By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Falcon games: rule #1 Don’t panic! After getting Carols’ tweet yesterday morning about the battling pefas I immediately went into nervous mode. Sue had already left for work and I was stuck at home with no wheels in which to go check on our Rochester falcons. I made some calls for a ride and got nowhere. I left a message with Dan explaining the situation. He didn’t respond until late afternoon saying that he had gone to KP and found no falcons there around noon-1:30pm. I had been checking the archives all day without seeing either Beauty or Archer visiting the nestbox. Dan didn’t check DT and so I started to get really unsettled. I had previous plans to go out last nite so I couldn’t go on a watch. Dan and Carol saw Unity at KP in the evening but no Archer and nobody went downtown to check on Beauty. I texted Donna around 8 or 9:00pm to have her check the archives and still at that time nobody had been to the nestbox. At 10:45pm on my way home I thought I saw a bump on the 5th column of Xerox(Beautys’ roosting spot at night). This made me feel a little better but I would truly be relieved in the morning when I could be sure I had seen the Beautyful one.

Fast-forward to daybreak. I searched downtown to no avail and after talking to Donna decided to go to Kodak Park to see if I could at least find Archer. If I could find him I’d know he was alright if  by chance he was involved in the battle high above KP as reported 24 hrs. ago by CarolP.  I spotted Unity on the north side of the tall still on the top catwalk.

Unity

Having not found Archer I left KP and drove back to downtown. I searched everywhere with no sightings of Beauty or Archer. The police had the perimeter around the FCT blocked off for a run or walk of some kind so I couldn’t get close to look up into the inner structure. I parked on the Andrews St. bridge and took some pics of the river that was drained quite a bit for what I assumed was some work being done down river just before the high falls. I then went to the Broad St. bridge and took more pics of the river. Starting to get a bit panicy for not having seen any falcons I drove over to the pedestrian bridge at high falls and took more falconless photos.

Truly I was sweating it at this point! I left there and headed back to KP after a quick sweep of the city. Upon my return I found Unity in the same spot as my previous visit but no Archer. Now I was in full panic mode! Where were Beauty and Archer? Were they alright or just hiding on me like they do. I made a decision to go home and have a fast breakfast and take my morning meds (as I’m sure my blood pressure was building) and go back to the downtown area. Just as I was starting to pull out of lot 77 at KP I noticed a falcon on the catwalk of the still to the east(right) side of the tall still. Was this Archer or had Unity moved over. I drove down to lower Weiland Road to where I could view the north side of the tall still and BINGO I could see her on the tall still and Archer on the east still. I breathed a sigh of relief tweeted it out and went home.

Archer

I returned downtown and searched the east side of the city and as I drove through the intersection of  Andrews St. and St. Paul Blvd. I saw a falcon on the 2nd arm of the Frontier Communications Tower. Goose bumps were now covering my body as I raced down to park on the bridge and get my binoculars fixed on it. Eureka,zowee,yipee,yahoo it was the Beautyful one!!!

Beauty

She was perched up there as if she didn’t have a care in the world (which she probably didn’t) for we humans are the ones that THINK too much! I tweeted the good news, sat there for a few minutes enjoying the view of our downtown female falcon and called it a watch!  WOOHOO!!!!  🙂

For my album of the day follow this link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=607535982213%3A946256901&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharer-_-Top

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

I thought I’d combine my watches from yesterday and today. I haven’t seen too much action nor have I seen Archer but I have spent a little time with the Beautyful one. Yesterday after making my rounds looking for our fine feathered friends I parked on the Broad St. bridge. As I was watching the nestbox suddenly a falcon flew up and landed next to the main camera. I found out later that it was Beauty and she left soon after flying to the OCSR building. She preened and occasionally looked to the north I assume in anticipation of Archers’ arrival for their morning bonding ritual.

She stayed there for the remainder of my watch.

This morning after checking around town I parked on the Broad St. bridge waiting and watching for a falcon to show up with no success. My time was getting short so I decided to drive over to city hall and have a close look at the Frontier Communications tower. It turned out to be a good call for I found Beauty under the platform on the northeast side. The next 2 pics were taken from Fitzhugh St. in front of the sister cities parking garage.

I then drove over to the city hall parking lot and spent the rest of my watch with Beauty until I had to leave for home.

