By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Good morning everyone! Yesterday watchers KathyO,Dana,Lisa McK,CarolP,Joyce and I took a trip to Canada to watch falcons. It was like a last hoorah for me until I can get around again after knee replacement surgery tomorrow. Arriving at the Harlequin location we were treated to some lovely flying from Quest and Kendal.

A few of the CPF folks were there to join in the fun and when we were done watching this fabulous pair we all went to lunch. Tracy told her usual animated stories about the feisty O’Connor and so we got directions to go meet her ourselves. When Joyce and I arrived at the site both O’Connor and her mate Hurricane were on the big blue H of the hospital where there nest site is located. As soon as we stopped they were both off and she was squawking up a storm at him.

The pair did some flying for us and settled back on the H. We observed them for a bit longer and moved along to the next site. Upon arrival at MEC we found the female falcon on the Symcor building just down from the nestbox.

While we were at lunch it was decided that they would give this bird the name Infinity because it had double 8″s that were sideways on top of each other on the legband. On our way home we stopped by the Burlington Bridge location. We saw no falcons but we observed hundredsand hundreds of Starlings gathering under the bridge to roost for the night. They were quite noisy too! I couldn’t get real clear pics cuz the wind was so strong that I couldn’t hold my camera steady but…well you get the picture!

As the sun was setting we left Canada happy watchers having seen 5 falcons and a whole lot more.

Links for an album and video from the day are below. Enjoy and keep smiling!  🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG8fNVB_I0c

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=309155733213%3A1676413594&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharee-_-Top

I truly am blessed to have the opportunity to go on these road trips and I thank my friend Joyce very much for taking me.

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Hello and boy am I ever missing my morning watches! Thankfully Joyce is helping me out every 3 days or so to get out before she goes to work. This may be the last morning report from me until I can get out again after rehabbing from my knee replacement surgery on Monday.I surely hope I can get  out this weekend to see any or all of our fabulous Rochester falcons one more time!

I got a text message from Joyce that she was stuck in traffic on 490 this morning but she was coming to take me on a watch. So I gathered up my binocs and camera and stood at the door ready to go when she pulled in the driveway. We had some trouble finding a falcon until Joyce spotted one on the jail tower. As I looked it flew off to the north. We agreed that it looked on the small side so it could have been Archer but there’s no way of being positive. After no success in locating any Peregrines we then rode over to KP to see if Archer was over there. We really wanted to be able to verify that Mr. Archer was still in town. No such luck but we did find Unity. I spotted her on the north side of the east stack 2nd catwalk down. She was sitting on the railing.

We were at the west end of the complex so it was quite a distance for pics. Almost as soon as I saw her there she spread her big beautiful wings and flew off to the northeast where I quickly lost sight of her.

As always click on the pics for a larger view. It was time for Joyce to be heading to work so we called it a watch. I sooo wish I had seen the Beautyful one this morning but I’m very thankful to have gotten out to see ANY falcons. Have a great day everyone and keep those smiles coming!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Well I was on my 3rd day without seeing Beauty and  feeling quite bummed out when a text message came through on my phone from Joyce saying she was on her way to get me for a watch. Once again my friend comes through for me. Thank you so very much Joycie!

When Joyce got to my house she told me I was driving and off we went. When we arrived downtown no falcons were on the FCT or in the Times Square area so I drove onward to the east side. As we approached Xerox Joyce spotted both Beauty and Archer on the HSBC building northwest corner. She said oh MAK look, there they are and as I looked up we heard a loud pop! I had clipped the curb with the right rear tire and blown a big hole in it. Needless to say I felt horrible! I didn’t have my AAA card on me so I couldn’t call for roadside assistance. Wonderful right!? So we began to take out the jack and stuff to change the tire when a nice gentleman came by and assisted us. There are still nice people in this world! At some point we did see Beauty fly off with her prey in talons and go out of sight as Archer was long gone by that time. Needless to say when the tire was changed and we were on our way again I told Joyce she was driving. We went over to the Andrews St. bridge and as we were driving toward State St. I spotted Beauty on the FCT. So we went to the city hall parking lot where we had a few minutes to take pics before we had to leave so Joyce could get to work.

Notice the feathers floating in the air space above Beauty in the last pic. And speaking of feathers while I was taping Beauty Joyce went and grabbed feathers from the pigeon that had floated down to the parking lot.And here’s a pic of them.

