By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a chilly, sunny, bright blue sky start to the day with a temperature of 53 (F) 12 (C)

Click on the pics to see the full version

When I arrived on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) Beauty was picking at scraps on the base of Mercury. She soon jumped down off the green part to the northeast corner then back up to the green.

She did some preening, tried to extract a pellet, roused and pooped in the next 20 minutes or so.

Beauty settled down for a bit watching for breakfast to present itself and then she stood at attention and stooped off the back of the base.

While she was gone I checked the river and found a Great Blue Heron hunting for his breakfast. Beauty returned to the base until a group of pigeons appeared from under the bridge.

She took off after them, as they scattered, she pinpointed 2 of them and chased them over the north side of the river. She hit one right in front of me but it descended down under the bridge uninjured. Next she set her sights on the other one and chased it around Thomson Reuters hitting it as they reached the roof line on the south side. It too, escaped her clutches and she made a sweep over the river before returning to the base of Mercury. A few minutes later the Beautyful one flew east and met Dot.Ca (DC) by Chase.

They flew around Chase then behind Bausch & Lomb out of sight. I drove over to the east side to find Beauty on a northwest corner of B&L but no DC.

Beauty preened pretty much the whole time she was up there and at 8:19am she spread her wings and launched herself  off the building and flew east, turned around by HSBC returned to B&L for a second or two then off to the east again out of sight. I noticed flags on all sides of the Midtown which is being renovated as I looked for her. And had to stop and check out the fountains in Martin Luther King Jr. park.

I caught up with Beauty on the base of Mercury where she had a fresh catch and was plucking away at the feathers. I stayed only briefly then went over to the Radisson Hotel to check the OCSR elevator shaft for DC-he was on the south side.

I left downtown and checked Hawkeye, Kodak research and Seneca Towers but again saw no PEFAs-I ended my watch at 9:35am. However, while putting my report together, Veteran has flown past my window here at Seneca Towers 3 times and you know that’s got me smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos

http://youtu.be/IQ5DY0gqCHg

http://youtu.be/edxBUo7UDZQ

http://youtu.be/xDc_oIaxzRY

http://youtu.be/OTUfVJnGG-I

http://youtu.be/oKtpLM272-M

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Yesterday temps hit 91 degrees (F) and today it barely made it to 70.  What a difference a day makes.

We know that Beauty is completing a molt and that Dot.ca may now be molting.

From The Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Timing: It takes a lot of energy to build new feathers. Molting is, therefore, often timed to coincide with periods of less strenuous demands, such as after nesting or before migration.

This may explain why he is spending so much time inside the elevator shaft and on his own, except when he can get a bit of food from Beauty.

To understand more about why and how birds molt, check out this link to Cornell’s website.  There is a lot to learn there.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/allaboutbirds/studying/feathers/molting/document_view

Thursday, September 4, 2014

I went downtown early evening and found Dot.ca on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) below the platform.  He took off and I followed.  From the Broad St Bridge (BSB) I found both Beauty and Dot.ca on top of the Times Square Bldg. (TSB). Beauty was on the southeast wing ledge and Dot.ca was on the northeast wing ledge.  Feathered bookends.  lol

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BE SURE TO CLICK ON ANY PICTURES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE LARGER

It was nice seeing Dot.ca out of the elevator shaft and up on the Times Square Bldg with Beauty.  Joyce joined me and we remained down on Aqueduct St, aka “the hole”, until it got dark.  Just before we left, Dot.ca took off and ended up on the Widows Walk, just northwest of the Times Square Bldg.  By that time it was too dark to take any pictures.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Today’s watch took place this afternoon.  Cooler temps near 70 degrees (F) made it much nicer.  I only had a couple hours, so I wanted to see if I could find both Beauty and Dot.ca.  I first stopped at Kodak Park West, which was on my way.  It has been awhile since I’ve seen a falcon there and today was no different.  No falcons seen there, but lots of Gold Finches in the fields surrounding the parking lot.  I love to hear their cheery vocalizations.  It reminds me so much of spring.

Next stop downtown Rochester.  I took my normal route checking out the Kodak Office Tower first.  No falcons there, but lots of pigeons on the building.  It is definitely a good hunting spot for Beauty and Dot.ca.  Back when Mariah and Kaver were nesting there, the pigeons stayed off of the tower.

I drove around to the east side to check out Xerox, B&L and HSBC.  No falcons there.  But the neighborhood Red-tail Hawk flew overhead clutching a squirrel in her talons.  I do believe, based on the large size of this bird, that it is a female.  I parked my car near Geva to watch her as she landed on an old house that is falling apart.  After about 15 minutes, she took off and dropped the squirrel, but recovered it quickly.  The hawk carried it to the park across the street and up into a tree to eat in privacy.

