By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Nettie chose the hottest, most humid day to take her first flight.  When she took off from the building, Kathy O and I first thought it was one of the boys.  But after a quick check, we found that it was Nettie who took off from the north end of the well wall.  She headed north, flapping and losing altitude, until she landed on the roof of the Wilder Building.  After a few moments, she showed herself on the east end of the building.  This is the same building that Baron (from last year) fledged to.  She stayed on this building all morning, running around and ending up on the south side where she could see the nest box and her sister Tesh above.  MAK returned from running an errand and Larry O stopped by for a quick look.

In the meantime, the boys, Nor’easter and Mercury, were tearing up the sky.  They were busy chasing mom and dad and landing on different buildings close to the Times Square Bldg.  By afternoon, the weather hit 96 degrees and boy was it humid!  Shade was at a premium.

It wasn’t til afternoon that Nettie took her 2nd flight.  She flew over me and ended up on the base of the Mercury statue, moving around to the shady side.  I found Nor’easter below her on the railing.  While Nor’easter took a mid-day nap, Nettie was busy checking out the odd pieces of cached food that Beauty had placed there. During the afternoon, the temperatures continued to rise.  Susan C and Brian H joined me for about an hour.  During that hour, Nettie decided to take off and head towards the Times Square Bldg.  She gained altitude nicely, but came up short on the landing on the southeast wing ledge.  Nettie turned back towards the building, this time aiming for the well wall, where her sister was.  She JUST missed the landing and turned towards the north.  By this time, she was tired and losing altitude.  She flew over the Wilder Building and out of our view.  Susan, Brian and I split up.  After not finding her, both Susan and Brian had to leave.

I continued the search on foot.  While I was crossing the Sister Cities Bridge, about half way over the Genesee River, I heard a juvie vocalizing loudly.  Beauty flew in and landed on the 2nd IBeam down (north side of OCSR) and was looking west.  I took that as a clue and checked out the roofs of the buildings.  There she was!  Or at least I was pretty sure it was her.  I took a quick picture of the roof line and headed over to the Sister Cities Garage,  From the top, I was able to find the roof that Nettie had landed on.  She was on a round metal vent on top of a building just north of the Powers Building, across from the Cross Rds Building.

Nettie was looking back towards the Times Square Bldg and bobbing her head up and down.  She was getting ready to fly again.  Her wings spread wide and she was off, heading south, back towards the Times Square Bldg.  I quickly texted that she was heading that way and walked back to Aqueduct St (aka “the hole”) as quickly as I could.  By the time I got back there, I could see no falcons anywhere.  I quickly checked my texts and found one from Shaky.  Nettie had returned to the nest box!  Woo hoo!  That made me very happy!  🙂

I was soon joined by fellow Watchers Kathy O, MAK, Pat and Lisa McK.  At 7:00 pm, I ended my watch.  Tomorrow is supposed to be another very warm humid day, with a chance of thunder storms during the afternoon.

There was a lot of activity by all the Rochester Falcons today.  Three fledged, one to go!  Here are some pictures from today’s watch.  Enjoy and goodnight!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The conditions and temperature were exactly the same as yesterday 73(F) 23(C) with partly cloudy skies

It was a rough day in the heat and humidity and quite frankly I haven’t the energy or desire to write a detailed report tonight so it will be brief.

There was plenty of flying by the boys-they are doing great on the wing and landing. Nettie flew well as she fledged this morning ad spent a lot of time on the Wilder building just like her brother from last year, Baron. We saw a Turkey Vulture get a hard thumping from Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC). Watchers while I was downtown were Dan,Kathy,Carol,Pat,DebbieH,Dana,Lou,Dick and a cute family-Mom-Sherry,Grandma-DebbieC and 3 little kids named James,Libby and Collin.

Nettie on Wilder below

The highlight this evening was when Mercury flew to the back lower roof of Times Square and starting at the very end made his way hopping and flying from one bump to the next I believe looking for food scraps. Below are the pics I took of him.

And a few more from tonight

This guy Mercury really makes me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a photo album from the day and some videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqjqI

http://youtu.be/of-0C48sx54

http://youtu.be/yEAxnkx7Y7g

http://youtu.be/6mdkHMXUTso

http://youtu.be/VcnF0qlasCs

http://youtu.be/w2s20GndU-M

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The humidity is starting to get oppressive here in Rochester-it was 73 (F) 23 (C) at 6am with a mix of sun and clouds as I started my watch

Joining Dan on the Broad St. Bridge he gave me the rundown when I got out the car-Dot.Ca (DC) had brought a small package earlier and all 4 kids were present on Times Square (TSB) and DC was on the top ibeam south corner of OCSR. I turned around to face the nest box area and caught Beauty flying in from the northeast with a large, pigeon sized package-it’s like eating  Wheaties for us to start the day! lol The Beautyful one landed out on the well wall by the boys and started plucking feathers as they watched and learned-everything is a lesson learned to help them become self-sufficient for when they venture out on their own.

