By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a mild, mostly cloudy morning with no rain and a temperature of 60 (F) 16 (C)

My first sighting this morning from the Broad St. Bridge was big beautiful Cadence on the top ibeam west corner of OCSR-I drove over to State St. across from the Rochester Plaza Hotel to get closer. You could tell she was looking for her family and she eventually started walking on the ibeam. After getting halfway across she flew off over to the northwest corner of Crossroads.

I left Cadence to look for the rest of the family and as I sat at the traffic light at Church and State St. Beauty and Genesee flew to the south side platform railing of the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT). As I parked on Fitzhugh in front of the Sister Cities parking garage Dot.ca (DC) appeared on the top arm. Beauty was on the southwest corner and Genesee was a few feet to her right on the railing. Genesee had a lot to say to her as she tried to ignore him. I’m sure he wanted breakfast and was demanding she go get some!

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Larry was on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls and reported that he could see DC but not Beauty and Genesee around 7am. A couple minutes later the Beautyful one and DC flew south in a hurry-Genesee remained and DC returned to land on the middle arm this time. Around 7:15am DC flew to the west out of my view, but Larry said he saw him go near Dutchtown and he didn’t stoop or show a defensive posture.

I left Genesee at this time and as I was driving north on Exchange Blvd. I saw at least 2 falcons fly to the northwest corner of Crossroads. I pulled over and took a pic of one and then I drove down to State St. where there was another on the north side. I don’t know if it was the same bird that moved while I was enroute or if it was a 2nd one. 5 minutes later I spotted Beauty flying from the south with food  toward FCT and the juvie flew off after her. When I got over to Fitzhugh St. I saw them jump down to the platform and then there were feathers flying from the south side.

I saw movement and then a juvie walked to the north side of the platform and flew up to the north side platform railing. I went down to the City Hall parking lot to watch and a few minutes later I saw Beauty fly up to the west side platform railing through an opening in the platform. She did some feaking and preening while Genesee flew off after DC who came streaking through from the north-they headed south. Beauty actually announced DC’s approach .

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Suddenly I heard a juvie whining so Cadence must have been on the platform eating the leftovers. DC came back to the middle arm and flew off again. A minute later Beauty flew after a kestrel, hitting it over Church St.-it started losing altitude as it flew toward me and then she went after it again and they went out of view over the Sister Cities garage.

I decided to leave and check for the Seneca Towers falcons-I keep hoping to see a juvie or more but no luck in that category yet. As I was crossing the Veterans Memorial Bridge I spotted a falcon on the top window ledge at the north end of the building but it flew off before I could get to a spot where I could pull over. I had a look around the entire building and waited a bit but it never returned so I ended my watch at 9:30am. Seeing all 4 downtown falcons was more than enough to make me smile on watch this morning! 🙂

Click on the links below to see today’s videos

http://youtu.be/lqzsaG969RI

http://youtu.be/O29_c_nQYaA

http://youtu.be/ITSvOqGS3ME

http://youtu.be/aZGvkWNq9m0

http://youtu.be/ADQTzb08uPo

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

6:00 to 9:00 pm

Watchers: Kathy O, Larry O, Dan S and Carol P.

After a day of dark clouds and threats of rain during the afternoon, it was a beautiful evening.  There were still dark clouds moving through, but we were happy to see some bright sunshine too.

Kathy and I arrived downtown about the same time.  My first stop was Kodak Office, where I found Dot.ca on the southeast corner of the launch pad.  He left a few minutes later.

Next I checked out the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) and found no falcons there.  From Broad St, I spotted Beauty on Mercury’s heel.

While I was tweeting Beauty’s position, Kathy O and Larry O were reporting that there were 3 falcons in the sky, flying over the river.

I hurried out to the Broad St Bridge to join them.  We were thrilled to watch the two juvies flying so well, soaring high above. Cadence settled on the east side of the Cross Rds Bldg and Beauty took off heading west.  We did not see where Genesee went.

All was quiet and we had no falcons in view.  Larry said he was going to head to the gorge.  We were hoping that they might head that way soon.  Kathy and I were going to join him, but on our way we spotted Beauty on Widow’s Walk (WW).  While we were checking out Beauty, Kathy noticed that there was a juvie below her on the old City Hall (OCH) roof eating.  I got the scope out and was able to positively ID the juvie as Genesee.

We are pretty sure it was pigeon on the menu.  Beauty flew down and landed next to Genesee.  He did not like that at all and showed his displeasure by mantling the food and screaming at her.

