By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I got a late start today, arriving at the BS location at about 5:30 pm.  I knew it would be dark soon, but I wanted to check on the Rochester Falcons, since this was a time anything could happen.  I didn’t have to search for Pigott at all.  She was up front on the NW corner of the building looking north towards downtown.  The same direction I saw the Tiercel head after stopping for a brief moment at BS on Saturday.

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There was no sign of a 2nd falcon.  Seems BST is gone.  I’ll really miss him.  He was a joy to watch.  I loved to see him in his trees.  Safe travels my little tree sitter.

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It was starting to get dark already, so I headed downtown to try to find Beauty.  I first checked the Xerox Tower and the surrounding buildings.  Nothing.  While I was stopped at a light on Broad St, approaching the Broad St Bridge, I saw there was a falcon up on Mercury’s moneybag hand.  By the time I made it through the light and parked my car, the falcon was gone.  I am pretty sure it was Beauty, but I was never able to find her before it got too dark to see anything.

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From the Andrews St Bridge, I watched the lights turn on all over the city.  It was time to head home.

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I did check the apartments on Lake Ave, but couldn’t tell if there was a falcon up there or not.  Tomorrow, I’ll try to get an earlier start.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Brrrr! It was 12 degrees (F) (-11 (C)) with light snow falling when I left the house this morning around 6:30am. Starting out overcast it turned out to be a bright sunny watch as time went on.

Beauty was hiding on me at first today. I checked around downtown a couple times and then I checked the Kodak Office tower(KO) on my way by to have a look at the Lake Tower (LT) apartment. Nothing seen at either location until I came back through and saw a falcon on the KO launchpad southeast corner at 7:05am. I was really hoping it was Beauty and not the LT pefa and my wish came true.

With her back to me it made it hard to ID this bird at first so I drove around until I found a good spot and that happened to be Brown St. at Toronto St. in the High Falls district. Kind of dark out with the KO red light still on-that changed when the sun shone through the clouds giving way for a blue sky eventually.

I shared space with the Beautyful one for the better part of the next 2 hours as she was facing north which is the direction the LT site happens to be. I think she is keeping a close eye out for that mystery LT pefa that just might be the Kodak Park (KP) falcon. After being injured in a battle last year with Unity who was from KP I’m sure Beauty is quite concerned about another bird from that location coming into her territory. She is caught in the middle with Pigott to the south and the mystery bird to the north. Oh boy! Anyway, Beauty spent most of that 2 hours looking north. She did some preening and looked just Beautyful.

I drove to a new location on Plymouth Ave. next to Frontier Field (the local baseball team field) to get a view of the front of Beauty when she turned that way. The cold and light snow were giving my camera a hard time focusing today even tho it was sunny.

I left Beauty around 9:00am to check out the Brighton Site (BS) and for the 4th day in a row BST was not there but Pigott was. She was on one of his favorite window ledges on the east extension-2nd south facing window down from the roof in the corner. When I first arrived she was sleeping but she soon woke up and became quite alert.

After half hour I left Miss Pigott to rest and preen returning to KO where Beauty was still hanging out on the southeast corner of the launchpad.

I stayed only a few minutes before leaving to check LT and when I didn’t find our mystery falcon there I drove over to KP to have a look/see. I didn’t find a pefa but I did find a red-tailed Hawk hunting from a tree at the edge of the woods.

After just a minute or so he flew straight down into the woods and when he didn’t resurface that told me that he had caught himself a snack and was preparing to consume it. I tweeted it out and ended my watch with a smile on my face for having seen 3 gorgeous raptors! 🙂

Click the links below for more pics and videos from my watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrV9A

http://youtu.be/PYrws6D212E
http://youtu.be/1TF8973kGx8
http://youtu.be/QiamBOBVJHI
http://youtu.be/WEpqG8Gd1EA
http://youtu.be/j9kMK2Kjsm4
http://youtu.be/RU8gWf0t_LM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

When I awoke this morning the temperature was 14 degrees fahrenheit (-10 celcius) and there was 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. It snowed for my entire watch quite moderately at times.  After snow removal duties I headed downtown for my morning watch at 6:20am.

Beauty was a little stinker this morning not showing herself  in the beginning of my watch. I checked the Lake Tower (LT)  apartment building after giving up on finding Beauty but there was no falcon there either.  I decided to drive over to the Brighton site as it was still early thinking maybe I could catch somebody still there. Well, I was in luck for I spotted Pigott at the west end of the south side vent.

