By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

As I walked out the house today the temperature was 40 (F) 4 (C) with a slight breeze and mostly cloudy. It had rained during the night ushering in a cold front and as it made its way thru today the breeze got busy.

As I made my way around the back of HSBC on the east side I spotted Beauty on the east side of HSBC. She had her back to me at first and then after 5 minutes she flew over to the northeast corner of HSBC. I started out on Broad St. and switched over to Chestnut St. near the Hotel Cadillac to watch the Beautyful one.

There’s a nice display of pretty flowers in the back of HSBC which I had to photograph for a splash of color.

<Click it>

I left Beauty after well over an hour before leaving to check the Brighton Site. As I arrived there near 9am I found Pigott on the east side perched on the southeast corner near the roof top tree. Her head was on a swivel this morning watching everything in sight.

<Click it

Miss Pigott had a full crop and never moved from her spot.

I returned downtown finding Beauty on the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR just in time to see her fly off headed north.

After some searching I found Beauty on the inside of the southeast cube on the Frontier Communications Tower as I was on Fitzhugh St. I never did see Dot.Ca while on watch.

<Find Beauty

I got another angle of her from Church St. allowing me to see her from the front.

I left her to rest thus ending my watch at 9:45am. So today was ladies day as I saw both Beauty and Pigott. On my way home I saw a u-haul truck with a goshawk on it and a lovely leaf with several colors and stages of its fall life. Keep smiling everyone! 🙂

Due to technical difficulties there are no videos today

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This morning was partly sunny with a starting temp 0f 47 (F) 8 (C)

I had a bit of a time finding a falcon at first but was pleasantly surprised when I came across both Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) on the top ibeam of the OCSR building. He was on his north corner and she was 11 windows away from him.

<DC <Click> <Beauty

They stayed perched with their backs to me and each other at the start then DC turned toward Beauty and I before disappearing. I think Beauty was a little grumpy this morning, she had some fierce looking faces going on.

<DC   <Beauty>  

<Beauty> 

I hung out with the Beautyful one til she started napping then I went to Brighton after I didn’t find DC anywhere downtown.

<Beauty>  

I arrived at BS at 9am finding DC on the east side southeast corner by the roof tree. I stayed with him for the better part of an hour as he surveyed his territory.

<Click  to see DC> 

I found my way back downtown just before 10am to see that Beauty was still on OCSR top ibeam northeast side. I had a busy day ahead so I called it a watch and headed out with a smile for seeing our downtown pair of Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

I had trouble loading videos so I have only one of DC and another from yesterday that I ran out of time for-just click on the links below to view them

http://youtu.be/GS_jioB0Wdk

http://youtu.be/0GOKaph-yFA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another gorgeous fall day here in Rochester, NY with temps in the 50’s (F), blue sky, fluffy clouds and sunshine most of the time I was out.  During my Watch I was joined by fellow Watchers Dana & Lou.

No sightings of Billy the juvenile Peregrine at Russell Station, Charlotte/Summerville, Seneca Towers or Hawkeye.  We’ll keep looking for her!

I drove through downtown, but could not find any falcons there, so continued on to the BS location.  Pigott was on the east end tree ledge.  She was actively watching everything, her head swinging back and forth and up and down.

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I parked my car on the east side parking lot and settled in to enjoy my watch with Pigott. (12:30 pm)

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At approximately 1:15 pm, Pigott began to alarm kak.  She was looking up and so did I just as she launched herself from the ledge, wings beating strongly.  She quickly gained on the Red-tailed Hawk that was passing overhead.  I could hear her angry cries, but just before she reached the hawk, she broke off the attack and headed north, higher and higher and then………she stooped.  She stooped back towards me and I spotted what she was after.  A lone pigeon was flying towards the building and she dove towards it and extended her talons out in front of her and snatched it in mid-air.  She then carried it to the NE corner of the east extension.

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She ate her fill and then started to look around and bob her head.  This is what they do when they are ready to take off.  Well, most of the time.  As the Watchers know, it may be the falcons intent to fly, but sometimes we wait a really long time to actually see them take off.  lol  Well, it wasn’t too long before Pigott took off with the remainder of her meal.  She flew around the building, and I lost sight of her as she headed SW.

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Dana and Lou joined me and we searched the area, finding a falcon on the SE corner of the building.  This falcon seemed smaller and was banded, so I assume it was Dot.ca.  He eventually flew off to the west and we all decided to head downtown.

I checked the Xerox area, and then joined Dana and Lou on the Broad St Bridge.

