By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

With a winter storm heading towards Rochester, NY and the northeast, a Nor’easter, I wanted to find all three of our falcons just in case I was unable to go out on a watch tomorrow afternoon.

As usual my first stop was downtown.  I found no falcons on the Kodak Tower, so I headed over to the Andrews St Bridge (ASB), where I noticed the river was very low.  You can see concrete structures jutting out from the river that you normally couldn’t see when the river was at its usual level.  I’ll include a few pictures of the river at the end of my report.

From the Andrews St Bridge, I found Beauty up on top of the Hyatt on the SW corner.  I tweeted that I had found her and headed over to the Broad St Bridge.

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After finding Beauty, I headed over to the BS location where I found both Pigott and BST on the west end of the building.  Pigott was on the NW corner of the west extension and BST was on a south facing window of the west extension.

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Soon after I arrived, BST took off and flew around to the north (front) side of the building landing on a window on the north side of the west extension below the scrape.  All was peaceful here and downtown, so it was time for me to head home.

To all of you in the path of the winter storm that will hit the northeast US, please be safe.  Sounds like some places will be getting a couple feet of snow or more.  Rochester is under a Winter Storm Warning starting at 1 am Friday morning to 5 am (EST) Saturday morning.  Storm total 6 to 12 inches of snow.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the Genesee River from the Andrews St and Broad St Bridges.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was calm,cold and overcast with no sun this morning. With a moderate sized storm coming tomorrow I’m not sure that I’ll go downtown in the morning. The forecast calls for 6-12 inches of snow by the end of it all on Saturday. I’ll have to wait and see what develops to determine if it’s worth going on a watch or not. If it’s snowing too hard to see a falcon there isn’t much point in risking the drive.

I arrived downtown at about 7:05am and as I drove up Broad St. I spotted Beauty on the money bag of Mercury straight away.

Whoa,where’s her head? Oh yeah, click the pic to see the full version LOL

I first drove down to the hole and decided with the sunrise behind Beauty all the pics would be silhouetted so I went up to the Broad St. Bridge to view her. Right after I got situated the Aqueduct pigeons came flying up and as they flew across the bridge I looked at Beauty to see if she would take a shot at them but she just watched them go land on the Blue Cross Arena. She stayed up on her statue looking to and fro until until 7:30am and then she was off.

Remember to click the pics

The Beautyful one flew across the river, above the Radisson Hotel and then she turned right flying southward behind Chase ending up in front of Bausch&Lomb where she took a left and headed east where I lost sight of her behind Xerox. I gave it a few minutes and when she didn’t return I drove to the east side finding her on the west side of HSBC smack dab in the middle on the edge of the roof.

I was in a busy rush hour spot on Court St. by Xerox so I drove to Chestnut St. to park which wasn’t a good angle but definitely safer.

Unfortunately her back was to me as is the case most of the time when you are falcon watching -but it makes it that much more special when you can observe them facing you. Pigeons were scattered all over the immediate area flying in panic mode and again Beauty didn’t go after any of them. Hmm. I stayed there with Beauty for about an hour before she flew off heading north at just before 8:30am. I took off for the Brighton Site at that point but nobody was home over there. I stayed 45 minutes waiting for a pefa to visit but it didn’t happen. I would have stayed longer but I had a ten o’clock appointment so off I went to make one last check of downtown. As I pulled up to the light at Court St. and Exchange Blvd. I spotted a dark bump on the northwest corner of the Crossroads building.

I pulled over on Exchange St. in front of the Philipone building directly across from the Times Square building and took a couple pics. It looked like she had a full crop.

I ended my watch at 9:50am.  For some places in the New England states tomorrows N’oreaster could be a historical event. For us here in Western New York it will not be too big of a deal but being a snow lover I will be smiling! 🙂

Click the links below for videos from todays watch

http://youtu.be/0B0eFIeM3dQ
http://youtu.be/Bd4KhpNH0pc
http://youtu.be/PWTeq-7veGY
http://youtu.be/TEzx_CA5WFU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Just a quick update and a few pics from today.  I was able to quickly find Beauty on the Mercury Statue’s moneybag.  The sun was shining, but it was really cold.  Beauty was all poofed up keeping warm.

