By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Reported Falcon Sightings:

7:44 am – Shaky reports through RFalconcam Now:  “DT. Beauty is on Mercury’s money bag.” – From Camera #1 at the Nest Box

12:50 pm – Tweet from Lisa McK:  “BS. So far found 1falcon at BS, on south side.” – This was Lisa’s only tweet, so 2nd falcon not found at BS.

2:00 pm – Tweet from Larry O:  “BS. Brighton Falcon watch drive by. 1 Falcon on West extension.” – Again, only one falcon seen at BS.

4:20 pm – Tweet from Carol P:  “DT. Found a falcon I assume is Beauty on top of the Hyatt on the west, river side. Have not seen her up there in awhile. Starting to snow.”

4:40 pm – Tweet from Carol P:  “DT. Well who knows where she is now. Checked all over & can’t find her. Heading home to warm up. Tomorrow will be a MUCH nicer day!”

My evening Falcon Watch report from downtown (3:45 – 4:45 pm)

After a quick check of KP with no luck finding any falcons, I arrived downtown at approximately 4:00 pm.  After checking all over the downtown area, I finally spotted a tail sticking out on a building I had not seen a falcon on in quite awhile from the north side of the Rochester Library.  That tail looked really familiar.  I had to get further away from the building to check it out, so I parked on the Broad St Bridge back by the War Memorial, facing east.  Through my binoculars, I verified that the tail was connected to a Peregrine Falcon sitting up on top of the Hyatt Hotel on the west side.  I assumed it was Beauty, but she had her back to me and it was starting to snow, so I never got a really good look.  I never like to say what falcon I’ve seen, unless I get a good look and I’m certain, or fairly certain, which bird I’m watching.

People that are not used to looking for the falcons have a hard time seeing them.  It’s really hard until you’ve had a lot of practice.  You have to train your eye to find them.  I’ll never forget my first lesson when I walked with Jim P around the Kodak Office buildings.  He’d point out falcons in different locations and I remember having the hardest time finding them.  Jim told me that once you’ve studied a building you get to know what should be there and then it’s easier to find what shouldn’t be there.  Today was such an example.

Beauty has been pretty consistently on certain spots, ie. the Mercury Statue, the OCSR IBeams, the Frontier Communication Tower, the Jail Communication Tower and now the OCSR elevator shaft.  Today she was on the Hyatt, a building I have not seen her on in a long time.  I’m not saying she never goes there, she can certainly land on any building she wants!  lol

So , while sitting in traffic at the light near the library, I looked up to my left and saw a “blip” aka tail, poking out from a smooth ledge under the Hyatt sign.  Using my binoculars, I verified it was in fact a dark gray tail.  I quickly drove back to the Broad St Bridge and parked farther out facing east to get a better view of what was up on that ledge.  I could see that it was a falcon shaped and sized bird, and with binoculars I verified it was in fact a Peregrine Falcon.  The whole time I watched, the falcon never turned around so that I could see the front to better see if it was Beauty.  I assume it was, but I can’t be sure.  I will say that it was Beauty.

At about 4:30 pm, it started to snow harder and I was already losing light.  That’s when Beauty decided to leave the Hyatt.  I lost sight of her and was not able to find her after checking out the whole downtown area, even a good look up into the OCSR elevator shaft.

Since it was cloudy, snowy and getting dark, I decided to end my Watch.  Tomorrow promises to be a nice day with warmer temps and sunshine and it’s Saturday!  Woohoo!