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When I arrived, Dana was out of the car taking pics of the falcon on the top IBeam (south side) of OCSR.  This falcon took off and started chasing the pigeons and gulls over the river, first landing on the upthrust hand of the Mercury statue and then heading west.  The falcon landed on top of the Times Square building (TSB) on one of the wing rings.  This was definitely a spot that Dot.ca has been seen many times.

As I was getting out of my car, an adult Red-tail Hawk landed on a sign between Dana and I.

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Dana was intently taking pictures of Dot.ca up on top of the TSB, so she had no clue the hawk was directly behind her.  I was trying to warn her and so was Lou.  That’s when Dot.ca launched himself from the wing ring and went into a stoop, directly at Dana!  Of course Dot.ca was aiming for the hawk behind Dana, but she didn’t know that at the time.  The hawk took off and the chase was on.  Dot.ca chased the RTH over the Broad St Bridge, heading south over the library.  Once they passed over the library, all we could see was quick passes by Dot.ca as he stooped over and over again on the hapless hawk.  Finally, he’d had enough and flew back towards us, landing on the top IBeam of the OCSR.

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A gentleman on a bike that had been passing by at that time had stopped to watch with us.  Dana told us she had been taking pics of DC up on top of the TSB, when all of a sudden he took off and headed straight for her.  She watched him get bigger and bigger in her long lens, thinking he was stooping on her!  lol  That was until she turned around and saw the hawk right behind her.  Nothing like being stooped on by the fastest creature on the planet to get the adrenaline going!  Even if you weren’t the intended target.

It was close to 3:00 pm and time for me to end my Watch.  I did continue to check the downtown area, but was unable to find Beauty.  It had been a wonderful day of Falcon Watching!

I’ll leave you with a few pics I took during my Watch.  Remember to click on any you would like to see larger.  Goodnight everyone!

Fall foliage in the Genesee River Gorge from the Driving Park Bridge near Hawkeye.

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Plus a couple from the Lower Falls Park.  Lots of water flowing over the falls and in the second pic, you can barely see the rainbow that crossed over the path in front of me.  I actually walked through a rainbow and it was very wet!  lol

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This morning the starting temp for my watch was a cool 41 (F) 2 (C) with clear skies and plenty of sunshine

Click on my pics to see full version

It was almost a carbon copy of yesterdays events as I found Beauty on the northeast corner of HSBC.  The difference being she dropped off the corner immediately going into stoop form straight down after a pigeon which she missed. Then she flew toward the sun making me lose sight of her momentarily and when I saw her next she was in the middle of a flock of pigeons trying to grab one. She was unsuccessful and returned to HSBC at 7:54am to look some more after a short flight to the west .

I think Beauty couldn’t wait any longer to catch breakfast for 15 minutes later she flew northwest and ended up under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB). I caught up to her as I could see her there from the Broad St. Bridge. I continued down to the hole behind He’s Chinese to observe. While I enroute, Beauty flew over to the ledge under the southeast wing going to the back of it to eat cached food.

The Beautyful one finished her tidbit in quick time, and spent 10 minutes feaking (wiping off her beak) and cleaning up before she flew northeast. I drove over to check the Frontier Communications Tower for her and she gave me the slip-when I went back to TSB she was under the northeast wing! Ha, you can run but you can’t hide-well, not this time anyway! lol

I went to Brighton at this point arriving there just about 9am but there were no PEFAs present. I went back downtown via Highland Park and took some foliage pics. They’ll all be gone soon as we go into winter mode.

I found Beauty in the same spot, same position under the northeast wing when I arrived downtown,where I left her 45 minutes earlier.  She was looking around and being, well being just Beautyful!

I ended my watch at 9:30am on the Broad St. Bridge. The water level was higher than its been in a while thus covering all the flats and keeping the shore birds out of there. On the north side of the bridge the only bird was one lonely cormorant.

For the second day in a row I had a Beauty only watch, which will become the norm once Dot.Ca migrates (if he does). Whomever I get to see on my watches will keep me smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to view more pics of Beauty and the fall foliage plus 3 videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi1g

http://youtu.be/gRArTjKnUNM

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Lots of weather changes today.  Temps in the 50’s (F), sunshine, dark clouds and gusty wind.  Thankfully the rain held off until this evening.