I continued on and parked on the Broad St Bridge.  From there I could see Beauty on the south side of OCSR’s top IBeam.  Now where was Dot.ca?  I drove over to the Radisson and found Dot.ca up inside the elevator shaft on the south side ledge.  After an hour, I ended my watch, leaving both Beauty and Dot.ca where I found them.  All was quiet and peaceful.

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Here are some pictures of the Red-tail Hawk that has been hanging out near the Geva Theater area.  Just an FYI that this squirrel was dead.

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Lastly, my thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Daryl Pierson, a Rochester Police Officer who was killed in the line of duty.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Dark and gloomy was the ticket for this mornings weather as a cold front is in the process of moving thru our area. It rained toward the end of my watch and the temperature was 69 (F) 21 (C)

Click on the pics to see the full version

As I scoped out the east side with my binocs from the back parking lot of the Inn on Broadway, a falcon came out from behind Bausch & Lomb (B&L) and went above Xerox and out of view. I waited a minute and when it didn’t reappear I took a ride in search of.  I parked on Court St. near St. Marys Place after I spotted her again-yes, it was Beauty. She was hanging on the wind above Xerox and the surrounding area. I messed with the color of my flight shots as it was very dark out  and the originals were not very good, I inverted the colors on the last one below to show her wing feathers are looking pretty much uniform as she is nearing the end of her molt.

There were some pigeons across the street on the Court St. garage watching Beauty too-I was taping her when they flew off and I was surprised she didn’t take off after them. Beauty would hover, flap a little then soar and glide, then flap a little more for close to 15 minutes-it was a spectacular sky dance.  Then suddenly around 7:15am she tucked into stoop position and streaked across the river toward Cornhill disappearing from sight quickly.

I drove down to the Court St. bridge to take a look around but I didn’t find her so I turned to the river on the south side of the bridge first and spotted a Black-crowned Night Heron (BCNH). He was just below the lock-there were ducks in front of him and a large gull behind him. I marvel at the way shore birds can stand in fast running water and not get swept away.

I crossed the bridge to check the north side and down river past the Broad St. Bridge was another BCNH fishing-this one looked darker to me, probably from different lighting.

There’s lots of road work being done downtown right now as St. Paul St. which turns into South Ave. at Main St. was milled and ready for a new surface-Woodbury St. was milled too. As I went past Bank Place that goes down to the hole I noticed lots of activity-trucks and men working on the underground pipes there. To my left I spotted Beauty up on a chimney type structure on the roof of Irving Place (the old City Hall) eating. This is the building Widows Walk is on and so I pulled into the parking lot there next to Times Square.

When I first saw the Beautyful one she was plucking feathers and when I stopped to watch she stopped as well. Sometimes after she’s carried her prey a distance she takes a break to catch her breath before preparing it for consumption. I guess today she plucked a little first, then took her break before continuing the preparation process.

There were lots of little white down feathers which led me to believe her meal choice was a Mourning Dove as the wing that popped up every once in a while didn’t look big enough to be a pigeon. The Yellow Jacket Bees were getting in her face again, they’ve been in full force lately and she wasn’t amused.

I left to look for Dot.Ca (DC) as I knew she’d be a while-checking the OCSR elevator shaft first, as he has been up there the last few mornings on my watch. I wasn’t able to find him anywhere so I returned to Beauty. It started to rain and she finished up a few minutes later after spending the last hour and a half on her breakfast. She flapped her wings many times, I believe to get the rain water off of them, feaked a few times, roused, moved the leftovers to the other side, pooped then flew off to the east at 9:07am.

I checked the Frontier Communications Tower first as that’s where Beauty has been going after a meal to rest and digest but she changed things up on me today. Instead, I found her on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR when I parked by the Radisson Hotel to check the elevator shaft for DC. I wonder where he was this morning-I never did find him.

