From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I spent a few hours watching Archer and Beauty on Sunday.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and they were quite active.  Twice on Sunday, Archer hunted successfully and brought in food for Beauty while she remained at the nestbox guarding the eggs. 

The first time Archer brought in prey and prepared it on top of the Times Square bldg.  When he finished, Archer flew down to the nestbox and Beauty accepted his offer.  She flew over to the Wilder Bldg across the street to enjoy her meal while Archer remained at the nestbox.

The 2nd time was early afternoon.  Archer flew in with prey and landed on top of the Times Square bldg, this time at the NW wing.  Archer had barely landed when a very vocal Beauty flew out of the nestbox and landed next to him.  Well, you can see what happened in this video. 

I apologize for the jumpiness of the video.  My next camera will have image stabilization.  🙂

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d43KB98b1rg

by Lou

We had a beautiful day for a Falcon Watch today. Quite a few people showed up to enjoy the nice weather and sunshine. Watchers included Dana, Carol P, Kathy O, Joyce, Brian, Dawn, Larry O, Jeanne, new watchers Dave and Diane, and myself.

As far as falcon watch activitiy, there really wasn’t that much happening in the morning (Dana and I got there around 9:00 am) – we had one spotted on top of Times Square that pretty much stayed there most of the morning. The Rochester city crew was out on the Main Street bridge removing the log-jam of trees and debris in the Genesee River at the bridge, providing us with some non-falcon related entertainment. I have some pics in the attached album showing how they used a large crane to pull trees up onto the bridge where they sawed them into smaller sizes and loaded them into trucks for removal. Some of the trees they pulled out of the river were 80’ monsters. They only did about a third of the logjam so my guess is that they’ll be out again tomorrow morning, weather dependent.

As more people showed up, we had one falcon fly near Xerox before it returned to Times Square. We also had a Kestrel visitor that Archer chased. The Kestrel landed on a fire escape across from the nestbox and we think it may have escaped into the building through an open window after Archer flew down to him. Eventually, Archer gave up and flew back up to Times Square.

We left in the afternoon with Archer on top of Times Square near the wings and Beauty on the ledge of the nestbox.

Click on the picture in this report to check out the pics. (Log-in required)

Lou

Sorry it took so long to post this but I’ve had a busy few days.  I got a couple of chances to get out and watch the falcons over the holiday weekend.  Here’s the first of two falcon watches, this one from Good Friday.

http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/04/good-friday-for-falcon-watching.html

Jim

By Lou

Dana, Carol P and myself spent the morning out on the Broad Street Bridge watching Beauty and Archer. We had a few interesting observations, including seeing A & B copulate on Mercury’s moneybag and seeing Archer catch a Woodpecker. We saw a couple of other falcons too, including a Kestrel and a juvenile Peregrine. Non-falcon sightings include a drake Merganser, the discovery of a secret Pigeon hide-out, and an evil Green-Garbed Gnome peering out of the Reuters building, giving Carol the heebie jeebies.

To me, the highlight was seeing Archer catch the Woodpecker. It was the first time I’ve seen a falcon actually catch a bird like that and Archer made it look effortless. He easily snatched the bird out of the air near the Convention Center after chasing it horizontally across the river. I have some pictures in the attached album (click on the pic)… it looks to be a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker that he caught.

– Lou

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It was another very warm, beautiful day in Rochester, NY, temps in the 80’s (F).  I headed downtown for a morning Watch.  Beauty was on the Mercury statue’s outstretched hand (which holds what appears to be a bag of coin/gold).  Archer was on top of Xerox near the NW corner.  Soon after I parked my car on the Broad St. Bridge, Dana and Lou joined me.

Archer and Beauty flew around the area landing on different buildings, including the nest box on the Times Square Bldg.

At one point, Archer chased a small bird over the river (Genesee River), successfully catching it over the RG&E building on the east side of the river.  He carried it to the communication tower just south of the Times Square Bldg.  Beauty was  inside the nest box at this time.

After awhile, Beauty flew out of the nest box and landed, once again, on Mercury’s hand.  Her tail lifted and I quickly switched my camera to video, focused it on Beauty and waited.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Dana, Lou and I witnessed Archer and Beauty copulating on top of the Mercury statue.  Here’s the link to my video posted in YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Mqo6LTOjM

We walked back to our cars and were joined by MAK.  We talked for awhile and saw Beauty and Archer fly up to the Times Square building.  Beauty landed under the NE Wing and Archer under the SE Wing.  Beauty had food and feathers were flying.