As you can see the snow really made it difficult to get good pics but judging from the size and the little bit of salmon color on the chest of the falcon I say it was Pigott. There was no sightings of BST again and I’m afraid the little guy has left us. I’m going to miss him as he always entertained me, even when he was sleeping-which was a lot! 🙂  I have no idea when Pigott left as I didn’t witness her departure. I left to go back to downtown at 9:45am.

After driving around and checking the usual spots without any success I thought I’d check the LT site once more. On my way I pulled over on State St. to check the Kodak Office tower (KO) and was rewarded by seeing the Beautyful one up on the arch above where Mariah and Kaver had their nest box many moons ago.

It was snowing pretty hard when I first got there and let up a little just before I left Beauty to continue down to LT which is 8 tenths of a mile away from KO. LT is one and one half  miles from the middle of the Broad St. Bridge placing KO exactly in the middle. Once again I could find no pefa on the apartment building so I called it a watch and left at 10:21am. I sure did smile when I saw the unmistakeable salmon chest of Beauty thru all the snow up on the K-tower! 🙂

I have provided links below for 3 snowy videos from this mornings watch-just click and view if you so desire

http://youtu.be/rzAjmn6RfBU
http://youtu.be/fS76MN9jVmI
http://youtu.be/8hjsbIHXWYQ

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

After not seeing any falcons yesterday, I was happy to see 4 of them today.

Downtown, I eventually found Beauty on the 2nd arm down on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).

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I watched Beauty from the Andrews St Bridge (ASB).  Downtown Rochester was again extremely busy.  Buses lined most of the streets, making it very difficult to find spots to watch falcons from.  Beauty took off and stooped low to the north and up again.  She swung around and headed south towards the Times Square Bldg (TSB).  I followed the best I could.  By the time I got close to the TSB, I had lost her.  It was time to search again.  I circled the TSB and then headed down Broad St towards the Xerox Bldg, B&L, HSBC and the deconstructed Midtown Plaza.  From there, I looked back at the TSB and found that Beauty was there on the SW corner, opposite from the nest box location.

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It was time for me to go to the BS location, hoping to find Pigott and BST (who had not been seen since Thursday).  MAK and Dana had both been there this morning and had only seen Pigott.  When I got there, I found Pigott on the west side of the building near the nook (a ledge they have shown some interest in).  I continued to search the rest of the building, but could not find BST.  Was he gone?  Was he possibly a migrating tiercel that had started his journey home to his own mate?  This was something the Watchers had wondered when he showed up this winter.  But, there was no way to know for sure.

I spent quite a bit of time watching Pigott, hoping that BST would return.  She had a very large crop and she was very sleepy.

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There was a gaggle of Canada Geese below her, grazing on the exposed grass, now that the snow had melted a bit.  Every now and then she would open her eyes and look down at these large birds.  I even found BSK (BS Kitty) wandering around.

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Lisa McK visited with me for awhile before she had to leave.  Pigott became very interested in something that I couldn’t see.  She stood up and spread her wings and hunkered down and took off.

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Pigott flew up and met another falcon that had just flow in, a smaller falcon, a tiercel.  They greeted each other with loud ee-chups and touched talons.  They flew together for a few seconds before the tiercel continued flying north.  Pigott followed, but stopped, landing on the NW corner.  She and I watched the tiercel continue his flight towards downtown.  Hmmm, that was interesting.  To me, there was no aggression in their meeting, it was more of a greeting.  Different than how she behaved when BST flew in.  My first thought was “did DC return?”

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Pigott looking north after the tiercel left BS.

I decided it was time to return downtown.  After searching I found Beauty on top of the Xerox Tower on the south side, 5th column in from the SE corner.  She was looking south.

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Beauty on Xerox looking south.

Had Beauty seen the tiercel?  Where was he.  I never saw him again during my watch.

I went back to the BS location, leaving Brian to keep an eye on Beauty.

When I arrived at BS, Dana and Lou were there.  Pigott was now on the south side of the west extension.  Close to where she had been before the tiercel flew through.  We were soon joined by Joyce and Steve.

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After awhile, I decided it was time to head home.  My route took me through downtown where I found Beauty finishing a meal on top of the TSB at the base of the SE wing.  She took off and flew to the back of the building landing at the base of the SW, again looking south.

