By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a bit warmer this morning but the clouds were locked in and light rain fell throughout my watch with a starting temperature of  50 (F) 10 (C)

Click on the pics to see the full version

Neither Billie or 99 were around again this morning-I saw Billie a couple days ago but haven’t seen 99 in a few days. I wonder if maybe he migrated  and Billie is spreading her wings. Off to downtown where I didn’t find a falcon until almost 8:30am. In my travels I came across some tents in Washington Square Park which were advocating the homeless and the need for more housing-Thanks Donna for that info!

Parking on Bragdon Place by the Radisson Hotel I peered up thru the rain to barely make out the form of a falcon on the south side ledge of the OCSR elevator shaft. It was Dot.Ca (DC) with his back to the world.

A couple minutes later I spotted Beauty on the 3rd ibeam north corner of OCSR while stopped on the Andrews St. bridge. I drove down to State St. across from the Rochester Plaza Hotel to check her out.

She turned around showing my back so I returned to the east side of the river on Bragdon Place where I could have a front view of the Beautyful one and also keep track of DC in the elevator shaft.

Beauty was looking at something below her on and off and generally seeming to be in hunt mode in between preening and rousing(shaking her feathers).

At 8:43am Beauty flew southeast past the elevator shaft which stirred DC as he stood up,stretched, turned around and flew out and over to the top ibeam north corner of OCSR(got it all on tape). I could have wrote that script!

I looked at his back for a while then went looking for Beauty. I was about to call it quits for the day when I spotted her on the northeast corner of the lower roof on Widows Walk. I pulled over on Exchange Blvd. in front of He’s Chinese to spend  a little time with her.

A bunch of little birds lined the railing above her and a few minutes later 4 courageous pigeons appeared behind Beauty near the northwest corner.

I had been taping all of them, wondering if Beauty would go after them if they flew off and right after I stopped taping I got my answer. All 4 pigeons flew off to the north and Beauty stayed right where she was-interesting. I left her to head home- checking OCSR on my way out of downtown I found DC to still be on the top ibeam north corner. After checking all 4 sides of Seneca Towers when I got there-I saw no falcons. Not liking that but still smiling because I saw our downtown Rochester Peregrine Falcons on this day! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/MlboRqU7T5E

http://youtu.be/5Q7xZsZQqws

http://youtu.be/CSRObC6YI0E

http://youtu.be/Chq3YeWVm4w

http://youtu.be/agemrJYKRrM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Same weather as yesterday with a starting temperature of 43 (F) 6 (C) mostly overcast with a short showing of the sun

Click on the pics to see the full version

Starting at Seneca Towers the only bird I saw was a brave pigeon on the west side roof. I made my way downtown driving around for a good half hour before spotting Beauty under the northeast wing of the Times Square building. She looked to be eating something at first and when I went down to Basin St. in the hole to observe she started feaking. And, I spotted Dot.Ca (DC) under the northwest wing doing the same thing so it would seem they shared a meal this morning.

DC soon finished cleaning up and at 8:05am flew up to the medal work between the northeast and northwest wings of  Times Square.

It stayed this way for about 15 minutes then Mr. ants in his pants flew off, circled around back past Beauty (she was watching him the whole time over her shoulder) and landed under the northwest wing again.It was at this time the sun shone for a few minutes.

5 minutes later after some feaking and a poop, DC flew off heading northeast in the direction of OCSR.

When he didn’t return I drove over to Exchange Blvd. in front of the Blue Cross Arena so I could see more than the Beautyful one’s back. She had been gaping on and off the whole time she was up there on Times Square. Gaping is the term for when they open their mouth and throw their head back-one theory is that they do this to move food around in their crop and with a full crop and having just eaten this makes perfect sense. If you watch my snippet video from todays watch there are several snippets where she is gaping.

