By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

What’s not to like about today.  Winter Solstice, first day of Winter and finally the days will start to get longer.  Woohoo!  Plus Snow!  Nothing on the ground yet and it’s mostly been raining, but there is a promise of a White Christmas in Rochester, NY, something many of us have been dreaming of.  🙂

Here are my tweets from my Watch:

4:10 pm – Carol P – “DT. Arrived on the BSB just in time to see Beauty give me a wave from Mercury as she took off & flew up into the OCSR elevator shaft. Nite B!”

4:40 pm – Carol P – “At BS with Larry O. One falcon with back to us. Can’t tell if P or BST. Rain now with spitting snow. Larry had to leave.”

4:50 pm – Carol P – “BS. From A different angle looks like a very white chest. Thinking BST. Turning to snow now.”

5:20 pm – Carol P – “BS. P flew in and landed on the 2nd window at the nite time roost & BST joined her on the same window. Lots of ee chupping. All 3 seen!”

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My first stop was downtown.  I arrived on the Andrews St Bridge  just before 4:00 pm to find Beauty on Mercury’s money bag hand.  I drove over to the Broad St Bridge for a closer look.  After parking my car, I got my camera out and put it up to my eye, finger slightly touching, focusing and ………… Beauty threw up her wings, leaped into the air, and flipped her tail at me.  Hahaha!  Nice!  No picture of the take off, but I did get one blurry pic of her as she flew towards the OCSR and slipped up into the elevator shaft.  It seems to be her evening routine.  Tonight she went up into the elevator shaft at exactly 4:01 pm.  Let’s see if that time changes as the days get longer.

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Next stop, BS location to find Pigott & BST before it got too dark.  At 4:35 pm, I found BST on the east end of the building.  He was on guard, head turning constantly.  Larry O joined me for a short while.  Rain was coming down pretty heavily with spits of snow.  Soon it turned over to mostly snow and then back to rain.  BST started to get agitated, bobbing his head and finally he took off, swooping around to the front of the building (north side) and landing on the window near the NE end where we’ve been seeing them go at night, there nighttime roost.  He landed on the 2nd window down, on the left side of the windowsill, and ee-chupping filled the air.  Pigott had to be up there, I just didn’t see her come in.

I moved my car for a better view and saw that Pigott had indeed arrived and she was on the same window on the right side of the same windowsill.  Looks like these two are becoming very comfortable with each other.  Time will tell what will happen in the future when Dot.ca returns.

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By this time, it was too dark to continue my Watch, so I headed home, happy to have seen all three Rochester Falcons.  Another very good day!

I’ve been looking through my pictures from the Summer and I’ll leave you with a picture of Quest I took when we went up to Canada to attend the banding of her young eyases.  As always, just click on the pictures to see a larger version.  Thanks!!!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Well it looks like the first day of winter will be looking the part with snow flurries already this morning and more to come tonight and tomorrow. YAY! Bring it on cuz I love it and especially since it means we’ll have a white Christmas! 🙂  I had barely gotten parked on the Broad St. Bridge when a few panic stricken pigeons came flying up from the river south bound crossing in front of me followed by you guessed it-Beauty. They continued to the Cornhill area and vanished. 20 minutes later I spotted Beauty on the top ibeam of OCSR just to the right of the south corner. Due to the dark conditions I drove down to the hole (Aqueduct St.) for closer viewing and pics.

The Beautyful one was in serious hunt mode bobbing and weaving her head as they do when they are zeroing in on their prey. She stayed up there for half hour looking, looking, looking for breakfast. I moved closer still, parking by Aqueduct Park and started taping her. She pooped at one point and I thought for sure she would take off but she made me wait a bit longer. Finally around 8:30am she was off heading south and I quickly lost sight of her behind buildings.

10 minutes later I found her under the northeast wing eating. After trying a couple different spots to get a good look at her I settled in by Falcon Watcher Central.

