By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

For those that have been wondering how Billie and Beau did this year. They successfully raised four juvies from their undisclosed nest site. We have been asked by the DEC to not say where they are nesting.

We’ll hopefully add some pictures soon.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

When I first arrived downtown at 6:30 am, something told me to check out the downtown buildings first and I’m glad I did. I parked near Geva Theater. From there, I could see two juvies flying and talon tagging over Five Star Bank. This went on for a long time.

Both juvies settled on top of the Five Star Bank Bldg. Blaze on the corner and Kanfai Malachim on top of one of the antennas. Blaze flew over Kanfai Malachim and around the back of the building. Kathy O and Dana joined me in front of the Martin Luther King Park.

It rained on and off while we were watching Kanfai Malachim on the antenna and it was very cloudy. Temps were going up into the high 80s, with high humidity. Really bad lighting conditions for pictures.

An adult flew past with food and the chase was on. Both Blaze and Kanfai Malachim chased the adult. One juvie was successful and landed on the SW side of B&L with the food. The 2nd falcon followed the adult, flying east.

It wasn’t long before the juvie on B&L took off. Kathy, Dana and I split up and searched for the falcons. Having no luck, we ended up on the Court St Bridge. From there we saw a juvie land on the NE corner of the old Radisson with food. Time to move again!

From Bragdon, we had a very nice view of Kanfai Malachim eating on the old Radisson in the rain.

From there, we could see an adult on the Times Square Bldg NE wing ledge. After Kanfai Malachim finished her breakfast, she took off heading towards the Times Square Bldg, vocalizing to the adult.

On the way back to the Court St Bridge, Dana saw Kanfai Malachim land on the Widows Walk. When we arrived on the CSB, she was gone and so was the adult.

As we were ending our watch, an adult landed on the Jail Communication Tower, Kathy drove over to verify it wasn’t a juvie.

We are doing a lot of driving around to find the falcons now. It was so much nicer when we could sit in one place to see them. Now that they’re getting older, they’re spreading out. I’m happy that we can share their adventures with all of you.

We didn’t see Red today. I kind of hoped we would. I hope this traveling juvie is doing well.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P

Collage of Pics by Dana

During our morning watch yesterday, we actually did see our red banded visitor (Red) a 2nd time during our morning watch. After Dana went through her pictures, she saw that it was Red that flew up to the NE wing ledge after an adult (Nova) took food up there.

Kathy, Dana and I were on the Court St Bridge when a juvie flew over heading towards the Times Square Bldg. The juvie landed on the NE wing ledge and came face to face with the adult that was already up there. The adult stood its ground and the juvie flew off without the food.

In Dana’s pictures, you can clearly see the red band on the juvie. Nova was not willing to give up the food. So the visiting Red was interacting with our downtown Rochester family.

The behavior we see while watching the Peregrine Falcons is always fascinating!

I hope we see Red again and positively ID him/her. Be safe Red!!!!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

WE HAD A VISITOR AND WE SAW RED!

My morning watch was shared by Kathy O and Dana. Larry O was out for a short time, but he did not join us.

When I first arrived on the Court St Bridge, there was a juvie on the roof of the Old Radisson. Another falcon flew through and the juvie gave chase heading NW, maybe towards the Frontier Communication Tower. Not sure if it was an adult and juvie or two juvies.

Kathy, Dana and I split up, searching the downtown area. I found a juvie on the south end, lower ledge of the Cross Rds Bldg. Again, I could not verify if it was Blaze or Kanfai Malachim.

We continued our search. Kathy texted that there was a juvie on the NE corner of City Place. This is a building just south of the Frontier Communication Tower. Dana and I joined Kathy. We hoped to get a look at the bands. This juvie was NOT being cooperative at all. Then, finally, it spread its wings and took off!

Dana and I quickly checked our pictures. Would we see the bands? Was it Blaze or Kanfai Malachim? Blue or silver? RED! I see RED!

What! Had Zara been released? Had she escaped and we hadn’t been notified? A quick call to June. She checked with the rehabber. Zara was sitting peacefully in her flight cage.

Soooooo, who is this mystery visitor with the red tape over the USFW band and Black over Green band? Neither Dana or my pics gave us a clue.

We saw no aggression towards, let’s call this juvie Red for now. Blaze was seen later in the watch, but we were not able to find Red again.

This mystery will only be solved if we’re lucky enough to read Red’s black over green band. Hopefully one of the watchers will.

Here are a few pics of pics of Red from the morning watch.

FLYING FALCONS!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Today’s falcon watch was located on the Court St Bridge with watchers Kathy O, Dana, Larry O and Carol P.

