By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another Monday late start, but it all worked out for the best.  I’ve changed my route going downtown since the Hawkeye juvie is in the mix now.  I usually head for St Paul St first and drive south towards Hawkeye.  Today I didn’t get very far before spotting the juvie eating on the apartments that tower over the river where St Paul meets 104.  I have always looked up at these apartments wondering why I’ve never seen a falcon there.  Well, today that all changed.

At 6:40 pm I was passing the apartments, looking up like I always do.  Today I saw a very familiar shape up on the SE corner.  I quickly turned around and headed back, trying to find a spot to watch from.  Not an easy thing to do in that area.  Plus the sun was lowering and the lighting was not good.  But, I finally found a spot where I had a decent view and took a closer look.  Yep, definitely a Peregrine Falcon and definitely a juvie.  Based on size, female and she was eating what appeared to be a pigeon.  This young hunter was doing very well indeed.

These apartments, which are just north of Hawkeye, are very tall, so it was impossible to get a look at the falcons legs to see if it was banded.  I watched her until it was dark and she finally stopped eating.  Just before 7:30 pm, she took off heading NE, leaving the remainder of her meal.

I followed the best I could, but there was no way for me to see where she ended up going.  I had hoped to find her nighttime roost.  No such luck.

Here are some pictures I took of the juvie this evening.  Remember to click on any you would like to see larger.  Sorry that they’re not very good, but distance and lighting were working against my old Kodak Camera.  lol Plus this is not an area I could take out my scope.

Goodnight everyone!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was partly cloudy at the start today with a temperature in the upper 40’s but it turned out to be a sunny, crisp fall day-quite lovely actually!

I checked everywhere downtown without finding a falcon, then I drove to Hawkeye and got more of the same. Hmm, what’s up with that!? I returned to downtown at 7:30am and as I stopped on Woodbury St. on the east side and scanned Xerox with my trusty binoculars I found not only 1 but 2 Peregrines! Beauty was on her favorite spot, the 5th column over from the southeast corner and Dot.Ca (DC) was on the 3rd column over from the southwest corner.

Click on my pics to see full version

Beauty did a lot of preening and pulling white downy feathers out of her telling me she is still in a molt and she napped a bit too. The sun faded in and out during this time. DC spent most his time looking around for breakfast. After 40 minutes passed he left while I was watching his mate-the Beautyful one.

I left Beauty around 8:20am to check the Brighton Site where I hung out for an hour waiting for Pigott to show up but no such luck so I headed back downtown. I was delighted to find that Beauty was still on the 5th column of Xerox and DC was now on the 2nd column over from the southwest corner.

<Beauty

<DC

At 9:45am DC took off like he was shot out of a rocket going into a blurry stoop toward the river and quickly leaving my field of vision. I stayed with Beauty a little longer and then left to check Hawkeye again. There was nothing going on there so I ended my watch around 10:30am.

I believe that’s the first time I’ve spent watching our downtown pair of Peregrine Falcons on Xerox for the entirety of my watch except while I was checking Brighton and Hawkeye. Being the tallest building in downtown Rochester, Xerox makes for a long distance watch but it still made me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to see my videos

http://youtu.be/bXc__j2Mgkg
http://youtu.be/K04g-nm9VPk

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

As fall finally arrived today, the rain from yesterday cleared up and the cold front moved through Rochester, bringing temps in the 50’s and overcast sky.  Bye Summer!  I’ll miss you!

Saturday – September 21,2013

It rained all day on Saturday, but I still got out for a few hours to look for the falcons.  I found Pigott at BS and Beauty on Xerox downtown.  Dot.ca was a no show.  But, I was also happy to find a falcon at the Hawkeye plant. In the rain and the mist, it was impossible to ID the falcon eating on one of the upper roofs.  I only saw it for a moment.  About 15 minutes later, the falcon took off and flew north.  I did go looking for it, but was unable to find it.  So, I had Beauty, Pigott and a falcon at Hawkeye.

Sunday – September 22, 2013

Finally, the rain of yesterday came to an end.  But, the cold front had moved through and it was much colder than it had been, with temps in the mid 50’s (F).

The Rochester Marathon took place this morning and many of the downtown streets were closed because of it.  I checked Hawkeye first.  No falcons seen there today.