Make sure to click on my pics for the full version

As Beauty fed the boys, Nettie decided she wanted in on the action and started making her way down the wall.

Our attention went from her to DC as Dan yelled out-he’s off and after something over the river! Sure enough DC snatched a small bird out of the air near Cornhill and took it to the deck. He started feeding the girls as Beauty continued to feed the boys.

DC finished feeding them and flew up under the northeast wing as Beauty flew to the base of Mercury to cache leftovers on the side we couldn’t see from the bridge. Mercury flew up on cam 4 and Louise joined Dan and I.

One minute you see a bunch of them and then they all disappear, Beauty flies in and lands on cam 1 and they start coming back out of hiding. What fun!

During this time period watchers were joining the watch 1 after another-Lisa,Dana,Kathy and Larry. As it was time for Dan to leave we all made the move down to the hole, set up our chairs and waited for some action. Judy,Jay and Dick also came by to have a look as well. At 7:48am we got our action in the form of Mercury taking his first flight of the day over to the southeast corner of Crossroads and DC flew off right after and went to OCSR to keep an eye on his first fledgling.

Like his brother, Nor’Easter did yesterday, Mercury flew across to the other side and started walking around up there only to disappear for a long stretch of time. Jeanne came out for her first fledge watch of the season just in time to see Nor’Easter fly up under northeast wing where he too, left our sight going to the back of the ledge. The girls in the mean time hung out on the wall and deck.

<Nor’E

Around 10:15am Mercury appeared and after preparing himself at length to take off , flew over and tried to land next to his brother under the wing but didn’t quite make it and ended up on the column above the nest box and promptly disappeared. The girls continued to mess around on the wall.

I left the watch somewhere after 11am to take a break and get my report done so I could get back out late afternoon. I came across this young buck in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery as I cut thru there to run an errand. There was a doe with him but she ran off when I stopped the car.

Falcons and deer on a quiet Sunday morning-what better reason to smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos

http://youtu.be/E3LfczrEfZ8

http://youtu.be/9IqEvLEWcfc

http://youtu.be/xn3DbW1dObQ

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

A very hot, humid day here in Rochester, NY, with temps near 90 degrees.  Makes it hard to watch the falcons, especially in the middle of the day when there is no shade to be found.

Today’s Watchers: Dan, MAK, Kathy O, Dana, Larry O, Joyce, Pat, Debbie H, Dick, Lisa McK, Lou and me Carol P.  Sorry I missed seeing Lynda and Tim!

After hitting the OCSR building while trying to land on one of the Ibeams, Mercury rested for a little while on the Wilder Bldg and then continued to fly like a champ the rest of the day.

Nor’easter had finally left the Times Square Bldg.  He was on the lower base of the Mercury statue when I arrived.  He spent a lot of time there this morning before taking off.  All day long, we were thrilled to see both Nor’easter and Mercury start their lessons under the watchful eyes of their parents Beauty and Dot.ca.  I wish I had more time to post the wonderful details of these first flights.

Now, we wait for the girls, Nettie and Tesh, to join their brothers.  Stay tuned!

Here are some pictures from today’s fledge watch.  Enjoy and goodnight!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

A carbon copy of yesterday morning with some clouds,blue sky,sun and a starting temp of 61 (F) 16 (C)

Click on my pics to see the full version

As I pulled over on the Broad St. bridge (BSB) Dan told me that both boys had flown from nest box area earlier. Mercury was on the base of Mercury eating and he didn’t know where Nor’Easter had gone. He said Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) had been on the jail tower in hunt mode when Mercury flew off-the Beautyful one flew over and followed her son a bit until he landed. Dan said the last he saw Nor’Easter he was heading toward the Wilder building so i went down to the hole to take a look around. I found him on the north side railing below the Mercury statue.