I shared space with Beauty for about 15 minutes then I took off to find DC-after checking all the usual haunts I went to Bragdon Place by the Radisson Hotel to check the south ledge of the OCSR elevator shaft. DC was there in the shadows where I could barely see his white face. It started to rain lightly and just as I began to video tape him he came out to spread his wings and settle down on the ledge edge with his back to me.

I decided to head out at this time and go home to Seneca Towers-there was no sign of Billie or 99 once again. I ended my watch at 9:30am with a smile as I always do because I’m lucky enough to see our falcons every day! 🙂

Click on the links below to see todays videos
http://youtu.be/UXLFT1M5EFw

http://youtu.be/dADp44m3O8M

http://youtu.be/YCYUDXH3q7s

http://youtu.be/3rXVSxKKLMQ

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P. (5:00 t0 6:00 pm)

Arrived downtown a little before 5:00 pm.  I found Dot.ca on the Wilder Bldg green stripe and Beauty on the Times Square Bldg (TSB) southeast wing ledge.

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At 5:40 pm, Dot.ca spread his wings and took off heading southeast over the river.  Seconds later, Beauty followed.  Neither of them vocalized.

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Beauty returned to the southeast wing ledge on the TSB.  I went out looking for Dot.ca, but could not find him.  At 6:00 pm, I ended my watch.

During my watch, fellow falcon watcher Dana had tweeted the following:  “RS falcon rpt- juvie falcon eating on east side stack center catwalk north side.”

On my way home I checked out Hawkeye, Seneca Towers and the KP Research Labs.  No falcons seen at any of those locations.

I arrived at Russell Station just in time to see the juvie falcon take off from the center catwalk of the east stack.  She flew west and then turned back, landing on the north side of the west stack top catwalk.  It was too dark to get any pictures.

It was much colder today than it has been, with temps in the 40’s (F).  Have a nice evening everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a chilly 40 (F) 5 (C) degrees with overcast gray conditions

Click on the pics to see full version

I started my watch at Seneca Towers where I spotted a falcon on the west side railing-it took off half a minute later. I have no idea who it was as I only got one grainy pic of it.

I left for downtown after it didn’t return. As I was pulled over on Woodbury Blvd. I spotted Dot.Ca (DC) on the southeast corner of Xerox around 7:50am.

I drove over to Chestnut St. by Martin Luther King Jr. Park for a front view when DC flew down to the 1st column on the southeast corner. He flew off  in a blurry stoop about 6 seconds later, flying back and forth along the south side of Xerox then landed on the southwest corner.

I drove over to Court St. for a front view and then DC stooped again came up empty and flew back over to the southeast corner.

I went back over to Chestnut St. and saw that he was back on the 1st column at the northeast corner once again. Now mind you, I tried taping him 3 times and he flew off into a stoop each time-the last video was only 33 seconds long! DC stooped off the column straight down the south face of Xerox went back to the southwest corner for a few seconds, then off again and back to the southeast corner after a couple laps around the building. Phew, this boy wanted some breakfast!

DC finally gave up and flew west around 8:20am after another failed attempt down the west face of Xerox. I waited for him to appear again and when he didn’t I drove over to the Broad St. bridge where I found him under the northeast wing. At first, I thought he was picking at something and I got all excited for him, thinking he had caught something. That was not the case-he stood upright as I went down in the hole parking lot to watch.

Around 8:40am DC flew off over the Wilder building out of my view and a few seconds later he returned with Beauty. She landed under the southeast wing and he came to rest on the northeast wing ring of Times Square.

5 minutes later DC was gone again-I missed him leaving. The Beautyful one remained under the southeast wing looking around. She had a feather stuck to her beak, we call it a fascinator.

