stretching and scratching as it thought about what bird to go after.

It made a choice and flew off at 8am to the west behind the next peaked roof.

I drove down to where I could see it on a round exhaust type roof structure on the roof where the carousel is housed in the mall.

It stayed there for about half an hour then it crouched down as 2 mourning doves came flying in and landed on the lower roof in front of us both. It watched them for a couple minutes then turned, spread its wings and flew after a pigeon to the other side of the mall out of view.

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The flight pics show some frazzled feathers so I believe this big falcon is molting. It returned unsuccessful in its hunt and landed on the front of the roof peak above the carousel where I was able to get pics of the left leg band. It’s a Canadian adult Falcon with a black over black (Canadian colors) S/39 band.

It took off for the last time around 8:45am and didn’t return after flying north out of view.

We’re waiting for information back from our friends in the Canadian Peregrine Foundation as to who and where this falcon is from.  I left for downtown going past Seneca Towers so I could clock the distance between it and the Medley Center-2.5 miles. I find it interesting because the distance between ST and the Times Square nest site is also 2.5 miles and from there over to the Brighton site is 2.5 miles as well. Just a something to ponder.

I arrived on the Andrews St. bridge downtown at 9:10am and spotted a falcon on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad.

While I was driving down State St. it flew around to the southwest corner of the launchpad so I went to Verona St. on the west side of Kodak to see it from a closer vantage point. It was Beauty and she too was in hunt mode watching pigeons below her.

I left her to it and took a ride around downtown but saw no more falcons. As I was exiting downtown I passed the Beautyful one who was still on Kodak at 9:45am when I ended my watch. I’m sure you know that I was smiling after seeing a falcon that was visiting from Canada or has it got a nest site in the area!? Stay tuned! 🙂

Click on the links below to see today’s videos featuring our little Canadian friend

http://youtu.be/Gbi2eRIRGDY

http://youtu.be/Nm2xg0xeRmw

http://youtu.be/_CURsotJnqU

http://youtu.be/0Xqm3ZzomUg

http://youtu.be/PYeC-Ry2hu8

http://youtu.be/MAC8UP87FlA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

A bit of a chill in the air this morning at 52 (F) 11 (C) degrees but the sun shone bright with blue skies

Last night (Thursday) a falcon flew past my living room window as I sat in my recliner-this prompted me to get up and go out to the west side balcony to have a look /see. Once out there I spotted Seth on the south side ledge of the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge. I looked down as a juvie started whining as it flew at the tree top level toward the north end of the building out of view. Seth took off a couple minutes later and it went quiet as well with no more sightings.

This morning I saw nobody from the balcony but when I checked the north end of Seneca Towers (ST) from the back of the residents’ parking lot I was greeted by Billie and Seth on the top window ledge. I’ve not seen Billie up there for a very long time.

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Around 6:38am while I was taping them, Billie flew east followed by Seth a minute later-they didn’t return so I left for downtown.

From the Andrews St. bridge I spotted Dot.ca (DC) on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office (KO) playpen netting so I went down to State St. near Brown St. for closer viewing. During my commute DC flew up to the northeast corner of the launchpad then back down to the netting as I pulled over.

While I was taping him, DC flew off toward the river and went into a stoop before leaving my field of vision just before 7am.

When he didn’t return I left to search downtown and I didn’t have to look for long as I spotted Beauty on the base of Mercury from the Court St. bridge. I whipped over to the Broad St. bridge (BSB)  to get closer to the Beautyful one. She had a small piece of meat that she picked up in her beak to show me.

There were bees buzzing around her head as she stood there over her small package. At the time I thought perhaps she wasn’t eating it because there was a juvie to give it too. She flew off while I was looking down in the river so I don’t know if she took it with her or not but she definitely wasn’t eating it.

<Click to see the bees

So I set out once again in search of and ended up back by KO with DC who was back on the northeast corner of the playpen netting. At this time Donna (thanks a lot) tweeted out that there were 2 falcons on the Frontier Communications Tower so I beat feet over there to find Beauty on the north platform railing and a juvie on the west side railing with its back to me.

Based on size I thought this was Genesee, I drove over to Plymouth Ave. to view the juvie from the front-it flew off to the north just as I started to tape it.

I caught up with this juvie around 8am as it was perched on the 16th floor southeast corner of KO. From State and Platt St. I could also see that DC was still up on the KO netting and Beauty remained on FCT.  It wasn’t long before I was given a few leg shots to ID Genesee as the juvie that keeps coming back home.

After looking around his surroundings Genesee flew off at 8:17am, circled the tower twice then knocked dad off the netting and took his place as DC flew east. Genesee spent lots of time preening in a hyper fast mode that had his head spinning so fast I thought he might need traction when he was done! lol

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At 9am Genesee flew east toward the river going into a stoop just like dad had done earlier before going behind the apartment building I was parked next to on State St. by Platt St.

I didn’t find him again and I hope he keeps dropping by for these little visits. I left for ST where I found Seth on his north end top window ledge as I crossed the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge around 9:30am.