I went back up to the BSB to let Dan know and then I parked on Broad St. by the Blue Cross Arena (BCA) where I had a good view of the boys on Mercury. The crane that has been picking logs out of the river below the bridges pulled onto the BSB so I knew they would be closing it soon. Dan came down and Kathy pulled in behind me-we promptly left as they were starting to block us in at the intersection. We went to the hole and Mercury flew off Mercury going over to OCSR and tried to land on an ibeam but smacked into the window and spiraled down a few feet, gathered himself and continued flying toward Main St. behind the Wilder building. That’s where I found him on the northeast corner from my spot at the Radisson Hotel by Main St. Larry stopped for a short time.

Beauty and DC were on the top ibeam of OCSR-she was on the south corner and he was on the west corner-both were watching their son on Wilder. Dan left-I think he may have been upset by Mercury hitting the window, he’s told me on numerous occasions that he doesn’t like watching at this early stage in the fledglings life-too nerve wrecking. Any way, Kathy and Carol were in the hole watching as I could see all of our PEFA family except DC. Mercury started hopping up and down and then began running the roof edge making his way to the middle east side checking out a vent up there. He seemed perfectly fine after his window incident.

<Click it

Mercury ended up flying to the back of the TSB somewhere so I went back to the hole. Beauty first went to the well wall then to the roof above the well and Mercury joined her there after a while. Judy joined the watch and at about 8:45am Beauty flew past Nor’Easter who was still on the Mercury rail to chase off a Turkey Vulture (TV) and DC went to the Mercury money bag (MMB). Suddenly both parents were circling Mercury-Beauty was alarm calling like crazy and we thought they were upset with the crane on the BSB.  Dana arrived and told us there were people up on the roof of Thomson Reuters so that’s what they were upset about-way too close to Nor”Easter.

<Click it> 

Beauty flew off to the deck and left to stomp on another TV that came right in close to Times Square. After running around the railing on Mercury and flapping his wings a lot Nor’Easter flew off making a strong flight and got his talons under the southeast wing ledge but didn’t have enough lift to land. He spiraled down a short distance then flew to the Crossroads building southeast corner.

Nor’Easter ran around there for a bit then made a strong flight against the wind to the northwest wing ring of the TSB. The wind was giving him a hard time as he slipped off of it after a few minutes. New watcher, Dick joined the watch for a little while.

Approximately 10:45am Nor’Easter flew to OCSR landing on the window ledge of the upper round part of building. This is what used to be the revolving restaurant-hence the name we call it OCSR-Old Changing Scenes Restaurant. Soon after, Mercury flew out and up to the 2nd small  ledge below the northwest wing ledge. He stayed there for a while as Nor’Easter came shooting across toward and above us soaring in fine fashion then back to OCSR landing above the restaurant out of view.

Joyce joined the watch around noon-Dana had to leave and I decided since everything was quiet I’d take a break to come home and put my report together. So now that I’m done with it, I’m ready to go back downtown for some more exciting fledge watching which will no doubt put a smile on my face! 🙂

Click on the links below to view more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqjpm

http://youtu.be/NBei2mU-R5M

http://youtu.be/h5oT_5fQw5g

http://youtu.be/8cVs8us95Bw

http://youtu.be/NywSWsLlu08

http://youtu.be/xtDNhvSnDW4

http://youtu.be/bdpvhvJUCHc

http://youtu.be/_cinrufgVJA

http://youtu.be/fl6PSe0Bt-s

http://youtu.be/5yLOTFhPt5U

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

While Mercury was buzzing around and perfecting his high flying techniques, Nor’easter made his way back to the nest box, joining his sisters Nettie and Tesh there.

Mercury landed in many different spots, including the Cross Rds Building, the wing ring at the top of the Times Square Bldg, on top of the disk on OCSR and, yes you guessed it, the Mercury statue!

Watchers today included, Dan, MAK, Larry O, Joyce, Pat, Debbie H, Dick, Kathy O, Dana, Lou and me Carol P.   I think that’s everyone.

The weather was warm with temps near 80 degrees (F) and bright blue skies and fluffy clouds.

Here are some pictures from today’s fledge watch.  Enjoy! and Goodnight!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Another nice weather day for a fledge watch with a starting temperature of 61 (F) 16 (C) clear skies at the start and partly cloudy as time went on

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

I met Dan on the Broad St. bridge (BSB) about 5:45am – he gave me the rundown saying that Nor’Easter had just been fed up on his ledge above the scrape (NB) by Beauty and there was a food drop on the deck. The girls Nettie and Tesh were on the deck and Mercury was on the nest box roof. When I took a look I could see that Mercury was actually on cam 4-from that distance it’s very easy to make that mistake. Dot.Ca (DC) flew in and landed on the southeast wing ring and Beauty was on the base of Mercury.