I suppose Beauty picked OCSR as it would give her more protection from the rain that had stopped for the time being. I left Beauty to take her nap and did my routine of checking Hawkeye, Kodak research building and Seneca Towers before ending my watch just before 10am. I wish I had seen our other Rochester Peregrine Falcons, but never the less, Beauty made me smile on this gloomy morning! 🙂

Click on the links below to catch Beauty in action on video
http://youtu.be/hbtbFs0-JbY

http://youtu.be/wQOuZfFGDYA

http://youtu.be/M3Xh5Fk7hQY

http://youtu.be/shQWTKesqqg

http://youtu.be/XCYyKK1wMXw

http://youtu.be/truNH9HYKqw

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Nice morning with a starting temperature of 71 (F) 22 (C)

Click on pics to see full version

I was sidetracked at St. Paul St. and Andrews St. by road work which took to the east side of town to start as I came in from the back side of HSBC, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb (&L). Worked out to my advantage as I spotted Beauty up on one of the northeast corners of B&L-unfortunately, the road work near Broad,Chestnut,Court , Woodbury streets and South Ave. were making my choices to view her very limited. By the time I found a spot to pull over she was gone. I made my way to the Broad St. Bridge where I saw Beauty on the north side of B&L same level as before. I finally ended up at Clinton and Broad St. right below the Beautyful one.

At first I thought she was picking at food and then she feaked on the edge-so I guess I caught her finishing up breakfast. She looked around quite a bit, then around 7:30am she pooped, turned, looked north, waved goodbye and flew northwest.

I left and get caught up in backed up traffic from St. Pauk St. getting torn up by workers. When I finally got thru to the Andrews St. bridge I found Beauty right where I thought she was going-the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT).  Drove to Fitzhugh St. to watch her perched on the northeast cube preening away and looking just Beautyful.

I left her to check the OCSR elevator shaft for Dot.Ca (DC) since that’s where he’s been spending his mornings of late-he wasn’t there! I spotted him under the northeast wing of Times Square from the Broad St. bridge. I went down to the hole to check him out a little closer. It was nice to see  a front view of him and his bright whiteness.

DC  had his head in constant motion looking around the area with some scratching and preening mixed in. Then DC turned his back on me for a bit and turned around with a look of bewilderment before returning to watching the skies.

DC shared space with me for over an hour then spread his wings and flew off to the southeast about 9:10am.

A short time later I received a tweet from Jersey girl, cam watcher Donna that DC had joined Beauty on FCT. So he doubled back on me and flew north-sneaky little guy! I drove over to the City Hall parking lot  on Fitzhugh St. to find Beauty and her mate in the white section of FCT below the platform. He was on the east side and she was on the west and they had their back to me.

Figuring they’d just hang out there for a good long while, I left them. On my way home I checked Hawkeye, Kodak Park research building and Seneca Towers before heading up to my 16th floor apartment at 10am. No sightings for me, but another one of the local watchers Pat, saw a falcon which was most likely Billie on the southeast railing of my building on her way to work. Billie and Veteran have been scarce around here in the last week or two so that made me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/QaiFpxTOa8k

http://youtu.be/2k3N9rTo5Vk

http://youtu.be/nQsCilXrHsM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

A perfect weather morning for a falcon watch-blue sky with some fair weather clouds, sun and a temperature of 64 (F) 18 (C)

Please click on my pics to see the full version

I dedicate this watch report to the City of Rochester Police Dept. and one of their brothers who was shot and killed while on duty last night. My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends. I stopped at Main and State St. this morning to offer my condolences to the traffic cops that I see there every morning on my watches as 4 of them were gathered to console each other. This tragedy occurred just a mile from where I live.

I checked everywhere before heading across the river to the east side where I found Beauty on the north side of HSBC eating. I spotted her from the back lot of the Inn on Broadway and moved over to Chestnut St. by the Hotel Cadillac for better viewing.

Beauty finished eating shortly after-and as I was taping her she turned around, feaked a couple times on the edge then flew off toward the northwest. I thought she may be going to the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) to rest while her food digests as that’s the direction she was headed and that’s her pattern lately. That’s exactly where I found her-she was on the northeast cube (one of her favorite spots to perch).

I pulled over on Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage to share space with the Beautyful one. She cleaned herself up a bit more before walking down to the end of the beam to preen and pose before closing her eyes for a short nap.

I left to do a Dot.Ca (DC) search but didn’t find him-I returned to the same spot to find Beauty in the same spot doing the same thing. A little more preening then back to sleep. I left her to do another search for DC, stopping by the Radisson Hotel at Main St. to check the OCSR elevator shaft. This time I found Mr. Antisocial up on the north side instead of the south where he’s been every other time I’ve found him up there.