TGIF for tomorrow and Sunday I  can stay out longer and hopefully have some more action to report. Have a great day everyone! 🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Well folks I thought I’d fool Beauty and Archer this morning by getting downtown earlier at 5:15am so I could catch them up in the nestbox. WRONG! I swear they are messing with me cuz they were later than usual to show up in there.

Anyway, here is the scoop. ‘Twas very dark this morning because of cloud cover from some rain coming into our area. I drove around checking all the usual spots without finding a falcon and so I just parked it on the Broad St. bridge. Finally about 5:50am a falcon appeared on the base of Mercury. Being so dark out with the street lights still on and showing only it’s back I wasn’t sure who it was.

Just before it took off it turned and then I knew it was the Beautyful one!

I didn’t see where she went so I took off to check the FCT because that has been the routine lately. As per usual she and Archer met in the nestbox while I was gone as reported to me by Donna.  I was on my way back to the Times Square area when I got her tweet and as I drove through the intersection at Broad and Exchange streets I spotted Archer on top of the fire escape ladder on the Wilder building. Well wasn’t that a quick bonding encounter? Probably sensed that MAK was on her way!  lol I quickly turned around on the bridge and looked to see if Beauty was visible in the nestbox(she wasn’t) before driving down to Aqueduct St. for a closer view of Archer.

Again, it was really dark this morning so please forgive the quality of my pics. I got to spend about 10 minutes with him before I had to head for home. Oh, the games falcons play! Have a great day! 🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

So I checked the cams at 5:25am before leaving the house for my watch…nobody in the nestbox. It takes 7 or 8 minutes to get downtown from my house. I check the nestbox upon arriving on the Broad St. bridge, no falcons. I check the archive viewer after I get home from my watch to find out both Beauty and Archer were in there while I was in transit! They are such little sneaks and are messing with old MAK almost on a daily basis now.  I do hope they’re enjoying themselves!!! lol

Anyway, I drove around the east side searching in the semi-darkness with no success until I came back to the bridge and spotted a falcon on the FCT. I barely got over there before she was off and flying south in the general direction of Times Square.  I waited half a minute to see if she came back and when she didn’t I drove back to the bridge where again I spotted a falcon on the FCT! She had sent me on a wild falcon chase!!! Back to the city hall parking lot I went where she sat still for maybe 4 minutes. The Beautyful one then half flew/half jumped  up to the bottom arm.

Notice the white feather spot on the right wing…yet another way for her and Archer to fool me. As a matter of  fact maybe this is Archer, oh I’m so confused!  They don’t play fair especially since I don’t have any coffee  until I get home from my watches!!  After 10 minutes she/he moved over to the platform railing near the northwest corner(Plymouth Ave. side).

Leaving the city hall parking lot to go over to park on Plymouth Ave. and be closer I barely got a shot off when it flew off to the north. I lost sight of it and with just a couple minutes before I had to leave I drove over to see if it went to Kodak Office. No such luck and so I ended my watch and went home. Until next time keep your eyes to the sky everyone!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

We start a new month today as the summer continues to fly by with some pretty crazy looking skies in Rochester this morning.

Beauty and Archer were up in the nestbox just a couple of minutes before I arrived this morning for my watch.  As the days get shorter and I go downtown later my watches too are getting shorter. After driving around our fair city for about 30 minutes Beauty finally showed herself. She was on the east side railing of the platform on the Frontier Communications Tower when I spotted her from the Broad St. bridge.  I drove over to City Hall to get up close and personal.

I spent 15-20 minutes with the Beautyful one before I had to end my watch and get the truck home. I’ll end this report with some more pics of the morning. Have a great day and remember to keep your eyes to the sky, you never know what you’ll see!  🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

It took nearly a half hour before I found a falcon this morning. Not sure yet who it was on the northeast corner of the platform railing on the FCT but I suspect it was Archer.

Must have seen the other go to the nestbox for it flew off to the south in the direction of Times Square. I watched until I couldn’t see it behind buildings and then I tweeted it out. Donna reported they were both at the nestbox so I drove over to find Archer on the ladder of the Wilder building.

He wasn’t there long before he was off  flying to the southeast toward the river. After looking around the Broad St. bridge area I drove over to the Court St. bridge and as I was east bound I spotted a falcon on a northeast corner of the Bausch and Lomb building and it had prey.

