FalconWatchEyes to the Skies |
I just wanted to share a video that I put together today. This is dedicated to those who venture outside with their binoculars and cameras in hand and report what they see and hear to sods like me who seem to be getting out a little less every year. Hopefully, this brings you memories of another wonderful year in Rochester. As another season draws to a close, I want to thank you for your reports, tweets, posts, dedication and service.
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
A cold start this morning with clouds and sun and a starting temperature of 39 (F) 4 (C)
Click on the pics to see the full version
Well, for the first time in many days I say no falcons on my Seneca Towers building when I left for my morning watch. I arrived downtown around 7:20am finding Beauty under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB). I parked on Exchange Blvd. in front of the Blue Cross Arena for the best view of her.
10 minutes later Dot.Ca (DC) flew in and buzzed by Beauty like a flash, making her duck-he flew over to the southeast wing ledge and landed. My best guess is that he went by her so close like that to see if she had food.
Unfortunately, his back was to me and if I had moved to another location they both would have had their backs to me so I stayed put-it worked out good because he left after a few minutes while I was changing the battery in my camera. The Beautyful one moved over showing herself better and did a little preening and feather plucking-she’s still not quite done molting.
I left her just before 8am and came across his whiteness, DC, on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad. He was looking hard for breakfast-there was something below him he was especially intrigued with and I thought he was going to go after it but didn’t.
DC started preening and plucking feathers as he is still not done molting either. I was parked on State St. right below the tower instead of on Mill St. where I usually go. It got me that much closer to him.
At just about 8:15am DC pooped and got set to fly off very fast to the south toward Times Square and I followed right behind him.
When I caught up with DC he was on the Mercury money bag and Beauty was below on the base. My guess is that she flew from Times Square and he thought she was going after food and just had to check it out. lol I parked in the hole parking lot to see both of them-unfortunately the back lighting was not good making for dark photos.
Around 8:45am DC flew over to the northeast wing ledge on Times Square and Beauty followed right behind him. As she came up to land he flew off and she took his place as he ended up on the top ibeam of OCSR near the south corner.
I went to get coffee and DC left while I was gone-I left Beauty on Times Square and found DC back on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad.
I didn’t stay too long before leaving for home-I checked Hawkeye and Seneca Towers but came up empty! I ended my watch at 10am after sharing space with Beauty and DC, who left a smile on my face as they always do! 🙂
Click on the links below to view todays videos
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
I’d say fall has arrived here in Western New York as a cold front dropped some rain and temperatures with a strong wind out of the west. The starting temperature this morning at 6:45am was 59 (F) 15 (C) -we’re heading down, as of right now at 3pm it is 55 (F) 13 (C)
Click on my pics to see the full version
As I was leaving my parking lot at Seneca Towers I saw Billie fly off the top window ledge on the south end of the building. When I got to my spot at the beginning of the visitor parking where I can see the south and west sides of the building thru an opening in the trees, I spotted her on the north side roof railing.
I wasn’t sure it was her because the darkness of the dawn sky would not allow for a clear picture. After getting my pics on the large computer screen I could see that there was no yellow tape on the right leg band, when she ran over to the northwest corner and showed some leg when she flew off to the south a couple minutes later.
As I had to make it a quick watch this morning I couldn’t stay with her as she flew back and landed on the north side railing again. It started to rain lightly as I left for downtown. On my way down St. Paul St. I spotted a falcon (looked small-maybe Mr. Yellow Tape) flying from the east side of the river by me and crossing to the west side near Lake Tower Apartments on Lake Ave. From the Andrews St. bridge I spotted a falcon on the base of Mercury around 8am, so I whipped down to the Broad St. bridge to see who it was-Beauty.
From the north side of the bridge I watched a bunch of pigeons fly out from under it and go over to their hiding spot below the Rochester Convention Center. I wasn’t the only one who watched them and the next lone pigeon that came out to join his friends got hit by a stooping falcon named Beauty. She didn’t hit it very hard and it escaped her clutches as it flew east. The Beautyful one circled above the river then went back behind the Thomson Reuters building and landed back on the base of Mercury.
