By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Twas a nice warm morning with a starting temperature at 6am of 53 (F) 12 (C) and heading to the 70s this afternoon with overcast skies

When I left for my watch Dot.Ca (DC) was incubating his eggs on livestream. Initially I didn’t find Beauty but as I checked from the Andrews St. bridge (ASB) I spotted her on the base of Mercury. I drove to the Broad St. bridge straight away and she left soon after I got there at 6:30am.

Beauty slipped off the back of the base where I couldn’t see her and that would be the last I saw of her for the next 2 hours. I noticed a duck on the east (river) side roof edge of the Thomson Reuters building-I can’t remember ever seeing a duck on a roof. Maybe there are eggs up there-oh boy, not a good place mama if there is a nest. A male, probably her mate showed up a long while later but I don’t know if he flew in or was up there because I wasn’t present t the time. I was driving around looking for Beauty.

I checked the Brighton site in between around 7:30am and found there to be no falcons. It’s a real concern having 2 females-1 adult and 1 juvenile hanging around north of the city only a couple miles away from downtown on Seneca Towers and Kodak Park on Lake Ave. They could challenge for Beauty and DCs nest and territory since it doesn’t appear that either one has a mate. So when I returned to downtown I started getting a little antsy over not seeing Beauty still-then a tweet came while I was checking Kodak Office (KO) from Larry saying he had a falcon flying above Xerox. I drove to Woodbury St. on the east side to check it out but saw no falcon. Larry then tweeted a falcon flying west so then I drove to the BSB and met up with him. We talked a bit then Larry left to walk Harold and I drove north to look for Beauty. As I was on my way both Donna and Larry reported a falcon on cam 1 so I went to the hole to see the Beautyful one on cam 1 at around 8:30am.

A teller from Keybank stopped to ask about the falcons-Beauty left cam 1 when I wasn’t looking and after the woman left for work I saw who looked like Beauty on the Mercury money bag.

The back lighting from the sun made it hard for a good view and I got a tweet from Larry that DC left and Beauty was now incubating, hmmm. I went up to the BSB for a better angle but Beauty left Mercury before I got there. Donna finally cleared it up for me-Beauty flew to Mercury from cam 1 then went to nest box and that was all done in less than a minute. Peregrines are very fast movers! I also received tweets from cam watchers Ei and Carly that Beauty was on the eggs as well around 9am. Thanks to all that helped me this morning!  So now I needed to find DC before I could end my watch and after checking the usual places surrounding the Times Square area I went north to find DC on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad. I stopped first on State St. south of KO, and DC gave me the signal to go forward. lol

So I parked north of KO to see the front of him-he flew off a minute later heading west before going into a stoop.

He returned less than a minute later, circled above KO a couple times then flew back to the launchpad. i think he was trying to flush prey out from the building.

I said my good byes and ended my watch at 9:15am. It was an unusual watch but successful without incident and surely worth smiling about! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos

http://youtu.be/Q1XuRaUsCCw

http://youtu.be/T-kOg5HMX9Y

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Happy Easter Everyone! What an absolutely beautiful day with temps in the 60’s (F) and lots of sunshine and blue sky.  I had some free time today, so I headed out to watch some falcons at 1:00 pm.

I started at the BS location, but as is usual now, it was way too quiet.  While I was there, three Turkey Vultures floated over, unchallenged.  I was so used to the KAK KAK KAK that would fill the air when these big birds came too close.  But not today.  Miss you Pigott.

*

*

*

*

*

I headed downtown to look for Beauty and Dot.ca.  From the Broad St Bridge, I spotted a falcon eating on the west corner of the OCSR top Ibeam.  I was pretty sure it was Dot.ca, and Rfalconcam Watcher Ei verified that Beauty was inside the nest box on the eggs.  Thanks so much for your help Ei.  While I was tweeting where Dot.ca was, he took off.

*

*

*

*

*

The Genesee River isn’t running as hard as it had been, but there is still a lot of water flowing north to Lake Ontario.

*

*

*

*

*

Looks like more scaffolding is going up on the west end of Midtown Plaza.

*

*

*

*

*

At 2:20 pm, Dot.ca returned and landed on top of the Mercury statue.