I tried to go through downtown, but I couldn’t get through, so I headed out to the BS location to look for Pigott.  I found her on the east side of the NE extension on a window 4 down from the roof.  For the next hour or so, I watched her preen, sleep and keep watch over her territory.  Her crop was very full, so I knew she had eaten recently.

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I left Pigott at BS and was finally able to make it downtown.  The streets were open again.  I found Beauty on the south side of the Xerox Tower, 5th column in from the SE corner.  Dana joined me on the Watch.

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We drove over to the Broad St Bridge and found Dot.ca on the south side of OCSR on the top IBeam.

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I ended my Watch after seeing all three adult Rochester Falcons.  Making it a very good weekend Watch.

I’ll leave you with some pictures I took this weekend.  Enjoy!

Lots of sail boats out on Lake Ontario today.  and what I think were two young groundhogs out at BS.

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This Cormorant was spreading his wings and puffing out his chest.  Trying to impress his lady who was nearby?

and a Killdeer that visited with me when I was looking for a falcon at Lake Ave KP.

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I did a double take when I saw the sparrows under this picnic table escaping the heavy rain.  Very smart birds!

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Yummy apple!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was breezy,mostly cloudy and cool for this mornings watch with a temperature of 51 degrees (F) 11 (C) and it’s not expected to get much warmer for the remainder of the day. The sun was trying to come out at the end of my watch.

The big story for todays watch was the MVP Rochester Marathon which started at 7:30am and produced lots of car and foot traffic in our fair city, closing many roads around downtown. My one and only falcon sighting in the 3 hours I was out on watch was Beauty who I found on HSBC perched on her favorite southeast corner at 6:50am. She flew off around 7am when I wasn’t looking.

I drove around looking for her but never found her again. I checked the Hawkeye and Brighton sites with no luck finding any falcons. I spotted a pigeon peeking out from one of the Kodak Office ledges perhaps looking out for falcons and a starling on a fire escape right around the corner on Brown St.

In my travels I took some pics  from State St. and the Broad St. Bridge of the runners as they arrived.

The start for the marathon was on the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) which was packed with runners. With no place to see them very good I drove up to the top of the Sister Cities parking garage for a look.

Make sure to click on the pics to see the full version

I came upon the ASB around 8:30am which had been re-opened and thought I saw a falcon on the Frontier Communications Tower platform but when I got over there it was gone. So I wandered around downtown and checked Hawkeye one more time before ending my watch at 9am. I did smile for 10 minutes at the very start as I spent it with the Beautyful one! 🙂

One link below to click on and see Beauty

http://youtu.be/NyKTEG8dQtI

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

At 68 degrees (F) 20 (C) I didn’t need a jacket when I stepped out the door today. It was overcast and got darker as time went on with a line of rain moving our way promising to bring cooler temps making for bad picture taking conditions. By the end of my watch it had made its way to Rochester dropping rain down on Beauty and I.

My first sighting today was at 6:50am when I spotted Dot.Ca (DC) on the top ibeam north corner of OCSR-his favorite morning perch.

I left to check Hawkeye and when I couldn’t find any PEFAs I returned to downtown finding DC to still be on OCSR.  Beauty was on the northeast cube of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) her favorite perching spot on the tower lately. I parked in the Hochstein School of Music parking lot to watch.

Click on pics for full version

The Beautyful one stayed about half hour preening, scratching and looking around, then she flew off to the southeast at 7:45am.

I quick drove over to State St. just in time to see DC fly off OCSR to the southeast as well-so guess what direction I flew off in!? lol As I drove across the Court St. Bridge I spotted DC up on the southwest corner of Xerox, our tallest downtown building. I made my way over to Woodbury St. and parked in the parking lot next to the Geva Theater.

DC stayed there for 5 minutes then he flew back to the southeast corner of Xerox and that’s when I noticed Beauty on the 5th column from the southeast corner below him.

As I took a pic with both Beauty and DC in it she decided to fly off her favorite Xerox perch heading southwest and DC followed right behind her out of my view.

<Click it

I got a tweet from Larry that there was a falcon under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB) so I drove over that way. I pulled into the parking lot next to the TSB so I could see the front of DC who was under the wing and then I glanced over at Widows Walk where I spotted Beauty on the north side railing. These two were playing cat and mouse with each other and MAK was right along with them! lol

I drove over to Broad and Fitzhugh to see the front of Beauty but she flew off while enroute so I took a ride to Brighton, arriving around 8:30am. Pigott was not there so I returned to downtown via Clinton Ave. and spotted Beauty on the southwest corner of Xerox. Once again I parked in the parking lot next to Geva Theater to share space with Beauty.