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I passed by the apartments on Lake Ave, where we had been seeing a falcon for the past few days.  There was no falcon there now.  Joyce & Steve did see one there later in the day.

My last stop before going home was KP, where I found a falcon sitting on the west side of the catwalk on the west smokestack.  Looked like the one I had seen there a couple days ago.  Bright white chest and dark helmet.  Was this the same one that was visiting the Lake Ave apartments?  So many questions.

BE SURE TO CLICK ON ANY PICS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN A LARGER FORMAT.

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The Rochester Falcon Watchers will definitely be keeping their eyes to the sky!  There is so much happening now.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

After Beauty pulled a disappearing act yesterday afternoon eluding Joyce,Carol and myself I thought I’d better get downtown extra early before she had a chance to go to her secret place again.  When I left the house at 6:30am it was 21 degrees fahrenheit (-6 celsius)  and dark out as the sun was still working on rising.

I stopped on the Broad St. Bridge first as I always do and could see nothing on the buildings close by. I drove over to the east side next and found a pefa on the southeast corner of HSBC. Wasn’t sure at first who it was because it was still a bit dark out. Once I got some help from the rising sun I knew it was Beauty.

I parked on Chestnut St. to observe Beauty. It looked like she had  a semi-full crop and after 10 minutes she took off flying west past Xerox on the south side toward the river.

I drove to the Broad St. Bridge and spotted Beauty on the 3rd arm down south side of the jail communications tower. I continued on to Troup St. for closer viewing-it was 7:00am.

Beauty stooped down into the river immediately after I got there and returned empty taloned flying to the inner structure of the tower before leaving it without me seeing her go. The hunt was now on to find the Beautyful one. I checked downtown several times and the Lake Tower (LT) apartment building where a rogue falcon has been seen but no luck. It was now 8:00am and I was on my way to the Brighton Site when Dana tweeted that she had Pigott on the south side vent. I haven’t seen her up there in quite some time so I was excited to see.

10 minutes after I arrived a tweet came in that there was either a hawk or falcon on the well wall by the nest box on the Times Square building so I told Dana I was going to check it out and she said she would too. When I got back to downtown there was no raptor of any kind anywhere in the downtown area that I could find so I thought I’d go to Kodak Park (KP) and check out the power plant. I took St. Paul Blvd. to take a look at the Kodak Hawkeye plant but no birds of any kind around there so I crossed the Driving Park Bridge to continue on to KP. No pefa there but I hung out with a gorgeous Red Tailed Hawk that was on the hunt flying from tree to tree to get a better look at its prey.

click the pics for full version

It was a little past 9:30am when I departed KP for downtown once more. Again no sightings so I drove to BS for one more look there and ended my watch at 10:30am after being unsuccessful finding a falcon at the Brighton location. I was smiling after seeing both of our resident female Peregrine Falcons this morning-now all we need is a couple tiercels and we can get this season started! 🙂

Click the links below to view more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrV1g

http://youtu.be/5ea6bXjEItk
http://youtu.be/IDwhkKqBhEY
http://youtu.be/VpKNn_atfFg
http://youtu.be/yyTdZL083rU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Joyce (wnyfalconfan)

Steve, Casey, Abby and I went for a falconwatch ride around town. I texted Carol to let her know we were out & about and running doggies at our first stop Brighton Site (BS). We planned on going downtown (DT), then to Lake Tower (LT) apartments, and finally Kodak Park (KP). Carol was planning on doing the same coming from the opposite direction.

We found Pigott on the top window in the corner where the east extension meets the SE extension. Before I confirmed it was her with my camera, Steve said the falcon looked big, like a female. Is he becoming a falconwatcher? There was no sign of BST (Brighton Site Tiercel).

Click on pictures for full view.

Drove all over DT looking for Beauty with no luck while Carol came in from the north. She had no sightings at KP or LT either. We met up on the Broad Street Bridge (BSB). Carol was going to stay DT while KathyO was keeping watch at BS. Kathy still only had one falcon there – Pigott.

We headed down Lake Ave and parked south of the apartment building looking at the east side that faces the street. No sign of a falcon where previously sighted. For some reason, Steve said let’s watch and wait, and I caught something out of the corner of my eye on the top ledge 2nd set of windows from left to right. Nothing, then all of sudden I caught a wing & tail. The peregrine must have been back in on the ledge close to building, like the falcons do on the south side vent at BS.

