By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

It was a foggy drive  this morning and as I drove down 490 the city skyline had a very cool yet eerie look to it. As I drove through the Times Square area I saw no falcons around and so I proceeded to go to the east side of our fair city. While I was over there Donna texted me that Beauty had been to the nestbox. Of course she snuck in behind my back cuz that’s what she likes to do to me! lol When I got to the Broad St. bridge I could see 2 distinct bumps on the jail tower so I drove on to find a closer view of the front of them. Archer was on the top arm and Beauty the 3rd arm below him both on the east side of the structure.

click on pics for large view

One thing I have observed over time is that Archer is always above her on structures and usually to the left of her when they are side by side on buildings. I don’t know if this is falcon behavior or just their thing. Anyway, Archer looked down at her and Beauty looked up at him several times while I watched our downtown Peregrine pair.

Another observation is that almost every time Archer flies off first  and she follows after him. After an hour they left in that very fashion and I found them over on the OCSR building. The Beautyful one was on the west corner top ibeam and I caught a quick glimpse of  him on the south corner top ibeam before he flew over to Mercury landing on the base. It appeared he had a small cache of food with him.

Beauty started to whine and suddenly she was off heading straight for Archer and his little tidbit. He beat feet out of there leaving it behind for her and she settled on the base picking at his leftovers. Whenever Beauty flies toward Archer he takes off quickly almost like he’s afraid of her, it’s very funny to see. Archer flew over to the south corner  top ibeam of OCSR to watch his mate.

From here they flew together over to the jail tower. Archer landing on the top arm east side as Beauty perched on the north side down lower than him on the frame of the structure.

This is where I left them basking in the sun that has made a return to these parts after several gloomy days!  For more pics of my watch click on the link below and have a great day !  🙂

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From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Interesting happenings here in Rochester. Today we had 4 Peregrines visiting our fair city. This morning I had Archer and Unity at KP along with a mystery Tiercel that was hunkered down inside what we are calling the Chnook, which is a small nook underneath the chute leading up to the “Pigeon Box”. I had to get to work, so I couldn’t wait to see if anything would happen.

After work I arrived at KP around 5:30 pm, to find Dana on Watch. There were two Falcons on the stills and I was able to positively ID them as Unity & Archer using the scope.

MAK & Joyce were downtown and they reported seeing two Falcons there. Beauty and our mystery Tiercel. So he was visiting both nest sites. Interesting.

Dana and I stayed at KP and MAK & Joyce remained downtown. After awhile, first Archer and then Unity took off, both heading towards downtown. I quickly sent out a tweet to warn the girls downtown. Dana and I decided to go downtown. On our way, we received a tweet from MAK & Joyce that Beauty and Mr C (just a nickname for now because he likes to sit in the Chnook) had taken off. OK, now we were down to no Falcons!

Everyone was looking. Kathy tweeted from KP that she and Dan were there and no Falcons in sight, only a Red-tail Hawk.

Finally, we found two Falcons on the jail tower. At first we only saw one, but I soon saw a 2nd lower in the framework. I yelled out that there were two. J&M already knew. I started to get my scope out and Joyce told me she had seen a white feather, so I packed the scope away. It was Beauty & Archer. Where was Unity and Mr C.

I told MAK & Joyce I’d be heading back to KP for a look and said goodbye. It was getting dark and I was surprised to see that M&J had arrived before me.  They tweeted that there was a Falcon in the Chnook.  Where was #2?

So, who is our mystery Tiercel? Where did he come from? Will he be one of our own, or from another place? Only time will tell, but we will make every effort to ID our new Tiercel.

Keep your eyes to the sky! You never know what you might see!

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Let me begin by saying we have a mystery falcon at KP. Judging by size it is a male which we have named Mr C because it was in the ChNook this morning. And  it has possibly been at KP for awhile since the watchers have been seeing one in the chnook for the past 2 weeks or so. In my report yesterday morning I included pics from Tuesday night when I was out with Joyce of a falcon we thought was Archer under the pigeon box. Eileen(dumpsterkitty) didn’t think it looked like Archer and neither did Donna. So perhaps it was Mr C under the pigeon box on Tuesday.

My report today begins downtown where I saw Beauty on the 2nd arm of the jail tower on the east (river)side.

I was parked on Troup St. when the tweet came in from CarolP that she thought there might be 3 falcons at KP. She had to go to work so I sped over to KP to investigate. Sure enough when I arrived I had Archer on the tall still north side catwalk 2nd one down, Unity on the west corner of the blue building and Mr C in the chnook. So indeed we had 4 falcons in Rochester this morning!

Unity flew off and went to the scrape and Archer flew to the black strip by the nook just above the scrape. Mr. C  staying put in the chnook.

Unity went to the back of the scrape and was either digging around or had prey, I couldn’t tell for sure and she looked up at Archer now and again.