After a couple shots and not being able to determine who it was I continued on to find a closer vantage point and naturally while I did this it left. I returned to the Court St. bridge to look for it with no luck so I stopped for a few minutes to take some pics of the shore birds down in the river. They will be included in my album at the end of this report. 15 minutes  later as I was north bound on State St. I spotted a falcon on the east side of the FCT platform with prey.

I assumed this was the same falcon as was on B&L and upon closer inspection I could positively ID it as the Beautyful one!

She was really going at this unlucky bird sending  showers of feathers out into the air! Toward the end of her meal she brought it near the edge so I could have a look at it. I believe it was a white pigeon.

Beauty spent an hour enjoying her breakfast and then moved to the right from where she ate to cache the leftovers. She then started to make her way further away from it.

Beauty eventually ended up on the north side of the platform where after cleaning herself up a bit she got comfy cozy and settled in for a nap.

This signalled to me that it was time to go! 🙂

Here’s the link for more pics from my watch. Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=257035582213%3A2039579872&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharer-_-Top

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Yesterday I got skunked on my watch but today was a different story. After checking around the Times Square area when I first arrived downtown I found Beauty over on the east side of our fair city. She was near the southwest corner of the HSBC building and appeared to be finishing up a bite to eat.

As I tried to find a better vantage point I heard her vocalize and then she flew off heading in the general direction of  Times Square. I figured she saw Archer and so I drove directly over to the Broad St. bridge. Upon looking at the nestbox I didn’t see anyone so I went over to the Frontier Communications Tower. I got a text from Rfalconcamnow that Beauty was in the nestbox. So I drove back to the bridge. Sure enough the Beautyful one was perched on the front of the nestbox.  Then a text from Donna said that Archer had been there too! Both of them right under my nose again sneaking into the nestbox. They were in there as I drove by on my way through the first time! Sheesh!!! At this point I drove down to falcon central where I could see the Wilder building and there was Archer up on top of the ladder.

I had only enough time to snap off 1 pic and he was off chasing a crow toward the river flying out of view. I went back up to the bridge to see if Beauty was still at the nestbox which she was for about 10 minutes more before taking off flying to the north.

Arriving back at the FCT I spotted Archer on the top arm of the west side and Beauty under the platform on the east side.

Archer went into a stoop right after I arrived and never returned so I figure he went to KP. I spent the next 2 hours with Beauty as she preened and watched all the bird activity below her.

Eventually she worked her way farther in under the platform out of the sun which was starting to warm things up.

It was time for this watcher to go get some breakfast and take her morning meds so I told Beauty goodbye and ended my watch. 🙂

For more pics check out my Kodak album at this link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=194640582213%3A1400886122&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharee-_-Top

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Joyce and I went to Canada on a fledge watch back in June and she had an accident with her vehicle at the Sunlife nest site. They finally finished the repairs on it and she asked if I would go back to Toronto with her to pick it up and drive her other car home. I thought about it for a whole split second and said “yes” let’s go! lol So we drove up there yesterday going directly to Harlequin Enterprises headquarters to see Quest,Kendal and Harlie! We arrived just before 2:00pm and upon exited the car and taking a few steps in the parking lot I noticed a bump over yonder on the Thales building. I yelled to Joyce that we had Harlie right off the bing-bang and so the clicking of our cameras began!

Shortly thereafter Bruce Massey showed up to join us on the watch and so did Quest. She landed on the Thales building on the opposite side of where Harlie was.perched.

Joyce went into the Harlequin building to visit with our good friends while Bruce and stayed outside to enjoy FALCONS! We eventually joined her as she was chatting with Donna Hayes and her secretary Patricia Cakes. After a few minutes of schmoozing with them they had to get back to work and so did we! We witnessed first hand what Mark Nash was saying about Quest being a nag with Quest for every time he got near she would start vocalizing and not stop ’til he was out of sight. And to make things worse for the poor guy Harlie has  learned well from her mom and does the same thing! No wonder he makes himself so scarce!  Anyway we saw some good flying by all 3 plus a food exchange between Quest and Harlie. Harlie likes to eat and beg for food ALOT! She has no doubt been spoiled as an only child.