I left Beauty to look for DC and see if he had caught food but I couldn’t find him. I left downtown and checked Hawkeye on the way home to Seneca Towers (ST)-nobody there but I did find who I think was Billie (judging by size) on the east side railing of ST. That’s a tough side to watch from as the route 104 expressway is over there, so I went to the Northridge Church parking lot at St. Paul St. and East Ridge Rd. This is probably a greater distance to view from than at the visitor parking on Seth Green Dr. where I watch the falcons on the west side. Billie flew off as I was taping her and returned to land on the southeast corner of the railing.

She flew off to the southwest out of view immediately and never came back. I ended my watch at 9:35am after a very busy and exciting morning, which of course, put a smile on my face! 🙂

Click on the links below to see todays videos-some of which are short ones
http://youtu.be/OPgVUlld–s

http://youtu.be/bC0FnX1rHQo

http://youtu.be/bFBu1gwLl-Y

http://youtu.be/73lfbQQykBA

http://youtu.be/Ict4HrFTyhs

http://youtu.be/mUZ34dtYVk4

http://youtu.be/qgq-plWnBOw

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

What an exciting watch today!  It was so nice getting out when I had more than an hour of daylight.  Love the weekends!  I don’t remember seeing both Beauty and Dot.ca so active and together like they were this afternoon. It was a blustery day with dark clouds, rain on and off, wind and temperatures falling from an early morning 54 degrees.  When I left to go out for a falcon watch, I really didn’t expect to be out for very long.  Boy, was I wrong.  My watch lasted over 3 hours from 1230 to 4:00 pm.

My first stop was the BS location, which many of the watchers are keeping an eye on.  Although Pigott is gone, we still may get winter visitors.  I stayed there for about 30 minutes, but headed downtown after seeing no falcons there.  Lots of Canada Geese were in the area, even one with a neck band.  I reported the band # to the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Bird Banding Laboratory.  It can take up to 6 weeks to get an answer.  I’ll let you know if I hear anything.  It’s always interesting to hear the history of a banded bird.

It was raining when I parked on the Broad St Bridge.  Both Beauty & Dot.ca were on the OCSR south side top IBeam.  They are really staying close to each other now.  The rain let up a little bit and I got out of my car to check out the river.  I’ll post pics at the end of this report of what I saw there.

YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY OF MY PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM

*<— A blustery day seen from the Broad St Bridge.

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About a 1/2 hour after I arrived, Beauty took off and headed south down the river.  She then headed north and then west. Pigeons were flying and Beauty was in hunt mode.  Dot.ca remained on the OCSR.  I went to look for Beauty and found her on the green stripe at the top of the Wilder Bldg.

* <— Beauty on the Wilder Green Strip.

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* <— Dot.ca on OCSR Top IBeam.

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Both started alarm kakking and both took off chasing a bird north past the OCSR.  I wasn’t sure what they were after, but my not-so-clear picture shows that it may have been a gull.  Looks like webbed feet to me.

* <— Beauty takes off after alarm kakking!  They’re Fast! I’m lucky I got her big yellow feet!

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* <— Same pic zoomed in.  Falcon Going After Gull???

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When they didn’t return, I headed over to the Andrews St Bridge.  From there I could see that both Beauty and Dot.ca were up on the Times Square Bldg’s (TSB) southeast wing ledge.  Back to Broad St to Falcon Watch Central, where I had a good view of both of them.

* <— Both B&DC on TSB southeast wing ledge.

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At 2:05 pm, both started to alarm kak and again they headed north.  This time they chased off a much larger bird, a Red-tailed Hawk.

* <— Same pic zoomed in.  Both B&DC vanquish a RTH!

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After chasing off the Red-tailed Hawk, they both headed east, over the river.  Tandem hunting by B&DC caused all the gulls and pigeons to go into panic flight.  The sky was filled with them.

* <— Gulls and Pigeons in Panic Flight.

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First Dot.ca returned to the TSB southeast wing ledge.  Beauty flew over a few minutes later.  She landed next to Dot.ca and he took off, flying northwest.

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Dot.ca returned to the TSB northeast wing ledge, across from Beauty.

