By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I spent my whole watch down by the lake (Ontario) (9:30 am to 1:30 pm).  That wasn’t my intention, but that’s how it worked out today.

There was a high wind warning posted for Rochester, NY with sustained winds of 25-35 mph and gusts of 50 mph.  I started my watch by driving along the lake shore, checking out the spots we have seen falcons recently. Latta location, no.  Russell Station, no.  Charlotte/Summerville, no.  There were dark clouds over the lake and the lake was full of white caps.

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After finding no falcons on my lake route, something made me return to Russell Station (RS)  instead of heading downtown and I’m really glad I did.  I was parked in the small parking lot just north of RS when I saw a bird on the antenna at the west end of the building.  At first I thought it was a crow, because it was crouched over.  Not the usual posture of a Peregrine Falcon.  I drove around to the south side where I had a better view.  It was definitely not a Crow.  It was a juvenile Peregrine Falcon.

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The reason this juvie was hunched over was because of the high winds.  She was having trouble hanging on to the antenna she was perched on.  Every now and then she would let go and hover and then let the wind catch her.  When that happened, she would add the speed of the wind to her own and zip around the smoke stacks and then return to the antenna to ride it again.  To me it looked like she was playing.

Just after I sent a text out that there was a falcon at RS, she took off again and let the wind carry her to the west.  I lost sight of her and she did not return to the antenna.  I drove back around to the north side parking lot and watched from there.  Dana and Lou joined me.  I saw about 6 pigeons fly from the building.  That’s when I spotted the juvie on the north side between the two stacks on the ledge below the top row of windows.

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Kathy O joined.  It was windy and rainy now, so we all stayed in our cars.  Finally it cleared up for a little while.  Dana was able to verify that the band was black over green.  We are fairly certain that this was Billy, the juvenile that has been seen here recently.  It had been a few days since she had been seen by anyone, so it was great seeing her.

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She remained in that spot for a long time.  But, she finally took off and again took flight, flying on the high winds.  Dana and I saw her stoop towards the small pond to the north and zip over the water where there was a group of mallards swimming.  She did’t get one and returned to fly around the stacks.

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After awhile, we lost sight of Billy and could not find her.  I was very happy for the time we had with this young falcon. It started to rain again, so I decided to end my watch at 1:30 pm.  I hope we see a lot more of Billy in the future and that she finds a place of her own and a mate.

There was still a lot of beautiful fall leaves before the winds started, but I bet there’s a lot less now.  Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The temperature as I walked out the door today was 44 (F) 6 (C) with partly cloudy skies and a busy breeze that would get much busier this afternoon. We’re under a high wind alert today

I didn’t find Beauty until nearly 7am this morning as I found her under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB). She was seen on the Mercury money bag (MMB) on cam before that while I was looking for her on the east side. She stooped over the river a minute or so later and ended up on the top ibeam of OCSR near the south corner. Beauty flew off fast to the southwest at 7:17am.  I think she was looking for Dot.Ca (DC).

In my travels to find Beauty and DC I took in what’s left of our fall colors and when I didn’t find them I drove over to Brighton. I found no falcons there today.

Be sure to click on my pics to see the full version

I returned to downtown at 8am finding the Beautyful one once again on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR. I parked in the hole behind Keybank to observe and had a visit from Larry and his dog Harold. After a quick hello they continued on their walk to Aqueduct Park.

Suddenly Beauty saw something and flew off  at 8:21am. I got a tweet from cam watcher Annette who said a falcon was on the MMB but when I got to a place where I could see, it was gone. It was most likely DC.

Click them

Then Larry tweeted that he saw 2 falcons flying around the Andrews Terrace apartments so I went looking from the Andrews St. bridge. I didn’t find them and when I returned to the hole I spotted DC on OCSR top ibeam near the south corner-the sun was on him making it blinding to look at his white chest.  He took off a minute later while I was looking around for Beauty-I found her on the southeast corner of Widows Walk.

She flew over to the back of the TSB where DC was with food-he took off with it as I was crossing Exchange Blvd. to go to the parking lot next to TSB. Beauty ate a tiny little morsel that DC left behind and then she flew northwest.