I then drove to Chestnut St. and parked in front of Manhattan Square Park where I had a better angle on Beauty.

<click it

It started to rain at a pretty good clip so I left to check on the Hawkeye site one more time before calling it a watch. I looked for DC on the way thru downtown but I didn’t find him nor did I find anything at Hawkeye thus ending my watch at 9:30am. Keep smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to view my videos

http://youtu.be/xBz6QD82T_I

http://youtu.be/Ula0exwU24I
http://youtu.be/2vvp_k1zFh0
http://youtu.be/Uc8PvQ_cN-4

http://youtu.be/OaQgN5S4kss
http://youtu.be/3swCrgtN-rY

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Today promises to be a gem of a day with warm gentle breezes,blue sky and sunshine. I stepped out for my watch with a temperature of 57 (F) 14 (C).

As I was west bound on Broad St. after checking the east side I noticed the Harvest Moon behind the Times Square building.

Please click on my pics to see the full version

I checked downtown and Hawkeye (HE) with no results and finally at 7:20am upon returning downtown I found Beauty on her newest favorite morning spot-the northeast cube on the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT).

Parked on Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage Dot.Ca (DC) suddenly appeared right above Beauty a couple minutes later on the northeast corner of the platform railing.

I couldn’t see the front of either one of them so I went down to the City Hall parking lot for a better angle. Both Beauty and DC were preening and acting like they didn’t know the other one was there.

After 15 minutes or so DC stretched his wings out and took off heading west. That would be the last I saw of him for the remainder of my watch. I stayed a little longer to see if he would return but no go, so I hung out with Beauty for a few more minutes and left her napping to go check out the Brighton Site (BS).

I spotted Pigott at the back of the south side vent on the west end around 8:30am.  She stayed there peering out for about 10 minutes when she hopped in that clumsy sort of way they do when they have prey in their talon/s revealing herself  when she started plucking feathers.

<click it

Miss Pigott already had a full crop but she wanted more and started eating in earnest.

She got her fill and flew over to the southeast extension landing in on the roof where I couldn’t see her. She then appeared on the southeast corner without her leftovers. Pigott kept looking over at her cache then around the territory. This went on for a few minutes and then she looked my way,then at her cache and lastly, she pooped and flew off immediately around to the northwest leaving the area.

I left for downtown and upon seeing no PEFAs there, I ended my watch at Hawkeye falconless there as well. I saw all 3 of our resident Rochester Peregrine Falcons and they are doing well-making us all smile! 🙂

Check out the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqirc

http://youtu.be/N1UOd–4FtE
http://youtu.be/UnJ2F4h7OnY

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another beautiful late Summer day with temps in the 70’s, blue sky and sunshine.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

I started my watch at the Hawkeye plant at 4:00 pm.  When I arrived, a big Red-tailed Hawk was on the west side of the building, near where I’ve seen the juvie eating.  There was also a Turkey Vulture floating above.  I’ve seen her cache food in that area, so I’m sure it might be the reason there was so much interest by the RTH and TV.  The RTH flew over to the SW corner of the building below the security camera, just as I saw a falcon fly over the building heading south.  The hawk was not bothered by the falcon’s passing by and I never saw the falcon again while I was at the Hawkeye location.  It was a quick fly by, so no way to tell if  it was a juvie or adult.  After awhile, the RTH also took off, also heading south.

Because it was such a nice afternoon, I decided to head over the the High Falls pedestrian bridge, which is south of Hawkeye.  The falls was running nicely and the “regulars” were in attendance; a couple of Great Blue Herons, a few Cormorants, some Canada Geese and lots of Mallards.  No falcons or osprey were there.  From the pedestrian bridge, I could see a falcon on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) below the platform and above the boxes.  After parking in the City Hall parking lot, I finally was able to ID this bird as Dot.ca.

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Beauty was on Kodak Office Tower (KO).  She was on the SE corner of the launch pad.