The Lake Tower (LT) mystery falcon started to walk on the ledge. Unfortunately those pics were out of focus, but I did get the left leg in the air (where ID band would be) on one of them. It looked like no band in the camera viewer, but enlarged on the computer it looks like there might be. Hopefully this weekend one of the watchers will confirm if there is a band.  The falcon walked out of sight, so we moved the car to get a better view. The behavior reminded me of Quest when she was looking to nest on the ledge at Harlequin.

The falcon’s back was to us and tucked in next to the column (like they do on BS).  There was no opportunity to see if there were bands, but what a pretty face. Looks mostly like a tundra female to me.  This Lake Tower female (LTF) has a very white chest, dark helmet, no white above the cere, and no distinctive malar stripe (mustache) with a white auricular patch behind mustache.

There is white wash on the ledge. Carol thinks this might be the night roosting spot. LTF was settled in so we headed to our last stop at KP.  No falcon, but there was a red-tailed hawk in a tree close to the road.  By this time MAK had returned DT to help with the search for Beauty. Kathy stayed at BS until dark, but no BST showed up. Carol remained at BSB with no luck finding B.

Now is the time for lots of peregrine movement and action.  Nesting season and migration has begun.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

On a windy morning with temps in the mid 30’s I arrived downtown at 6:55am.  It was too early for the Aqueduct pigeons  but not for Beauty as I spotted her flying past Bausch&Lomb about 15 minutes later. She went behind it where I couldn’t see her any longer so I went in search of her.

After a check around the usual spots I headed down State St. to check  the Kodak Office Tower. Nothing there so I continued on as it turned into Lake Ave. thinking I’d see if the mystery falcon was near that apartment building where Carol saw it yesterday and where Kathy and I also saw it a few weeks ago. I pulled over at the Volunteers of America parking lot in order to see the south and east side and sure enough there was a falcon on a top window ledge east side first row. I drove down closer but as I was pulling up to park it flew off to the north/northwest quickly leaving my field of vision. I drove around the back but there was no sign of it. The apartment is called Lake Tower (LT) and it’s across the street from the Brown Square Health Center on Lake Ave. probably about half  a mile from Kodak Office (KO). I decided to go to the Kodak Park power plant since I was headed in that direction already. Carol saw a pefa there last night as well so I thought I’d check it out. There was nobody there not even a pigeon!

I returned to downtown and found Beauty on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR so I drove down to Graves St. for closer viewing-it was about 8:10am.

The Beautyful one was a little sleepy when I first joined her but she woke up to do a little preening and have a watchful eye on her territory. I must say I’m a bit uneasy about the mystery falcon being so close to downtown and I believe that this is probably the reason Beauty has been looking north constantly the last few weeks. Hopefully they’ll keep their distance! Beauty seemed to be watching something in Aqueduct Park which was directly to my right but then she lost interest and turned around showing me her back and some leg.

I stayed with her for 45 minutes and when it seemed she was settled in I left for a check of the Brighton Site(BS).  Arriving there about 9:00am I could find no falcons on the building or in the surrounding trees. No deer,geese,crows,hawks or turkeys either. It is a very nature filled location!  I stayed about an hour and left having been skunked by Pigott and BST. Upon returning downtown I found Beauty in the same spot as where I left her on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR. She was in full sun and showing her full front at first.

I was parked in the hole(Aqueduct St.) near the stairs that lead up to Falcon Watcher Central on the Broad St. Bridge as Beauty got kinda fidgety. Beauty had a full crop- knowing she has eaten always makes me happy(I take after my mom that way-she always made sure everyone was fed).  I thought Beauty was going to take off a couple times and then she turned her back to me and settled down. I fully intended to end my watch at that point as I packed up my gear and then  looked one more time to see that she was gone! I would have stayed longer but was supposed to drop my car off for repairs but they were too busy to get to it today so Monday will be the day. I left for home and as I was pulling into my driveway I got a message from Donna(TY) that Beauty was at the nest box looking up. Well we thought possibly Dot.Ca was back from migration or perhaps mystery falcon had come a calling so back downtown I went.  After checking I didn’t find Beauty nor did I find mystery falcon when I checked the Lake Tower apartment one more time. I also checked BS  and came up short there again too.  I’m sure they’re all doing their own thing  but I do hope they are seen later today. And so officially my watch ended at 11:45am having seen 1 falcon that I know very well(Beauty) and 1 that I barely know(mystery falcon). I do have a feeling I may be getting to know  this new one better in the near future. Smile everyone it’s good for the soul! 🙂