Right after she left around 9:05am Shaky sent out a tweet that a bigger falcon chased a smaller falcon off the large FCT dish. At 9:06am Beauty flew up under the northeast wing of TSB and a few minutes later she started whining and looking down at DC who had  food on the back of  the TSB.

<Beauty <DC

DC was eating especially fast for about 15 minutes and then he spotted Beauty above followed by her landing a couple feet away from him-you can see her wing as she lands in the last pic below if you click it.

<click it

The party was over as Beauty walked aggressively toward him prompting him to grab his prize and fly off leaving a small piece behind.

<Click it  

Beauty made short work of the tidbit and flew off. I ended my watch at 9:40am smiling from all the antics of our downtown Rochester Peregrine Falcon pair! 🙂

Click on the links below to view more pics and videos from my busy watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi8E

http://youtu.be/YOcbPaTXmAM
http://youtu.be/xHczhI4vWuU
http://youtu.be/WxET9TolNcI
http://youtu.be/FZ6jMOCoPhU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It was a cold, blustery day with just a couple teases of sunshine during my five hour watch.  (10 am – 3 pm) I spent the first one and a half hours of my watch checking out the lake area for falcons.  Sorry to say, I did not see any falcons at Latta, Russell Station, Charlotte-Summerville, Seneca Towers or Hawkeye.  While I was heading downtown, Dana tweeted that she had spotted Pigott at the BS location.  Pigott was eating on the north side of the building on the center lower roof.

As I approached Kodak Office (11:30 am), I could see that both Beauty and Dot.ca were on the Kodak Tower.  Dot.ca was on the north east corner of the launch pad and Beauty was above him on the cupola.  Seems to be a current favored spot for these two.

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They seemed pretty settled, so I headed over to the BS location to see Pigott, who I hadn’t seen for a couple days.  I joined Dana on the north side.  Pigott was just finishing her meal when I arrived and I had just missed Larry O.  (Noon)  Dana left at a little before 1:00 pm.  She drove through downtown on her way home and reported that Beauty and Dot.ca were still on the Kodak Tower.  I stayed with Pigott until she took off and flew over to the NE corner of the NE extension at 2:30 pm.  All the time I was watching her, she was hyper aware of her surroundings.  Her head was in constant motion, back and forth, back and forth and up now and then to watch a bird pass overhead.  Here are a few pictures I took of Pigott while I was there.

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I left Pigott at 2:30 pm and headed back downtown where I found both Beauty and Dot.ca still on the Kodak Tower.  They weren’t budging.  lol

I rechecked the lake area and found no Peregrines.  But I did find another type of falcon.  A Merlin was hunting from a light pole across from Shallers on Island Cottage/Edgemere in Greece (NY), near the lake (Ontario).  It is very interesting to see the differences in how Peregrines and Merlins hunt.   While Peregrines fly high and stoop at high speed on their prey, this Merlin was hunting birds on the ground from the pole.  I watched as he swooped over the grass scaring the small birds that were foraging there into flight.  He (I say he, but I have no idea if this was a male or female) missed and flew up to another pole near the street.  He then took off again, this time heading west down Edgemere Dr.  I drove home that way, but could not find the Merlin.  I do love these feisty falcons, but rarely see them.  While I was watching the Merlin, Kathy O was checking out the Latta location.  She texted me that there was no falcon there.

I’ll leave you with a few pics of the Merlin.  Be sure to click on any pictures you would like to see larger.  Goodnight everyone!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This morning the weather was cold, breezy and overcast with a temp of 34 (F) 1 (C) to start but before my watch was over it was snowing

Every morning I see the crows leaving their night time roost from the trees in Washington Square Park. I guess the city will have to pay for some more pyro-technics to shoo them away again as they have for the last 2 years. They just keep coming back!!

Make sure to click on my pics to see the full version

I discovered Beauty on the east side of HSBC around 6:45am-she had her back to me and 5 minutes later she turned,spread her wings and  flew over to the northeast corner.

I went to my spot on Chestnut St. by the Hotel Cadillac to watch as she walked a few feet over grabbed cached food and flew off back to the northeast corner to eat it.

As the sun arose from its slumbers behind Beauty it lit her up.  She finished up eating and flew west  quite nonchalantly and I followed.