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At the BS location, I found BST on a window on the southeast end of the building.  He was on window below the tree ledge.

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On the north side of the east extension, I found Pigott on a window at their nighttime roost.

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I was really happy to find all three current Rochester Falcons before heading home for the evening.  All was peaceful while I was on Watch.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The morning started out with snow flurries and a temperature of 27 degrees fahrenheit(-3 celcius). What a difference 10 degrees makes-it almost felt like spring out there! lol

On my way down Broad St. near the Plymouth Ave. intersection I thought the dark behind the Times Square area looked interesting so I pulled over and photographed it.

I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge at 7:05am but didn’t get any action until 25 minutes later when the Aqueduct pigeons came streaking up from their night time roost under the bridge. Only about 30 feet in front of me they crossed the bridge in their usual fast fashion and Beauty came quickly out of nowhere and chased them to the south. About 5 of them split off from the main group and went up to the roof of the Blue Cross Arena and landed, the rest of them vanished into the dark snowy sky along with Beauty. I waited about 20 minutes for her to resurface and when she didn’t I went in search of. I found the Beautyful one within 10 minutes as she was perched on the east side of the arch above where the old Mariah and Kaver nest site was on the Kodak Office Tower.

The snow certainly makes it a challenge for my camera to focus but dark conditions and long distances work against us too! All 3 were in play today as I was parked on State St. which I feel is the best spot to observe the south side of the Kodak tower.

I shared space with Beauty until after 9:00am as she spent the whole time watching over her territory. A lot of the time she was looking at something below her and she also did some preening.

I left her to it and drove over to the Brighton Site arriving there about 9:30am. I was pleasantly surprised to find both BST and the elusive Miss Pigott present. They were both on the top section of south facing windows on the east extension. She was near the corner where the main building meets the extension and he was at the other end-both had their backs to me.

Click the pics to see full version <P BST>

Pigott was her usual active self and BST- well it goes without saying that he was sleepy! lol While I was there Pigott moved around on the ledge,tried to bring up a pellet 3 times and kept an eye on the territory. BST never moved until just before I left as he did a little preening which wore him out so he went back to sleep.

Pigott

BST

I left Brighton to check on Beauty before ending my watch. I found her right where I left her on the Kodak Office Tower looking as Beautyful as ever. Smiling-you bet for I saw all 3 of our Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click the links below for more pics and videos of Beauty,Pigott and BST

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrVGg

http://youtu.be/3uzyoDl2HvQ
http://youtu.be/RHliJGH5Nfo
http://youtu.be/zj_e0pmNffc
http://youtu.be/6hy5IUiqNGI
http://youtu.be/rk1LeC4CM74
http://youtu.be/uNpWWGGCh_8

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

This report will be more pictures than words.  I just wanted to let you all know that For the last three days, I have seen all three current Rochester Falcons; Beauty, Pigott and BST daily.  They are out and about, hunting, eating, sleeping, yawning, pooping, Pigott & BST are ee-chupping to each other and kakking & chasing Hawks out of their territory.  All three are being Peregrine Falcons, doing their many Pefa activities.  lol

Here are some pictures from Sunday, Monday and today.

Pics from Sunday – 2/3/13

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Zoomed way in on our little tree sitter.  He sure does love to sit in trees.  🙂

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I do love that he and Pigott use the wooded area behind the BS location and hunt there.

Pics from Monday – 2/4/13

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I did see that the elevator in the OCSR elevator shaft was down a little bit yesterday.  I went over for a closer look.  There is quite a bit of space on each side of the elevator.  The ledges that she uses are clear.  She may choose to find another spot to roost, which she has done in the past many times.  We used to see her on top of the Xerox Tower most evenings.  She’ll be just fine.