There was no plucking of feathers and it appeared to be a meager sample of cached food plus Beauty didn’t spend more than 15 minutes picking at it before flying off. She returned to the top ibeam of the OCSR and that’s where I left her to go check the Brighton site(BS). As I made my way over there snow started to mix in with the rain that was coming down. I found no falcons to be at home on this watch as I waited about 30 minutes to see if either Miss Pigott or BST would show up. No such luck so I left BS. I checked downtown on my way thru to find Beauty was still in the same spot I left her on the top ibeam of OCSR. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the white stuff over the next couple days as it tends to make me  smile.  🙂

Links for 2 videos have been included below

http://youtu.be/2upifUePZ-o
http://youtu.be/BotXYBVL7Gc

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Well, looks like winter is finally coming to Rochester, NY and it’s looking more likely that we’ll be getting a white Christmas!  🙂

Today’s Tweets:

4:20 pm – Carol P – “DT. Finally found B. She is already tucked into the OCSR elevator shaft. South ledge. Brrr!”

4:40 pm – Carol P – “BS. So far one falcon on the NW corner.”

5:00 pm – Carol P – “BS. Getting dark but it looks like P on the NW corner. Just saw BST zip around the bldg but I cant find him. Starting to rain.”

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My falcon watch started downtown at a little before 4 pm.  I drove all over the downtown area looking for Beauty, finally finding her already settled up in the OCSR elevator shaft on the south ledge.  There is a lot of white wash below those ledges showing that she’s been there quite a bit.

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She seemed settled, so I headed over to the BS location where I found BST, who I thought might be Pigott at first, up on the NW corner.  I drove around the building, but had no luck finding Pigott.  So back to BST I went.  At 5:00 pm, Pigott flew in and zipped around to the front of the building.  A few moments later, BST followed.  I drove over to the NE end of the building to check their nighttime roost.  Pigott was there on the 3rd window down, but I could not find BST (the BS location Tiercel).  It was starting to rain and it was getting dark, so I called it a night.

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On the way home, I cut through the city which was lit up beautifully.  I’ll leave you with some pictures I took before heading home.  As always, all you have to do is click on a picture to see a larger version.  Thanks!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Well I guess it was inevitable that I would have to get the scraper out of the trunk and take the ice off my windows and we are going to get our first taste of snow tomorrow and Saturday. This is Rochester,NY- we should have had 10-20 inches by now. Personally I can’t wait! lol When I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge Beauty was already on the outstretched money bag hand of Mercury.

She left 10 minutes later heading east over the river. Beauty flew over Midtown then turned right and hovered above Xerox before dropping out of sight. As I passed Washington Square Park I couldn’t help but notice  3 crows that were perched in one of the trees. They looked lonely compared to the thousands that I was used to seeing in the morning. I guess the pyrotechnics the city employed to drive them out has worked again this year. As I drove down Clinton Ave. toward Main St. I noticed a falcon looking bird on an antenna on a building by the Liberty Pole but it turned out to be a Kestrel. I couldn’t find the Beautyful one so I headed over to the Brighton site(BS). Bingo- I found Miss Pigott on the south side vent and she was eating breakfast.

About 10 minutes later as I was taking pics of her BST flew in and landed very close to her. She continued eating as he watched and as she finished up he flew off to the east extension and landed on a window ledge while she remained on the vent cleaning up after the meal she had just polished off.

BST flew to the opposite side and came to rest on another window ledge where he started to preen. I parked so that I could keep track of both Pigott on the vent as she preened with a full crop and BST on his spot.

I had to leave to pick up Joyce and her doggies Casey and Abby as she was having work done on her car  and when we returned BST was gone but I was able to spot Pigott on a window ledge on the inside of the southeast extension. She had her back to us and seemed to be settled in for a nice nap while she digested breakfast so we left for downtown.  Checking the Broad St. bridge area first followed by the east side we made our way over to the Andrews St. Bridge where I spotted Beauty on the top ibeam of the OCSR building on the northwest side. I drove to State St. and parked near Church St. to get a closer look. She too had her back to us.