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Beauty took off and headed towards me or to be more exact, toward the Frontier Communication Tower.  Dot.ca was ee-chupping and so was Beauty.  It didn’t take long for me to see why they were bothered.  There was a mystery 3rd adult Peregrine Falcon flying high above.  Soaring and circling the area.  This bird was very high, making it hard to get a flight shot.  I did get a few that I had to enlarge and crop.  Here are the results, so you too can see the 3rd falcon that followed Beauty back to FCT.  Neither Beauty or Dot.ca left the FCT while the 3rd falcon was flying above.

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Almost this same thing happened a week or so ago when I was watching Beauty and Dot.ca from the City Hall parking lot.  The mystery falcon circled higher and higher until it drifted off to the NE.

Joyce joined me and let me know that Beauty had landed on the FCT top arm.

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We never did see the 3rd falcon again.  Dot.ca did take off and fly north towards the Kodak Tower.  He landed on the NW corner of the launchpad.

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We joined him for a few moments, noticing that he continually looked north.  Hmmm.  What could he be watching?  This was the direction the 3rd falcon came from.  Joyce and I drove over to Hawkeye plant.  Sorry to say, we did not find a falcon there.

I remained there until 7:30 pm, hoping a falcon would return to the building.  One never did.  Joyce stopped to check out the BS location on her way home.  This was her lst tweet at 7:47 pm –  While I was watching the big orange moon rise, Pigott came in and is  perched on the NW corner. Saw all three pefa residents today. 🙂

Pigott made three, plus the appearance of the mystery falcon, make 4 Peregrines seen tonight.

On my way home, I stopped to take this picture of the gorgeous Harvest Moon.  Goodnight everyone!

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l’ll leave you with a couple more pictures from my Watch today.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

What a difference 10 degrees makes-this morning it was 53  (F) 12 (C) compared to yesterday at 43 (F) as I walked out the door for my watch. More blue skies and sunshine too! Saw the big harvest moon enroute to downtown.

Arriving downtown at 6:35am I went to work looking for Beauty, checking the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) first and making my way over to the east side of the city and back thru spotting her on the OCSR from the Broad St. Bridge just before the 7 o’clock hour. Strangely, she was on the top ibeam north corner which is a favorite spot of Dot.Ca. (DC). I drove over to Bragdon St. by the Radisson Hotel to check it out.

Notice how each pic got brighter as the sun rose in the eastern sky. I hung out with the Beautyful one for about 15 minutes then I went to check Hawkeye. After striking out there I returned to downtown and found Beauty on the northeast cube of FCT around 7:30am. I parked on Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage for the best view.

She was doing some serious preening when I left her to go to the Brighton Site (BS) at 8:15am. I found Miss Pigott on the east extension on the north (front) side of the building top window in the corner. This is her night time roosting spot and I thought it quite odd that she was there at that time of the morning but hey, as predictable as they can be, Peregrines can also be quite unpredictable. Guess it depends on whether they feel like messing with us watchers! lol

Unfortunately, she had her back to me the whole time I observed her. There was a bird in the tree below her that she was very interested in as she kept looking down probably trying to decide if she could flush it out for a meal.

I was in a rush this morning having a busy schedule for the day so I left Pigott to her hunting and returned downtown. I found Beauty still on the FCT cube so I continued on to check Hawkeye one more time. Nothing there so I ended my watch at 9:15am. It seems that the girls are really intent on looking for DC to show up and hang out with them these days-perhaps they sense that he will be leaving on migration soon. Anyway, seeing Beauty and Pigott was enough to make me smile! 🙂

Checkout the links below to see my videos from today

http://youtu.be/IccjFOufhk4
http://youtu.be/2P_PH3ymmy4
http://youtu.be/pDF-ygXg4Ao

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another gorgeous day with temps in the 70’s, bright sunshine and blue skies.  I arrived at the Hawkeye plant at 6:30 pm.  On my way Joyce had tweeted that she did not see Pigott at BS and shortly after Kathy O tweeted that she found Pigott on the cubby ledge on the west side of the building.  It just goes to show you that it’s all about timing.  lol

I drove around the Hawkeye plant and could not find any falcons there.  It was time to head downtown.

