For those of you not following on twitter, facebook, kfalconcam, or the rfalconcam forum, Beauty has been sighted several time over the past week in the downtown area.

11/16 – Beauty decided that this territory was worth defending.  RTH goes DOWN! into the gorge.  Kakking heard!

11/17 – Falcon on jail Comm Tower.  Coop in the gorge.

11/18 – Falcon on Civic Center and Frontier Comm towers. Sharp-shinned hawk on Skye’s Building being harassed by gulls.

11/21 – Beauty spotted on Midtown

http://tinyurl.com/yf3yc2a

Well, as you saw from my tweet, we saw Mariah at St Ann’s today.  First I checked downtown.  I scoured the area and had no luck finding a falcon.  Although we’ve had recent sightings of a falcon assumed to be Beauty over the past few days.  Jim P had a falcon on the communication tower on Thursday.  Brian H had one on the communication tower Friday afternoon, he thought Beauty.  Joyce had Beauty on old Changing Scene’s this afternoon.  I have to start wondering if MAYBE Archer has left the area. 

OK, time to head for St Ann’s and Medley Mall.  I was sitting on the north side of the square St. Ann’s when the pigeons took off.  I watched them swerve here and there and then, MARIAH!  WooHoo!  The Queen was in full chase mode.  She chased a few of them over the woods where I lost sight of them, heading towards the Medley Center.

I waited for awhile, but she didn’t return.  So, I decided to head over to the mall.  She wasn’t there, but I did spot fellow Watcher Dan S.  He was just leaving, so I followed him back to St Ann’s.  We found Mariah on an antenna at the top of the circular St Ann’s (which by the way is not coming down for a couple of years).  She stooped to the south and flew back and forth over Rochester General Hospital. We lost sight of her, so we weren’t sure if her hunt was successful.

Did I mention it was raining the whole time?  and very, very windy.  Lots of leaves blowing everywhere.

Kathy O joined us and we went back over to the mall.  After about a 1/2 hour, Dan said his goodbyes and Kathy and I returned to St. Ann’s, back on the north side.

Mariah was back.  She was imitating a kite so well, just floating above the square St. Ann’s bldg.  How does she do that!!!  It’s as if she isn’t moving a muscle, just hanging on the wind.  The pigeons weren’t happy and all took flight.  Mariah didn’t seem interested, so we can only assume that she had been successfull on her earlier hunt.   

She gracefully floated off towards the north.  Kathy and I waited for her to return, but she didn’t.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

After hearing from Jim P, Dana and Dan that Mariah was at the Medley Mall this afternoon, I decided to head over there after work and this is what I saw.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=247822164805%3A81044749

or tinyurl

http://tinyurl.com/yffjmsw

It’s so nice seeing Mariah again.  🙂

From Rochester Falcon Watcher – Carol P.

Well, its been a really long time since my last post.  This is a Watch Report that I’ve been wanting to post for a very long time.

Yesterday, Dana reported seeing a Falcon at the Medley Ctr in Irondequoit, NY at noon.  This is a suburb of Rochester, just north of the city.  It was a dark, overcast day and she only had a small camera with her.  When I enlarged the picture, I was pretty sure this bird was banded on the right leg.  Now let’s speed to Saturday morning.

Dana called me just before 11 am.  I was at work and I was just getting ready to leave.  She and Lou had just watched a Falcon eating a Pigeon at the Medley Ctr, near Macy’s.  When the Falcon finished eating, it flew to another part of the Mall, landing on top of a peaked, glass roof.  She and Lou had to leave, so I told her that I would be picking up Brian soon and that we’d head over to the Mall.

The Falcon was still on  the peaked glass roof of the Mall when we got there.  I set up the new Watcher’s Scope (thanks everyone!) and we had our first close-up views.  Brian said “I see a band on the right foot!”  I took a look through the scope just in time to see the right foot come up for a quick scratch.  “Blue with a yellow racing stripe!!!”  Woo Hoo!  It was Mariah and she was looking MARVELOUS!

As Brian and I were doing our happy Falcon dance, we started making phone calls to all the Watchers we could think of.  Before long, Watchers started to arrive from near and far.  Let’s see, there was Brian, Dan S, Larry O, Kathy O, Lisa McK, Dawn, Joyce, Ginny, Dana, Lou, Lynda and Carol P.  I think that’s everyone.

While we were Watching Mariah, a car pulled up.  It was Cornpoppy!  He had a friend with him and had just been on his way to Sears, when he saw some familiar folks just milling around the parking lot with binoculars, cameras and a scope.

Mariah made some short flights around the Mall, returning to the glass peaked roof three times.  The last time she flew off was around 3:00 pm.  She headed east where we lost sight of her.

John Carlos arrived just after Mariah left.

She looked wonderful, no evidence of the wound on her chest.  This was the first time we had been able to positively ID Mariah since she left the downtown area.  I’ll bet you all know where the Falcon Watchers will be tomorrow morning.  😉

So many thanks to Dana for being the first one to spot Mariah at the Medley Mall!

UPDATE:  Below is the URL to a KGallery Album with pictures from today’s watch.  No sign on needed.  Enjoy!  Carol P.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=177714\
154805%3A1331327141

or tiny url:

http://tinyurl.com/ylabqwj

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.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

From 9-9:30 am, I sat in front of KP. Barely any birds were flying. My phone rang and it was Brian H. I picked him up and we checked out Hawkeye (no Kestrels), downtown Rochester (no Archer or Beauty), the building that Beauty and Zephyr hung out at (no Zephyr). Then back to the city. We were batting zero. No Falcons, barely any birds at all.