*

*

*

*

*

It was nice to spend a couple of quiet and peaceful hours with the downtown Rochester Falcons.  Some Easters have not been this quiet.

When I left at 2:45 pm, Beauty was still in the nest box on the eggs and Dot.ca was on guard on top of the Mercury statue.

I hope that everyone had a very Happy Easter!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

On Wednesday afternoon, Dana and I kept watch over two Peregrine Falcons at the east end of Kodak Park.  One was an unbanded adult and one was a banded juvenile with a black over green band.  We could not positively ID the juvie as Billy, but there is a good chance it was her.

The juvie did a lot of wailing vocalization.  The adult would fly to and land near the juvie and sometimes chase her.  Both Dana and I were puzzled by the behavior.  We wondered if this was an adult female with a juvenile female?  They did seem to be close in size.

There have been multiple reports of an adult and juvie Peregrines hanging out on nearby Seneca Tower apts since Wednesday.  Today, Brian H texted that he also thought it might be two females.

There is always something new to learn about the behavior of these fascinating birds!

Here are some pictures of the two falcons at the east end of Kodak Park we saw on Wednesday.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a chilly start at 31 degrees (F) -1 (C) when I left home, but it was sunny and warmed up nicely

Happy Easter to you all!

Just before I stepped out the door for my watch on the livestream I saw Dot.Ca (DC) come screaming in with food for Beauty. She took it and he plopped down on his Easter eggs. When I arrived downtown at 6:15am the Beautyful one was on the base of Mercury with food but just nibbling on it not really eating in earnest. I settled myself in the hole to watch the activities. A minute or so later she flew off with the leftovers heading north.

10 minutes later she returned to the base of Mercury without the food so she had cached it somewhere to save it  for another time. She didn’t stay long before flying across to cam 1. Beauty must have had ants in her pantaloons because she then flew off cam 1 less than a minute later heading east right over me and out of view over the river.

Next, I spotted Beauty on the northeast corner of the Crossroads building, I drove to State St. across from the Rochester Plaza Hotel but she had her back to from there so I went down to watch from Graves St. next to Aqueduct Park. Again she didn’t stay long and flew off  by the east side of Crossroads quickly leaving my field of vision.

<From State St.

At 6:45am I found Beauty on the back of Widows Walk on a small northeast column and I could see she had caught something because it was still alive and flapping its wings. I went to the parking lot next Times Square and surmised by how the wing looked that she had caught a Northern Yellow-shafted Flicker (woodpecker). That would be the 2nd one this week-DC caught earlier this week as well. I made a video of them and it will be listed first in my video links at the end of this report but let me warn you that it is graphic and many of you may not want to watch.

I figured she would be busy for a while so I checked on the Brighton Site with no luck. Just before I left there to return to downtown Larry and cam watcher Ei tweeted that there had been a switch on the eggs-Beauty in and DC out. Thanks! Now I hadn’t gotten any pics of DC yesterday because he was incubating my whole watch so I beat feet back to the city so I could see the dear lad. I made it back around 8am to find Larry and his dog Harold on the Broad St. Bridge. I pulled over to get out and talk to Larry who didn’t see where DC had gone. After a few minutes Larry headed out and I went looking for DC-I didn’t find him until about 8:40am. He was on the 3rd ibeam down of the OCSR at the east end by the elevator shaft eating and I went to my spot by Main St. and the Radisson Hotel to observe.

DC spent about 10 minutes eating before turning tail and caching his leftovers to the back of the ledge and then walked to the very end of the ibeam to do some feaking.

DC flew off at 7:44am heading west and when I caught up with him he was on the northwest corner of Widows Walk. Once again I parked in the lot next to Times Square to watch.

At just about 9am DC flew to the northeast corner of the wall above the well and that’s where I ended my Easter morning watch with our beloved Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to view my photo album and videos from the day
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqjd6 http://youtu.be/oFuSgHY7oIs

http://youtu.be/dCSxXjRnkCE

http://youtu.be/bt4ub4Ygsr4

http://youtu.be/Ys7czhiX0rE

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was 36 degrees (F) 2 (C) and sunny on my watch

I went to the Brighton site before sunrise to see if Dot.Ca (DC) spends his nights there. Arriving at 6am he was not there and I left after almost an hour for downtown. The Broad St. Bridge was filling up with cars from some run that was taking place so I went to the hole and waited to see a falcon go in or out of the nest box. Around 7:05am I heard the rantings of a Peregrine that wanted to lay on his eggs-DC flew in with food to the deck and Beauty came out,grabbed it and flew to the Wilder building east end of the green strip while DC went in the nest and covered his family.