Well, he had his back to me and was most likely asleep as he didn’t move at all so I left him too. On my way out of downtown I checked to see that Beauty was still on FCT then I proceeded to check the Kodak Hawkeye Plant, Kodak Park research building and last Seneca Towers for Veteran and/or Billie. No luck again and I’m thinking maybe they are spending time under the Veterans Bridge out of the sun and heat much like DC in the elevator shaft. Hopefully, they’ll be seen soon. I ended my watch at 9:15am. Keep smiling everyone-I will if you will! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays video recordings
http://youtu.be/od-myp0CaoM

http://youtu.be/3t3GZbWAcVU

http://youtu.be/tzROVnN1jgA

http://youtu.be/7_gkwxScXVU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a refreshing morning as the humidity was much lower than the last few days-sun and blue skies ruled with a starting temperature of 63 (F) 17 (C)

Click on the pics for a full version

I made my way over to the east side after having seeing no falcons around the rest of downtown. I pulled over on Woodbury St. and spotted Beauty on the 5th south side column of Xerox-her spot. I left and drove down to Chestnut St. where the traffic light is very long and managed to miss her as she was gone when I pulled over in front of Martin Luther King Jr. Park formerly known as Manhattan Square Park. Beauty however, was flying above Bausch & Lomb and Xerox going in and out of view behind the buildings.

When I didn’t see her after a minute or two I left for the Broad St. bridge (BSB) to have a look around from there. After studying the jail tower I noticed the shape of a falcon opposite the disk near the 3rd arm.

I tried viewing from the Court St. bridge, Troup St., Fitzhugh St. and finally the best spot was on Plymouth Ave. near the intersection with Broad St. I had to be a distance from Beauty in order to see past the jail itself since she was so low on the tower.

There was heat coming up from the roof exhaust on the jail distorting the view as Beauty looked around and flew east 5-10 minutes later. It really shows on the take off shot and in the video I took of her.

I followed suit and headed east myself where I found Beauty back on her 5th south side column of Xerox. No problem getting there in time this go around as she stayed put for a lengthy period of time. At first she did a lot of looking around and then she settled in for a long preening session.

Twice, she tried extracting a pellet and I thought I saw a small piece exit her mouth on one of the heaves. The Beautyful one spent over an hour up there preening, scratching, rousing and working on that pellet.

At 8:40am she flew off toward the southwest fast into the blue sky before I could catch up to her and get a pic.

After 25 minutes of searching I found Beauty as I was on the Andrews St. bridge. She was on the Frontier Communications Tower north side 2nd arm down tucked in close to the pole. Again, I had to search for the best vantage point because of the position she was perched I ended up on Plymouth Ave. across from the Open Door Mission. I was surprised that I didn’t get silhouette shots because the sun was behind her-actually, it shone nicely on her right side feathers.

As I was tweeting my findings Beauty flew off toward the southeast. Now I had been wondering where Dot.Ca was all morning so my last resort was to go to Bragdon St. by the Radisson Hotel to take a peek up in the OCSR elevator shaft at the south side ledge. BINGO-he was there! Now I could leave downtown after having seen both our resident Peregrine Falcons.

I checked Hawkeye, Kodak research building and Seneca Towers to no avail. I ended my watch at 9:45am smiling from a nice, quiet morning falcon watch! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/aln0hyWnXOg

http://youtu.be/pyVSYibMxHc

http://youtu.be/fLxF3boilLM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was overcast and very humid  this morning with a warm starting temperature of 73 (F) 23 (C)

Click on my pics to see the full version

Normally, after I check the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) I go down St. Paul St. to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) and turn onto it with Times Square ahead of me. Today, I went down State St. and turned onto the BSB with the east side ahead of me and it was a good thing or I would have missed Beauty on the Chase building. She flew off soon after I pulled over, going into a stoop heading southwest over the river. As she got to near the southeast corner of  the Blue Cross Arena I spotted what she was after- a bunch of pigeons! Beauty flew up from underneath them, they scattered and I lost track of Beauty over near Cornhill. That was different-usually, falcons stoop down on their victims. We’re always learning about these amazing creatures!

I checked the river before leaving to look for falcons-from the south side of BSB I looked down and spotted a Black-crowned Night Heron fishing and the usual gang of gulls were on the flats.

40 minutes later after riding around downtown 2 or 3 times I found Dot.Ca (DC) on the east side of Xerox 7th column from the left.

DC remained there for the next half hour looking around the area, stretching and when he was ready to go he pooped and flew off circling the area a couple times and disappearing to the northwest behind Bausch & Lomb.

I didn’t have to look for DC very long-as I came down Broad St. toward the bridge I could see him up on the tippy top of the Times Square building (TSB) on the northwest wing ring. The best place to view him was on Broad St. by the Democrat & Chronicle building where I could be face to face with him. He watched all the little birdies in the area in between preening and rousing.