I stayed to share space with Beauty until about 8:30am as she continued to look for breakfast to present itself.
Larry tweeted that he was on the other end of the bridge-I looked to see him and his dog Harold. I had to end my watch as I had a busy morning ahead but I drove down to say hi and bye before leaving. It’s a rarity to see other watchers out so early, especially in the off season, so I was happy to see them. I left downtown at 8:30am with a smile as I saw Rochester’s 2 female falcons and 2 of its male falcon watchers! 🙂
Click on the links below to see just a couple videos from todays watch
http://youtu.be/DY_zwHfRl0o
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
When I started my watch at 4:30 pm, it was 72 degrees (F) with high winds and sunshine. When I ended my watch at 5:30 pm, the temp had dropped to 68 degrees, it was windy, cloudy and lightly raining. Tomorrow will be much cooler than the temperatures of the past week, with high temps in the 50’s.
My first stop when I arrive downtown is to always check out the Kodak Tower. Before arriving, I received the following tweet from MAK, “Rich from Federal building reports 2 sightings in the last hour over Kodak Office, Main & State St.” It wasn’t until I got to the east side of the K-Tower that I 1st spotted Beauty on the east side launchpad and a few minutes later, Dot.ca on the 20th floor or letter level.
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It was really windy. I never tire of seeing these beautiful creatures go into a high speed stoop, especially with a high wind boost! Dot.ca took off and almost immediately tucked his wings back. He was like a missile as he stooped over me, heading north. He swooped over the metal frame shell of a building and a cloud of Starlings rose up after he passed over. Dot.ca dove over and over again on the area the Starlings had come from and then gained altitude, flying east over the river and then turning south. I lost sight of him when he flew behind the RG&E Beebee plant.
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I turned around to watch Beauty, who remained on the launchpad. I’m sure she was watching Dot.ca from up there. After a few moments, as I was taking pictures of Beauty, I saw her crouch down like a cat. Sure enough, she was reacting to Dot.ca’s return. He landed near her on the northeast corner of the launch pad.
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They both relaxed and remained near each other, until Dot.ca again took off. Joyce had joined me and tweeted “Down the street from CP, I saw DC chase a bird then came around and flew high to the north over gorge, then I lost him in clouds”. Beauty stayed where she was for a little while longer.
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The clouds were moving in and it started to lightly rain. At a little after 5:00 pm, Beauty took off and flew around the south side of the K-Tower. Neither Joyce or I saw where she ended up. We drove around the tower looking for her, but never did find her. Joyce had to head out and I drove around trying to find falcons. I only found one, with its back to me on the north side of OCSR top I-Beam. It was raining harder now and I could not verify if it was Beauty or Dot.ca. I was unable to find a 2nd falcon.
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At 5:30 pm, it was time to end my watch. All was peaceful and quiet. On my way home, I drove down to the lake to check the Russell Station, where Dana and I had seen the unbanded juvie last weekend. Luck was with me. I spotted a falcon on the top catwalk of the west stack.
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It was too far a distance and the lighting was bad, so I could not positively say this was the juvie or not. But I do believe it was. The falcon took off and hovered over the east end of the building and then lower, where I could no longer see it. It then reappeared on the lower catwalk of the west stack. Now it was really time for me to end my watch! Goodnight everyone!
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was probably the last nice morning weather wise for a while as a cold front is working its way into the area as I write this. It will drop temperatures 10-20 degrees. Today was sunny with blue skies and windy conditions-starting temperature was 56 (F) 13 (C)
Click on the pics to see the full version
As I got my car turned around to check Seneca Towers I spotted 2 falcons fly together to the west side roof railing. They took off almost immediately and flew around to the south end of the building with one of them hovering above the roof antenna on that end briefly. The 2 of them flew playfully above the building and disappeared to the northwest.