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Pics from tonight – 2/5/13

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I was very happy to see MAK and Lynda while I was at the BS location tonight.  Lynda doesn’t get a chance to get here very often so she was ecstatic to see Beauty, Piggot and BST.  Yay Lynda!!! 🙂

So all three current Rochester Falcons were seen Sunday, Monday & Tuesday and everything was peaceful while I was watching them.  The Watchers will continue to keep an eye on what happens and report what we see.  January is gone and here it is February.  Time is flying just like a Peregrine!  Fast!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

We are still in the deep freeze here in Rochester with a temperature of 16 degrees fahrenheit(-9 celcius) when I left for my watch. I had a little snow removal to attend to before setting out as we finally got a couple inches of snow overnite after it has been in the forecast for 2 days now. lol You just never know what those lake effect snow bands are going to do.

The story today was a missing Beauty who had me a little concerned being this is an active time for other Peregrines to wander into the territory. No worries tho- she finally showed up 5 hours after I started my watch! While I was looking for her I noticed right off the bat that the OCSR elevator was down about 10 feet from the top and I thought maybe it spooked Beauty and that’s why she was nowhere to be found. We know that the top of the elevator shaft is her night time roosting spot.

As I was driving southbound on Plymouth Ave. after checking the Kodak Tower I couldn’t help but notice the sun rise behind the city.

Remember to click the pics for a full version

Round and around the city  I went checking the usual spots and a lot of new places too without any luck so I drove to Brighton to check that site. BST was on the east extension at the far east end top window ledge when I arrived at 8:17am and he was awake and fidgeting.

He worked really hard to get comfy in his corner so as to take a nap. He sleeps more than any other pefa I’ve had the pleasure to watch. I stayed with BST for about an hour hoping Miss Pigott would come by for a visit but no such luck. So it was back  downtown to find our Mercury Matriarch Beauty. As I drove around searching and wondering where she was I took a ride down Lake Ave. and ended up at Kodak Park where there was only some pigeons hanging out on the black strip above where the scrape of Unity and Archer was located. I spent the better part of the next 2 hours looking and waiting for Beauty to show up and finally as I was parked on the Broad St. Bridge I noticed a large bird flying in from the west toward the jail tower. I grabbed my binocs and could see that it was the Beautyful one as she landed on the 3rd arm from the top.

I immediately drove over to Troup St. via Plymouth Ave. which is on the south side of interstate 490 where the Cornhill community begins for a closer look.

She was turning her head from one side to the other looking up and down and generally keeping a watchful eye on her territory. She was especially interested in a gull that was flying overhead.

I stayed with her for 15 minutes or so before calling it a watch. Beauty always makes me smile but when I can’t find her for hours and then I do, well lets just say my grin grows especially wide! 🙂

Click the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrU5A

http://youtu.be/pNVb7jUosJM
http://youtu.be/aBJ3YWJ3Aec

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Well we were forecast to get lake effect snow on and off starting last night thru Tuesday. I haven’t seen any snow yet but it was  a cool 16 degrees fahrenheit(-9 celcius) when I left the house at 7:00am and the sun shone bright once it rose up out of its slumbers.

This morning I found Beauty right away again but she wasn’t on the OCSR building like yesterday-today she was under the northeast wing of the Times Square building and she had breakfast up there.

Remember to click pics for full version

I was parked on the Broad St. Bridge next to Falcon Watcher Central until Beauty decided to move back closer to the wing where I couldn’t really see her too well so I went to the hole to observe her.

Still, it wasn’t the best spot as you can see in the photo above so I went around to Irving Place which is the alley that runs from Main St. to Broad St. behind the Times Square building. Unfortunately Beauty had left while I was enroute so I drove on and while stopped on Main St. by the Radisson found her on the northeast side of OCSR. She was on the top ibeam looking north with her Beautyful back to me.

Deciding to check the Brighton Site(BS) I left her after 15 minutes figuring she would be there for a while as her meal digested. On my way driving down the Court St. Bridge I noticed the locks were closed on the Genesee River forcing the water to spill quite forcefully on the opposite side.