I found the Beautyful one 10 minutes later on the northeast side of OCSR top ibeam. I stayed a few minutes and left to sheck the Brighton Site.

I found Pigott just before the 8 o’clock hour on the west side roof eating. She finished up after half hour and flew around to the front of the building where I found her on the northwest corner of the middle section.

Tiny raindrops started falling from the sky as I set out to return downtown after spending an hour with Miss Pigott. As I entered downtown from Cornhill on Exchange Blvd. I spotted Dot.Ca (DC) followed by Beauty fly up to the nest box area. I pulled over in front of the Blue Cross Arena to observe. Less than a minute later DC shot out and flew up under the northeast wing of  the Times Square building (TSB). Beauty came out from the nest box to perch on the front ledge of it.

I then drove to the hole where I could see DC better and at 8:45am he flew east in a big hurry. A few minutes later I found out why he was in such a hurry-he caught breakfast and had taken it to the north side of the lower roof on the back of TSB. Feathers were a flying!

I tweeted out my findings and to my surprise when I looked back up there DC had been replaced by Beauty. I think she was looking for DCs food as she flew to a spot further down looked around and then flew over to the east side railing of Widows Walk. She led me right to DC who was on the northeast corner below her at just about 9am.

They stayed like this for 10 minutes then Beauty flew north followed by DC-monkey see monkey do!

DC

I caught up to them on the Kodak Office tower-DC was on the northeast corner of the launchpad and Beauty was above him on the cupola. The very light rain was turning into small snow drops as I parked on Mill St.

I left these two together (which is the theme lately for them) ending my watch around 9:30am with a smile! 🙂

Below are links for a photo album and many videos from my watch-just click and view

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi76

http://youtu.be/atYgUt-h6So
http://youtu.be/38zgEFlQB38
http://youtu.be/17F1VabDx2g
http://youtu.be/QMOs6xChEtY
http://youtu.be/bd253rR1Bw8
http://youtu.be/hwXm81iP7I8
http://youtu.be/VdGr_k1Q1c8
http://youtu.be/hcbn-Jxqv8c

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was 36 (F) 2 (C) when I walked out the door this morning with dark snow clouds moving in from the north,east and west. They eventually moved over the city dropping snow,ice pellets and rain on and off.

As I drove on to the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) after checking the east side for a falcon I watched one fly up to the deck and land next to the main camera. I drove down to the hole next to He’s Chinese to see that it was Beauty. I also noticed Dot.Ca (DC) up under the northeast wing of the Times Square Building (TSB).

<DC   <Beauty>

10 minutes later the 2 of them flew out over the river and Beauty returned landing on the deck first then up to the main cam. I didn’t see where DC went off to.

5 minutes later Beauty went down to the nest box as DC flew in landing on the deck by the main cam. Next thing I knew I was hearing some faint chupping.  I found out there was bowing involved also and then DC flew away followed by Beauty half a minute later.

<DC>

I found them a minute later on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR a few feet away from each other. I drove over to Main St. by the Radisson Hotel to observe our 2 love birds. Beauty preened while DC  looked around with his back to her.

<DC <Click it>

<Beauty<Click it>

I left them around 7:30am to check the Brighton Site (BS) as it  started to snow.  When I arrived there it was sunny with blue skies, one trip around the building and it was snow pelleting-the dark clouds had followed me. Oh and there was no Pigott. I returned to check downtown before heading out. Beauty and DC were in the same spots as I left them on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR. Every time I see Beauty and DC hanging out together it makes me smile! 🙂

Check out the links below to see our dynamic duo in action

http://youtu.be/EyP5klbQLl0

http://youtu.be/AxPj_h-cCq

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

My afternoon falcon watches have been reminding me more and more of that old Carole King song.  You know the one.

“Where you lead, I will follow.  Anywhere that you tell me to.”

It usually doesn’t take me long to find Beauty and Dot.ca and when I do, they are usually together.  Today was no different.  I found them both on the Mercury statue.  Beauty was on the base of the statue and Dot.ca was on the upthrust hand that holds a money bag.

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It was really cold this afternoon and threatening clouds had moved in.  It felt like it would snow at any moment.  In fact, they are calling for a chance of snow overnight.  We’ll see.