I finally was able to get out for my falcon watch this morning just before 10:00 am.  I decided to took for Billy the juvie Peregrine Falcon first.  First Russell Station, then the Charlotte/Summerville area, then Seneca Towers and finally the Hawkeye Plant.  Sorry to say, I was unable to find her.  I headed downtown and found two falcons on the Frontier Communication Tower.  It looked like Beauty on the NE box below the platform and Dot.ca above her on the NE corner of the platform.  They were both vocalizing softly to each other.  (11:05 am)

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After awhile, I decided to head over to the BS location, arriving there at approximately 11:30 am.  I circled the building twice checking every nook and cranny.  I could not find any falcons there.  So, I parked on the south side and waited to see if they would return.  After seeing the banded tiercel, which I assume was Dot.ca, here last night, I wondered if Pigott or UT would return.

It was very quiet there and after an hour, I decided to drive around the building again.  When I got to the north side, I saw a falcon up on the NW corner of the NW extension.

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I am pretty sure that this is Dot.ca.  I did see a black band on him later in the watch.  Just after Lisa McK joined me, Dot.ca started to ee-chup loudly.  We looked up to see what had caught his attention.  It was Pigott.  She flew up to the cubby ledge and looked around.  She took off and flew over Dot.ca, then turned back towards the cubby.  Dot.ca followed and they both went into the cubby where we could not see them.  But we sure could hear them!  Loud ee-chupping filled the air.

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They spent about 15 minutes inside the cubby.  At 1:00 pm, Pigott came into view at the edge of the cubby while, DC continued to vocalize from within.  A few minutes later, he stepped out onto the ledge and flew out, landing on the roof above the cubby.  It was then that I saw the black band.  This was definitely not UT.  I never got a look at the numbers/letters on the band, but I had to assume that this was Dot.ca.

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I thought that Dot.ca left, but later in my watch at 2:11 pm, I saw a small falcon face peer over the edge of the roof line at me and then disappear.  I drove out further from the building, but could not see him up there.

Pigott remained on the cubby ledge, preening and napping until I left her at 2;45 pm to check out the downtown area one more time.  She never did show me her bands and I never saw Dot.ca reappear on the roof.

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Just before 3:00 pm, I arrived on the Broad St Bridge and found a falcon on the south side of OCSR on the top IBeam.  This falcon was very white.  It had to be Dot.ca.

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I checked out the downtown area, but could not find Beauty.  It was time for me to end my watch.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures I took yesterday and today during my watch.  Remember to click on any pics you would like to see larger.  Goodnight everyone!

When the falcons are away, the Crows will play!  lol

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Some pictures taken at Russell Station last night.

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Couple pics from the BS Location.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The starting temperature this morning as I stepped out the door was 53 (F) 12 (C) with mostly cloudy conditions but I did get the sunrise during a clear time

I found our Beautyful girl on the southeast corner of HSBC to begin my watch. It would be an all Beauty morning! She soon flew off there and went over to the northeast corner and started eating as I arrived in my spot on Chestnut St. near the Hotel Cadillac.

She spent maybe 10 minutes at the most nibbling on a meager piece of food and then at 7:42am Beauty flew off with her small package heading west.

I followed right behind, stopping on the Broad St. Bridge to look around. I spotted her up under the southeast wing on the Times Square building to the back of the ledge finishing up her food. When she was done Beauty flew out and back landing under the northeast wing.

Beauty had more cached food on the ledge and started eating-it was another small piece and she finished it off  lickety split in about 5 minutes. She then did some feaking (wiping her beak off) and started cleaning up her blood stained talons.

Satisfied with her clean up the Beautyful one flew off at 8:01am and headed north over to the Frontier Communications Tower. When I got over to the City Hall parking lot she was on her northeast cube. Beauty got situated then foofed out her feathers-I love it when they foof it up!

After 10 minutes I left to check the Brighton Site but I didn’t find any PEFAs there. I returned downtown and searched everywhere for Dot.Ca but he was nowhere to be found. Beauty was still on her cube preening.

I left her at 9:06am thus ending my watch. I do like to see all our Rochester Peregrine Falcons so I know they’re ok but a watch with only Beauty makes me smile everytime! 🙂

Check out the links below to see the Beautyful one in action

http://youtu.be/k5JOL02OWYg

http://youtu.be/J14zJcQbfE0

http://youtu.be/Mzn_4hUqHnw

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The morning started out a bit cloudy with a temperature of 50 degrees (F) 10 (C) but the sun shone brightly after the clouds broke up

The pattern for Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) seems to be changing a bit as today I first found Beauty on the jail tower 2nd arm down on the southeast side and DC, well you’ll have to read on to find out what he was up to. I spotted the Beautyful one from the Broad St. Bridge on my way back from checking the east side where she usually is early morning and I also saw a window washer on Broad St. cleaning the Thomson Reuters south side windows.