It was a sweet watch for me to see Beauty and Archer tho I was feeling bad about Joyces’ tire. We left the Beautyful one on the FCT as she was devouring her breakfast. Go to the links at the bottom of this report to see Beauty preparing her meal. As always have a great day and if you look hard enough you can always find something to make you SMILE! 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeXKjMhGd8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5ee36N3jkk

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

I have to say that my fellow Rochester falcon watchers are the BEST! They have made sure I got in some falcon watching the past few days when I didn’t think I would get out at all. THANK YOU!

This morning CarolP picked me up and we went downtown in search of the Beautyful one and Archer. We weren’t disappointed for I spotted a falcon flying over on the east side of town. At the time we were on the Andrews St. bridge and we sat and watched the show until it stooped out of sight. We then went over to watch from the Broad St. bridge where we saw Archer on the northwest corner of Xerox with Beauty soaring above showing off her stuff for him.

Beauty was really giving us a show gliding and kiting(hovering) right above the Xerox tower. Archer was enjoying the show as well! When she left our view we turned our attention to the river where we found 2 adult Black-crowned Night Herons.

There were also a couple of Great Blue Herons one of which chased the other one away.

After an hour or so it was clear that Beauty and Archer had left us for parts unknown so we decided to go to Kodak Park and look for Unity. We found the gorgeous girl on a black part of the complex at the west end. We thought at first that it was too big to be her but we were able to confirm it was Unity.

She eventually stooped off the back of the building and we watched her fly down to the tall still and land on the north side of the top catwalk.

Dana came along and we all went up to lot 77 to view Unity. We had some geese fly by as we chit chatted.

Unity stayed there for awhile before flying off and around the back of the power plant and returning to the tall still catwalk.

Miss Unity moved further over on the north side of the catwalk where we couldn’t see her. Dana decided to go downtown and look for our dynamic duo and Carol took me home thus ending a very nice watch. For more pics and a video go to the links at the bottom of this report and have a glorious day so you can smile!  🙂

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=378334133213%3A1350365621&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharer-_-Top

http://youtu.be/0YjUJMX-v3w

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Wow, 2 days in a row Joyce got up early and took me on a falcon watch. Thank you my friend!

Joyce relinquishes the keys to me cuz she doesn’t want to deal with downtown traffic. Pffft piece of cake!  So we get downtown around 7:30am and from the Broad St. bridge I spot a falcon on the base of Mercury. Before we could ID or get a good look it flew off in the direction of FCT. So I drive over to city hall where we find Beauty on the FCT on her favorite perch under the platform.

5 minutes later the Beautyful one flies off towards Times Square and sure enough Donna texted that both Beauty and Archer were at the nestbox. They didn’t stay long for when we got over there we saw them flying together to the east. Archer came back in our direction and landed under the northeast wing of the Times Square building. The sun was shining magnificently on his bright white chest!

5-10 minutes later I noticed Beauty on top of the main cam. I told Joyce and we both laughed and said when did she sneak in? We both were so transfixed on watching Archer we missed her arrival completely!

And there you have it folks…another fast,fun fantastic falcon watch with Joycie. For more pics and a video go to the links below. Have a fabulous Friday and smile away! 🙂

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=294747033213%3A108872214&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharer-_-Top

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5TzsodtH9w

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

I didn’t think I’d be getting out so soon to enjoy our Rochester falcons but my fellow watchers whom I adore came through in a BIG way yesterday. First Lynda came and got me around 7:45am. We headed straight downtown but couldn’t find a falcon so we left to go to KP and try our luck there. Nope nobody around there either. We sat and chit chatted and then I scanned the stills with my trusty binocs and found Unity on the 2nd catwalk of the tall still. She was on the east side railing just barely visible at first. We moved farther east in the parking lot for a better angle and voila!

After a while she flew over to the blue building and landed on the corner of the black strip by the nook. And ended up scooting around the corner into the nook.

This is where we left her to go back downtown and look for Beauty and Archer again. We didn’t find either one of them and Linda had to get going so she dropped me off home. Joyce called and asked if I’d like to go sit with her while her car got some maintenance done and of course I knew we would go watching so I said you know I do! When her car was ready we went to her house and picked up her dogs Casey and Abby,checked downtown for falcons with no luck and picked up Brian. Over to KP we went where we spotted Unity on the blue building towards the top.