Unity flew to the tall still landing on the north side catwalk 2nd one down where Archer had been earlier. Soon after that Archer went after a pigeon right in front of Mr C who was still in the chnook. My heart raced at first for I thought it was Mr C that Archer was going after until I realized it was a pigeon. It’s very hard for one person to keep track of 3 falcons don’t ya know! Archer then flew up to the west corner of the blue building. Unity had flown off the tall still when I wasn’t looking and then Mr C departed while I was looking for Unity. Meanwhile, Archer was preening himself seemingly unaware of the fact that another male had left the chnook.  Unfortunately I had to get the truck home and  end my watch at this point.

I spoke to KathyO when I got home who reported to me that on her way to work she stopped at KP and saw 1 falcon on the tall still and 1 on the blue building. She also called a friend of hers who is one of the security guards at KP and asked that he report to her any fights or falcons down on the ground should anyone notice.

I have  an album from my watch at the link below. Keep your eyes to the sky and keep smiling everyone! 🙂

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By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

This is one of the darkest mornings ever! Very poor conditions for picture taking so bare with me. I found Beauty on the HSBC building after checking around the Broad St. bridge area on my way over to the east side. She was on the south side with her back to me. Within 30 seconds she flew off heading west toward the river and I followed suit. As I pulled over on the Broad St. bridge I spotted a falcon on the OCSR building top ibeam at the west corner. I then drove down to Aqueduct St. to get a closer look. It was Archer.

Now the question was where did the Beautyful one go off to. I went over and parked on Broad St. next to the Blue Cross arena and couldn’t see the nestbox area from that vantage point. 15 minutes later Archer flew off to the northwest. As I drove off to try to find him I got a text message from Donna saying that Beauty had been up in the nestbox as I sat down below without a clue!  After searching for about 25 minutes I saw Beauty on the 2nd ibeam west side corner of the OCSR building.

She appeared to have a full crop and after a few moments she walked to her right a foot or two and remained there for the rest of my watch. I think it’s odd that Archer didn’t go join her when she was at the nestbox.

I have a few pics to share with you from last nights outing with Joyce. We stopped to check out KP where we found Archer under the pigeon box and Unity on the tall still.

So there you have it folks some  bonus pics of Unity. Make sure to smile often today it will help to brighten the day!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Wow was traffic ever heavy on 490 this morning going downtown! School buses in all 3 lanes making for a difficult time getting into the lane I needed to get to. Then after no sightings in the Times Square/Broad St. area I drove over to the east side where I was met with road crews at every turn!!! Ok, enough complaining…I found Beauty on the south side of HSBC and all was right with the world again! lol She took off before I could get settled anywhere and while I was in transit through the maze of road work she went straight over to the nestbox and met up with Archer as reported to me by Donna. By the time I got over there the party was over. Beauty was nowhere to be found and Archer was on the base of Mercury. Before I could get a pic he flew up to the head touched down and then was off going into a stoop on the other side of the Thompson Reuters building where I lost sight of him. The elusive one ended up on the OCSR building 2nd ibeam down at the south corner. Finally I had a minute to catch my breath and take a pic.

It was a short break of 5 minutes or so and then Archer took off again heading southwest which said to me he’s going to the jail tower. WRONG! I checked there and the FCT and the Kodak tower and the north side of OCSR to no avail. I then went to  the Broad St. bridge and got out to look for the Great Egrets I had seen in the river over the weekend. There was one down there sooo… at the end of my report you will find the link for a video I taped of it fishing! After I finished up with that I drove reluctantly to the east side where all the road work is being done and found Archer on the southside of the HSBC building with Beauty perched at the southeast corner about 20 ft. away from each other.

You must click on the middle pic to see both Beauty and Archer.

The next pics are all Archer. Beauty had her back to me the whole time so…

I had 10 minutes to view them and then they flew off, Archer first, followed by the Beautyful one!

Click on pics for full view

I left the scene searching for them without any luck and called it a watch. Phew what a rush todays watch turned out to be and I loved every minute of it… well maybe not the traffic !  🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOdZbbJ5hyk

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Just a quickie report on an evening watch with Joyce. We found Beauty on the south side of HSBC.

A couple minutes later Archer came flying  in from the west above Beauty and us going southbound. Beauty was echupping as he passed through then she took off in the direction of the river. We found them both on the jail tower.

Beauty on the left and Archer top right. We decided to go over to KP to see if we could get the trifecta. CarolP was there when we arrived and we all watched Unity as she sat perched on a communications tower on the south side of Ridgeway Ave.

She’s a pretty Peregrine and tho the lighting  conditions were far from ideal I took a bunch of pics just cuz I don’t get over to see her as much as I would like to. Unity flew off over to the power plant to roost under the slanted chute by the top of the pigeon box tucked in away from the rain that was falling. We all said our goodbyes and wrapped it up for the night. 🙂

Here’s the link for my album from the night. Enjoy!

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By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Happy Labor Day to all! It is a very dark and gloomy day in the flower city and when you’re looking for falcons without any success it just seems that much worse. But when you do finally make that discovery it brightens things up ALOT!  After several trips around the city I opted to check out the river to occupy my time until Beauty decided to show herself. She hasn’t played hide and seek with me in awhile. lol To my surprise there were 2 Great Egrets fishing on the rocks between the Broad and Court St. bridges.