Locks on the left-spillway on the right

Arriving at BS around 8:35am I found BST on the east extension preening away while perched on his favorite top floor south facing window.

In the next hour and a half I observed BST do lots of preening having a feather float down and stick to his head. When a crow flew overhead he had something to say about it and eventually he settled in for some napping.

I left him around 10:00am to check downtown for Beauty before ending my watch. Pigott did not join us today while I was there. I found Beauty on the southeast side of OCSR top ibeam basking in the sun-2 things that make me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below for more pics and videos from todays watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrUxg

http://youtu.be/KzSCnzdENLo
http://youtu.be/XnI5RNCVk8U
http://youtu.be/4MGX0IVOXGc
http://youtu.be/zp6MgB_ECkg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was 14 degrees fahrenheit (-10 celcius) when I left for my watch this morning with light snow in the forecast for later today thru Tuesday.

I arrived downtown at 7:05am and found Beauty immediately on the south corner top ibeam of OCSR. It was still somewhat dark out so I left the Broad St. Bridge to get closer parking on Graves St. which is next to Aqueduct Park and across Main St. from the OCSR building.

After a few minutes Beauty moved over off the corner to the east and had to spread her wings to keep from slipping off the edge as she mis-stepped. I guess she wasn’t quite awake yet. lol

20 minutes later she flew across the river over the Radisson Hotel and quickly out of view.  10 minutes later she showed up on the Times Square building under the northeast wing.

I parked by the stairs on the Broad St. Bridge which we call Falcon Watcher Central. The Beautyful one and I spent the next 2 hours together as she preened and preened and then preened some more. I guess she was dirty! 🙂 Lately Beauty has been on the move a lot so this was a nice change of pace.

I left her to go check the Brighton Site(BS) as it was getting near the time for me to call it a watch. I didn’t find any falcons at BS initially so I went to Tim Hortons quick. As I was pulling into the driveway I noticed CarolP behind me. She stopped on the west side to have a look around and I went to the east side finding BST on his favorite south facing top window ledge on the east extension.

Click the pics for full version

BST was walking and moving around – a nice change from the sleepy state he’s usually in when I visit him.

Carol came around to the east side we chatted a little bit and then I was off. Another morning watch in the books and it actually included sweet glorious sunshine which painted a smile on this watchers face!  🙂

Click the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrUoA

http://youtu.be/DKU2AVeTxs4
http://youtu.be/0UO4O2ha6os
http://youtu.be/sE8aiVvAxK4
http://youtu.be/-_K955nYZ7k

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

For two days, Beauty has been on the Kodak Tower.  She’s been there before, but it’s been awhile since I’ve seen her there.

Friday – 2/1/13 (4-6 pm)

I arrived downtown a little before 4 pm and found Beauty on the top Ibeam of the OCSR.

My next stop was the BS location where I found both P&BST on the east end of the building.

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I didn’t stay long at BS because I wanted to check on Beauty one last time before heading home.  I looked all over downtown for her and couldn’t find her.  I even checked the elevator shaft, which still had the elevator in it.  Nope, not there.  I parked on the Andrews St Bridge and checked the north side of OCSR.  She wasn’t there.  Hmmmm.  Oh, well, it was time for me to head home.

While I was stopped at a red light on State St, heading north, I checked out the Kodak Tower through my binoculars.  Was there something up on the launchpad?  It sure did look like a dark lump.  I parked on a street on the east side of the tower, next to the condos that were located on what used to be the Kodak visitors lot.  From there I was able to see easily that there was a falcon up on the SE corner of the launchpad.  I was losing light by then, so I couldn’t be 100% sure that it was Beauty.  There were 100’s of Crows flying past the tower while the falcon watched from above.

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Soon after the red light at the top of the tower went on, the falcon took off head south towards downtown.  It had to be Beauty since she was headed directly for the OCSR, where I’m sure she made it up into the elevator shaft for the night.