The repair shop was open until 5:00pm and so at 4:oopm we decided we had better go before they closed and Joyce had to go even longer without it! We were told it would only take 15 minutes to get there…HA, the 401 freeway was jammed and it took an hour but we made it just in the nick of time.  Upon seeing her shiny new Toyota Rav4 Joycie gave it a kiss and a pat and turned to me with a big old smile. So she jumped in hers and I jumped in mine(also a Rav 4) and we headed back to Harlequin taking the side streets instead. Arriving a bit after 6:00pm we resumed our joyful watch. All 3 falcons came in close for some fine photos. Quest on the east end of the Harlequin building with Harlie on the west end eating. Joyce walked

up to the top level of the parking garage at the north end of the Harlequin parking lot while I stayed put having some worn out arthritic knees.

Quest flew off and by Harlie who followed right behind jabbering the whole time and landed on the roof of a 1 story building across the street. They were in on the roof where I couldn’t see them but Joyce had a birds eye view from the top of the ramp garage. She said they were drinking up there. They both flew out and Kendal showed up on the far west corner of the Harlequin building to finish up what Harlie had left behind.

Our little falcon family flew off out of sight soon after that and with an hour of daylight left Joycie and I headed out to the Yellow Pages nest site to see what we could find there. Upon our arrival we spotted a falcon or two up top. We saw a little bit of flying around the top of the building with some vocalizing and a half speed stoop by a juvie to end the day. We got her vehicle home safe and sound and then she dropped me off at my house at 1:00am a very tired but satisfied falcon watcher. I am including he link for my photo album of the day. Despite overcast skies not making it the ideal conditions for picture taking I believe you will enjoy these pics. Thank you Joyce for yet another chance to have a fabulous international falcon watch!  🙂

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=404597382213%3A1471924119&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharer-_-Top

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Today when I arrived at the intersection of  Broad and Exchange streets  I was met by road crews in the process of paving .

I didn’t know it at the time but Beauty and Archer were high above me in the nestbox doing their bowing and bonding thing. After looking up there and not seeing them I drove over to the east side as has been my routine for the past 1-2 weeks. Naturally I didn’t find Beauty on HSBC for she was sneakily hangin’ with Archer in the nestbox at the time. I made my way back and drove over to City Hall to find Archer on the top arm west side of the FCT.

After a few minutes I noticed he kept looking down and I thought he had spotted a meal to catch. He spotted something alright…it was the Beautyful one who had come to join him on her favorite perch under the platform.

It was overcast for the most part this morning while I was on watch duty but for a minute or so the sun shone on Beauty for my pic and then it was gone! While I was enthralled with her Archer took off from the top arm and I believe he may have gone down into the middle of the tower where I couldn’t see him. I had to leave so I didn’t have to time to search for him. It’s a good day when I can start it with both our resident Rochester Peregrine falcons!

Yesterday Joyce and I went to Toronto to pick up her car that was damaged in a wreck back in June at the Sunlife nest site. We went to Harlequin headquarters to check out our falcon family there. I will be writing a separate report for that  after I weed through all of my pics and get organized. In the meantime here is a pic of Harlie,Quest and the elusive Kendal. 🙂

By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Well I got a big surprise this morning as I approached the Broad St. bridge. They started ripping up and re-paving in front of falcon central yesterday. For the last week they had been paving Broad St. between Exchange St. and Plymouth Ave.

Phillipone building and Aqueduct St. in background

It will surely put a crimp in my watches if they close the bridge down but I will deal with that when and if it happens. So I drove to the east side to look for the Beautyful one and I wasn’t disappointed. Still a bit dark out I found her on the southeast corner of the HSBC building. I figure she must fly over there when she wakes up from her spot on Xerox(5th column on the south side) where she sleeps at night to hunt for breakfast first thing in the early morning.

Soon there after she flew off, of course while I wasn’t looking so I hadn’t a clue as to which way she went. The search was now on. I drove around the city a couple times and finally spotted her on the roof of Xerox perched on the southwest corner.

Taken from the Broad St. bridge

I then drove over to Clinton Ave. to be closer to her high above  her world!

Beauty quickly departed and that was the last I saw of her today. As I spent the rest of my watch looking for her I took a couple pics of our resident Great Blue Heron for your viewing pleasure before I departed myself.

Have a great day everyone! 🙂