Are you ready for a quick lesson on how to spot a falcon?  I am going to leave you with a few pics I took of Beauty up on the Hyatt from the west end of the Broad St Bridge near the Blue Cross Arena aka the War Memorial, with arrows pointing out her location.  This way you can practice spotting a falcon on a building.  🙂

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON A PICTURE FOR A LARGER VIEW.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

During the day, I received two tweets that Beauty was on the Mercury statue’s money bag hand.  One at 7:31 am and the other at 3:47 pm, both left by Shaky on the “Rfalconcam Now” section of the forum.  This is where forum members that are watching the cameras can post their sightings of the Rochester Falcons.  For example, if a forum member sees that Beauty is on the Mercury statue they can post that sighting on “Rfalconcam Now” and the Rochester Watchers will receive a tweet.  In this way, the forum members help out the Watchers by letting them know what they see on camera.  It’s a great tool, especially during the fledge watch.  Always nice to have help, especially when you are by yourself.  My thanks to all that help out in this way.

So, knowing that Beauty was seen on camera on the Mercury statue, I headed downtown to check on her.  I arrived around 3:45 pm and parked on the Broad St Bridge where I had a nice view of Beauty on Mercury.  She looked pretty antsy up there, moving and shifting and standing and flaring her tail.  Beauty was getting close to leaving Mercury.

At 4:10 pm, Beauty took heading northeast.  From the Broad St Bridge, I was able to see where she went, unlike yesterday when I was watching from the other side of the building.  Beauty headed towards the OCSR and then stooped.  She stooped on a Ring-billed Gull and almost caused it to dive into the river.  She chased the gull across the river and then turned, swooping up into the OCSR elevator shaft.  I’d seen her do this a lot recently, but usually after dark.

After she disappeared into the elevator shaft, the local pigeons went into a frenzied flight.  I could count 3 separate flocks; one over the river, one between me and the old Midtown Plaza and one over the Cornhill area.  Wow!  They must have thought that Beauty was going out on a hunt and they weren’t taking any chances.  I watched the pigeons swirling over the river for a little while, fascinated by their flight patterns.  Some pretty incredible evasive maneuvers!  I’m sure it was the lighting, but in the 3rd picture, the Pigeons turned blue!  Blue Pigeons!

After watching the pigeons for a few moments, I drove closer to the OCSR and checked the elevator shaft to see if Beauty was still up there. (4:30 pm)  Yep!  There she was, sitting on the south ledge, impossible to see from the Broad St. Bridge.  All our Rochester falcons have found this spot.  It’s well protected from the weather.  They can store leftover prey up.  I’ve seen Kaver store food there on what Dan S calls the “cold stone”.  It was out of the hot sun in the summer and it was easy to access.  I’ve seen Mariah stoop from there down the face of the building and over the river; a perfect blind for hunting.  All our Peregrines have used it at one time or another.  Beauty, like many before her, had found this sheltered spot.

After watching Beauty for awhile, I decided to head over to the BS location before it got dark.  On the way I received a tweet from Lisa McK at 4:30 pm; “At BS 1 falcon on south side.”  I had just arrived when Lisa joined me on the north side of the building.  She had spotted Pigott on the south side of the building and was driving around to see if she could find BST (the unbanded male).  We both parked on the south side of the building where we had a nice view of Pigott on top of the building.  While we were watching her, she was watching the 1,000’s of Crows in the trees behind the building.  (4:40 pm)

About 15 minutes later, the cold winds started to pick up and Pigott took flight.  She rocketed around to the west side of the building and landed near the nook.  She immediately took off and she streaked around to the front of the building.  We lost sight of her.  Lisa and I said our goodbyes and we both drove around the building searching for Pigott.  I went around twice.  It was starting to get dark and I had to get to a meeting, so after checking one more time I headed home.

On my drive home at 5:30 pm, Lisa tweeted out “Found both falcons at BS for about 1 minute.  Then lost the male.”  (5:10 pm)  I had just missed seeing all three Rochester Falcons, but between all the Watchers, all three were seen.  Always wonderful news!  🙂

Tonight snow is in the forecast for Rochester.  Only a trace to an inch, so not too much.  We’ve been very lucky so far.

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures of the Rochester  Library that was under investigation by the Ghost Hunters.  Is it haunted?  You be the judge.

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It was another cold, cloudy, blustery day.  Well, I guess it is almost Winter.  Brrrr!