Nor’Easter had gone up to the southeast column but came back down on his ledge and flattened out above the nest box and Beauty flew to the deck. Mercury hopped down to the deck and had something to say to his mother. DC flew to OCSR landing on the 2nd ibeam west corner.

Mercury flew off just before 6:30am circled the Times Square building like a pro and landed perfectly under the southeast wing. A few minutes later Mercury tried getting up in the grating between the south and northeast wings but slipped off prompting a fly around TSB again a few times and landing on the back out of view. DC had been flying with him to safeguard him. Beauty landed on the column above the nest box and Nor’Easter on his ledge.

Dan and I found Mercury on the southwest column of TSB at 7am at which time Dan left and then Carol joined the watch. I was over by the Blue Cross Arena (BCA) where I could keep an eye on Mercury and the front of TSB. Nor’E made his way up to the column above the nest box with Beauty and she flew off when he got too close. He then made his way around to the south side and up with his brother.

Mercury flew off soon after leaving his brother all by himself again and a while later flew out from the top of the grating failed at landing under the southwest wing then flew out and back making a great landing on a very small ledge below the southeast wing. Shortly after, he took off to the north landing on the south side roof of the Crossroads building then off to the top of the grating successfully this time then off the back of it out of view.

There was a break in the action for an extended time as the girls were holding down the fort up on the deck watching all that went on in there world.

Dan had come back to join Carol and I, we were in our chairs on Aqueduct St. by the Thomson Reuters building and we didn’t know where either of the boys were. I glanced up at the nest box area at about 11:45am and lo and behold I caught Nor’Easter come off the column above the nest box and flutter down to the well and disappear. Less than a minute later he arose from the well and joined his sister on the parapet. They were all kissee face with each other-it was so adorable to see.

Dan left and soon after Larry rejoined the watch, DebbieH and Pat also hung out with us for a few minutes on their lunch breaks. New watcher Dick also came by. Sis went to the deck and things would remain this way for the next hour at which point Carol spotted Mercury on the top of the grating on TSB. He hopped over to the northeast wing ledge then disappeared.

Carol and I decided to take a break at 2pm and get refreshed to go back downtown later. So as I finish this report I will be heading back downtown. By the way, just a little bit ago Joyce tweeted out that Pigott is alive and well in Syracuse with one offspring!

Oh HAPPY DAY-smiling for sure!!!! 🙂

Click on the links below to view more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqjpE

http://youtu.be/SVteO-91v9k

http://youtu.be/Sb8lSy6f6ug

http://youtu.be/8QeETLQEogM

http://youtu.be/GbbQ6HpJK7U

http://youtu.be/lXccBP0z4vw

http://youtu.be/rp6T13ux4TE

http://youtu.be/ObNdrrNmCWg

http://youtu.be/ztxXJu9Ldjk

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

My Fledge Watch lasted 12 hours today and I plan on getting out early tomorrow morning.  So that being said, I don’t have time to leave a detailed report.  But I did want to leave you with a quick summary and some pictures from today’s fledge watch.

Watchers that came out today: MAK, Joyce, Dana, Brian H, Judy, Dick, Susan C, Shaky, Carrie, Christy, Kathy O, Lisa McK, Larry O, Dan and me Carol P.  Hope I didn’t forget anyone.  Thanks to all that showed up to help today!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Blue sky, temps in the 70’s with low humidity.

The highlights of the day were, both boys (Mercury and Nor’easter) fledged, but returned to the Times Square Bldg, the girls (Nettie and Tesh) made it to the top of the nest box and Nettie ran out onto the wall alongside Mercury.  Lots and lots of activity by the young falcons and the adults.

When I left tonight at 7:30 pm, all 6 were accounted for.  Nettie, Tesh and Mercury at the nest box and Nor’easter safely on the ledge above the nest box.  Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day and I hope that we get to see Nettie and Tesh fledge successfully.

Here are some pictures from today’s fledge watch.  Enjoy! and Goodnight!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

A beautiful morning for a fledge watch with a starting temp of 61 (F) 19 (C) and a mix of sun and clouds

Click on my pics for the full version

I joined Dan on the Broad St. bridge at 6am and we had Beauty on the column above the nest box, an eyas on the main cam, cam 4 and the 2 girls on the parapet.

<Click it

The girls split up as one went to the deck and then both boys were on cam 4. These boys and girls sure do stick together!

<Click it>

Dan left at 6:40am and I went to the hole-Joyce showed up at 7am and Carol about a half hour after that. Some of the activity was the usual stuff  leading up to a big surprise for us.