The temps were rising and by 11:30 am, it was time to leave.

I came back for an hour between 5:00 – 6:00 pm, joining fellow Watchers, Joyce, Brian H, Dana, Lou and Marcia.  Beauty was preening and dozing on top of the Times Square building and Archer flew in to land on the top I-Beam of the old Changing Scenes Restaurant (OCSR) aka First Federal building.

Beauty flew off of the Times Square building and landed on the south end of the Cross Rds building.  Archer took off and copulated with Beauty.  He returned to his spot on the OCSR and Beauty remained where she was.

It was time for me to head home with plans to return early Easter Sunday morning.

by Larry O’Heron
7:00 Cleo (my new Catahoula Leopard dog) and I arrived at the Broad St bridge with coffee, doughnut and binoculars in hand. Following the rules of being a good alpha, Cleo did not get access to the coffee or doughnut, but I gave her unlimited viewing thru the binoculars. We quickly spied Beauty on Mercury but no sign of Archer.

7:10 While walking up Court St towards the Civic Center, and having just stepped off the bridge, I saw Archer flying in from the west over the Civic Center Plaza. As he crossed over Exchange St, he went over the War Memorial and I lost sight of him. Cleo and I scooted back to the Court St bridge but did not see him. Beauty however was still on Mercury. So we headed up the War Memorial parkway to Broad St to return to our starting observation point.

7:20 On the Broad St bridge and looking for Archer, I caught him again coming up Broad St towards Xerox. He passed over head e-chupping. Meanwhile, Beauty flew from Mercury to the scrape. Once again Archer went behind buildings and I lost sight of him.

7:30 Continuing to look, I saw Archer kiting on the wind over Lincoln First. He stayed there several minutes and then began a drift over to Xerox. Somewhere between Xerox and B&L, he kited again. Keeping an eye on him, as I was sure that he was hunting, he started his run. He began with about a 20 degree descent towards Main St with his wings still out. He continued the pace until he pulled his wings in which is when he stooped in earnest. He rocket-speed drop took him behind the Hyatt. He must have increased his angle of attack because I did not see him come out the other side, and I should have.

7:40 Archer showed up at the scrape where he landed just under the southeast wing. He stayed a minute and then took off. Now I clearly saw him with a package. He headed over to the elevator shaft where he flew in, cached the package and came back out, flying around to the other side.

7:50 Cleo and I drove over to Andrews St and quickly located Archer on the top i-beam. We left him there to return home for some breakfast.

I spent the lunch hour downtown watching Archer and Beauty today.  It wasn’t wall-to-wall action, but there was a bit of excitement.  Read about it in my latest blog post:
http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/03/aborted-ardor-marks-midday-peregrine.html

By Larry O’Heron
Pulled up on the Broad St bridge with another 6″ meatball sub, but today in tie and nice clothes. I need to eat something that is less messy.
Anyway, Beauty was at the box with Archer nowhere to be seen. Eventually Beauty flew low over Exchange towards the Wilder Bldg. I lost sight of her, and did not see her reappear.
However Archer (several minutes) later came out from that direction and went to OCSR.
It was after that when Beauty soared high overhead, slowly drifting and meandering off to the northwest. Watching her, I did not see Archer take off.
Jim P showed up and we chatted for awhile on a very nice day, standing over the turbulent spring waters of the Genesee River. Soon enough it was time to return to work.

Stopped by the Broad St bridge with a Subway’s meatball sandwich and caught sight of Dan S, sitting in a chair on the bridge, and apparently not up to a whole lot. He directed me to a parking spot (charging $5.00 in the process) and briefed me on the location of falcons. One on Ocsr and the other unlocated, whereupon I spied it on Mercury. Dan S cursed and grumbled about how sneaky peregrines are and we settled into a very, bery blustery watch.
The highlight came when a crow flew between them and the scrape. First Archer (from OCSR) and then Beauty (from Mercury) took off to bedevil the poor corvid, but it was short-lived as the crow kept moving out of the area of the scrape.  … by Larry O’Heron

From Rochester Falcon Watcher ~Joyce

There was lots of flying and courtship activity this weekend. Saturday was nice and sunny, but Sunday afternoon became windy, cloudy and rainy.  Despite the change in weather, my watch was rewarding.  Here are some pictures from Saturday and Sunday’s afternoon watches.

http://picasaweb.google.com/wnyfalconwatcher/ArcherBeautyMarch27March282010

Or, enjoy them in a slideshow http://tinyurl.com/yj5ds9s

~Joyce (aka wnyfalconwatcher on Picasa)