During the day quite a few Watchers were out and about, checking on Beauty, Pigott & her friend BST (the unbanded Tiercel), at least that’s who we “assume” it was.  Yesterday, Beauty was seen downtown and Pigott & BST were seen at the BS location.  Today’s sightings are as follows:

10:30 am – Kathy O reports: “Searched BS 20 minutes .. No falcons seen.”

11:30 am – Joyce reports:  “Checked BS. No falcon sightings either.”

2:20 pm – Lisa McK reports: “At BS 1 falcon tucked in corner on SE side.  Still looking for #2.” (Lisa did not report finding a 2nd falcon at the BS location.)

3:40 pm – Joyce reports:  “2 falcons at BS. One on SE corner of east extension and the other next to the tree on SE corner.”

3:50 pm – Carol P reports:  “Cold and snow at KP but no falcons. Brrr!”

4:00 pm – Joyce reports:  “Our 3 known falcons are in their regular spots. Beauty is on the money bag of Mercury, and Pigott & BST on east side of BS.”

4:00 pm – Carol P reports:  “DT. Confirmed. Beauty on Mercury.”

4:30 pm – Carol P reports:  “DT. B took off heading east over river. Fingers frozen!”

4:50 pm – Carol P reports:  “DT. Been all over and cannot find B. Lots of pigeons in panic flight so she could be hunting. Losing light. Time to go.”

I spent close to a half hour with Beauty while she was up on the money bag hand of the Mercury statue.  By 4:45 pm, I was already losing light.  Wish I had more time to watch after I get out of work.  It was extremely cold as the little bit of sun was covered by dark clouds and it stared to flurry.

At 4:30 pm, Beauty took off stooping over the river heading east.  The building got in the way, so I didn’t see where she went.  I drove around downtown trying to find her, but had no luck.  The only evidence of her possible passing through were lots of pigeons in panic flight over the river and at the old Midtown Plaza.  After checking the best I could and not finding her, I decided to call it a day at close to 5:00 pm.

I was very happy that Kathy O, Lisa McK & Joyce were out with me and that all three current Rochester falcons were seen today.

Here are s few pics of Beauty on the Mercury statue.  Sorry that the quality of the pics isn’t the greatest.

Please be sure to click on the pictures for a larger version.

By Rochester Falcons Watcher Carol P.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  I hope you all enjoyed your time with family & friends.  I know I did!  Of course that didn’t stop me from getting out for a bit to visit with the Rochester Falcons.  Time to catch everyone up with what’s been going on.

Thanksgiving Day – 11/22/12

I got out for a couple hours after dinner.  I’ll first let you know that I still check on KP most days and have not seen any falcons there except for a pair of Kestrels now and then.  After checking KP, I headed downtown.  It was pretty much abandoned.  I found Beauty on the top IBeam of the OCSR at 3:20 pm.  I didn’t have much time, so I headed over to the BS location.  Lots of Crows were flying over heading towards the city, but I could not find any falcons there.  After circling the building a few times, it was time to head back downtown.

At 4 pm, I parked on the Andrews St Bridge and found Beauty still in the same spot on the top IBeam of OCSR.  I received a text from Joyce that she and Steve were at the BS location and that I just missed Pigott arriving and landing on the building.  After I left, both Larry O and Joyce saw Beauty on Mercury statue’s money bag hand.  Well good to know that both Rochester females were home on Thanksgiving!

Friday – November 23, 2012

Arrived downtown around 9 am.  Found Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) on the NE box below the platform.

At 10 am I drove around the downtown area searching for a 2nd falcon.  I had no luck finding one, so I returned to the Broad St. Bridge, where I saw a Peregrine soaring above the Xerox bldg.  The falcon went into a stoop heading south and hit a Red-tail Hawk.  Over and over again the falcon hit the hawk and chased it south down the river.  The Peregrine returned, circling behind Xerox and the old Midtown Plaza.  I was curious, was this a 2nd falcon?  Was Beauty still on the FCT?  Only one way to find out.  I drove back over to the Andrews St. Bridge and saw that Beauty was no longer on the FCT.  Beauty flew in from the south and landed in the same spot she had been in when I left her there.  So it was Beauty who went after the hawk, pushing it out of her territory.