Beauty seemed very hesitant about eating as she waited a couple minutes looking around before starting to pluck feathers and even then she stopped 3 times to have a good look around. Finally she started eating and didn’t stop til she was done.

The Beautyful one finished eating and flew off at 7:32am over to the OCSR top ibeam near the south corner.

I ended my watch at 7:45am to go home and get ready to go to Buffalo/Fort Erie (Canada) with Joyce who had invited me to go see if we could find BB (formerly the female at McKays Tower near the University of Buffalo) and ID her as it was thought that she was hanging out in Fort Erie with another falcon. Canadian Peregrine Foundation (CPF) watchers Tracy Simpson and Bruce Massey went there as well plus Sage and Roger from Peregrine Place (Buffalo) met up with all of us too. We didn’t find BB but we did watch a Merlin (falcon) eat a meal in a tree.

Joyce and I left Fort Erie Canada around 7pm and headed for downtown Buffalo to look for the Statler falcons. I saw one land on the corner of a building but it showed us only its back. Our next and final stop was Central Terminal, my favorite of all the Buffalo sites and home to Diamante who is from Mariah&Kavers last clutch in Rochester and his mate Gleig . Gleig came flying in a few minutes after we arrived and she spent the next 10-15 minutes whining for him to vacate the nest box and eggs. She too only showed us her back but when Diamante finally came out we were able to locate him in the front of the building and so here are your bonus pics of the day!

That’s all she wrote folks as we headed out of Buffalo for home with a big old smile on our faces! 🙂

One video from this mornings watch below-click on the link to view it

http://youtu.be/xI_4v6nja5c

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The weather was great this morning-starting temperature was 43 (F) 6 (C) light wind with sun and blue skies

I checked ustream to see that Beauty was on the eggs (there are 4 total) when I left for downtown. As I made my u turn on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) to face  the Times Square building (TSB) I spotted Dot.Ca (DC) way up on the top of  the northwest wing ring at 6:36am.

DC was in hunt mode and watching below him-there must have been some sparrows or starlings down in between the wings. Suddenly he saw something bigger and flew off to attack a crow that was too close to his nest-he thumped on it hard, several times above the Democrat&Chronicle building before they left my field of vision behind the Blue Cross Arena.

I watched Beauty fly out of the nest box and go to the base of Mercury but I didn’t see DC go to the scrape to cover the eggs. Donna and Campgee let me know that he had done so. Thank you ladies! Beauty did some preening and looking around, then she flew off going low over the river and out of sight to the south.

A few minutes later she showed up under the northeast wing of TSB at 6:54am. She stayed up there for the next 20 minutes just hanging out and doing some rousing and stretching.

Beauty flew off at 7:16am going behind the TSB like she was looking for something or trying to flush out a bird. She came back around and went to the base of Mercury.

Larry stopped by around 7:30am and while we were chatting Beauty flew off Mercury. I didn’t see where she went and after Larry left I drove to the Brighton Site-there were no falcons seen. 🙁  I made my way back to the BSB at 8:15am just in time to see Beauty land on the base of Mercury and start eating.

Beauty stopped eating less than 10 minutes later, picked up a small piece of leftovers and went to the other side of the base where I couldn’t see her from the bridge. I went down to the hole to see if she was still on the base or had flown off-she was there and I caught her as she went up onto the green part of the base.

I got distracted by a phone call and missed Beauty flying off from the base. When I finished up I looked up to see Beauty was on the Mercury money bag.