From the Broad St Bridge (BSB), I found Dot.ca on the south side of OCSR on the top IBeam at the south corner.  (7:02 pm)

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Dot.cat took off while I wasn’t looking, so I did not know where he headed.  I drove over to the Xerox Tower and found Beauty on the south side, on the 5th column in from the SE corner. (7:12 pm)

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Kathy texted that she was on the Broad St Bridge and Joyce was over at Hawkeye, having no luck finding the juvie.  I decided to head over to the BSB.  Kathy spotted a bird on top of the OCSR elevator shaft.  After checking it out closer, we both determined that it was in fact a Peregrine.  It was starting to get dark so it was impossible to ID this falcon.  The last falcon I saw on top of the elevator shaft, was a juvie.  (7:28 pm)

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Kathy and I were just getting ready to leave when we noticed that the falcon was gone.  It was really dark by this time and we were just able to see the falcon flying on the right side of OCSR.  It then flew towards us, fast and low over the river.  It was really hard to follow the falcon as it flew almost directly in front of us.  We saw the reason why as the falcon approached, chasing a large bird that crashed into the river with a large splash and a horrible scream.  The falcon pulled up and continued over the river heading west towards the Broad St Bridge. (7:42 pm)

We lost track of the Peregrine because our attention was on the bird that crash landed into the river in the dark.  It ended up on a pile of wood just below us.  Finally we were able to see that it wasn’t a duck, like we first thought.  It was the adult Black-crowned Night Heron.  The night hunter had been hunted and was extremely lucky to have escaped.  She didn’t seem injured at all, just had her feathers ruffled and dunked in river water.

We looked for the Peregrine, but couldn’t find it.  It was time to end our Watch. (7:50 pm)

I’ll leave you with a few pictures I took during my Watch tonight.  Be sure to click on any you would like to see larger.  Sorry to say it was way too dark to get a picture of the BCNH.  Good night everyone!

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and before I left home for my evening Watch, I had a visit from a gorgeous Red-tailed Hawk in my neighborhood.

B y Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

At 43 degrees (F) 6 (C) there was a bit of a chill in the air as I started my watch at  6:35am. There were virtually no clouds in the sky as the sun shone brightly when it arose from its slumbers!

As I checked the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) first right off the 490 ramp I saw no falcons. I continued on checking the downtown area and ended up spotting Beauty on the northeast cube of the FCT from the Andrews St. bridge. I drove over and parked on Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage for the best view.

I left her after 10 minutes to check on the Hawkeye site but there were no juvies to be seen so I returned to FCT and Beauty who was in the same spot.I spent over half hour with her as she mainly looked around her surroundings (and for DC too I think),poop,stretch and just look Beautyful.

She also made a lot of gestures with her BYFs (big yellow feet) which are always fun to see and one goofy looking pose!

I departed around 8:30am to have a look/see over at the Brighton Site (BS) and came across Pigott and her better half Dot.Ca (DC) on the south side vent. She was on the west (left) side and he on the east (right) side looking very bright white with the sun on them and both had full crops.

<Click it and 2 PEFAs will appear Pigott>DC>

DC had a lot of  BYF gestures as well and Pigott mainly looked at DC and whined while he turned away from her when she did. lol

<DC

<Pigott

<Don’t you ignore me buster  <Guess I better do what she says

One of the starlings from the roof flew down and got awful close to DC and slammed on the brakes in mid air!

<Click it

A few minutes later Pigott shot off the vent like a torpedo and flew to a west facing top window on the southeast extension where it meets the main building and started to whine in earnest. DC couldn’t take it anymore and a few minutes later flew over and joined Pigott and they had a chup fest for less than a minute. Echup,echup,echup!

<DC-I’ll be right over

DC flew off while I was taping- I didn’t follow him and thought he left as I kept the recording going and fixed on Pigott. She watched him fly back and land on the window directly below her. The little sneak!

<DC <Pigott  <Click to see both

This is how I left them after spending a solid hour at BS. I returned downtown and found Beauty on the northeast side  top ibeam of OCSR from the Andrews St. Bridge.

I shot over to Hawkeye for one more try but no falcons of any kind were seen so I ended my watch at 10am. All 3 resident adult Peregrine Falcons were seen and doing well on my watch sending me on my way with a smile on my face! 🙂

Click on the links below to view more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiq6

http://youtu.be/BiQxFo9ue3A
http://youtu.be/0ogMjBkQol0
http://youtu.be/8IlBToou7Qk
http://youtu.be/oWVkVXzFuVI
http://youtu.be/2qu1NxjgGmc