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A Cormorant flew over and I wondered if either Beauty or Dot.ca would react.  Neither did.

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Dot.ca moved from the northeast wing ledge to the metalwork between the wings.  Just a little closer to Beauty.  lol

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Dot.ca flew off to the north and returned to land next to Beauty on the TSB southeast wing ledge.

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Beauty took off again, heading east over the river.  A cloud of Pigeons rose below her after she passed.

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I watched her fly further east and soar above the Xerox Tower.   Dot.ca remained on the Times Square Bldg, but he was keeping an eye on his mate as she hunted.  Beauty returned empty-taloned and again landed next to Dot.ca.

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These two are working as a team to guard their territory and to hunt.  So nice to see.  They both took off together and flew over the Wilder Bldg, heading towards the Cross Rds Bldg, where they both started stooping on something.  At first I thought they were tandem hunting, trying to scare up a pigeon, but after checking my picture I believe they may have been chasing off a Coopers Hawk.  Boy, so many intruders today!

* <— I think they chased off a Coopers Hawk from the Cross Rds Bldg.

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After chasing off the hawk, they again returned to the Times Square Bldg.  At about 4:00 pm, I ended my most excellent falcon watch, wishing them good hunting.

On my way home I checked out Hawkeye, Seneca Towers, the Kodak Research Labs, Charlotte and Russell Station.  I found no falcons at any of those locations.

I’ll leave you with some pictures I took during my watch, other than falcons.  The river was alive with ducks and gulls.

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When I stopped to check out the Kodak Park Research Labs, I could see the beautiful fall colors along the Genesee River, looking north.  Absolutely gorgeous!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Another gloomy, rain filled watch with a starting temperature of 54 (F) 12 (C)

Click on my pics to see the full version

Starting at Seneca Towers, I saw a falcon near the southeast railing from Seth Green Drive. I decided to go back to my parking lot for a closer view but it flew off as soon as I arrived and didn’t return. Off to downtown I went where I spotted Beauty on the top ibeam near the south corner of OCSR from the Broad St. Bridge (BSB). I drove down to the hole parking lot to get closer.

This was a bad angle so I went over to the Radisson Hotel by Main St. and while en-route Dot.Ca (DC) snuck over to land next to the Beautyful one-it was around 8am.

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They preened together for a while, DC watched everything that passed over the river and I thought he would fly off at one point when he stretched his wings out. Beauty also looked over her shoulder here and there but I think she was more interested in resting and staying out of the rain.

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Suddenly, at 8:36am DC flew off in a hurry to the east-Beauty took off right after him as they crossed the river and disappeared behind the Radisson Hotel.

DC

<Beauty

Beauty returned  a couple minutes later alone. DC had other ideas so I left Beauty after a few minutes to look for her roaming mate.

I found DC on the southeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad-I parked on Brown St. to see the front of him but the back lighting was bad. He was in hunt mode as he stooped like a rocket in front of me heading toward the northeast at 9:22am.

He came back with nothing to show for his efforts and proceeded to fly off 2 or 3 more times returning to the launchpad the first couple times and the last time coming to rest on the southeast corner of the playpen in the netting that Kodak put up to keep falcons out of there after they removed the nest box of Mariah and Kaver.

DC flew off heading south out of view immediately and didn’t come back. I decided to see if Billie and 99 were around but there was nobody home when I got there. I ended my watch around 10am but instead of going up to my 16th floor apartment I took a ride down to Seneca Park near the zoo just down the road from Seneca Towers and check out the fall colors there. I took some pics and a video to share with y’all-hope it makes you smile as it did me! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a photo album and some videos from todays outing
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqj–

http://youtu.be/Qf0snKO_wxw

http://youtu.be/h3r8srhwUMs

http://youtu.be/cNkRi0IFXLM

http://youtu.be/91p8pcHLz9w

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I arrived downtown just before 6:00 pm.  When I left at 6:50 pm, it was already dark.  As I was pulling up to the Kodak Tower, I received a tweet from Pat that she had seen DC on the TSB’s northeast wing ledge and Beauty on the base of the Mercury statue when she left work at 5:30 pm.  That’s exactly where I found them after parking on the Broad St Bridge.