After a few moments, Genesee went back to eating his dinner.  Beauty moved in closer, and he again screamed at her and mantled the food.  She would back up and attempt to move in on him 3 times with the same results.  On her 4th try, she walked right up to him and around him to the other side.  Genesee took a nip at her and then continued his meal.  Finally he seemed to have his fill and he backed away from the food.  Beauty moved in once again, this time she was successful.  That’s when Genesee moved in on her. He nipped at her chest a couple times and then kicked her!  Beauty had enough of his shenanigans and flew over to the top of a nearby chimney.  There wasn’t much left.  She took a few bites of food and then cached the remainder on the same roof in a corner.  That’s when we noticed that Dot.ca arrived when we weren’t looking.  He was on the northeast corner of WW.

First Genesee took off heading east and then Beauty took off heading north.  Dot.ca remained on Widow’s Walk.  Soon after this, we received the following tweets from Larry O.  “Falcon in the gorge.  Probable juvenile.” “Tagging the cliffs.”  ” Gorge Falcon landed underneath the sandy wash.”  Well, you know where Kathy and I were headed.  TO THE GORGE!  lol

We arrived at the pedestrian bridge, joining both Larry O and Dan S.  They pointed out where the juvie landed, beneath the pipe below the observation deck.  These are the only two pictures I got before the juvie took off, flew in front of the falls and headed south towards downtown.  I was just so happy to see a falcon on the gorge wall.  This is my favorite place to watch falcons!

I wish I had time to ID this juvie before it left.  We ended our watch in familiar surroundings, watching the falcons fly over the downtown area.  Just before 9:00 pm, they settled down.  It was time for us to end our watch.  I’ll leave you with a few pictures I took while we were watching from the pedestrian bridge.  Good night!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Overcast and threatening rain- it only sprinkled briefly with a temperature of 63 (F) 17 (C)

I decided to stop on the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) first today and I didn’t have any trouble spotting Cadence and Genesee on the railing below Mercury. I drove to the hole to share space with them from closer range. Cadence turned out to be the antagonizer on this occasion as she walked from the northwest corner over to the northeast corner next to her brother. After a little wing displaying and kissee face she flew southeast and he followed right behind. I drove up to the Broad St. bridge (BSB) and found Beauty on the south side of the Hyatt Hotel.

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Genesee came flying in screaming as he harassed mom until she flew off. They went opposite directions but then hooked up again over Xerox. There was a lot of flying together with Genesee zooming behind her then breaking away with some near misses. They both stooped to the southeast and pulled up before going out of sight-man that was cool! They were winging it all over the east side and then they disappeared to the north behind the Hyatt.

Next I found Beauty on the middle arm of the Frontier Communications tower (FCT) and a juvie flew in screamimg, knocked her off the arm and took her place. The Beautyful one flew to her favorite perch on FCT, the northeast cube. The juvie flew to Widows Walk (WW) and came to rest on the north side railing then took off and headed northeast around 7am. I found Cadence on the north side of Crossroads then she flew off out of view to the south end of it. I went down to the hole to look for her and found Dot.ca (DC) on the southwest side top ibeam of OCSR-he was plucking feathers from prey. Not for long, as Cadence came flying in quite noisily and grabbed the food from him and took off with it to the east. DC flew west out of view.

I found DC on the top arm of FCT while Beauty was on OCSR top ibeam south corner. I noticed a juvie on the roof just before it flew away. I ended up on the ASB and could see a juvie on a Wilder building roof vent then I watched a falcon flying near Times Square then it went over to the top arm of FCT.

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I noticed a falcon flying over Crossroads then the juvie on Wilder flew off and landed on the City Place roof vent where the other juvie was waiting for it. They did some flapping and moving around and then Genesee flew off and started buzzing Cadence who held her ground until Genesee rejoined her. They both took off when I wasn’t looking and next thing I knew they were flying near Kodak Office chasing and talon tagging all the way across past FCT and vanishing behind City Place. It’s so much fun to watch juvies play on the wing!

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After taking a break I returned to City Hall as I could see an adult on the bottom arm of FCT-it kept looking down at the platform and I thought there might be a juvie down there eating. The adult left as I was looking at a juvie on the north side railing of the Powers building. I took a ride around and returned when I saw an adult on the middle arm of FCT looking down again and I could hear a juvie whining so now I was convinced one of the kids was on the platform.

I left at this point to go home and look for the Seneca Towers falcons. Nobody was on or near the building that I could see but when I drove down East Ridge Rd. to get gas I spotted a falcon flying near the Keeler Apartments, another high rise about a quarter mile from Seneca Towers to the east. I didn’t see where it went after I got a glimpse of it. I ended my watch at 10am smiling as I had been so entertained by our juvies Cadence and Genesee this morning! 🙂

Click on the links below to view today’s videos-the last one showing Beauty and Genesee flying together

http://youtu.be/TyALjbXpGf0

http://youtu.be/2r1XoYm7B7E

http://youtu.be/kdzfXS8XSsE