The watch started with one juvie falcon on the south end of the Cross Rds Bldg. It ended with lots of flying around downtown by this juvie, that we were never able to positively ID. Judging by size, this juvie was probably Blaze.

We saw a lot of flying, but never more than one falcon at a time. So, no way to tell if we had more than the one falcon or not.

Here are some pics of pics (can’t wait until I can go through my pictures and videos!). Enjoy these flying falcon pictures from downtown and ? Enjoy!

Plus a couple of really good memories!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

This is my report from yesterday, 7/31. Today is the first of August. My, how time has flown. Not sure how many future reports I’ll post since it’s getting harder to find our young juvies, Kanfai Malachim and Blaze. I want to thank my fellow watcher Dana for sharing her watch report pictures and videos. They’ve been so much to watch! I wish more of our watchers would share their pictures/videos here for all to see.

It was very quiet Sunday morning, my favorite time to drive around downtown Rochester and search for falcons.

My first falcon of the morning was Neander. He was on the old RG&E Bldg on a lower ledge. Thanks Neander for this flag shot!

Dana and I searched for a good part of the morning not finding any other falcons. Larry O and Gimli joined us on the High Falls pedestrian bridge. The view was beautiful but falconless, not even a Red-tail Hawk. Larry left us and Dana and I continued our search, splitting up to drive around downtown.

I was sitting in my car in front of Kodak Office when two falcons flew in from the north. I knew they landed somewhere on the building, so I drove around to the west side and heard the glorious sound of a juvie cry filling the air. Good thing it was a Sunday and no one was working in the office Kanfai Malachim was sitting outside of. Directly above her was Nova, trying her best to ignore her noisy daughter.

Kanfai Malachim took off and flew all around the building, first landing on the west side peak, just in front of the door we used on Mariah and Kaver banding days and then on the Philadelphia Tower on the NW corner.

Nova took off heading south and Kanfai Malachim soon followed.

Dana and I parked on the Andrews Street Bridge and watched as all four falcons arrived. There was food in the mix and Blaze arrived to talon tag with his sister. When these two get together they are so much fun to watch! Just wish Zara could be there too!

After this, it got very quiet. The only falcon we could find was Nova hiding on the Old Radisson.

We left Nova, ending the Sunday morning watch.

As always, I apologize for the poor quality of my pictures.

The watchers will not be out this morning due to the services at the Blue Cross Arena for RPD Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz who was shot and killed in the line of duty. 😕🇺🇲🙏

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Today our juvies took their watchers to Kodak Office. But when I first got there, both juvies flew up to the Powers Bldg screaming. One landed and one continued on. By the time I drove over to the Andrews St. Bridge and parked, both were on the north side of the Cross Roads Bldg. At first I reported it as an adult and a juvie, but after checking my pics it was both juvies.

Both flew over to the old Radisson, lots of talon tagging and vocalizing. They both flew low over the trees along the river where I lost sight of them. I drove over to Bragdon for a closer look, but could not find them. Larry and Gimli joined me and we both checked out the area.

Dana and Kathy were over on Main St, at the Convention Center, so we joined them. Dana had seen the juvies talon tagging near the Radisson and saw one land on the east side of Cross Rds with a small morsel of food. By the time Larry and I joined Dana and Kathy, there were no falcons in view. It was a long time before we saw another falcon.

Just as Lisa joined us, we saw a falcon heading north and landing on the NE corner of the netting on Kodak Office. We saw there was also a 2nd falcon lower on the building on the SW corner. Time to head to Kodak!

When we arrived at Kodak, we saw two falcons flying around the top of the tower and out of view. There are security cameras on the corner of the building just north of the tower. I noticed a falcon sitting there. It was Blaze.

He sat there, intently watching a bee buzzing around him. Then Kanfai Malachim flew in and they were both off, flying together and talon tagging over the Kodak buildings. This brought back such good memories.

They both left the area, so we ended up driving around. Dana did see an adult and a juvie on Wilder while driving around. We gathered on the Court St Bridge before ending our watch.

Here are some pics of pics from today’s falcon watch.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It was a beautiful morning for a falcon watch. It was just too bad we couldn’t find a falcon. Dana and I searched everywhere. After driving all over and not finding a falcon, we decided it was time to head over to the pedestrian bridge at High Falls (HF). To the gorge!

I really miss watching from there. There are so many good memories of Mariah, Kaver and their young ones flying through the gorge and in front of the falls.

From the pedestrian bridge (Pont de Rennes Bridge), we had a great view of the downtown area. Dana spotted an adult on Powers and I saw it fly to the jail communication tower. From where we were, it was way too far to positively ID. Larry and Gimli joined us.