<Click it

Right around 7:33am I noticed an eyas on the roof above the well wall-it was Mercury and he managed to sneak up there while we were watching Dot.Ca (DC) with food on the deck. We had our first fledge and missed it!!! lol From then on it was a busy watch as we tried to keep track of him and his brother. Kathy and Larry stopped on their way to work around this time.

<Click it>

Mercury came down to the deck but returned to the roof above the well wall once again. Beauty and DC kept track of him while we could only wait for him to show himself. Meanwhile Nor’Easter was running and flapping along the well wall before going back to the deck. Beauty caught a bird and took it to a small ledge on the southeast corner of Times Square.

<Mercury  Nor’E>

At 9am I was stationed by He’s Chinese and saw a bird that looked like a falcon fly from behind me to behind the Times Square building (TSB) with Beauty and DC following behind. A new watcher, Judy said she saw it too. Not sure if it was Mercury or Nor’Easter as it was reported that he was not on any cams. So now we had 2 fledges that we missed! Judy and I decided to go up on the South Ave. parking garage for a better view of the area. We could see the girls on the deck and Beauty on Widows Walk but neither one of the boys.

<Click it

Then I spotted Mercury on the southeast corner opposite side from the nest box and Beauty was above him on the southeast column. Judy left at 10:35am then Beauty left Mercury on his own and went to the Wilder green strip.

Mercury went west out of my view and Beauty returned to column with DC above her under the southeast wing so I knew Mercury was still over there somewhere.

At 11:48am I spotted Nor’Easter on the northwest corner below the roof at the well wall level

<Click it 

There was a long period of time that went by as we didn’t see Nor’E and then Dana went to move her car and spotted him on the ledge 1 level above the nest box where Baron used to like to hang out. We all cheered to finally see him again! Beauty was on cam 1 and then she went to the southeast corner of the ledge Nor’E was on.

<Click it

Mercury had gone back to the nest box area at some point as we focused on his brother. Nor’E laid down for a rest and Beauty flew back over to the Wilder green strip. Mercury did some showing off on the well wall as he flew half way across it-a piece of cake for a new fledgling. The Beautyful one flew past Times Square and so did DC a couple times and they each took food to the deck but nobody was interested. Nor’E was looking very sleepy as I left to take a break and do this report just before 2pm.

That’s all she wrote with a big ole smile for we had 2 fledges today and now it’s time to get back downtown! 🙂

PS: Thank you to all the cam watchers who helped this morning-I didn’t report everything that I tweeted including when cam watchers helped us out but y’all know we appreciates ya!

Click on the links below to see todays videos

http://youtu.be/5QKQdwmy4kc

http://youtu.be/Cro2vIEmI

http://youtu.be/dgjx56El-LM

http://youtu.be/chZwiLHOpzs

http://youtu.be/wiCXeGzaIcM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Today it rained on and off most of the day and when I arrived downtown at about 3:50 pm, it was so foggy, I couldn’t see the top of the buildings.  Joyce was already on the watch when I arrived.  For the first half of my watch, it rained, finally clearing up a bit later on.

Watchers tonight included Joyce, Dana, Kathy O, Larry O, Brian H, Lisa McK, Dan and me Carol P.  Oh, and we were joined for awhile by a bunch of Rochester Fire Fighters who had just checked out a nearby building.

Highlights of the watch were, Mercury made it to the top of the main camera for the first time, and the two girls made it out to the first bump on the well wall closest to the nest box where Beauty brought a meal just as it was getting dark.  Beauty prepped the meal on the base of Mercury and brought it to the bump on the well wall where Nor’easter and Mercury waited for her.  While she was feeding the boys, Nettie and Tesh vocalized quite loudly from the nest box platform, showing their displeasure at not being fed.  After awhile, Nettie got the courage to jump over to where Beauty fed.  It got very crowded on this small section of the wall, so first Mercury and then Nor’easter made their way back to the platform.  Now, just Tesh remained unfed.  Finally, she stepped down onto the wall and joined her mom and sister, where she finally ate her share of the evening meal.  Nettie went back to the platform while Tesh continued to eat.  Kathy O, Dana, Lisa McK and I remained past dark to make sure Tesh returned safely to the nest box platform.  At approximately 9:30 pm, she finally did.  All four eyases  were safe and under the watchful eye of their parents, Beauty and Dot.ca.

Will tomorrow be fledge day for one or more of our eyases?  We’ll have to wait and see!  Goodnight everyone!  I’ll leave you with a few pictures from today’s watch.  Enjoy!

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