While we were in lot 77 we got to see a Merlin fly over us and check out the dogs in the tall grass and then land on a pole.

What a beautiful background for this smaller version of a falcon! I love the fall colors! CarolP came by and as we were all standing around I saw Abby flush a bird out of the tall grass and alerted everyone to it. It landed at the other end of the parking lot on top of a pine tree. Woohoo my first ever sighting of a Meadowlark!

Carol said she was going downtown to check for Beauty and Archer before it got any darker so Joyce said why don’t I ride along with her and she’d catch up with me after she ran an errand with Brian. Carol said come on MAK and off we went! As we approached downtown on State St. near KO we spotted a falcon on the FCT top arm. As we drove to the city hall parking lot we had Archer and the Beautyful one flying around and landing on the second arm. Beauty landed on the east side and Archer on the west facing each other. What a sight to behold when 24 hours earlier I didn’t know when I would next see our gorgeous pair or if I’d even see Archer again before he migrated.

They flew off in a hurry to the eastern sky and out of view. We took a ride over to the east side and found one of them on the railing of the HSBC building northeast corner and this is when we decided to end our watch. As a parting gift here are a couple pics I took on our way down Broad St. as we were leaving the city from the east that I thought were pretty..

I want to thank Lynda,Joyce and Carol for giving me the falcon fix that I needed yesterday. You guys are the BEST and you and our Rochester Peregrine Falcons made me SMILE!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

It is with great sadness that I must tell you this will be my last report for sometime to come.  I will not have access to a vehicle and I will be having knee replacement surgery on Oct. 17 and won’t be able to drive for awhile after that anyway. That being said on to my report.

To my surprise I found Archer on the Xerox tower this morning on the southeast corner column.

Less than 5 minutes later he was gone and I missed it! And  that’s how it goes in the life of a falcon watcher sometimes. It would be some 45 minutes later before I spotted both Beauty and Archer on the top ibeam of the OCSR building west side. They flew off almost as soon as I saw them. About 10 minutes later I spotted a falcon on the jail tower from the Broad St. bridge. I whipped over to Troup St. for a closer view and could clearly ID it as Archer.

Donna texted me at this time to let me know that Beauty had been in and out of the nestbox quickly. I had seen a falcon fly up to, land and then go in the nestbox shortly after they both flew off the OCSR building but I missed anybody come back out. So it was the Beautyful one that I had seen up there. 5 minutes later as I approach the Times Square building northbound on Exchange street I could see both Beauty and Archer on the south side of Times Square. He was on the corner and she was on the next column over to his left 1 level lower than the nestbox.

click on pic for full view

It had begun to rain making for bad photo taking but I clicked away just the same!

Our downtown Rochester pair remained perched there for the remainder of my watch. I took a video of them which I will post the link for at the bottom of this report as well as the link for an album from my watch with some surprises I found along the way. Plus a bonus video of the raging Genesee River with some of it’s inhabitants. I hope you enjoy these. As always I hope you have a great day and keep smiling until we meet again! 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kfVbEmkGxY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4eoOzjxoDM

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=926469823213%3A752279935&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharer-_-Top

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

The morning started out dark,rainy and foggy once again today but by the time my watch ended the clouds and fog were breaking up and the sun was shining! As I drove over to the  east side and went to the parking lot of the Strong Museum of Play I spotted a falcon flying between Xerox and HSBC and then it landed on the south side of HSBC. It flew off less than 30 seconds later and disappeared into the fog. I drove over to the north side of HSBC where I could see Beauty perched on the northwest corner.

5 minutes later she flew off in to the fog again. I drove around and checked each side of HSBC without finding her and then headed over to the Broad St. bridge. After 20 minutes of searching without a sighting I returned to the east side and found the Beautyful one on the southwest corner of HSBC. She had given me the slip and doubled back after I drove away! lol

Beauty and I watched the changing weather for nearly an hour as the light rain stopped and the sun started to burn off the fog and peak through the clouds. Just as I was getting ready to call it a watch and pack up my gear she flew off going south. I watched until she became a speck in the sky and disappeared. I never saw Archer and wondered if perhaps he has gone on his migration for Carol didn’t report seeing him at KP this morning either. I went on a short evening watch last night with Joyce and have a couple pics of Unity and the black sky that was behind the complex to share before I end this report.