I have links for 3 videos below-just click on them and view

http://youtu.be/5e5B4N0_0lk
http://youtu.be/LTOLFeWmJQM
http://youtu.be/sYu0BSBzjmo

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  I am happy to report that I found all three current Rochester Falcons during my Watch plus 1, maybe 2.  Things are sure getting interesting, but so far all is quiet.  Let’s start from the beginning.

After work, as I approached my car, I was greeted by the call of a Kestrel near the parking lot.  It didn’t take me long to find the handsome male Kestrel.

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This KP Kestrel was definitely on the hunt.  I checked the area for the Peregrine I had seen yesterday and could not find it.  Next stop, downtown Rochester to look for Beauty.  I looked everywhere.  Finally I found her on one of her past favorite spots.  She was up on top of the Xerox Tower on the 5th column in from the SE corner on the south side.  You got all that?  lol

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Beauty took off and flew around the Xerox Tower.  She circled it a few times before stooping over the HSBC bldg.  I only had to wait a moment before she came back into view, nothing clutched in her talons.  She flew over me heading back in the general direction of the Times Square Bldg (TSB).  It was getting close to rush hour, lots of folks heading home after a long day at work.  It took me awhile to get back to the Broad St Bridge.  Beauty was not on the TSB or anywhere else within view.  I drove around looking for her but had no luck finding her.  It was time to head over to the BS location to find Pigott and BST.

Pigott was on the NW corner of the building and BST was on a windowsill on the south side of the west extension.

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All was quiet at the BS location and it had started to rain.  It was time to go back downtown to see if I could find Beauty.  I circled the downtown area a couple times and still could not find her.  She definitely had her hiding spots.

I didn’t have much time until the sun would be setting and it was raining harder.  It was time to head home via KP.  My route took be down Lake Ave, past the apartments that Kathy O had found a Peregrine on a couple weeks ago.  While I was stopped at a light, I checked out the building in question.  No obvious bumps.  No falcons seen, but lots of Crows passing through.  As I was passing the building, I looked up and saw a Peregrine zip in from the right side of the building and up to one of the balconies.  I turned down the next street and circled back around.  It was starting to get dark, but I could definitely see the head and shoulders of a Pefa up on the balcony.  My pics didn’t turn out good, but here’s a picture showing the Peregrine.

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I left this Peregrine and headed to KP for one last look before heading home.  By this time it was too dark to see anything, although I thought there may have been a falcon on the railing in front of the red door on the east stack.  It had been a very productive couple hours of Falcon Watching and I was very happy to find all three current Rochester Falcons, plus the mystery falcon.  Remember to keep your eyes to the sky!  There’s  a lot to see this time of year!

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON ANY PICS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN A LARGER FORMAT.  THANKS!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

When I left work today, I did my normal check of the KP area, especially the catwalks on the stacks, a favorite perch for the Peregrines that have spent time there.  Was that lump what I thought it was?  It had to be!  I took a picture before heading over to verify that there was a Peregrine Falcon on the west stack catwalk.

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Why yes!  It was a Peregrine Falcon!  Adult for sure.  Bright white chest, dark helmet and very poofed out due to the cold.  The Falcon was on the south side of the west stack catwalk.  I took some pics and watched the falcon through my scope for awhile, hoping to see if this bird was banded or not.  I could not verify that there were or were not any bands.

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After lots of preening and looking around, the falcon took off, flying directly over me, heading NW.  The Pefa (Peregrine Falcon) flew in large, lazy circles, gaining altitude, definitely in hunt mode.  It flew slowly out of my view.  I moved to another spot to watch from, waiting to see if the falcon would return.  It did not.

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While waiting to see if the falcon would return, I watched two Red-tail Hawks soaring gracefully east of the stacks.  Right after that, a Kestrel came buzzing through heading towards the west end of the complex.  Things will start to get interesting around here from this point forward.

The sun was setting, so I decided to head home.  Tomorrow was another day.  The Watchers will definitely be keeping an eye on things as all this unfolds!