Saturday – 2/2/13 (10:30 am to 1:00 pm)

My first stop was KP.  I didn’t find any falcons hanging out, but Big Momma Red Tail was in a nearby tree.

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Fellow Falcon Watcher Dana joined me.  We received MAK’s text that Beauty had been at the Kodak Tower and that she had flown off heading north.  We were north of the Kodak Tower.  We decided it was time to go look for Beauty.

When I arrived downtown, I found Beauty up on the Kodak Tower.  She was on a south side arch ledge, just above where Mariah and Kaver’s nest box had been located for so many years.  For those that weren’t around for the M&K years, this is where Rhea Mae, Quest, Linn and Diamante were born.  From up there, Beauty had a great view of the downtown area.

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Beauty seemed to be settled, so I headed over to the BS location, hoping to find Pigott & BST.  Dana was already there when I arrived.  We had no luck finding any falcons there.

Back downtown I went.  There was lots of traffic due to the Globetrotters being in town.  Plus the Boat Show.   Beauty was no longer on the Kodak Tower.  I looked back at the Times Square Bldg and saw that she was there at the base of the NE wing.

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It was time to  go.  On my way home I saw this really awesome wood carving. Hmmmm.  Wonder if they make stooping falcons.  🙂

Happy Groundhog Day! Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring due to NOT seeing his shadow!

I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge at 7:05am. It was still pretty dark out so I drove over to Main St. by the Radisson Hotel to get a closer look at the OCSR building. I spotted something white up in the elevator shaft on the north sideand as I grabbed my camera it flew out of there and landed on the top ibeam southeast side of the OCSR building. It was the Beautyful one just waking up!

I drove to Graves St. to get that much closer. She stayed there to wake up for 25 minutes looking for breakfast and then she flew off to the south.

I don’t know if she caught something or grabbed cached food but I found Beauty on Widows Walk with what looked like a starling. I parked in the parking lot next to the Times Square building to watch.

I thought it strange that she wasn’t plucking feathers from it and then she pulled the head off of it,swung it around a bit before tossing it down. Seconds later she flew off with the rest of it in her talons above me and straight over to the base of Mercury.

After she landed with it she just perched there looking around and then at 7:50am off she went again -without her prey this time heading north.

10 minutes later I found Beauty on the top ibeam of OCSR northeast side this time. She looked to be in hunt mode as she watched pigeons flying near the east side of the river and below her for the next 45 minutes.

I left Beauty at 8:45am to go check on the Brighton Site. I found BST on the east extension perched sleepily on a south facing window ledge.

Did I mention he had a full crop!? That’s why he was sleepy-I get that way after a good meal myself! He came alive after 15 minutes or so as he seemed to have something on his beak that was bothering him. BST kept opening and closing his mouth and scratching at his beak followed by stepping to his right and picking on a poor defenseless feather that was on the ledge.

After that BST pooped and settled back in for a nap. Barbara came by around this time and stayed just long enough to say hi and take a look at the sleepy head.

Pigott was not present today and with the little guy sleeping I left  around 10:15am for my last call downtown to find Beauty. I went to the Main St. Bridge by the Radisson Hotel to see if she was still on the northeast side of OCSR. She was gone and as I was ready to call it a watch and pull away I noticed something over on the launch pad of the Kodak Office Tower. I grabbed my binocs to look and sure enough there was a pefa looking bump perched there, so I drove over to check it out.  It was Beauty and she was looking over the area.

Beauty seemed to be zoomed in on something below her as she flew off checking the east side of the tower before flying around to the north side.

She didn’t come back into view so I took a trip around the building to find her. She was nowhere in sight so I called it a watch and headed home. After getting just a glimpse of the Beautyful one flying yesterday I was so smiling today for having seen her flying and perched on a few different spots! 🙂

For a few more pics and videos click on the links below

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrUbA

http://youtu.be/OzwYC5iTvyY
http://youtu.be/em49qQBGJkc
http://youtu.be/zGY3U_Ktbww
http://youtu.be/97e9MuWbT3o
http://youtu.be/7ERiK-91d20