I left for downtown and pulled over on the south side of the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) as I spotted a falcon (most likely Beauty) on one of the northeast corners of Bausch & Lomb. As soon as I stopped she flew off and was riding the therms above Xerox around 7:30am-she flew back and forth over B&L and Xerox 2 or 3 times then disappeared to the east. I checked around town a couple times with no luck so I checked the river-found the Great Egret and Great Blue Heron from the Court St. Bridge.
The egret was below the south side of the BSB and the heron was under the north side of BSB. The heron flew to the south side and moved around to a couple different spots so I drove over to the BSB and also found a Black-crowned Night Heron down below me.
In my travels I ran into DebbieH near He’s Chinese and had a quick chat as she had to get to work. I went to the City Hall parking lot to check out the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) and found the Beautyful one on the northeast cube with her back to me. I went down in front of the Sister Cities garage on Fitzhugh St. to watch her from the front.
At first she was preening, but it turned into a look around the area perch for Beauty and less than 5 minutes later she leisurely flew southeast out of view.
I never saw another falcon after that as I checked downtown one more time before heading home to Seneca Towers. No falcons were present there or at Hawkeye but that didn’t stop me from smiling as I ended my watch at 9:45am. 🙂
Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/7qi1iDXgpTI
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was a little foggy again this morning with a starting temperature of 54 (F) 13 (C) – it did get partly sunny by the end of my watch
Click on my pics to see the full version
I started out on Seth Green Drive here at Seneca Towers with a falcon on the west side railing showing me its back. I think it was Billie-she flew south after a couple minutes. Strangely the sky was a purple color for all you purple lovers!!.
Made my way downtown and as I was stopped at the traffic light at Chestnut and Court St. I saw Beauty fly to and land on the RGS antenna. I went to East Ave. which is usually the best place but she was on the top rung instead of the middle one which she usually perches on and was partially blocked.
I left there and went to Euclid St. on the north side of the Hotel Cadillac but the back lighting was awful from there. She was in hunt mood and there were 2 pigeons on the building between us.
I then went over to Elm St. on the south side of the Hotel Cadillac to get the best view of the Beautyful one. She flew south at 7:55am.
I stopped on the Court St. bridge to have a look at the river and spotted the Great Egret over below the south side of the Broad St. Bridge fishing.
I then saw a falcon up on the northwest corner of Xerox-it was Dot.Ca (DC) in the fog again. He flew off and went to the northwest wing ring of the Times Square building.
I parked in front of the Blue Cross Arena on Exchange Blvd. to get the best view of Mr. Bright White. He was watching birds below him and definitely in hunt mode.
Just before 9am DC stooped on a bird and hit it over by the Wilder building-it went down and disappeared and DC flew up to the southeast wing ring for a couple minutes then he launched himself and flew northwest.
I drove over and looked for the bird he hit but I couldn’t find it so I think it must have been ok and flew away. I left downtown checking the Frontier Communications Tower and Kodak Office tower on the way out but had no sightings of Beauty or DC. When I got home to Seneca Towers both Billie and Mr. Yellow Tape were on the building-she was at the northwest corner railing and he was further down.
He flew off soon after I got there and a minute later she flew off too. It was another nice morning watch in which I was blessed to see all 4 of our Rochester Peregrine Falcons and end it with a smile at 9:25am! 🙂
Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/WiP6Em4RMPA
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
First day of October, 68 degrees, cloudy and hazy. Not good lighting for taking pictures. Oh well. (6:00 – 7:15 pm)
I started my watch at the Kodak Tower aka the AK Tower, now that the KOD of the large Kodak letters on the south side of the building are unlit. I found no falcons there.
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I turned the corner and parked in front of Frontier Stadium. From there I had a really good view of the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT). Bingo! Both Beauty and Dot.ca were there. Beauty on the southwest box below the platform and Dot.ca on the middle arm above.
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I drove over to the parking lot next to the Hochstein School of Music on the south side of FCT.
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At about 6:20 pm, Beauty took off, heading south towards downtown. Dot.ca remained on FCT.