I drove to Troup St. on the south side of the jail for the best spot to observe Beauty. She stayed about 15 minutes then she flew off heading my way over 490 and then as she got overhead she went into a stoop turning on the after burners and leaving my field of vision into the Cornhill district.

I drove around the Cornhill area but didn’t find her so I left to check the Brighton Site (BS) arriving there at 8:20am. As I came up to the west side where the cubby is located I saw a falcon on the front ledge. It flew out going north as I pulled over-it looked small like a tiercel so I figured it was UT (unbanded tiercel). As I drove around to the south (back) side of the building I thought I saw it flying across the roof line and when I reached the east side I found a falcon on the southeast corner of the east extension. I tweeted that it was UT who has been seen with Pigott daily for the last 2 weeks during  which time DC has NOT been seen at BS.

As I was paying attention to him Pigott snuck in onto the 2nd window down on the east side of the southeast extension below the roof top tree. She seemed like she was agitated as she walked back and forth on the window ledge and had a fierce look on her face when she looked his direction. One of them was whining-couldn’t tell which one.

At about 9:10am I got my confirmation when DC flew off showing his leg bands and he was chupping. Pigott did not return his chup as she flew over to the corner he vacated.

<DC leaves  <Pigott moves in

After DC didn’t return I went to look for him and when I got back to the east side he was perched by the roof top tree. Pigott had her back to him while she preened and mostly ignored him as he eechupped softly on and off. She did NOT eechup back and left 20 minutes later flying west and that was the last I saw of her. DC eechupped loudly as she flew away but she didn’t return his call. Hmm…

<DC  Pigott>

I was surprised that DC didn’t follow Miss Pigott. I checked the entire building but she was gone so I pulled over to watch DC from a side angle as he mainly watched over his territory, stretched and scratched.

So, many questions come to mind such as- is Pigott upset with DC for not coming around for so long or has he been at BS when UT was not in the past 2 weeks? Or, was she upset that he chased UT away if that’s what transpired. Is DC now going to spend time with Pigott exclusively like he has with Beauty for the past 2 weeks before he migrates. The truth is we’ll never know the answers because we only spend a fraction of time watching these falconss-so much can happen when we are not observing them. Stay tuned!

I left DC on his own at 10:45am and went downtown before ending my watch. I found Beauty from the Andrews St. Bridge on the northeast side of OCSR on the top ibeam. I drove over to Bragdon St. for a closer look to make sure it was her and take a pic or two.

I ended my watch at 11:05am the same way I started it-with Beauty and smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below if you wish to see more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi0k

http://youtu.be/kr4phmKs0NE
http://youtu.be/6rWwmG-J0zQ
http://youtu.be/PirALcgJZeQ
http://youtu.be/4Tz9qfENioo

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was forecast to be sunny this morning but I only saw the sun for maybe half hour. It was 53 degrees (F) 12 (C) to start my watch

I spotted Beauty on the northwest corner of HSBC around 7:20am from Woodbury St. I drove up to Broad and Chestnut St. and she was gone. I found Dot.Ca (DC) on the northeast corner of HSBC as I went around the back of the building. I then drove to my spot on Chestnut St. near the Hotel Cadillac to observe our handsome tiercel. DC flew west shortly after I got situated.

I went west as well finding DC under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB)-I went down to the hole and parked by He’s Chinese to watch him. He was looking for a tasty treat and he did a partial stoop cutting it off as quick as he started and returned under the northeast wing to continue looking for a meal.

I left DC to go check the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) for Beauty who was not there for when I returned to the hole I found that DC was gone from TSB and Beauty was under the southeast wing. She took off a couple minutes later at 8:15am flying southeast in a flurry.

I whipped up to the Court St. Bridge to see if I could find the Beautyful one and sure enough I watched her cross over the river from the east chasing after DC. They both went to the TSB-he landed under the northeast wing again and she under the southeast wing. She had fetched her mate and life was good.

I thought maybe they would go down to the nest box to bow and eechup but it was wishful thinking. I left them for the Brighton Site (BS) around 9am and there I came across UT (unbanded tiercel) on the northeast corner of the northeast extension.

I took a ride around the building to see if Pigott was around which she was not and as I came around the east side out of the corner of my eye I saw UT flying south. I rode around a couple times looking for him but he didn’t return. As I was exiting via the back service road I came upon some Canadian Geese.

<Click it 

I returned to downtown and found DC on the Kodak Office Tower perched on the launchpad by the northeast rocket. He was in definite hunt mode for after 20 minutes or so he dropped off into a stoop and aborted it as quickly as he started it, going back to the same spot.