It was time to check on the BS location, where I hoped to find Pigott home.  I arrived there around 10:20 am and found a falcon on the SE corner of the building.  I circled to make sure there were no other falcons in residence.  Seeing no others, I returned to where I found the first one.  At first I assumed it was Pigott, but boy was she white?  Others had mentioned that she seemed whiter, not as salmon colored as she had been.  Hmmm.  Larry O joined me for a short while.  The weather was not very nice.  Dark, cloudy and getting cold, with some rain on and off.  Larry and I both questioned whether this was Pigott.  After Larry left, I decided to get the scope out and leaned it against the window, using it from inside my dry, warm car.  Kind of hard to hold it still, but I finally got a good look at this Peregrine.  A gorgeous bird, with large eyes, dark helmet, very white chest and hyper vigilant.  Was it Dot.ca?  I thought this bird was a female at first, but was later proven wrong.

I held the scope as steady as I could, keeping my eye on this falcon.  Finally, preening and stretching and scratching and …….. no band on the left leg!……. more scratching……no band on the right leg!  Well, well, well.  Not Pigott, not Dot.ca.  There was a new Pefa in town and he was unbanded!

I continued to watch this Peregrine until I saw a 2nd falcon stoop off of the front of the building at 12:10 pm, heading north and down below the tree line.  Up and down and up again.  The 2nd falcon flew back towards the front of the building and I followed.  It didn’t take me long to find a falcon on a window ledge on the north side of the building.  Well, now there were two falcons!  The 2nd falcon flew up to a corner closer to the east end, so I was able to park where I could watch both of them.

I was pretty sure that this 2nd falcon was Pigott, darker than the other one.  Did she not know that she had a visitor?

They remained in place until about 2:30 pm, when Pigott came off of the building and circled around to the other side.  I quickly looked back at the other one and it was gone too!  That’s when Joyce arrived and we both watched as two falcons flew above us,  very obviously male and female.  Pigott and the visiting male appeared to do a little bit of talon tagging and then both flew back to the building.  He landed on his same spot and Pigott landed on a nearby ledge, close to the NE corner, where she could see him now.  Again, I wondered if she had not been aware of him until now?

I caught Joyce up on what had happened and left for home at a little after 3:00 pm.  Joyce later reported that there was just a bit of activity after I left.   Pigott seemed to attempt to chase off the male and at 5:20 pm, when Joyce finally left, she could only see Pigott.  Did she finally succeed in chasing him away?  By that time it was dark, and we would have to check out the situation in the morning.

Saturday – November 24, 2012

Larry O reported from the BS location at 8 am that it was snowing like crazy there and when it finally cleared, he was unable to find any falcons.

It was a very cold and blustery day, with snow and graupel falling in between periods of sunshine.  After checking KP and downtown with no luck finding Beauty, I headed over to the BS location and arrived around 10:40 am.  Two falcons were on the building.  With the scope I verified that it was the unbanded male on a window on the SE side and Pigott on a window on the NE side.  They were on the same side of the building but on opposite sides of the building extension, so they could not see each other.  🙂

There was no where for me to park where I could see both of them, so I took turns, going back and forth.  Larry O joined me for a short while and as he was leaving at 11:50 am, Dana arrived.  I pointed out both birds and she parked where she could watch Pigott and I kept an eye on the male.  Both falcons remained where they were for most of my watch.  Dana and I switched, so now I was watching Pigott.