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I was enjoying the last of the near 60 degrees mild weather.  The weather will not be so nice tomorrow.

The river was alive with gulls and ducks.

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<— Low Water Level on the River

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Beauty took off at 6:25 pm.  I did not see where she went.

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Dot.ca on TSB and Beauty on base of Mercury.

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I wanted to stick around to see where Dot.ca went.  I didn’t have to wait long.  At 6:30 pm, he took off and flew towards the OCSR and zipped up into the elevator shaft.  This is where I believe he roosts at night.

After watching Dot.ca go up into the elevator shaft, I drove around downtown looking for Beauty.  It was getting dark and very hard for me to see the top of Xerox.  I’m pretty sure she was not up there.  I even looked up into the elevator shaft, but again, it was too dark to see anything.

At 6:50 pm, I ended my watch, happy to have seen both Beauty and Dot.ca.  I’ll leave you with a picture of the Times Square Bldg.  If you look closely, you might see a certain tiercel.  Goodnight all!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

As soon as I got in my car this morning it started to rain and it did so on and off during my entire watch-the sun came out for less than half hour when I was downtown. Starting temperature was 68 (F) 20 (C)

Click on the pics to see the full version

When I first got to my spot on Seth Green Dr. at Seneca Towers I could see Billie on the west side railing. I didn’t notice 99 right away as he was in front of a roof top pole and didn’t stand out. Anyway, they were pretty close to each other hanging out in the rain.

A couple minutes later Buffalo Billie flew off to the south and returned to land on the northwest corner of the roof.

10 minutes later some small birds flew past Billie and she took off after them-she came back and came to rest on the northwest corner of the railing. 99 remained on the west railing all this time.

<Click them

More birds flew past Billie and they got 99’s attention as they both watched them and glanced at each other now and again.

<Click it

At 8am both Billie and her beau flew south and I went south too-going downtown to look for Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC). I spotted Beauty on the Times Square building (TSB) under the northeast wing and just as I was about to tweet it out I received a tweet from Pat saying she could see a falcon there from the Thomson Reuters building where she works. She thought it was the Beautyful one and I confirmed it.

It was at this time the sun came out for its short visit before being covered again by clouds. I was in the hole on Basin St. by the Wilder building. The sun left and then I spotted DC on the northwest wing ring.

I went up on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) after DC flew off when I wasn’t looking. I was able to see him clear as day on a middle arm of the Frontier Communications Tower.

A couple minutes later Beauty was down on the deck and DC came in and landed on the southeast corner of it by the main cam. Shaky confirmed that Beauty and DC were at the nest box. He flew off when I wasn’t looking and a few seconds later Beauty came flying out from the nest box. DC went to the Mercury money bag (MMB) and Beauty to the base just before the 9 o’clock hour.

A couple minutes later DC took off after a crow that was flying over the river-he caught up to it near the Rochester Convention Center then  flew back to the MMB. Beauty flew off too and returned to the base. Just want to share my thoughts on Beauty and DC visiting the nest box 2 days in a row-perhaps DC is getting ready to migrate and they are strengthening their bond before he leaves. Time will tell.

For the next half hour DC alertly watched the area, looking down at his mate at times and thoroughly entertained me-Beauty mostly rested, giving a look around once in a while.

Right around 9:30am DC pooped, spread his wings and flew over to the TSB landing under the northeast wing. Beauty remained on the base of Mercury resting.