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I headed over to the Broad St Bridge to see if I could find her. While I was watching the Great Egret hunting on the river on the south side of the bridge, I was joined by Larry O. I was pretty sure I knew where we would find Beauty, so we drove over to Woodbury Blvd and parked near the Geva Theater. By this time it was dark and very hard to see anything on top of the Xerox Tower. We could just make out the familiar shape of a Peregrine Falcon on the south side, 4th column in from the southeast corner. Beauty was settled into her nighttime roost.
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I liked the different view of the Times Square Bldg from this location. It shows the front and south side with the Widows Walk behind it.
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At 7:15 pm, it was too dark to see anything, so Larry O and I ended the evening watch.
Here’s one last look at the AK, I mean Kodak Tower as I left the downtown area. 🙂 Goodnight everyone!
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Well, our streak of nice days came to an end today as we had foggy, dark conditions with a fine mist of rain falling most of the time on my watch. It was a bit warmer at 61 (F) 16 (C) degrees
Click in the pics to see the full version
I started my watch in my own back yard so to speak, at Seneca Towers with both Billie and Mr. Yellow Tape (MYT) on the west side roof railing.
<MYT 
<Billie
They just hung out waiting for breakfast to appear while they woke up. MYT flew off and joined Buffalo Billie landing very close to her, before taking off again with her following right behind.
A woman in a wheel chair came whizzing by and backed up to talk to me after seeing my camera. Her name is Janice and she was quite thrilled to hear about falcons. When I told her about Luzerne, she said she thought she had seen her all flattened out on the sidewalk-thought she was probably run over by a car. After I showed her a pic she was certain it was a falcon because she remembered the “black and white stripes” as she out it. We spoke for quite a while until she had to get going and so did I. Billie returned for a few moments landing on the northwest corner then flew northwest.
I left for downtown a little after 8am and ran into a traffic back up because the police had St. Paul St. closed for an accident. After being re-routed to Conkey Ave. (a very rough part of the city) I made my way back on track. A drive that should only take a little over 5 minutes took 25! As I was glancing at Mercury I spotted a falcon on the base as I drove by, so I pulled onto Bank Place and parked where it meets Aqueduct St. in the hole. I determined it was Dot.Ca (DC).
I then proceeded to go up to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) and while I was waiting in the intersection to turn left I noticed how foggy it was on the east side near Xerox and Bausch & Lomb.
DC was gone when I got up on the BSB so I went in search of-finding not DC, but Beauty on the southwest cube of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) as I was on Bragdon Place by the Radisson Hotel to check the OCSR elevator shaft for him.
It looked a lot foggier from a distance-when I arrived on Fitzhugh St. out in front of the Sister Cities garage I could see her much better.
The Beautyful one was very alert keeping track of the areas’ pigeons while I was watching road crews move curbing into place as they continue to improve the area roads. I left her around 8:30am and found DC on the 4th column from the northwest corner of Xerox. Waves of fog kept coming in and out of my view as DC wasn’t moving much.
I left him to it as I watched a worker planting some bright mums to break up the dull weather conditions before leaving downtown.
When I got home to Seneca Towers there were no falcons to be seen. I ended my watch at 10am with a smile after seeing all 4 Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂
Click on the links to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/2XG_rmkCHfA
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
My evening watches continue to get shorter. Tonight I only had a little over an hour (6:00 – 7:15 pm) before it was too dark to see anything. At least the weather has been nice.
When I arrived downtown at 6:00 pm, I found Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) on the southwest box below the platform. Last night she had been on the northwest box.
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At 6:08 pm, Beauty took off and headed south. I made my way over to the Broad St Bridge, which was filling up with cars. There’s always something going on at night in Rochester. I looked for both Beauty and Dot.ca, but could find neither of them. The Great Egret was hunting on the south side of the bridge.
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There were window washers on the south side of the OCSR.
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I drove around downtown, but had no luck finding any falcons, so I headed back towards the Times Square Bldg. Finally, I found Beauty on the south railing on the Widows Walk.
