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.