I checked him out from East Ridge Rd. near St. Paul Street as he kept looking down at something below him either on the bridge,in the river or the trees in the gorge. I left him to check those places from the west balcony of my 16th floor at ST but all I found was an Osprey to the south in the Osprey tree on the west bank of the river gorge.

I ended my watch at 10am after having been given plenty of reasons to produce smiles galore! 🙂

Click on the links below to see today’s videos of which there are many and a photo album with more pics

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqkLw

http://youtu.be/vV53lN2xCZ0

http://youtu.be/X9LKNnwZj8o

http://youtu.be/tR_GTn0i8sw

http://youtu.be/w6KR3dGt8ZE

http://youtu.be/_eWb8JytZq4

http://youtu.be/9jBsvewOF0A

http://youtu.be/JuEqHaY0rIE

http://youtu.be/8lquz4_y43o

http://youtu.be/M39fsG8jfJA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was overcast with a temperature of 59 (F)  15 (C)

I found  a falcon on the north end of Seneca Towers (ST) top window ledge with its back to me. I have no idea who it was but it was on Seths’ spot-it could have been a juvie, I just don’t know. It flew off when I was looking at the pic of it.

No other falcons seen there today so I left for downtown. I spotted Dot.ca (DC) from the Andrews St. bridge as he was on the north corner top I-beam of OCSR with his back to me.

He couldn’t be seen from State St. so I drove over to Bragdon Place at the north end of the Radisson Hotel to observe. From there I still could only see his back until he turned his head and stood up to stretch.

I stayed with him for nearly 2 hours as he stayed perched in the same position barely moving. He pulled out a feather as he is in a molt and he usually is pretty inactive during that time as witnessed today. Molting is hard on them. I left DC once during that time to look unsuccessfully for other falcons and returned.

The pigeons and gulls that hang out in the Sister Cities Pedestrian bridge/Radisson area kept me entertained as the pigeons would gather then fly straight toward me. That was a cool sight to see and there was an especially pretty one preening on top of a lamp post while the gulls took turns knocking each other off the flag poles on the bridge.

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I believe DC was napping-at any rate I left him about 8:20am to go in search of and I spotted Beauty on the northeast corner of Widows Walk (WW) from the Court St. Bridge. On my way to Basin St. in the hole to watch her I took a pic from the intersection of Broad St. and Exchange Blvd. while stopped at the traffic light.

She did some preening and stretching while I taped her, then she flew off at 8:51am. It happened fast and I was fixed on her in my little LCD camera screen and didn’t see DC fly up to take her place right after. When I checked my snippet video I saw him fly up to the corner his mate had been on seconds before him. I was busy watching the Beautyful one fly over to the base of Mercury. I thought I saw movement on the northwest corner of Widows Walk and so I drove to Fitzhugh St. to check it out but DC was gone when I got there.

In my travels today I saw 2 more murals painted by Sarah Rutherford on a liquor store on South Ave.

Click both of them to see the full version

I had to get going and ended my watch at 9:15am with smiles for having seen both of our resident downtown adult Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click on the links to see today’s videos

http://youtu.be/HJ_9vBInreg

http://youtu.be/zcJH0pQPtUU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

6:15 – 8:30 pm

It’s been sizzling hot here in Rochester, NY over the last few days.  Today was no exception, with temps reaching close to 90 degrees (F) and high humidity.  I decided to wait until early evening to head downtown to search for our falcons.

I arrived downtown at about 6:15 pm.  For about a 1/2 hour, I drove all over downtown Rochester looking for falcons.  Finally at 6:45 pm, I spotted a falcon on top of the RGS antenna.   I quickly parked my car and turned on my camera.  When I stepped out of my car to get a picture, the falcon was gone.

For the next 1 1/2 hours, I drove around downtown Rochester looking for falcons and not finding any.

As I was ending my watch and heading home, I made one last stop at the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).  It was 8:20 pm and the sun had set.  But I was still able to see that there were two falcons on the tower.  One, an adult, was on the 2nd arm down from the top, facing southwest.  The 2nd falcon was on the southwest box below the platform with its back to me.  It was too dark for me to tell if it was a juvie or adult.  But, I could clearly hear a juvie vocalizing now and then.  So, there was a juvie up there.  Five minutes later, they were both gone.  It was time to end my watch.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The weather yesterday and today has been hot, humid and quite sunny with temperatures near 90 (F)

The heat of the last couple days has slowed the falcons and the falcon watchers down but there has been some activity at Seneca Towers (ST) while Donna has visited from New Jersey. Last night (Sunday) she and I witnessed Bith and Sellie flying from the trees down in Seth Green Park up to the bridge, first landing on the south side ledge then up under it a few times and back out.