Joyce and I decided Beauty was probably going to stay there for a while so we ended our watch. So I started and ended my morning watch with Beauty and had the added bonus of seeing Pigott and BST plus got to spend time with Joyce and her pups-no need to ask if all that made me smile!  🙂

I have links below of a photo album and 4 videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrReA

http://youtu.be/cs7mni-nC3c
http://youtu.be/uzEJmC-LFdE
http://youtu.be/rtIzzY8RUV8
http://youtu.be/4DuAHejHUpw

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Today was certainly a better day than yesterday.  What a difference a day makes.  No sun at all yesterday with lots of fog and rain.  Today, LOTS of sun! They’re talking about snow in Rochester this weekend, with the possibility of a White Christmas, which is always a lovely thing and something I dream for.  🙂

Here are my tweets from today, plus others that do no report:

7:20 am – Donna on RfalconcamNow – “Beauty on Mercury” as seen on Camera #1

3:18 pm – Donna on RfalconcamNow – “Beauty on Mercury” as seen on Camera #1

4:00 pm – Carol P – “DT. Beauty on Mercury.”  and boy did she have a full crop!

4:10 pm – Carol P – “BS. So far 1 falcon on SE corner. BST I think.”

4:40 pm – Carol P – “BS. P just flew in carrying prey landing on SW corner.”

4:50 pm – Carol P – “BS. BST left.”

5:10 pm – Carol P – “BS. Both P&BST settled in roosting area on NE end. Time to go.”

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

On a much brighter morning than the last few I came up on the Broad St. Bridge where the south side was lined up with 5 buses. I looked to the north and watched pigeons flying up and over the bridge almost flying into the buses in panic mode. As the 3rd flock came thru there was a Peregrine Falcon on their tails and her name is Beauty! Unfortunately after they flew past the buses I lost sight of them. I started to type out my tweet of the activity when a tweet from Donna came in saying that Beauty was on the money bag hand of Mercury. So she doubled back on old MAK and snuck up on her money bag!  It just amazes me how fast things happen in the falcon world.

I looked up at Mercury after I read the tweet and sure enough there she was-Beautyful even with her back to me. I got out of my car and took only 2 pics and then started to videotape her. She looked around for half a minute,took a poop,spread her wings and took off to the southwest in the general direction of Cornhill( a favorite hunting spot) and the jail tower.

I thought for sure she’d land on the tower but I never saw her again having lost sight of her behind buildings. I checked around but couldn’t find her so I went to Brighton. I had no luck finding any falcons so I left to visit SusanC at the hospital. She was doing well and hoping to go home this afternoon. I checked the Brighton site once more after I left Susan with no sightings there. I also ran thru downtown  to look for Beauty once more. She was hiding on me so I ended my watch. I figure I saw Beauty for maybe a minute and a half this morning and I feel lucky enough for that. It IS good reason to smile! 🙂

Click the link below for the quick video I took of Beauty on Mercury

http://youtu.be/lzxggXcIOoE

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Today it rained most of the day, but happily all three Rochester Falcons were seen by the Rochester Falcon Watchers out and about.

Tweets by other Falcon Watchers that do not Post Their Own Reports

1:50 pm – Kathy O – “KP – Pigeons all lined up on black strip of blue building at KP .. No falcons that I can see.”

2:30 pm – Kathy O – “DT – Looked all over downtown for beauty no luck .. Also checked elevator shaft .. She’s being smart getting out of this rain.”

2:43 pm – Kathy O – “BS – Both P & BST at BS next to each other on south east window ledge under overhang.  Raining hard here.”

3:04 pm – Donna on RfalconcamNow – “Beauty has come out of hiding – On Mercury.” – as seen from Camera #1

3:14 pm – Kathy O – “BS – Rain has stopped.  P & BST taking advantage and stretching their wings making short flights & coming right back.”

3:22 pm – Donna on RfalconcamNow – “Beauty has left the hand!” – as seen on Camera #1

3:30 pm – Kathy O – “DT – I missed beauty .. Mercury has been taken over by little birds.”

