By Falcon Watcher Carol P.

With the sadness of our missing Zara always on our minds, Watcher Dana and I shared a very enjoyable falcon watch this morning. Both Kanfai Malachim (KM) and Blaze are flying and landing well. They’ve started talon tagging with each other and chasing mom is especially great fun!

Nova, Neander, Kanfai Malachim and Blaze were all seen this morning.

Here are a few pics of pics I took this morning.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I just wanted to share a few more pics from my morning watch. Again pics of pics, so not such great quality.

Both Kanfai Malachim (Angel Wings) and Blaze are doing well. We see a lot of flying by both of them and they spend a lot of time together.

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Dana

Please click on the following YouTube links to view my watch reports for July 11th & July 12th.

7/11/22

7/12/22

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Dana

Click on the following YouTube links to see my Falcon Watch Pics and Videos.

The first one is my 7/5/22 Video

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kTlAWuugo4s&feature=share

The second one is from 7/10/22. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/F3lR22xevyU

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

We were so happy to have a new pair this year after losing Beauty and Dot.ca. When Nova and Neander laid four eggs in the Times Square nest box, we were ecstatic. When three of the eggs hatched, we fell in love all over again with three tiny, white fluff balls.

We watched them grow up, their white fluff fell out, and their beautiful brown feathers revealed themselves. We now had a hint of what they would look like as adults. I’ve always said it’s like opening a present when their masks were revealed.

But, with happiness, sometimes comes sadness.

We started the fledge watch last Tuesday, sitting in the hole (Aqueduct St), surrounded by construction and loud noise. Sometimes, if we listened very hard, we could hear the eyases crying to their parents from above.

On the 4th day of the fledge watch (Friday 7/8), KM took flight for the first time. I wasn’t there to see it, since I had been on watch for several hours that morning. It was time to head downtown to check on KM. She had flown to a building behind the Telesca Bldg. When I arrived, KM had made a 2nd flight to the top of the Wilder Bldg. She was doing great!

I may have missed Kanfai Malachim’s (KM) fledge flight, but I was there to see Zara launch herself from the end of the nest box wall on the Times Square Bldg. It was a strong flight that took her to the top of the Wilder chimney. She landed on the corner, flapped a few times and then steadied herself. It was a very good landing for her first time. She did great! Sadly, that was the last place I saw Zara. She took a couple more flights for the evening watchers who last saw her flying up to Wilder from the Telesca Bldg. After that, the evening watchers ended their watch.

I was there early Saturday morning with fellow watchers Dana Kathy O, Lisa McK, Lukka (Zara’s namer) and Alyssa. We found KM immediately on the building behind Telesca. After that we searched for Zara, but we never found her. It’s been three days now and still no sign of our Zara.

Saturday was another happy day. At 9:23 am, it was Blaze’s turn to fledge. Blaze landed on top of the Wilder Bldg very close to KM. They’ve been pretty much inseparable since then.

We are continuing to search for Zara. I am still hoping for a miracle!

This morning, Monday 7/11, I arrived downtown at 7 am. Kathy O and Dana joined me. It was going up to 90F today.

We found all four Rochester Falcons on the Powers Bldg. First the adults took off. KM and Blaze stood up and started to walk around. When Nova came back with food, the chase was on!

Both juvies (yes, they are now juvies), took off from Powers and flew towards the Times Square Bldg (TSB). Nova landed on the Powers lower roof with food. The juvies landed on the Telesca roof. Nova took off with the food and landed on the TSB NW wing ledge, where she cached the food and settled on the light.

During the morning, there was a lot of flying by both KM and Blaze, before they both settled on the NE wing ledge where they could keep an eye on mom. Neander kept watch from the south side of the OCSR, 2nd Ibeam.

By 1:00 pm, we totally lost our shade and it was getting very warm. It was time to head home.

Now to explain why I haven’t been posting any pictures. I am not able to download pictures at this time. I have lots of pictures and videos I would love to share, but I can’t at this time. So I took some pictures of pictures to share. They’re not very good, but you get the idea. Hope you enjoy!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Watchers: Dana and Carol P.