I left DC and looked around downtown for Beauty but I didn’t find her and so ended my watch at 10:20am. There’s nothing that makes me smile more than our Rochester Peregrine Falcons!  🙂

Check out the links below to watch some videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/_I68F7RzXx0
http://youtu.be/QdGOpGKHshE
http://youtu.be/l2ckOST2SHw
http://youtu.be/KZ6MZtXGG1A
http://youtu.be/fzdgDyXwSdc

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

When I left work today, it was cloudy and lightly raining.  My first stop was downtown Rochester.  My route takes me by Kodak Office first and as I approached, I saw a falcon on the NE corner of what we call the launch pad at the top of the tower.   I parked on the east side and took a couple pics of this falcon before I noticed that there was a second one up there.  Beauty was on the east side arch ledge, just below the tiercel that had his back to me, that I assumed was Dot.ca.  It wasn’t long before it stopped raining and the sun came out.

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I next wanted to check on Pigott and UT at the BS location.  After circling the building three times, I could not find any falcons there.   I stayed for awhile hoping they would return, but they didn’t.  Kathy O did stop there tonight and found one falcon on the building.  But she could not identify it.

I headed towards the lake to check on the juvie that we assume is Billy, from the Central Terminal nest site in Buffalo, NY.  She wasn’t there when I first arrived, but she did finally make an appearance.  While I was on the south side of Russell Station, she flew in and landed on the west stack catwalk.

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Billy again took off and flew to the top of the stack and landed.  I got some video of her flying above and around the west side smoke stack.  So sorry for the shakiness.

Link to Youtube video of Billy flying at Russell Station.

http://youtu.be/zjDxzi8DxgQ

After landing on the north side, she again took off, this time heading north east.  When she didn’t return, I took a trip over to Charlotte to see if she might be on the Coast Guard antenna.  Pat had seen her there earlier.

I found no falcons at Charlotte, so I returned to Russell Station for one last look.  Clouds had moved in covering the waxing moon and the lights on the stacks were now lit.

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It was too dark to see anything, so I called it a Watch.

During my travels today, I drove through Mt. Hope Cemetery, which I consider to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries.  It’s fun to share images of the Rochester Falcons city with all of you.  Here are some pictures I took.  Fall at Mt Hope. Please remember to click on any pics you would like to see larger.  Goodnight everyone!

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By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

This morning as I stepped out the house the first drops of rain started to fall as I jumped in my car. It was a mild start for mid October in western New York with a temperature of 63 degrees (F) 17 (C)

Included in my photo album today are some pics from my first visit to Russell Station last night to see who we believe is Billy, a  juvie from Central Terminal in Buffalo,NY. Also on watch were Joyce,Carol,Lisa,Dana and Joyces’ dogs Casey and Abby. I spotted the juvie fly in from the north and land on one of the 2 stacks shortly after arriving. She did some flying and vocalizing as she landed on different spots at the location never getting close enough for good pics or showing us her back.

<Joyce and her dogs  

A pretty Northern Flicker showed up on a pole announcing his arrival by calling out and a different kind of bird flew overhead.

<Click it

Now we fast forward to this mornings watch. I got a late start and saw a falcon flying past Bausch & Lomb around 7:30am as I was on Woodbury St. I checked around the east side and went to the Broad St. Bridge after not finding a falcon. On the base of Mercury perched in the rain was Beauty.

She stayed only a couple minutes before flying off to the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT). I lost sight of the Beautyful one who was on her northeast cube. After checking around the tower for her  I was able to find Beauty while parked on the Andrews St. Bridge.  Next I drove to Fitzhugh St. in front of the Sister Cities  parking garage to share space with Beauty,and after a few minutes DC barrelled thru at a fast rate of speed past the FCT flying eastward and that would be all I saw of him today .

Off to the Brighton Site I went arriving around 8:45am-on my second trip around the building I located Pigott on the west side roof. It was raining at a good clip at this time and after a couple minutes Miss Pigott flew off to the south and didn’t return. She still had that white feather from 2 days ago stuck above her cere.  UT was not around this morning.

I left to return to downtown only to find Beauty was still on the northeast cube of FCT. I searched all of downtown but wasn’t able to locate DC. I ended my watch at 9:35am. What makes me smile on a gloomy, rainy day is seeing our 2 resident Rochester Peregrine Falcons! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a few more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi0G

http://youtu.be/LLyrm8pp6D8

http://youtu.be/8M9bbOotjAg