4:20 pm – Joyce – “BS – Pigott on south roof corner and BS Tiercel on E extension  corner.”

4:30 pm – Lisa McK – “BS – Driving on main rd to BS, just east of BS saw falcon dive bombing Red Tail hawk.”

4:40 pm – Lisa McK – “BS – At BS, both falcons on east side of bldg.  Crows gathering to the south, 1,000’s.”

Rochester Watchers Kathy O, Joyce and Lisa McK were out this afternoon in the rain and dreariness.  Thanks ladies!  and thanks to Donna for letting us know what was being seen on Camera #1.  Between all of them, all three Rochester Falcons were seen this afternoon; Beauty, Pigott & BST (BS location Tiercel).

I’ll leave you with a picture taken by Kathy O on her cell phone.  It shows Pigott & BST sitting side by side on a windowsill in the rain.  Thanks Kathy!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I decided to go to the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) this morning and just wait for Beauty to arrive on the money bag hand of Mercury since that has been her routine. Well I didn’t have to wait for long as she showed up just before sunrise in the semi darkness.

Click pics for full version

Don’t you just love the green on her chin in the middle pic above-a perfect color for Christmas! It was really dark with fog and rain this morning but that never seems to bother the falcons(or me)-it’s business as usual. So I sat in my car taking pics and video of the Beautyful one, barely looking away and as I had to change the battery in my camera she took off on me and I missed it. Ugh! This happens so much-you’ll be fixed on them, camera focused in, finger on the shutter of your camera to get that take off shot and bam you look away for a second and you miss it. Oh well, you can’t win them all! lol

I did get to share space with Beauty for about 45 minutes before she left to get on with her day. I then left downtown to check over at the Brighton Site(BS). I found BST(Brighton Site Tiercel) the unbanded male that has been keeping company with Pigott for a little over a month now. He was on the east extension perched on a window ledge with his back to me.

It was raining at a good clip and BST used it as a good way to clean up his act and preen his feathers. He kept quite busy running his beak down his feathers taking off whatever might be on them to slow him down when in flight. I hung out with this adorable little tiercel for about 40 minutes and returned to the downtown area to see if I could find Beauty before I ended my watch. As I turned off the Ford St. bridge onto Exchange Blvd. I could see the city was enveloped in thick fog at the tops of the buildings. I pulled over by the Cornhill area to take a pic.

The last pic is the east side taken from the BSB-it includes Xerox,Bausch&Lomb,Chase,etc. Beauty likes to go off somewhere unknown during the middle of the day and I believe that’s where she was for I wasn’t able to find her again. Keep smiling everyone! 🙂

Click the links below to view a couple videos

http://youtu.be/4M5wTMMX1B8
http://youtu.be/J5sTEg6Aggs

By Rochester Falcon Watch Carol P.

Tweets by me and other Falcon Watchers that do not Post Their Own Reports

12:00 pm – Donna on RfalconcamNow – “Beauty on Mercury’s $ bag.” and “Still there at 12:19 pm.” – As seen on Camera #1

4:00 pm – Carol P – “DT. Beauty on SW corner of the B&L bldg with dinner. Feathers flying. All is peaceful here thank goodness. Heading home.”

4:32 pm – Ei on Rfalconcamow – “Beauty has returned to Mercury.” – As seen on Camera #1

4:40 pm – Joyce  – “BS. Bookends on the Southside of BS. Pigott on the SW corner and BST on the SE corner.”

5:00 pm – Joyce – “BS – He’s gone, she’s gone. Found 1 pefa 3 windows down in the NE roosting spot.”

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I wasn’t going to go downtown after work, but after hearing that Beauty had an altercation with another Peregrine, I had to check to make sure she was ok.  I arrived on the Andrews St Bridge at about 3:50 pm.  I noticed that the pigeons that now call the Kodak Tower home were swirling around the building, very unsettled.  As I was watching the pigeons, I saw a falcon flying towards me from that direction (north to south).  The falcon was carrying small prey, Starling size.  The Peregrine flew over me, then behind the OCSR and turned to the left (east) towards the B&L (Bausch & Lomb) building. That’s where I headed.

