By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

I’m happy to say the Beautyful one is still with us in stable condition. <3  Hopefully more details will soon be reported.

Joyce and Brian picked me up shortly before sundown and when we arrived downtown I thought I saw a bump under the northeast wing of the Times Square building. As we drove to  the Broad St. bridge we saw that there was in fact  a falcon under that wing. Joyce drove over to Aqueduct St. for better viewing.

We then drove down and parked in front of the Blue Cross Arena main entrance for a profile shot but the light was just not good enough for very clear pics.

Now if you look at the 2nd pic above, the tail looks a bit beat up to me. Perhaps the sign of a battle with another bird. She certainly seems nervous because she moves around a lot and when she was under that wing her head was on a swivel. I believe on the look out for Beauty to strike.

Now what I am about to say is only speculation – Unity(whom I personally am convinced is the new falcon downtown) may have been scouting Beauty all that time that she wasn’t seen at KP in the past weeks. Watching her patterns, where she stashed food, her favorite perches,etc. Perhaps the male falcon seen the weekend before last, triggered her to move in thinking it was Archer back from migration and the battle started then. Probably a migrating male that kept on going since it hasn’t been spotted since then. Maybe between that weekend and this past Friday Unity and Beauty have been having altercations and finally on Friday Beauty succumbed to the larger Unity. We will never know for sure what took place but this is my thought process with some input from the other watchers. Brian thinks she will go to the nest box soon and claim it while she waits for Archer to return from his migration. I think we are all afraid of if and when Beauty returns what damage may occur. I pray everyone survives. Not much to smile about but I’m going to anyway just cuz that’s what I try to do! 🙂

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I want to start this report by saying that my thoughts and prayers go out to Beauty.  Heal quickly and be well little one.

I got a late start this morning.  My first check was at Kodak Park to see if I could find Unity.  It was very cold and snowy.  Not a nice day to be out.  But that didn’t stop the Rochester Falcon Flakes from getting out.  I searched for Unity for close to an hour at KP, but was unable to find her.  My next stop was downtown Rochester.

Since we had a different falcon downtown, I knew she would probably not perch on the familiar spots that I was used to seeing Beauty on.  I had to check EVERY rooftop.  From Woodbury Blvd, I spotted a Peregrine on the SW corner of the Bausch & Lomb (B&L) bldg.  While I drove around for a better vantage point, the falcon disappeared.  Now where did she go?  Again, I drove around downtown and ended up back at Woodbury Blvd, parking my car in front of Merkel Donahue.

The snow came down harder as I attempted to find the falcon I had seen on B&L.  Due to size, I knew this was a female.  As I settled in, the snow flakes floated down around me, but I noticed something strange.  Mixed in with the snowflakes were feathers!  White fluffy feathers and snow flakes floated all around me!  She had to be nearby, but where?  I got out of my car and looked up at the roofs above me, but I couldn’t see her.  Back into my car, I drove to the next road over and there she was!  A Peregrine was eating on the corner of the Blue Cross/Blue Shield bldg, directly across from the Merkel Donahue bldg, which I had been parked in front of.  I immediately tweeted it out and was soon joined by Joyce, MAK, Brian H and Dana.

The snow made it hard to get good pics, so I took only a few and got the scope out.  While she ate, I watched her through the scope.  I was able to see that she had a black over red band on her left leg, but I couldn’t read the numbers.  She wouldn’t show me her right leg, until she eventually took off, carrying her leftovers.  I do believe I caught a glimpse of reddish/purplish color on her right band.

We will definitely continue to attempt to get a positive ID on this female, but we’re starting to believe that Unity may be the new female.  But what about the male we saw on Sunday?  We’ll keep watching and report what we see.

Before I went home, she returned to the SW corner of the B&L bldg.  That’s where I left her.  Joyce, MAK, Dana and Brian remained on watch.

I’ve put a few pictures into a Kodak Gallery album.  No sign on needed.

http://pix.kg/p/5032256331105%3A1198115386/scl

Enjoy!

Carol P.

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Let me begin by saying thank you to all of  Beautys’  fans around the world for your support of her at this time. She is a strong girl and a survivor and whether she flies free again or not she will always be our Mercury girl!

CarolP found a female falcon downtown today as Joyce,Brian and I came to join her and see if we could ID this girl whom we are assuming fought with Beauty and won the territory. The conditions were about as bad as they could be for taking pictures with cold temps and snow coming down. Dana joined us and we all took pics anyway. Carol was able to make out red and black on this female falcons left leg band as she plucked feathers from fresh prey she had caught. At the time none of us were really thinking about the fact that this could be Unity who has black 71 over a red H until Eileen called Joyce and brought it to our attention. We still are not certain because  we didn’t see numbers or letters at that point. And we hadn’t seen the purple band that dons her right leg. I ‘m sure Carol,Dana and Joyce will be looking at their photos very closely to see if we can confirm the true identity but odds are that Unity is the new downtown falcon.

When she was done eating she grabbed what was left of her meal and flew away ending up on the Bausch and Laumb building. It was snowing a bit harder as we drove up into a ramp garage to get a closer look and still it was too difficult to get a good shot. We figured she would probably just hang out there for quite some time since she filled her belly so we decided to call it a watch. Dana had followed us up to the top of the garage and remained there after we left.

I don’t know what the future holds for our Rochester falcons but you can be sure we Rochester falcon watchers will do our best to keep our eyes to the skies so we can keep all of you informed and up to date on the goings on. The past 24 hours have been difficult filled with much angst and tears for the Beautyful one but this is natures’ way and we can only sit back and watch and hope for the best for her. I would like it if you would think of her and smile through those tears! 🙂    <3

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Timing is everything when it comes to Falcon Watching. Sometimes you can spend hours and not find one falcons. Sometimes you can watch a falcon sit for hours. Then there are those days, when you hit the road running, or in this case, you quickly park your car, jump out and watch in amazement. That was today. For an hour and a half, I watched Beauty (I assume Beauty, but I never got a chance to make a positive ID) hunting the Pigeons over the river on each side of the Broad St Bridge. Pretty incredible stuff.

I’ve put some pics in a KGallery Album for your enjoyment. No sign on needed.

http://pix.kg/p/2537472331105%3A293766522/scl

Enjoy!

Carol P.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I’ll let my pictures and report in this KGallery explain what we saw this weekend. So many things happened the visit by a pair of Peregrines to downtown Rochester today and a visit with a Snowy Owl in Downtown Rochester. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Thanks for the assist Donna and Ei. Your posts of seeing Beauty at the nest box were very helpful. Thank you!

If you’re interested and seeing and hearing about what happened today, check out my KGallery album at the link posted below this. No sign on needed.

http://pix.kg/p/7424054231105%3A1911061841/scl

Enjoy!

Carol P.