The wind was quite strong, sweeping leaves up the side of the building.  One landed next to Pigott on the ledge.  She took one look at it and pounced on it like a cat!  Then watched as it fell of the ledge.  lol

It wasn’t until 3:00 pm that there was any activity besides preening, pooping and snoozing.  The Crows were starting to fly overhead and Pigott got a little agitated.  She took off and around to the back (south side) of the building, landing on a corner on the south side.  She passed right by the male, who remained on his window ledge.

At 3:10 pm, it was time for me to head home, leaving Dana to continue the watch.  On my way home, I checked out the downtown area one more time and again could not find Beauty anywhere.  At around 4:50 pm, Donna reported that Beauty had been on the money bag hand of the Mercury statue since 4:30 pm caught on the RFalconcam cameras.  Glad she was finally seen.

Joyce and Brian took on the BS location watch after Dana left.  They arrived around 4:20 pm and found both Pigott and the unbanded male on the building.  They left at 4:30 pm to check the downtown area, but before they got too far, Brian spotted a 3rd falcon flying towards the BS location.  Joyce’s text said: “By the time we got back to BS, P and male were flying back up to east roof corners. P may have chased it away.”

After looking at my pictures, I am sure that the falcon I thought was a female was definitely the same unbanded male.  The size difference was obvious when he flew with Pigott, a much larger bird.

We will definitely keep an eye on ALL the Rochester Falcons, including the unbanded male currently at the BS location.

PLEASE BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE PICTURES IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION.  THANKS!!!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I got a later start today.  It was another beautiful fall day with temps going up into the 50’s and sunshine.

Earlier in the day, Joyce had reported seeing Beauty on the Jail Communication Tower (JCT).  So after doing a quick check at KP and not finding any falcons there, I headed downtown. I checked the whole downtown area and could not find Beauty anywhere.  So I decided to check the BS location to see if I could fine any falcons there.  Nope!  No falcons their either.  Besides the Crows and Pigeons, I saw what may have been a feral cat or maybe it lived at one of the houses nearby.  All I know is that I interrupted a cat nap and the napping cat was not very happy with me.  It kind of reminded me of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland and then it was gone!  Poof!   Hopefully this little one had a nice home nearby to go to.  I really wish people would not let their cats loose outside.  I know it’s not a falcon, but I had to include a couple pics of the BS cat.

After not finding a falcon at the BS location, I headed back downtown to look for Beauty and finally found her at 3:10 pm within the framework of the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).  She was really hard to find  where she was.

Beauty took off heading southeast and I followed.  At 4:10 pm, I found her on the top Ibeam of the OCSR at the west end.

While I was watching Beauty, Joyce and Brian H had taken a trip to Buffalo and found Diamante (M&Ks son) and Glieg (Pigott’s sister) at home at the Central Terminal.  🙂

It was a nice ending to this weekend before Thanksgiving.

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE PICS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION.  THANKS!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Although it started out really cold and frosty this morning with temps in the high 20’s, it ended up being a very nice day, with lots of sunshine and temps in the 50’s.

Last night (Friday) Beauty was not seen.  While I was downtown watching the flock of Starlings that had taken over the Mercury statue, Joyce was at the BS location with Pigott.

This morning (Saturday), I arrived downtown around 7:30 am.  For a 1/2 hour I searched for Beauty with no luck.  I ended up at the Strong Museum of Play, and watched for awhile from that location.  Here are some pics I took while over there.

Moving on, I returned to the Broad St Bridge and was happy to see that Beauty had arrived (8:00 am).  She was on the money bag hand of the Mercury Statue.

From 8 – 10:30 am, I watched Beauty do what Peregrines do.  She was in hunt mode, chasing pigeons all over the city.  Larry O joined me for awhile, but couldn’t stay long.  After Larry left,  I found Beauty up on top of the Xerox Bldg on the NW corner.  I then followed her over to the Jail Comm Tower for the 2nd time.  She had gone over there earlier after hunting over mid-town.

At 10:30 am, Beauty took off heading north.  I followed, but was unable to find her.