From near the Geva Theater on Woodbury Blvd, I spotted the falcon on the SW corner of the B&L Bldg.  On closer inspection, I am quite sure it was Beauty and she was enjoying her dinner.  Feathers were flying all around her.  I stayed and watched her for a short while and then turned left onto Clinton Ave, parking on the east side of Washington Square Park.  I had a better view of Beauty from there.  This is the park where the Crows come every evening to roost overnight and where they were going to start working to get them to leave tonight.  There were a couple TV trucks there already.

Due to the overcast sky, it was already getting dark and I had to go.  I was very happy to see that Beauty was ok and that all was quiet downtown, at least for the moment. After I left, Joyce texted that she had both Pigott & BST at the BS location, so all three Rochester Falcons were seen this evening, making it a very good day!

I’ll leave you with some pictures I took while downtown.  Just click on the picture if you’d like to see a larger version.  Thanks!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Another dark dreary morning today but after a touchy start to my watch it felt brighter as I hit the trifecta and saw Beauty,Pigott and BST all doing well.  I took a trip around downtown initially, looking for Beauty as I drove up Exchange Blvd. to Broad St. on my way back to the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) I spotted her. She was on the money bag hand of Mercury.

I parked the car and took a couple pics and started a video when she took off. I didn’t know why until I shut down the video turned around to the south and saw her meet up with a tad bit smaller female intruder over the Court St. Bridge. Beauty hit her once on the back,the intruder went down a few feet and then Beauty went after it again as it turned and they touched talons quickly and separated. Beauty was definitely the aggressor but not overly aggressive. This time of year in the off season they wouldn’t normally fight to the death,they do that when their hormones are raging in the spring and summer as I’ve been told. Anyway, Beauty hit the female once more and then it was a chase upriver to the south,then east toward Xerox and eventually disappearing behind it. The intruder wanted nothing to do with the Beautyful one-I do believe she just wanted to get away. I searched for awhile but couldn’t find either one so I took a drive over to Brighton(BS). My first thought when I saw the 2 was Pigott had come to pay Beauty a visit so I wanted to see if Miss Pigott was home. She was and seemed quite relaxed as I found her on the northeast corner preening and picking at  her beak.

I took a couple pics and a video then drove around to look for BST. Didn’t find him so I headed back downtown satisfied that it wasn’t Miss Pigott who battled with Beauty for I don’t think she would be out in the open non-chalantly preening right afterwards if you get my meaning. I looked for Beauty about an hour and a half unsuccessfully so I returned to BS finding both BST and Pigott. He was on the east side near the rooftop tree and she was on the northeast corner of the east extension and they were able to see each other.

Pigott BST

Pigott flew off to the west out of view and returned a couple minutes later landing on an east facing window ledge while BST  had flown off and landed across from her on an east extension window ledge. He made little squeeky echup sounds as he landed.

BST  Pigott

Pigott flew off to the northeast corner of the east extension and that’s how I left them to go check downtown for Beauty again.

After 25 minutes of searching I finally breathed a sigh of relief when I spotted Beauty on the top arm of the Frontier Communications Tower from the Broad St. Bridge. Do ya think I was smiling!? lol  I sped over to City Hall but then had to go over to Plymouth Ave. to see a front view of her.

I observed the Beautyful one for 15 minutes or so until I was convinced she had no injuries or ruffled feathers from her encounter with the intruder earlier. She was in hunt mode as she checked out the immediate area for prey. Dark conditions made for not so good pics and videos but I must say the world got brighter after seeing our resident downtown matriarch safe and sound. So, on that note I ended my watch with a great big smiley on my face!  🙂

Below are the links for more pics and videos-just click them

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrRHg

http://youtu.be/1uZLDVmY6Vk
http://youtu.be/GcH_I9pvSpo
http://youtu.be/fQ61k6Ley0w
http://youtu.be/Wj3lwZRyv-Y