Weekend Falcon Watch Reports – 9/26 & 9/27/09 – 3 Falcons Sighted Downtown
These Watch reports came in from the weekend. I wanted to pull them all together in one report, especially since there was a 3rd Falcon sighting downtown.
Saturday – 9/26/09………………
From Rochester Falcon Watcher Dan S:
Approximately 11 am, Dan spotted three birds flying just south of the Kodak Tower. It was 3 Peregrines and there was a little bit of talon tag going on. Not overly aggressive according to Dan. One Falcon landed on the K-Tower and the other two headed north, down the river.
From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P:
At 11:25 am, I found a Peregrine on the K-Tower, NE corner launchpad. Five minutes later, the Falcon took off, heading south. After a little bit of searching, I found two Falcons on the old Changing Scenes Restaurant, north side.
Dan and I both thought the Falcon on the K-Tower was probably Archer.
Sunday, 9/27/09………….
From Rochester Falcon Watcher Joyce M:
5:35 pm – 1 pefa on Changing Scenes north side 2nd I-beam.
6:05 pm – No pefa on OCS. 1 falcon on top communication tower. Flew off to south.
6:15 pm –
😀 Yippee! I saw a falcon flying! 1 on jail tower. Still looking for 2nd pefa.
From Rochester Falcon Watcher Lou C.
Dana and I headed downtown a little after 6:00 pm today and saw three falcons flying around the Widows Peak and the Civic Center.
When we first arrived, we had a falcon on the top arm of the Frontier Communication tower. It flew south towards Main Street. We headed out after it and found who we think was Beauty, eating on the Widow’s Peak. It suddenly abandoned its’ food and flew off going south. After driving around looking for it, we spotted two falcons on the Communication Tower at the Court House.
They then flew off, going north. We drove again and found two on back on the Widow’s Peak. We believe it was Archer and Beauty.
That’s when we spotted a third falcon flying about 30 feet over them, flying south. One took off and after a minute or so, we heard echups. (?) At one point, Dana thought there may have been four falcons, however, we could only confirm three.
It was getting dark, so we headed off, leaving one on the Widow’s Peak and one on the Communication Tower at the Court House.
Unfortunately, I had my short lens on and didn’t get any detailed pictures. I also missed the picture of the third falcon. But definitely, there were three.
Don’t know what to make of this. We speculated that it was Mariah, or that it was the wintering pair returning, or that it was just one migrating through. Who knows? But an any rate, it was nice to see some peregrines today!
Here’s a link to some pictures I took: http://tinyurl.com/yc4cdk2
It just goes to show you that multiple Watchers out and about at the same time can see different things. Amazing!
Carol P.
September 29th, 2009 at 6:14 AM
Yippee!!!! Falcons!!!! I want to believe one of them is Mariah.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:06 AM
Great reports – thank you!!
September 29th, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Sometime last week there was a tweet that indicated one falcon on the Kodak tower and extremely shortly thereafter two at another location and I did think “Mariah in her old haunts”. Who knows [shrug].
That there is not so much aggressivity does not surprise me; this is not breeding season, but wandering season and falcons probably encounter one another with more equanimity.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:15 AM
Three weeks and no new Falconwatch entry. Are you phasing out this forum? If so, just say so.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:08 PM
No, we’re not Alison. There just hasn’t been much happening here lately. A&B have stopped visiting the nest box over the last couple weeks. We have been seeing them less and less. There have been some reports of a 3rd Falcon. Yesterday, I saw two Falcons soaring over Rochester, definitely a male and female.
There really hasn’t been much to report on.
Falcon sightings are also posted under Falcon Watches on the new Forum, including “tweets” from the field.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:25 PM
But the tweets are pretty cryptic, your reports in this space were much more informative, Carol P.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:19 PM
I agree. Tweets are nice to leave a quick, short message, but they don’t allow for much content in each message.
Today we had 1 falcon on the communication tower at noon. When I left work at 4:10 pm, there was a falcon sitting in the same spot.
No falcons have been seen in the nest box since Oct 11th. Behavior seems to be changing. Should be interesting to see if Archer or Beauty migrate, and if they do, will Mariah return to the downtown area?
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:08 AM
Thank-you. I love whole sentences and few abreviations. It will be interesting and we out here in the wide world rely on your eyes (and fingers) to help us follow the story.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:08 PM
10/22 – Noon Hr – Lisa McK, Dan S and I enjoyed lots of flying by a falcon we believe was Beauty due to the darker coloring. I have to say, when I saw her flying around the K-Tower, I truly hoped that it was Mariah, but I don’t believe it was.
The Falcon went into a very long shallow stoop off of the K-Tower to the north. Not quite sure what got her attention.
She then flew down the river gorge towards us, over the Genessee Brewery and pigeons were everywhere!
For the whole noon hour, we got quite the aerial display. It was quite windy and this Falcon was enjoying the day. Lots of flying over the downtown area and multiple stoops. Definitely in hunt mode.
A very enjoyable noon hour Watch.
Carol P.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:14 AM
Sounds wonderful and, after all that watching in vain, very rewarding as well. Thank-you.
March 24th, 2010 at 7:25 AM
My name is Corey
Simply wished to lead off by stating
Thanks Admins !
I am new member on this site and Thank You for providing such a wonderful community !