I ended up back on the Broad St Bridge and Dana joined me there.  Neither of us were able to find out where Beauty had gone to.  At noon I checked out the BS location, but could not find Pigott there.  Kathy O and Joyce joined me there.

At 2:00 pm, I decided to head home, stopping at KP on the way.  The juvie Red-tailed Hawk was hunting there, but I did not see any falcons.

Earlier at 1:30 pm, Joyce texted that she and Brian H had located Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower.

So, yesterday evening we had Pigott and no Beauty and today (Saturday) we had Beauty and no Pigott.  Hopefully we’ll see both of them on Sunday!  🙂

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Temps started at 27 degrees this morning, but it got up into the mid-40’s during the day.  The big difference?  Sun!  Glorious Sun!

Beauty was reported being seen first by Debbie H.  Here is her tweet sent at 8:20 am – “Good Morning. Beauty on Jail Tower. Saw her chasing pigeons!”

Here is Brian H’s report from 2:40 pm – “B is standing regally atop Mercury’s raised hand. Coop was chasing pigeons around Monroe and Alexander.”

I was able to start my Watch at 3:45 pm, first checking out the KP area, where I found no Peregrine Falcons.  But I did find a hunting juvenile Red-tailed Hawk.  I could tell it was a juvenile because the tail had not turned the beautiful red that they get when they are adults.  This young hawk was on top of one of the telephone poles near the road.  As I was texting, the RTH took off and dropped into the field in front of me.  It wasn’t long before he launched himself out of the field and flew right towards me holding a small rodent, mouse, mole vole?  I couldn’t believe it when the hawk landed on a light pole very close to where I was parked!  He very quickly ate his meal and then stood up straight and immediately went back into hunt mode. I zoomed way in on the last pic to check the hawks legs.   This one was not banded.  It was an adult I saw that had a band on one leg.  This may have been her kid.  🙂

I arrived downtown at around 4:15 pm.  I looked all over and finally found Beauty on the back side of the Jail Comm Tower.  I could not see her from the Broad St Bridge.  For some reason my tweet reporting this did not make it to the forum.  In this picture, she had her back to me.

While I was trying to find Beauty, I noticed that her friends the Starlings were back on the Widows Walk.  I couldn’t help but think how cool it would be if they were all different colors.  Like birdy Christmas lights decorating the WW.  lol   I watched her for awhile, but because I was quickly losing light, I decided to check on the BS location to see if Pigott was home.

The Crows were in full force, swarming in from the south and heading towards downtown Rochester.  I could not find Pigott, but I noticed that some of the Crows bee-lined for the BS building and kind of dove down towards the roof of the building at the west end.  Quite a few Crows repeated this little maneuver.  I think I had my answer when finally, on my 3rd trip around the building, I found Pigott up on a corner on the west side (5:10 pm).  Most of the Crows were gone and she finally felt secure enough to show herself.  Or she came in after they left.  I couldn’t be sure.

Here is a picture of a very small sliver of a moon, from the BS location.  The second picture is one from the Ford St Bridge, on my trip back downtown to check on Beauty one more time.  If you look carefully, you can see lots of Crows in the sky beyond the bridge.

By the time I arrived back downtown it was totally dark (5:30 pm).  Beauty was gone from the Jail Comm Tower.  I checked the best I could, but could not find her anywhere.  Had she gone up into the OCSR elevator shaft?  Way too dark to tell.  After checking the Rfalconcam pics, I discovered that after I left Beauty on the Jail Comm Tower, she went to the Mercury statue and landed on the money bag hand.  She was there from 4:39 to 5:07 pm.

Before I headed home, I took a few pics of Rochester at night that I’ll leave you with.  I was very happy to see both Beauty and Pigott doing well.

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE PICTURES IF YOU’D LIKE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION

Oh!  One more thing!  I finally got an ok video showing just a little bit of the Crows we are seeing going into the city.  Quite amazing!  Just click on this link.

http://youtu.be/H1qtw-8KgNA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another cold day with temps in the 40’s during the day and cloudy.