Enjoy the day and keep smiling! 🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Jeeze I thought yesterdays conditions were bad…not compared to todays cold,dark,rainy and foggy weather. No problem for the falcons or this falcon watcher. To my surprise I found Beauty sleeping in on her night time roosting spot high up on the 5th column of the Xerox tower! She left as I was getting my camera out to take her pic. Still pretty dark out it probably would have been a terrible photo anyway. So I left the east side and went to the Broad St. bridge where I spotted a falcon on the top arm of the FCT. I raced over to city hall just in time to watch it fly off! Remember when you were a kid playing tag and how frustrating it was when you couldn’t tag someone…lol! So I decided I’d much rather be chasing falcons at this early hour than laying in my warm bed and yes I was smiling! I know I’m nuts but hey someone has to do it! Having returned to the Broad St. bridge I saw a falcon flying around and above the Times Square building before landing in the nestbox area. I next saw Archer on the southeast ledge 1 level below the nestbox so I was able to determine Beauty was the one visiting the scrape.

FYI because of the horrendous weather conditions I had to doctor the pics  so they will be grainy looking. Beauty managed to fly over to the Wilder building without me seeing and landed on the green strip in the same place I left her yesterday. The misty rain started to intensify so it was time to stick the umbrella out the window to protect my camera because the show must go on!

Archer flew over to join the Beautyful one on the Wilder building and they were once again in the same spots as yesterday when I left them.

After 15 minutes Archer left her and flew back over to the Times Square building to perch on the southeast ledge. He then flew off after 20 minutes circling above Beauty as she stayed perched on that green strip and then he flew above the scrape before returning to the southeast ledge once more. I believe Archer was trying to entice Beauty to join him at the scrape for some bonding but she wasn’t having any of it.

I missed Beauty leaving the Wilder building and when I looked back to Archer he took off as well. I left the confines of Aqueduct St. for the Broad St. bridge where I could see so much more and noticed how much the fog was really starting to roll in and put a crimp in my watch. I could barely make out a white splotch over on the OCSR building top ibeam southeast side smack dab in the middle and then I saw a dark falcon shaped blob down by the elevator shaft on the same ibeam. I surmised the white blob was Archer and the dark one Beauty. Here are the terrifically horrible pics!

Bring on the snow, I’m ready!!! lol  Smile people… it doesn’t hurt and it’s FREE!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Brrr! It feels more like the 1st of November than October, which incidentally is my favorite month! Dark with a fine misty rain falling and 49 degrees out when I left my house. I managed to finally spot a falcon on the OCSR building top ibeam north side from the Andrews St. bridge but it flew off as soon as I stopped the truck. My right hand girl and trusty assistant on the cams Donna texted me that Beauty was at the nestbox so I headed over to the Broad St. bridge. Beauty was still up there when I arrived.

As usual she left when I wasn’t looking and 20 minutes later I spotted her on the Times Square building in a spot I’d never seen her before. I parked on Exchange St. in front of the main entrance to the Blue Cross Arena and viewed her on the south side of a column that was 1 level lower than the nestbox.

I didn’t see him at first but Archer was to her right at the southeast corner of the same level below where Jemison made his first flight.

Click on pics for full view

He had his feathers all foofed up to stay warm so I couldn’t see his white spot on the right wing and so I didn’t know if I had a different falcon or Archer. I soon spotted it and was able to tweet out that it was indeed Mr. Archer. Both he and the Beautyful one flew off to the northeast and I found them over on the Wilder building on the green strip. Beauty was to the left of the fire escape ladder and Archer was to the right. Both preening and staying out of the wind as best as they could.

I don’t often get these two close enough to tape them together so I took full advantage of this opportunity and made 2 tapes of which I will post the links at the bottom of this report. I watched them for about 15 minutes as they preened and occasionally Beauty whined at him and he for the most part ignored her. It got to be time for a pitstop, breakfast and meds so I ended my watch leaving Beauty and Archer on the green strip of the Wilder building satisfied that all was well in our downtown falcons’ world. Enjoy this first day of Rocktober, stay warm and smile! 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S6ah_CvgB0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5-WH3lK6tA