At 8:35 am DC flew off to the northwest-it would take me 30 minutes to find him again and I wasn’t able to find the Beautyful one. Notice what a big difference just a few inches can do to change the lighting on a subject in the take off shots below.

So I found DC on the large disk of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) from the ASB. I drove over to the City Hall parking lot to watch him eat breakfast.

I drove down to Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage to see if I could observe DC from the front as he had his back to me. I caught a short 3 minutes of him as he finished eating and slipped to the other side of the disk out of view.

Off I went back to the City Hall parking lot where I found DC under the southeast cube. He kept looking down so I grabbed my binocs to have a look-he led me right to his mate-Beauty was in the red section under him.

I had to go to Church St. in front of the Hochstein School of Music in order to see Beauty but I couldn’t see DC’s head-sometimes you have to give up something to gain something in life and falcon watching is no different. Beauty had a full crop which led me to believe that perhaps DC had been eating her leftovers. Beauty was very sleepy and her eyelids were getting very heavy as she finally shut them to take a nap.

I left them to it and on my way home I checked Hawkeye and my building Seneca Towers for falcons but didn’t find any. I ended my watch at 10:15am with a smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/umZryxqgSRY

http://youtu.be/F2x9n2QCoX0

http://youtu.be/v7jHajwPG8w

http://youtu.be/VdDy2-Ry1f4

http://youtu.be/RUUvQ3kpKAc

http://youtu.be/mEO0HvF3kRE

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Back to sunny, blue skies this morning with a starting temperature of  61 (F) 17 (C)

Don’t forget to click on my pics to see the full version

From my first stop-the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB), I spotted Beauty on the base of Mercury.

I went to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) straight away as the sun was making its way up in the eastern sky. Beauty was trying to enjoy the morning as a Yellow-jacket Bee kept buzzing around her.

She kept looking over her shoulder to the east and I thought maybe Dot.C a (DC) was over there and sure enough he came flying in from that direction and landed next to his mate on the base of Mercury. Beauty bowed as he arrived but he wasn’t feeling it as he had one thing on his mind as usual-FOOD!

He kept looking down over the edge and finally decided to fly down to the small ledge below the base for a small leftover pigeon leg that was dangling there. A bunch of relatives to that bee thought they should join him as he assessed the situation in the air before flying below it and rises up to land on the ledge as Peregrines often do.

He spent a couple minutes picking at it then swallowed the leg down. gulp! DC then turned around-he and the Beautyful one looked my way, then at each other, then they spotted something and flew off at the same time to the southwest toward the Cornhill area. Tandem hunt or chasing an intruder-whatever the case, they left in a hurry!

I checked the river and found just ducks and gulls before setting out to find our dynamic duo. As I was south bound on Fitzhugh St. after checking the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) I spotted DC on the north side railing of Widows Walk. About half a minute after I pulled over, he pooped and flew east.

I took a ride to the east side but nobody was over there that I could see. I made my way to the ASB where I noticed one of the parking meters was tipped and almost out of the sidewalk it was bolted to-someone must have been having anger issues or thought they could take it home and get the money out of it. Sheesh! Anyway, I spotted DC over on the top arm, south side of FCT.

I drove to the parking lot next to the Hochstein School of Music for the best view of our funny little man. He was looking for breakfast quite intently at first, then he started preening and a couple times I thought he would fly off as he spread his wings but he was just airing out I guess.

Around 8am Larry and his dog Harold stopped by for a quick visit, then off they went to check from the BSB. DC continued to entertain me until 8:40am when he leisurely flew off to the west.

I rode around downtown looking for Beauty and DC for the next 45 minutes and decided to check the OCSR elevator shaft. Parked on Bragdon Place by the Radisson Hotel where I could see the south side ledge, I saw nothing. Ah, but alas as I was just about to leave I spotted a falcon flying near FCT and it was headed my way. It was DC who took a right when he got past OCSR and went right straight up to the south side ledge where I had just checked!  What a lucky catch that was!

I left him and made one more effort to find Beauty but had no such luck. I checked the Hawkeye plant on St. Paul St., the Kodak research building on Lake Ave., the Kodak Park west power plant on Weiland Rd.. Medley Center (Irondequoit Mall) on East Ridge Road and last my own Seneca Towers building to no avail. I ended my watch at 10:05am. DC certainly had me smiling on this first morning of September! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/bR_He2SA1CI

http://youtu.be/I8DzgMFyG9o

http://youtu.be/IHv4ltj1qZk

http://youtu.be/JuQ3PRNGqW4

http://youtu.be/uZOkSMHYN28