Click on pics for a larger view.

Finally an hour into my watch as I was walking back to the truck I noticed a falcon on the ledge right above the nestbox and snapped off this pic before going to a location with a better view.

Parking next to the Times Square building I had a better angle and could ID it as the Beautyful one!

She was off  and flying before I knew it and I had to wait another 30 minutes before I was able to find her again. Beauty was perched on the FCT northeast corner of the platform railing.

I really didn’t feel like watching her back so I drove around behind the church and parked in the Open Door Mission parking lot.

She preened a little, watched some birds down below in a tree and spread out her wings to catch her balance at one point. For 20 minutes I shared her space and then she was off flying fast to the north. I thought she was going over to the Kodak tower when she suddenly went into a stoop and vanished.

I gave it another go around without any more sightings and called it a watch. Below is the link to a small album of the Great Egrets I saw in the river, Enjoy!  🙂

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By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Having checked the radar map before leaving home this morning it showed rain and t-storms just about to reach  Rochester. As I approached downtown it started to rain ever so slightly. I found Beauty on the east side of HSBC.

She flew off after about 10 minutes and I waited for her to return. When she didn’t I left to look for her over on the Broad St. bridge. Having not found her after 25 minutes I ventured back to the east side of town to find her once again on the east side of HSBC. On my way there I took pics of yet another brilliant sunrise.

Beauty stayed there this time for about half an hour as the wind and rain picked up. She stooped on some pigeons around to the north side of the building and vanished. I found her at the nestbox perched beside the main cam.

The Beautyful one flew off and returned immediately and was facing me for a change. Then she went in the nestbox and came back out to her spot by the main cam again.

Soon after she went in the scrape and I lost track of her for CarolP arrived to join me on the Broad St. bridge and we got to chatting. We falcon watchers are a chatty bunch! As I was getting ready to call it a watch and go home Dana came along. I left her and Carol to watch over things. I hope everyone is enjoying the Labor Day holiday weekend! 🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

As I was saying in yesterdays report I get some great sunrises when I go downtown in the morning and today was no exception. Driving eastbound on the Broad St. bridge peering in between Bausch & Lomb on the right and the south ave. garage on the left is a gorgeous sun bursting through!

What a way to start the day! I found Beauty at the nestbox  and Archer was on the base of Mercury.

Donna  let me know that both Beauty and Archer had been at the nestbox before I arrived on the bridge.  Beauty suddenly flew off after a crow with Archer right behind her. The crow landed down in the small well where I couldn’t see it but our fabulous falcon duo did and promptly sent it packing!  She returned and landed on top of the main cam before they both disappeared. Some 35 minutes later Beauty was on Widows Walk as reported by Carol. I drove over and met her in the parking lot right next to the Times Square building and we shared space with the Beautyful one for about an hour.

Beauty primped and preened picking feather after feather out of her gorgeous self while Carol and I chit chatted. I had mentioned that I was going to the drum and bugle corps finals tomorrow and then she mentioned being in the Blue Angels drum and bugle corps when she was a kid. Well what a small world…so was I, and we were probably marching with each other and can’t remember! lol  Anyway back to the watch, Beauty eventually took off heading toward the FCT. She probably saw Archer.

Both Carol and I drove over to city hall but no falcons were present and so I decided to go home and said goodbye to Carol. On my way before I left the downtown area Donna texted me that Beauty had gone over to the nestbox so I pulled over and tweeted it out to let Carol know where to look. She found both Beauty and Archer on OCSR. Have a great day,stay cool and keep smiling!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

As I drove down 490 on my way downtown today the air was quite thick casting a haze over the city. I get many different views of  Rochester commuting for my morning watches. My favorites are those that the sun creates rising from the horizon behind the buildings. Sorry I do go off subject easily don’t I? lol  This is after all, a falcon watch report…I found Beauty on the northeast corner of HSBC just like yesterday. I was parked in front of the post office on Court St. and she had her back to me and it looked like she was eating something.

I was pretty sure it was her but I thought I better drive to a place where I could see the front of her to ID. I parked at Chestnut and Elm streets across from the Columbus building and just up from the Cadillac Hotel.

It must have been a small piece of cached food  she had just finished for I saw no evidence of any food and she had a full crop when I got there. A flock of pigeons flew directly under the Beautyful one and I thought you guys are lucky she has already eaten and then shortly thereafter she flew off heading west in the general direction of the river.

After a 10 minute drive around the usual spots I found Beauty on the top arm of the jail tower west side.

I shared space with her for the next hour parked on Troup St. across from the jail with 490 below to my left. At one point she spread her wings out and I thought she might take off but instead she walked over closer to the outside of the arm she was perched on.

I don’t know where Archer was this morning, Carol didn’t see him at KP either.  Perhaps he went on a day trip getting ready for migration soon. Until next time keep your eyes to the sky and smile! 🙂