<DC with inverted colors    

I chose to end my watch at this time as the rain started to pick up and I had things to do. I drove out of downtown smiling after seeing all 4 of our resident Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to see todays videos
http://youtu.be/oMOiyXPeV1I

http://youtu.be/tuivFR9yZ0M

http://youtu.be/cNV1RjvMOqE

http://youtu.be/qfZ-Sa_I4iQ

http://youtu.be/QOZ4w4JLHKY

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

What a blur when I left my apartment this morning as there was heavy fog surrounding Seneca Towers. The temperature was 60 (F) 16 (C) with no wind to speak of

Click on the pics to see the full version

I parked in my spot on Seth Green Drive and was surprised that I could see the roof as well as I did-there were no falcons on it.

I left for downtown and as I made my way down Lake Ave. I noticed fog engulfing the top of the Kodak Office Tower.

So I arrived in downtown about 8am finding it to be less foggy than home with only the tallest building roof tops (Xerox, Bausch&Lomb)covered by fog and Beauty on the base of Mercury. I pulled over on Broad St. next to the Blue Cross Arena.

10 minutes later she stooped down toward the river out of view. While looking for her to resurface I spotted Dot.Ca (DC) fly to the top ibeam south corner of OCSR and land on it.

I decided to go up on the Broad St. bridge to look for the Beautyful one and found her on the other side of the base of Mercury where I couldn’t see her from my prior location.

DC then flew over to the Mercury money bag right above his mate and Beauty started to stretch and preen while he kept watch.

I then went down to the hole where the back lighting was terrible since there backs were to me on the bridge-just look at the difference in the pics-literally, like night and day.

DC did a little preening, pooped a couple times and roused before flying off at 9:26am heading south. I quickly looked down to the base where Beauty had been-she was gone so I don’t know who left first, but I now had no falcons in sight.

When they didn’t return I left for home checking the sites along the way with no sightings downtown, Hawkeye or Seneca Towers. I ended my watch at 9:50am as the fog was lifting and the sun was breaking thru. As I was preparing this report I heard a falcon outside my window alarm call a couple times but didn’t see one. Keep smiling people-it doesn’t cost a thing! 🙂

Click on the links below to see todays videos-with a special fog video as I left my apartment for my watch
http://youtu.be/DrQRgNb3RHs
http://youtu.be/zeKHqK8CnXo
http://youtu.be/qRCOvbWkWNs
http://youtu.be/ECqRlypcQ4U

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a warm 64 (F) 18 (C) degrees- humid with light rain and some fog

Click on the pics to see the full version

I started my watch with Billie and 99 up on the west side railing of Seneca Towers tho at the time I didn’t notice her. After a few moments he spotted something to the north and flew past Billie, while I was taping and it was when I played the video at home on my computer I saw Billie. She flew south and at the time I thought it was 99. Phew, hard to keep track all the time. Anyway, they returned with Billie landing on the northwest corner and 99 back to the west side railing.

The rain was keeping them quiet today-I left them where they were to go downtown and look for Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC).

<Click it 

I didn’t look for long as I found Beauty on the northeast cube of the Frontier Communications tower as I came in from the south pulling over on Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities garage. I checked the tower with my binocs and didn’t see DC. Beauty was a bit wet from the rain and she shook it off at the start.

The Beautyful one looked around but didn’t really look anywhere for long to lead me to believe she was looking at DC. She foofed herself up and perched peacefully.

I decided to go down to the City Hall parking lot to check around the tower and to the right of his mate and up in the red section under the platform I spotted the back of DC.

<Click them

I thought they would stay hunkered down until the rain stopped so I left them to run some errands. When I arrived on Seth Green Drive at Seneca Towers Billie and 99 were both on the west side roof railing.

I finished up my falcon watching for the day at 10:30am smiling as I saw all 4 Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to see todays videos
http://youtu.be/nHuUrfRdbyA

http://youtu.be/C1nEyDqPYg8

http://youtu.be/JuKspZSfTo4

http://youtu.be/z45Tns9jARk

http://youtu.be/8Fhhe2oOd3c