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At 7:06 pm, she took off and headed east. Hmm, wonder where she was heading? 🙂 Yep, I caught up with Beauty on the south side of the Xerox Tower. She was on the 4th column in from the southeast corner.
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By this time it was too dark to see much, so I ended my watch at 7:15 pm. It was a nice quiet and peaceful watch spent with Beauty. Sorry to say, that I never did find Dot.ca. I passed the beautiful building that is host to our falcons nest box, the Times Square Bldg on my way home.
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Now to catch up a little bit.
Sunday, 9/28/14
On Sunday, Dana and I did some falcon watching after I finished helping with maintenance on the nest box cameras. Beauty and Dot.ca were both hanging out downtown, so we decided to check out Hawkeye, Seneca Towers and the Kodak Park Research Labs. No falcons seen there, so we continued on to Russell Station where Dana had seen a juvenile Peregrine Falcon earlier that day. We were pleased to find the young falcon just above the lower catwalk on the west stack. This falcon is unbanded. We do hope that it decides to spend the winter there.
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Monday, 9/29/14
I didn’t have long to watch last night (Monday), but I did spend some time with Beauty. She was on the northwest box on the Frontier Communication Tower. Joyce had been there earlier and had seen both Dot.ca and Beauty there.
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It has been very quiet downtown the last few days, just the way I like it. Goodnight everyone!
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Another stellar weather morning with a starting temperature of 56 (F) 14 (C) and sunny, blue skies
Click on the pics to see the full version
I began my watch at Seneca Towers from Seth Green Drive by the visitor parking with Mr. Yellow Tape (MYT) on the west side roof railing.
I then spotted Billie on the south end top window ledge of the building, so I went back to my parking lot to check her out closer.
She flew off after 15 minutes and went around to the west side of the building. When I got back out to the road I saw that Mr. Yellow Tape was still up there on the railing and she was too.
<MYT Buffalo Billie>
A few minutes later they both flew south-he went first, she followed immediately and they didn’t come back. Off to downtown I went-while on the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) I spotted a falcon on the base of Mercury. I went directly to the hole to find it was Beauty and she had food.
The sun was behind her making for poor back lighting so I headed up to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) for a better look. Shortly after I got up there Beauty stopped eating. Dot.Ca (DC) came flying in coming to rest on the opposite side from Beauty on the base. She was bowing but he would not return this bonding act. Hmm
DC walked over right in front of her and at first I thought he took her food and flew off up to the heel of Mercury with it. Once up there I could clearly see that wasn’t the case-he had no food.
DC stayed only a minute then he was off again heading west. The Beautyful one hopped up on the green part of the base and looked around.
A few minutes later Beauty flew the same direction as DC and I found her on the northeast cube of the Frontier Communications Tower.
It was noisy by the Sister Cities garage from road crews, so I went down to the City Hall parking lot to share space with Beauty. She had her back to me from this vantage point as she preened. I left her 10 minutes later to look for DC after I checked FCT for him.
As I looked for DC from the Andrews St. bridge I saw Beauty fly off FCT head my direction, cross the river and disappear behind the Water St. buildings. Next I saw pigeons scatter to the south over the river by the Radisson Hotel and then Beauty came into view as she flew back to the northeast cube of FCT.
As I made my way down Andrews St. to State St. I spotted a falcon on the top arm of FCT. When I got back to the City Hall parking lot Beauty had moved off the cube and was now on a north side beam. DC , who was on the arm took off soon after I arrived.
I headed down State St. on my way home when I couldn’t help but notice a bright white spot on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad. I went down to Mill St. to observe DC way up there on Kodak. He had catching breakfast on his mind as he watched all bird activity in the near vicinity.
I stayed with DC for the next half hour until he spotted something and flew south from the tower.
I left for home checking Hawkeye and Seneca Towers-I had no falcon sightings at either place. I ended my watch smiling at 10:15am after a nice morning watch! 🙂
Click on the links below to view a photo album and videos
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqj7q
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