I moved out to the Broad St Bridge to get a different view of the falcons.  First Beauty spread her wings and took off, flying north down the river and over the Radisson.  She turned towards the OCSR and landed on the south side top IBeam.  She wasn’t there long before Dot.ca took off and joined her.  lol  It is fun watching these two.

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Dot.ca on the left and Beauty on the right on the south side of OCSR, top IBeam.

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While I was watching Beauty and Dot.ca on Mercury, I spotted this very large gull on the river below.  I believe it is a Herring Gull.  Almost twice as big as the Ring-billed Gulls.

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It was time for me to move on.  Next stop the BS location.  I found Pigott on a window on the south side of the east end of the building near the corner.  She had her back to me. Joyce joined me on the Watch.  We didn’t stay long, because we were losing light quickly and I wanted to check out the lake areas.  This is the best picture I was able to get of Pigott at BS.

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I left Joyce and headed north towards Lake Ontario.  By the time I arrived at Charlotte/Summerville, it was dark, but I could still see the antenna at the Coast Guard Station and it was empty.  Russell Station was next and again I could find no falcons.  I did take a picture of the towering dark clouds building over the lake (Ontario).

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My last stop was Latta Rd.  No falcon there either.  It was time to head home.  My Watch was short and sweet, but seeing all three resident falcons made it a good watch.  Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It rained overnite but I had only overcast skies and a temp of 46 (F) 8 (C) on my watch

After a trip around the city I came up on the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) from the east and spotted the Beautyful one on the Mercury money bag (MMB). I drove down to the hole parking on Bank Place, next to the Philipone building as she kept looking below her, I assume for a cache-10 minutes later Beauty flew out and back to Mercury coming to rest on the base this time and started eating a small piece of cached food which she finished off quickly.

Another 10 minutes passed when she flew east, back to the base briefly then off again heading northwest. I went looking and when I came back to the BSB I saw that both Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) were on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR. I was surprised to see them so close to the OCSR window washers who were around the corner on the southwest  side. I first observed from the hole and then went up to Main St. at the Radisson Hotel.

The 2 love birds perched up there just looking toward each other with their backs to the world. Togetherness  is a beautyful thing!

<Beauty><DC>

I left them to it and went to the Brighton site for a check. No Pigott and I thought maybe it was because of the high-pitched alarm of some sort that was going off on the front of the building on the east side complete with 2 flashing strobe lights. Off I went, back to check downtown where I wasn’t able to locate any PEFAs. I ended my watch at 8:45am -as I made my way down Exchange Blvd. to leave I saw a falcon on the MMB and just as I thought about going back it flew off headed north toward OCSR. One last glimpse of one of our Perergrine Falcons to send me off smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos

http://youtu.be/DSxahBVSWcU
http://youtu.be/eBa8eiU_lmA
http://youtu.be/vb0s3E5PTVQ
http://youtu.be/qnPBXfT3jSo
http://youtu.be/q7wdRRP4o8k

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another warm Fall day!  Temps in the 60’s (F), but mostly cloudy by the time I left work.  I had to move quickly.  Because of the time change last weekend, I only had about an hour before it got dark.

I headed downtown first.  Both Beauty and Dot.ca were on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) on the north east box.

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By the time I parked in front of City Hall, both had taken off.  I found them both on the City Place Bldg, which is just south of FCT.  I think they were looking for cached food.  First one and then the other would disappear from view and then reappear.

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Dot.ca took off and flew over me heading north and Beauty remained on City Place.  From City Hall, I could see that Dot.ca had landed on the Kodak Tower, on the north east corner of the launch pad.  That’s where I headed next.  After taking a few pictures of Dot.ca another falcon flew in and after circling the Kodak Tower, Beauty landed on the cupola just above Dot.ca.

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While I was watching Beauty and Dot.ca, I received a tweet from Dana.  She was had spotted the unbanded tiercel on the antenna on Latta Rd, and he was eating.

I was starting to lose light, so I headed over to the BS location.  Pigott was on a window on the east side of the SE extension.

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I didn’t have much time to spend watching, but I was happy to find all three resident falcons.

I’ll leave you with this collage that Dana sent me from her afternoon watch.  Three of the pictures are of the unbanded Tiercel in Greece and the 4th is a Merlin she saw in Irondequoit earlier today. Thanks for sharing Dana!