An adult Red-tail Hawk was flying up and down the east side gorge wall, landing in different trees. We could also see two, what we assumed to be, juvie Red-tail Hawks on a light at Frontier Field.

Dana yelled “falcon”! There was an adult falcon flying past the Frontier Communication Tower, towards Kodak. The falcon stooped towards the river and continued north and out of sight. Well, that was exciting!

Larry headed out and Dana and I watched the Red-tail Hawk floating over the river. So graceful! All of a sudden the Hawk let out a very loud RTH screech! (Not to be confused with a fake Bald Eagle cry that you hear in the movies.)

The Hawk cried out and headed straight towards us, the sun behind it. That’s when we saw what caused its agitation. Out of the sun, a large, adult Peregrine Falcon stooped directly on the Hawk, hitting it right in front of us!

The Hawk quickly flew out of the area and the Peregrine headed south towards downtown. Well, that was awesome!

I saw Larry heading back our way, saying “Did I just see what I thought I did?” Hahaha!

After Larry really left, lol, we spotted a falcon eating on the old Radisson. Time to head back to Court St for a closer look. I took some pics and I’m pretty sure it was Blaze.

Now, if only Kanfai Malachim and Blaze would find the gorge!

It was time to end our morning watch.

Here are a few pics of pics of the morning watch.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

The temps and humidity are rising, but it was a beautiful, cool, sunny morning.

My first sighting of a falcon was an adult on the SW corner of the Five Star Bank. I arrived just in time to see this falcon stoop and swoop low over the Martin Luther King Park, just south of Five Star. I quickly lost sight of this falcon.

I drove all over, not hearing or seeing a falcon, so I went back to the Court St Bridge (CSB). I saw a juvie fly through crying loudly with an adult. The juvie landed on one of the jail buildings and the adult landed on top of the Times Square Bldg (TSB) nest box. They both took off while I was tweeting. Kathy O arrived saying that she saw 2 falcons land on the Powers Bldg. I could only see one.

Both falcons left the Powers Bldg, one flew east past the old Radisson Hotel. A few moments later I spotted both juvies talon tagging over the apartments on Andrews St. Dana joined us just in time to watch Kanfai Malachim (KM) and Blaze practicing their skills.

Dana and Kathy decided to get a closer look at the aerial display, while I remained on the Court St Bridge. Just after they left, both juvies flew out of view for a moment, then Blaze flew back carrying food in his talons. There must have been a food transfer where I couldn’t see it. Blaze landed on the west side roof of the old Radisson to enjoy his breakfast.

When I walked down the river path to get a closer look, I could see that both Blaze and Kanfai Malachim were next to each other. KM watched as Blaze ate.

Kathy O, Dana and Larry O joined me and we sat down on benches in the small park on the east side of the Blue Cross Arena along the river. We had a very nice view of downtown from there.

We watched for awhile as Blaze finished his meal and first KM then Blaze took off. We ended our watch at approximately 8:30 am.

I spoke to long time Watcher Dan S this morning, to catch him up on all falcon matters. He’s doing great and says hello.

Here are some pics of pics from the morning watch.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

There wasn’t a whole lot of activity this morning, but we did positively ID Kanfai Malachim (KM) and Blaze, plus we saw one adult. I do believe the adult was Nova based on size only.

Kathy O and I searched all over downtown before, from the Court St Bridge, she spotted two falcons on the Five Star Bank. By the time we drove over to that area, both falcons were gone. Kathy and I split up. She went over to Geva, where she found a very large Red-tail Hawk, but no falcons. From the back of Midtown, I spotted a juvie falcon eating on the east side of the old Bausch and Lomb (B&L) building. After a look at a zoomed in pic, I could see Kanfai Malachim’s blue band.

As I was watching KM eat, Blaze flew over screaming. He ended up landing on a smaller antenna on top of the RG&E Bldg. Not sure what this building is now called. Because of the sun, I couldn’t tell for sure if he was chasing an adult, but I thought he may have been based on his behavior.

Blaze remained on the antenna while Kanfai Malachim finished her breakfast. Kathy O and Larry O joined me behind Midtown.

A few moments later, KM took off, flying around the B&L building heading west. By the time we looked back at Blaze, he was gone! So now we were falconless. Time to drive around again.

As I was heading out, an adult came flying in from the west, landing on the RG&E building, just to the left of the leaf logo. Based only on size, I thought this might be Nova. Looks like we may have found one of her hiding places.

We all ended up parking on the Court St Bridge. Where Kathy spotted a falcon on top of the OCSR elevator shaft.

It was a beautiful, cool Tuesday morning watch. Temps only expected to go up into the mid 70s today. So refreshing after so many 90F days!

Here are some pics of pics, sorry for the poor quality, from the morning watch.