My first stop KP (3:45 pm).  I checked out the area and found a Kestrel diving on something in a tree in the field in front of me.  Not sure what it was, maybe the Red-tail Hawk that hangs out there?  Oh, and by the way, I do believe that one of the Red-tail Hawks has a band on one leg.  Might be interesting to find out where s/he was banded if we can get the #’s and report them.

Next stop downtown (4:15 pm).  From the Andrews St Bridge, I saw no falcons on KO, FCT or the north side of OCSR, but there were a whole lot of Starlings on the Mercury statue.  My first clue that Beauty wasn’t nearby.  lol

After checking out the whole downtown area and having no luck finding any falcons, I parked on the Broad St Bridge and saw that Beauty had replaced the Starlings on the Mercury statue.  She was on the money bag hand.

From down at Aqueduct St, I had a better view of Beauty who, as usual was facing NW, checking everything out.  The light was already fading and it was cold, but she didn’t seem to be as poofy as she had been last night.  I had to play around with the brightness/contrast on my picture due to the lack of lighting.

So, where did all the Starlings go you ask?  As I was pulling out of the parking lot to check out the BS location that question was answered.  They had all moved over to the Widows Walk after Beauty chased them off!

OK, on to the BS location to check on Pigott.  She was really easy to find.  There was a falcon on the front of the building, north side, that I believe was Pigott.  It was impossible to get a positive ID.  It was getting dark and again the sky was full of large, cawing black birds aka Crows heading north towards the city.  She was watching them intently.

Again, I had no sighting of either Dot.ca or KPF today.  I will continue to watch out for them and report if I see them.

Beauty and Pigott continue to remain in their own territories.

Before heading home, I decided to go over to the Strong Museum to watch the Crows come in.  Brian H, who was interviewed today for the news suggested this spot as a good place to watch from.  He was right!  From there, I could see waves of Crows fly in from all over, swirling in large groups before settling in trees all over the city.  Because it was dark, I set my camera to full automatic and this is the picture that came out.  Looks like the sky is blue, but believe me, it was full dark.  Crazy what your camera will do.  🙂

These trees are full of cawing and rattling Crows.  It sounded and looked like they were all having a great time.  lol

The weather people say we will get some sun over the next few days.  I hope they’re right!  Sun would be really nice right now.  🙂

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE PICS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It was a cold and cloudy day today in Rochester, NY.  The temperature never made it out of the 30’s.  Brrrrr.  Since the end of Daylight Savings Time, my evening Watches have been very short.  By 5:00 pm, it gets dark and I head home.  I wanted to check all 3 Peregrine locations, so I had to be quick.

I arrived at Kodak Park to check on KPF at 3:45 pm.  I looked everywhere and was unable to find any falcons.  It has been awhile since she has been seen, so I’m starting to believe that she may have migrated.  If she has, I truly hope she returns next year.  But, I haven’t given up hope of seeing her, so I’ll keep looking.

At 4:10 pm, I was downtown and from the Andrew St Bridge I could see a falcon on the money bag hand of the Mercury statue.  I drove over to the Broad St Bridge and then down to Aqueduct St., where I parked in my normal spot.  From here I could see that it was Beauty.  She was all poofed up from the cold, looking everywhere.  There was a large flock of Starlings flying in tandem and landing below her.  She watched them intently as they all flew into the vines on the building and then off again.  It looked like they were maybe getting food of some sort out of the vines?  They flew off and Beauty remained, continuing to look everywhere.

I checked out the downtown area and could not find Dot.ca.  This is his first year here in Rochester, so we don’t know what he normally does during the Winter months.  Our Tiercels (males) have all migrated, does Dot.ca also migrate?  We’ll keep looking for him.