We believe they spent the day down in the trees to escape the heat. Joyce came over around 5pm to join us on the west side balcony of my 16th floor here at Seneca Towers. The falcons were quiet after the bridge shenanigans. Around 8pm Donna spotted an Osprey in a tree south of ST on the west side bank of the river. I call her old eagle eye. lol

Joyce thought this was a juvie and a few minutes later once again Donna saw another Osprey land in a tree south of the first one. Joyce thought this one was an adult. This osprey wasn’t facing us so it blended in much better with its brown wings.

About the same time a juvie came flying thru going to the south end of the building out of view. The sun set and Joyce left, just as Donna and I thought we were done for the night a juvie flew out from the north end of the building crossing the river into the darkness vanishing into the trees near Nazareth High School on Lake Ave.

Click on all the pics to see the full version

The moon was a sliver in the sky that prompted us to call it a day.around 9pm.

This morning just after sunrise we witnessed 2 falcons flying back and forth from west to east sides of the river bank then going north past the bridge where a 3rd falcon joined them as they went ou of our field of vision. Around 6:45am 2 juvies attacked a gull that was passing thru over the river low. One was in front and the other behind the gull like they were escorting it. They all went out of view until 20 minutes passed. A juvie appeared. landed in a tree then off to another one where he tried a couple different branches and slipped off as they weren’t strong enough to hold his weight. He returned to the original tree he was in.

Donna and I moved from the balcony into my apartment and watched from my living room window as the juvie flew off to the north and vanished into the greenery of the trees. A bit later a Great Blue Heron landed in a tree near where the juvie had been.

No activity was witnessed for the middle of the day as the heat was too much for all of us falcons and humans as well. Donna and I went downtown so she could see our downtown falcons. Unfortunately, she saw only Beauty on the Frontier Communications tower.

The Beautyful one was preening and pulling out feathers when we arrived at the City Hall parking lot. She turned her back to us before taking off to the north.

We left for the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge where Joyce and Brian caught up with us to visit for a while. We didn’t see any falcons there and so we left for ST hoping to see some action before the sun set for another day. Right after we arrived 2 falcons appeared at the south end of the building. One of them was a large looking juvie (could Cadence be visiting ST?) who was chasing an adult screaming loudly. The juvie landed on the southwest corner then left and we never saw another falcon ending our watch with another gorgeous sunset.

We’ve had some good times watching the ST falcons since Donna arrived on Friday. She will be going back to New Jersey tomorrow leaving me with many smiles from our visit! 🙂

Click on the links below to see a couple videos I taped

http://youtu.be/TKICRfbUpac

http://youtu.be/X0uxuUv1IhM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

1:00 pm – 3:15 pm

I am changing my reports back to  falcon watch reports from now on, since we are seeing less and less of the downtown juvies.

Temps were in the mid-80’s during my watch this afternoon.  It was the three H’s, Hot, Hazy and Humid!  Or Hot, Hot, Hot!

This will be a quick report.  I did see two falcons (Beauty and Dot.ca) and one falcon watcher (Kathy O) during my watch. About half way through my watch, from the Andrews St Bridge, the sweet sounds of ee-chupps filled the air.  A falcon came in and landed on the east side railing on the Powers Bldg.  Then it was gone.  Then there was one in front of the nest box.  I believe it was Dot.ca.

A 2nd falcon flew in and landed for a moment.  An adult with a missing center tail feather.  This was Beauty.  She didn’t stay long.  I saw her stoop off the Powers Bldg. heading southwest.  Kathy O was also out and we both went to try to find where Beauty went.  Neither of us could find her.

I really thought I heard a juvie at one point, but could not find it.

Kathy had to leave, so I headed over to the Kodak Tower to check it out.  Nothing there.  Next I checked the gorge from the pedestrian bridge.  Again nothing.  Due to the heat, I decided to call it a watch at 3:15 pm.  Joyce had just texted that Dot.ca was on the Frontier Comm Tower under the platform.

When I saw my friend Debbie H a few days ago, she told me that she had seen a garbage pail full of flowers on Main St in front of Nick Tahou’s, Home of the Garbage Plate.  Very clever!  Thanks for letting me know Debbie!  🙂

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Joyce

Early Saturday afternoon (7/4/15), Dana observed a falcon flapping a lot on the west side roof above the balconies. She and Carol were certain it was a juvie. It took off heading south down the river. They did not see it return. Carol alerted the group to be on the lookout. Dana shared a quick phone edited pic with those of us that regularly check the building.  Luckily, MAK lives there and  is able to monitor this juvie first hand and provide updates.

Later that evening, I followed up at Seneca Towers. I noticed a juvenile peregrine on the SW corner of the building, then it flew to the middle of the roof above the west side balconies. From below I noticed an adult at the NW corner on a pipe. I couldn’t see the juvie from where I was, but I heard the distinct crying for food by the juvenile falcon. Billie tried to entice the juvie off the building with food, but there was no food exchange.  Billie took the food, ate most of it, and Seth sat nearby. The juvie looks like a male based on size comparison with the parents. He flew very well. He still has a white eyas feather on his head, so we suspect he recently fledged.

This is the link to photos taken yesterday.

Enjoy!