A few minutes later at just about 9am Beauty flew off- I ended my watch at this point. Beauty and DC have 4 eggs to incubate as she is done laying them and now we wait about 33 days for them to start hatching. There will be many smiles when that happens! 🙂

Click on the links below to view my videos from this morning

http://youtu.be/_luXwYynW54

http://youtu.be/O0-Pm26q6Kg

http://youtu.be/lz2j_oefJLU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Well let’s hope this is the last of the cold below freezing temperatures until next fall as it was 28 degrees (F) -2 (C) with sun and bright blue skies when I left for my watch.  One can hope right!?

So I arrived on the Broad St. bridge (BSB) at 6:25am and could find no falcons. Beauty was on the eggs when I checked the livestream before leaving home. I drove around downtown looking for Dot.Ca (DC) to be hunting somewhere but I had no luck until I returned to the BSB. At 6:47am Beauty flew out from the nest box to check out DC who was on the base of Mercury with food. I thought it was her on the base at first until I saw the white of his chest and feathers floating in the air.  Donna let me know that Beauty had left and returned to the eggs. Thanks D!

DC kept eating and eating-I thought he would eat it all until he finally stopped around 7:15am, saving a mere snack for Beauty which he took to the deck.

The Beautyful one was more than ready to grab his food gift and fly to the base of Mercury with it as DC took her place on the eggs. I left the bridge to go down in the hole since Beauty had landed on the only corner of the base of Mercury that you can’t see from the BSB.

Beauty finished off her meager morsel in less than 5 minutes and began feaking and cleaning off her talons trying to get every last bit of nourishment she could find. After all, a girl gets hungry sitting on eggs all night! When she was done she turned around and took off at 7:30am flying past Times Square around Widows Walk and back thru over to OCSR where she disappeared behind it to the north.

5 minutes later after a trip over by the Radisson Hotel to look for her I returned to the hole to find Beauty on the north side of the roof that is behind the nest box and well area. She did a lot of preening while I watched her up there and I think she looked like she had a little egg butt so stay tuned there may be a 5th egg laid later on today!

I left to check Brighton-staying there a good amount of time with no falcon sightings. We miss you Pigott-fly free and be safe wherever you are! At 8:35am I received a tweet, from whom I don’t know-thank you whoever you are, saying DC would not relinquish his spot to Beauty on their eggs. I returned downtown around 8:45am finding no falcons from the BSB so I headed to the Andrews St. bridge checking all points north when I spotted a gray spot on the gray top ibeam north side of OCSR near the west corner. I went down to State St. across from the Rochester Plaza Hotel to find Beauty lurking in the shadows.

I had to get going so I ended my watch there at 9am with a smile for all is good in the downtown Rochester Falcon world! 🙂

Click on the 2 links below to view videos of our dynamic duo

http://youtu.be/fkVx-nftcDI

http://youtu.be/ZFdQpo9i-ts

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Really-  24 degrees (F) -4 (C) after 80’s over this past weekend-enough already! There were snow showers off and on with sunny blue skies during my watch

As I made my u-turn on the Broad St. bridge (BSB) to face the Times Square building (TSB) I witnessed a food exchange over the intersection of Exchange and  Broad St. Dot.Ca handed off to Beauty and went to the nest box while Beauty took her food gift to the northeast corner of Widows Walk. I drove to Fitzhugh St. for a closer view but she had other plans and left with it while I was on my way over there. I found her on the base of Mercury at 7am plucking feathers as I pulled over on Broad St. by the Blue Cross Arena first and then up to the BSB to see the front of her.

The Beautyful one didn’t eat much and flew off with it 10 minutes later headed west. I caught up with her under the southeast wing of TSB.

I went down to the hole behind Keybank to observe her. She wasn’t eating so I assume she cached her food somewhere. Beauty did some heavy duty preening while she was up there.

I left her to it and went to check the Brighton site around 7:50am but again no Pigott and no juvie were found. I stayed about 20 minutes then headed back downtown. I had a little trouble finding Beauty as she was no longer under the wing. I made a trip over to the Andrews St. bridge to look around but ended up back near the TSB where I spotted Beauty on the southeast corner ledge which is one level higher than the nest box just about 8:50am. The best spot to view her was from Broad St. by the Democrat & Chronicle.

Beauty didn’t stay long and just as I started tweeting her location she flew off to the northeast. I found her over on the OCSR near the elevator shaft 2nd ibeam down and she was eating. I went down to the hole on Bank Place where it meets Aqueduct St. to watch.