It was starting to get dark, so I had to get going.  One more location to check out, the BS location.  I arrived there at about 4:50 pm.  I found a falcon on the south side of the building.  A falcon surrounded on all sides by 1,000’s of Crows and they weren’t being quiet about it.  I parked my car and checked out the falcon, trying to determine if it was Pigott or maybe DC.  But, it was too dark to be sure.  I assumed it was Pigott, since Dot.ca has not been seen for a few days.

Seeing and hearing all of these Crows is amazing.  We believe that this is one of their staging areas, where they gather before heading downtown.  By 5:10 pm, 90% of them were gone, flying north towards the city.  An incredible sight!

During all of this, Pigott remained quietly on the building, just watching.  By this time it was dark and just as I was getting ready to leave, Pigott flew off, stooping towards the east.  She then flew back to the building and landed on the west side, near the cubby hole.

Just one more thing before I sign off.  Here is a video of Beauty I took on Sunday morning as she prepped her breakfast on the base of Mercury.  This is what we mean by “Feathers Flying!”  Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/UUuMlcQmLBI

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I want to start my report by saying thanks to all the Veterans for their service.  While downtown this morning, I was able to attend the Veteran’s Day Ceremony at the War Memorial.  I’m  really glad that I was there to see it.

Yesterday, I could not find Beauty, but I did find Pigott at the BS location.  I spent a couple hours watching her.  No sign of Dot.ca.  Pigott only flew once during the time I was there.  I could tell she had eaten before I got there, she had a very large crop.  Kathy O reported seeing Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower later that evening.

Today (11/11/12), was a gorgeous  day, with temperatures close to 70 degrees (F).  I decided to get out early.  Sun was promised for most of the day, but it turned out to be mostly cloudy on this Veteran’s day.  No way was I going to complain.  The warm temperatures were very welcome!

Just after I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge, a little after 8 am, Beauty brought in breakfast, landing on the base of the Mercury statue.  She sat there for awhile, just looking around, before she finally started to prep her meal.  Feathers rained down everywhere.  After checking out some of the feathers that landed near me, I decided that her meal this morning was Pigeon.  She remained on Mercury’s base eating for an hour and 4o mins.  At 9:40 am, she tucked what remained of the meal under Mercury’s foot at the base of the statue.  Beauty then flew to the west end of the top IBeam on the OCSR, south side.  She then walked around to the north side.

While she was eating, I walked over to Aqueduct Park, which is on the north side of the Mercury statue.  From there I could see that there was a very large pile of wood up against the Main St Bridge.  Looks like the city will have to do another clean-up.

Here are some pictures of the area I took while walking around this morning.

I drove over to the Andrew St Bridge and found Beauty on the top IBeam, where she had walked around the corner.  After watching her doze for a while, I decided to go check on Pigott at the BS location.  I had no luck finding her, so I headed back downtown.  On the way, I stopped at the Cornhill area along the river to view the city from the south.  Here is a picture I took.  Gives you a whole different perspective.

I went in search of Beauty again and found her on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).  She was on the NE box below the platform.  That’s where she remained most of the day.  Both Brian and Joyce reported seeing her there after I left.

As I left the downtown area, I decided to stop at the pedestrian bridge to check things out.  Here are a few pictures I took at High Falls and the Genesee Brewery.

I do love the High Falls area.  It was nice to see the old and the new sights.  During the day, I checked at KP twice with no luck finding KPF.  Later today, Joyce & Kathy O saw Pigott over at the BS location.  No sightings of Dot.ca by any of the Watchers.

I thoroughly enjoyed being out and about today.  It was like a breath of fresh air being able to roll down my windows while driving around.  I went on other adventures today, but that’s for another time.  🙂  With Winter coming, I just had to get out and enjoy the day and Watch the Rochester Falcons!

This last picture is for my very good friend Dale.  When I saw these little sparrows taking a bath in a puddle over at city hall I just couldn’t resist taking their picture.  This one I just knew Dale would love.   There was so much sadness after losing our friend Anne, I decided we needed a laugh.  🙂  REMEMBER TO CLICK ON A PICTURE FOR A LARGER VIEW.