Around noon we headed back to Kodak Park. Brian H and I were watching a couple of Red-tail Hawks hunting the area. Then a white Mourning Dove buzzed through.  Couldn’t tell if it was albino or not.

Just after this bird passed through, I looked back at the Research Lab bldg.
There was a bird flying just to the left of it. I yelled out “FALCON” to Brian
and we watched an adult Peregrine fly higher and higher, passing over us,
heading southeast seemingly on a hunt. It was definitely an adult Peregrine and I’m pretty darn sure I saw a split wing tip. 🙂

The Falcon flew so high, we lost sight of it in the beautiful blue sky. No
clouds to help us keep it in sight.

I can’t be 100% sure that it was Mariah, but I hope it was.

We were soon joined by Kathy O and we waited for close to two hours hoping that the Falcon would return. While we waited, the Red-tails returned. A Kestrel flew over Kodak Park and a Sharp-shined Hawk hunted Pigeons there. It was a very eventful Watch.

I had to get going, so Kathy took Brian H downtown for another look and they found a Falcon on the top I-Beam of the old Changing Scenes Restaurant.

Carol P.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher, Carol P.

Archer and Beauty have been staying very close to the Times Square Bldg and what we believe will be their chosen nest site next year.  I look forward to seeing young Falcons in Rochester again next year, if all goes well.

There have been very few Falcon sightings at Kodak Park over the past few weeks and no positive ID’s on Mariah.  We’ll keep an eye on that area and report any Falcon sightings.

We had an unusual sighting at the Hawkeye nest box on Sunday morning.  Kathy O called me to say that 3 Kestrels were battling with a murder of Crows.  By the time I arrived, the battle was almost over.  The Kestrels flew off to the East and the Crows continued to bicker amonst themselves.  Some of them actually landed on and in the nest box.

Hmmmmm, wonder what that was all about?

Keep your eyes to the sky!

Carol P.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I’ll start by saying that I do not believe that it was Mariah.  That being said………………..

I first checked out the Kodak Park area, but had no luck spotting any Falcons there.  So it was time to head downtown.

I found two Falcons on the north side of the old Changing Scene’s Restaurant (OCSR) at 10:30 am.  I assumed that it was Archer and Beauty.

At 11:30 am, Beauty took off flying up to the nest box on the Times Square Bldg.  Archer remained on the north side of OCSR.  I parked over on the Broad St. Bridge, facing west, towards the Times Square Bldg.  I had a nice view of Beauty sitting on the perch in front of the nest box.

All was quiet.  Until noon that is.  At 12:00, Beauty took off, flying towards the east, over my head and continuing on towards the Bausch and Lomb Bldg.  Archer was right behind her.  Then I saw what got their attention.  A 3rd Falcon had entered their air space and they weren’t happy.

Ee-chupping filled the air as the three Falcons came together above me.  There was some talon-tagging, but it didn’t last long.  Almost immediately, Beauty broke off and returned to the nest box.  Archer flew to the north west, and the 3rd Falcon continued off to the south west.  Again all was quiet.

My opinion is that this was a Peregrine migrating through the area and had no intention of attempting to take over Archer and Beauty’s territory.  I don’t believe that it was Mariah.

At 12:20, Archer joined Beauty in the nest box and I could see them bowing to each other.  A couple minutes later, Archer flew out of the nest box and landed on the south side of the Wilder Bldg.

At 12:30, Archer took off of the Wilder Bldg and flew around the building I was parked next to.  I was not able to find where he went.

At 2:00 pm, Joyce joined me and I left her to keep Watch.  Beauty was still at the nest box.

On my way home, I checked out the Kodak Tower and found a Red-tail Hawk sitting on top of the netting at the playpen level on the NW corner.  That would never have happened if Mariah and Kaver were around.

Carol P.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Lots of Watchers were out this weekend looking for Mariah, Archer and Beauty.  I had no luck finding Mariah, but Archer and Beauty were hanging out near the Times Square nest box.  I’ve put tother a KGallery album to share.  The first few pictures are of Archer and Beauty from this morning (Sunday, 8/23).  The rest of the pictures are of things I’ve seen over the past week.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=171aim5l.8j05m0vp&x=0&y=9eja2o&localeid=en_US

Enjoy!

Carol P.

From Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It was a really hot, humid day today, so Dan and I planned on getting out to Kodak Park early this morning to hopefully see Mariah or the unbanded Juvie.

Dan and I were sitting on the street on the gorge side (east) of KP. At 7:15 am, Mariah flew in from the south, low over us and then up to the Research Lab Bldg. where she circled the building and landed on the antenna.

For 45 minutes we were able to get really close looks at her through the scope.   Her left leg was bandless, but I was unable to see the right leg to verify the blue/yellow band.

I am 99.9% sure this was Mariah. It looked like Mariah.

Kathy O joined me near the building and took a look through the scope. She agreed that it was Mariah.

At 8:00 am, she flew off of the building and headed towards the gorge. We
didn’t see her again after that.

It was wonderful seeing her looking so well.  She was beautiful in the early morning light.  

Needless to say, Dan, Kathy and I will be out again tomorrow morning.

Afterwards, I picked up Brian H, and we drove around downtown. We found Archer on the Widows Peak building. No Beauty sightings.

Carol P