Beauty didn’t eat for long-when she was finished she did some feaking and cleaning up before flying off at 9:17am to the TSB.

Beauty came to rest under the southeast wing again and she was sporting a very full crop!

I thought to myself-that will make a nice pillow when she goes to incubate her eggs next time. Beauty got some nice down time this morning stretching her wings to fly some and do some preening and eating after laying on her eggs all night. I wanted to wait to see DC but my time is limited for the next couple weeks or so until after I move, so I ended my watch at 9:20am and left for home smiling after seeing that huge crop on Beauty! 🙂

Click on the links below to see videos of the Beautyful one

http://youtu.be/TyTVz3ogqpg

http://youtu.be/bkmXYgVPdIw

http://youtu.be/U1i9iV-AQus

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Not much time to look for falcons tonight.  It is so cold out there!  My first stop was the BS location.  No falcons seen or heard.

While I was there, my friend and fellow Falcon Watcher Kathy O texted that she had seen Dot.ca on OCSR while downtown and was now at Kodak Park on Lake Ave.  She was watching an adult Peregrine Falcon on the south side of the smaller building just south of the taller Research Lab Bldg.  This is where we have seen two recently.

By the time I got there, it was snowing.  I parked behind Kathy and tried to get some decent pics of the falcon.  Sorry to say lack of lighting and snow does not make for very good pictures.  Oh, well.

About 15 minutes after I arrived, the falcon took off and flew over us vocalizing quite loudly.  she (we believe a female based on size, but can’t be sure) turned back and landed on the roof of the building she just left.  A few minutes later, she again vocalized and flew over us.  This time she continued, heading southeast, heading directly towards the Seneca Tower Apts (ST) on the other side of the river.  I lost sight of her behind the tree line, so I can’t tell for sure that’s where she ended up.

Kathy and I waited to see if she would return, but she didn’t.

You know the Rochester Falcon Watchers will be keeping an eye on this area!

Congratulations to Beauty and Dot.ca for the arrival of their 4th egg!  WooHoo!

Here are some really bad pics that I took tonight.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Plus a picture that Kathy took with her phone before I arrived.

*

*

*

*

*

Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

When I left for my watch at 6:25am it was 38 degrees (F) 3 (C) raining and very dark

Beauty was on the eggs before I left for my watch. When I arrived downtown I looked around the Times Square (TSB) area from the Broad St. bridge (BSB) but didn’t see Dot.Ca (DC) so I took a ride to see if he was on Kodak Office like yesterday. He wasn’t and I received reports from Donna and Annette that there was a switch at the nest box as I was on my way back. Thank you ladies! It took me a bit to find Beauty on the east end of the Wilder green strip because I was on the BSB and you can’t see it from there. I found her as I got down to the hole (Aqueduct St.) around 7am.

She had her back to me the whole time I spent with her-not too many pics today for that reason and the weather conditions. The Beautyful one roused (shaking of feathers), did a little stretching and pooped around 7:30am.

That would be all the action I saw out of her-little did I know she was close to laying egg #4! I didn’t expect it until closer to noon. Anyway, I stayed with her until 8am and then I left to check out the Brighton site. There was nothing to be seen-not even a goose, so I went back downtown arriving at 8:33am to find Beauty still on the Wilder strip still with her back to me in the rain. About 10 minutes later Beauty left when I wasn’t looking-again Donna and Annette let me know. Thanks! I then moved over by Keybank where I could see the nest box area and saw DC fly out from the nest area-I found him on the top ibeam near the south corner of OCSR.

DC wasn’t doing much more than turning his head back and forth, most likely looking for breakfast. Around 9am he extracted a pellet and 10 minutes later he took off fast going southwest. He returned to OCSR same spot as before a few minutes later. This is when I started getting tweets that Beauty was in labor from NCAFalcons and Annette so I ended my watch hoping to get home in time to see. Too late, as  Annette and NCA reported Beauty had laid egg #4 before I could get home. Thanks for your help gals! And in case you’re wondering-yes I was smiling the rest of the way home! 🙂

One link for you to click on today to view a video

http://youtu.be/wj8ZBbdwNVo