First of Year 2019 Falcon Watch Report – 3/17/19
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
It’s was a long, cold Winter. Finally, Spring has sprung (although it’s still cold – Brrrrrr!) and love is in the air for our Rochester Peregrine Falcon pair. Beauty and Dot.ca have been seen mating and hanging out at the Times Square Bldg nest box. Can’t wait to see their first egg. 🙂
I, and other Watchers, have been keeping an eye on our Rochester Falcons, Beauty & Dot.ca and Billie and her new beau, an unbanded tiercel. I got a really nice look at them this past weekend.
Sunday, 3/17/19
Downtown:
From the Court St Bridge, I could see that Dot.ca was inside the Times Sq Bldg (TSB) nest box.
I got out of my car to check out the river, which was living up to it’s name, the Mighty Genesee River. The water was raging from the Spring thaw, flowing south to north, towards Lake Ontario.
I drove over to Aqueduct St (aka “the hole”) and found fellow falcon watcher Dana watching Beauty up on the Wilder Bldg.
Dana told me that I had just missed Beauty and Dot.ca mating up there.
After awhile, Beauty took off and flew up to the nest box. We could hear them chupping, so I’m sure they were bowing to each other.
Dot.ca flew out of the nest box and landed on the Wilder Bldg green strip.
Seneca Tower Area
All was quiet and peaceful, so Dana and I headed over to the west side of the river across from Seneca Towers. We met up with fellow watcher Ron K, who had spotted both Billie and her new beau in the trees on the west side of the gorge. I was glad he was there to point them out, because I sure would have had a hard time finding them.
<—- Billie
<— Billie’s beau
He is unbanded and such a cute little guy. So happy she found a new mate after the loss of Seth.
They both took off and flew together over the river. It was time for us to end our watch.
Ron walks through this area quite often and has been keeping an eye on them. He has seen them mating. Ron sent me a few recent pictures he’s taken of Billie and her beau and has given me permission to share them in my report. Thanks Ron!
Pictures by Ron Kalasinskas
<— Billie
And her beau…..
March 23rd, 2019 at 4:51 PM
YAYYYYY!!! The falcons are back, and Carol P, Dana, Ron & friends are back, too. Spring is a’ comin’,
Woo Hoo!! What a winter it’s been. (I like that word, “been.”)
We, the denizens of N California, have been swamped by the Pacific Ocean’s Atmospheric River, dumping great quantities of liquid precipitation. I assume that you in upstate NY have experienced a largish fallout of solid precipitation from the Polar Vortex. Ahh, the meteorological community is going poetic on us all.
Anyway, I am delighted to see fresh falcon pix and stories about The Pair. Glad to know that Billie has a new beau– who will name him?
Thanks for all you do.
m
March 23rd, 2019 at 8:38 PM
Billie’s new beau is very handsome. Thank you for the report and photos.
March 23rd, 2019 at 8:59 PM
Thanks for the report and great pics! I’m so glad Billie’s found a new mate!
March 23rd, 2019 at 9:10 PM
Nice pictures, Carol and Ron, and nice report, Carol. Thank you! And welcome back to watch reports. Of course I knew you didn’t really take a vacation from watching. You, Dana, Larry, Joyce and Kathy have been out there keeping an eye on our precious birds during the off season. I am very grateful for that. I’ve been checking periodically myself, ST more than downtown, but I should get out there more often. No time like the present, I know.
By the way, I am always glad to see a clear band id for Billie, and I was for Seth as well.
March 24th, 2019 at 6:49 AM
Thank-you and welcome back to blogging, Carol P.
While I have been following the Twitter posts in the forum, eagerly absorbing each posted photo and reading the chat under the video options, I am glad to read a consolidated and illustrated (welcome to the website, Ron) report. I’m especially glad to read about matings. Down in Harrisburg (where they have three eggs) it seems the falcons were doing it on camera every hour or so for a while, and we can see nothing of that kind of activity from Rochester cameras – different options, of course. Now I am looking for Beauty spending nights by the box so she can be in the scrape when her time comes…
March 26th, 2019 at 1:10 PM
Hi Carol! Happy Spring!!! I know Seth past away but do you know what happened to him?