Goodnight everyone!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was partly cloudy and pretty warm at 47 (F) 8 (C) when I started my watch but it turned sunny with blue skies by the end of it-the sunrise colors were pretty to the south

You must click on my pics to view the full version

It felt like our falcons were sleeping in today as I didn’t find any until 7am when I spotted Dot.Ca (DC)  on the Kodak Office (KO) launchpad northeast corner.

I parked on State St. north of Brown St. at first  and when DC turned I checked him out from Mill St. He stooped down the east side of KO and returned without a catch. And around 7:20am he flew south and didn’t return.

After a spin around downtown I spotted a falcon under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB) with its back to me. After a bit Beauty finally showed her face so I was able to ID  her. I think she was nibbling on something due to her posture and movements. She eventually turned a little so I could see her profile at least and then she was gone around 8am, leaving when I wasn’t looking.

I went to Brighton after that and found not only Pigott but DC as well around 8:30am. She was on the east side roof  north of DC who was at the southeast corner of the same roof ledge by the tree. DC was plucking feathers from prey at first but stopped after a few minutes while Pigott whined on and off.

<Pigott <DC   <Click it

<DC> <Pigott>

After 10 minutes they both flew off, Pigott going first headed west. They returned with DC going back to the same corner by the tree and Miss Pigott landed on the southeast corner upper level of the southeast extension. She would walk back and forth to the corner directly above DC 3 times in the next 45 minutes.

<Click them> <Pigott DC>

At 9:30am DC flew off to the west followed by Pigott and they didn’t return. Turns out DC went downtown to be with Beauty as I found them together when I arrived at City Hall.

DC off to see Beauty next

DC was on the northeast cube of the Frontier Communications Tower (Beautys’ favorite FCT spot) and she was below him on an inside corner. I could see her well from Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities parking garage.

<Beauty   <DC

I wanted to see the front of Beauty so I drove down to the City Hall parking lot but could only see her head and tip of her tail. There were city workers putting up lights on the trees so I was a bit surprised to see Beauty and DC in such close proximity to them and the cherry picker.

That would be all she wrote as I ended my watch a little after 10am smiling as I left the city! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a photo album and some videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi7Y

http://youtu.be/XLpdOi98izk

http://youtu.be/7uuPxnEUzUI

http://youtu.be/_rEoHgK7u6E

http://youtu.be/AxKVrkh_RQ0

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I was able to get out earlier for a watch today and what an absolutely gorgeous fall day it was.  Temps in the 50’s with brilliant sunshine and blue sky.  Clouds moved in pretty quickly but I was happy to have seen the sun, at least for a short while.  I wasn’t the only one enjoying the warmer temperatures.  There were lots and lots of lady bugs out and about!

A little after 11:00 am, I was able to do a quick check of the BS location.  Pigott was on the NW corner of the NE extension.  By the time I approached the building, she was gone, but she hadn’t gone far.  Pigott had settled on a top window on the north side of the building above the main entrance.

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After lunch, I went back out.  My route started at Latta Rd, then Russell station.  No falcons at either location, but I did find a very dark colored Red-tail Hawk hunting on the north side of Russell Station.

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Onward to check the Charlotte/Summerville area.  No luck there either, but lots of Ring-billed Gulls had gathered.

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My next stops were Seneca Towers and Hawkeye.  Both locations were falcon-free.

While I was on my way downtown, MAK reported that both Dot.ca and Pigott were at the BS location, so I searched downtown looking for Beauty.  I could not find her anywhere.  I even looked up into the OCSR elevator shaft.  Lots of window washers were out on multiple buildings, including OCSR.  I headed out to the BS location and found Pigott on the NE corner of the NE extension.  Dot.ca was gone.

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Time to reverse my route.  First downtown.  I could not find Beauty again, but I did find Dot.ca on the Kodak Tower, NE corner of the launchpad.

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I left DC at Kodak Office and rechecked all the areas that I had checked at the start of my watch.  Still no luck finding Billy or the Latta Rd Falcon.

Due to the change in time, I will not have much time to look for falcons after work.  It gets darker so much quicker now, but I’ll do the best I can.  Goodnight everyone!