After a long day of record breaking rain fall here in Rochester, NY, I was very happy to get out to check on our falcons.

Dana had already started watching when I arrived. We met on the Court St Bridge. The Genesee River was rocking and rolling. Lots and lots of rain had caused the water to be extremely high and it was moving fast. The river wasn’t the only thing that was active. Golden was out and about and chasing his favorite mom all over the place. Dot.ca was there too, but Golden was Beauty’s little shadow this morning.

Beauty brought in food and landed on the northwest corner of the Cross Rds Bldg. Dot.ca was hanging out on the OCSR. It wasn’t long before Golden came in screaming. He landed next to Beauty and a tug-o-war began. Golden grabbed the food and began to eat his breakfast. Beauty decided she was hungry too and took a bit for herself.

After finishing their small meal, both took off. Beauty in the lead with Golden right behind her. They zipped over the Blue Cross Arena. Golden returned, flying over us, and landed on a OCSR IBeam, below Dot.ca. This is the first time we had seen him land on an IBeam.

Since Golden was settling in for a nap, Dana and I decided to check out the ST location. We saw both adults and all three juvies together. Another first for me.

Ok, here are some of my favorite pictures from my morning watch. Enjoy!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Morning Falcon Watchers: Larry O, Dana and Carol P.

It had been a few days since I had seen Golden. He had been seen and heard on the Rfalconcam cameras multiple times yesterday afternoon, so I was hoping he’d be around this morning. I was not disappointed.

For the first hour or so, I only found Beauty and Dot.ca. I searched all over the downtown area with no luck finding Golden. So, I settled on the Court St Bridge to continue my morning watch.

After a few minutes, a falcon zipped through over the Court St Bridge, heading south. Pigeons took to the air in panicked flight, trying to escape the speedy huntress. One was not so lucky. Beauty snatched one up and headed back to the Blue Cross Arena. She landed on the roof and I heard the glorious call of a juvie falcon. Golden followed his mom and also landed on the roof. Both took off, I lost track of where Beauty headed with her meal.

Golden flew over to the Civic Ctr roof across the street from the Blue Cross Arena. I wasn’t sure where Beauty ended up. By the time I drove closer for a better view, Golden took off heading north. The only falcon in view, when I ended my morning watch, was Dot.ca on the south side of the OCSR.

After I left, Dana spotted both Beauty and Golden near Midtown, both with full crops. Obviously, Golden found Beauty and shared her meal.

Here are some pictures from my morning watch. Enjoy!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Needless to say, my heart was broken when I got the call to pick up Freyja. We’ve had our share of sadness over the years, but this one really hit me hard. Fly Free Beautiful Freyja. I will miss you, always.

For the last week, many of the Rochester Falcon Watchers have been visiting downtown Rochester and the ST location to keep an eye on our young falcons. Golden is getting a lot of attention from both Beauty and Dot.ca. His training is going extremely well. I’ve seen him chase pigeons, kestrels and Great Blue Herons. Nothing is safe from him. As for the ST juvies, there are three of them, two girls and a boy, they too are doing really well.

There is such a difference in what we see at both locations. Downtown, Golden is more of a loner, having no siblings to play with, he hangs out with Beauty and Dot.ca. While the ST juvies are usually playing with and chasing each other, with Billie & Beau watching form nearby.

I really wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from the past week of so. Hope you enjoy!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Watchers (during my watch): Dana, Larry O and Carol P.

7:00 – 10:00 am

Another hot, humid and steamy day. Again the temps are going up to 90 today. This is getting old. The good thing is it’s supposed to cool down soon, with much needed rain on the way.

It took me awhile to find the falcons this morning. The first falcon I found was Beauty on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT). It didn’t take long for Golden to find Beauty’s hiding spot. He flew in and knocked her off. Both flew over me heading south. Soon after they left, Dot.ca flew out from inside the Frontier Communication Tower framework. He flew up to the white disk. I have to assume there was food up there.

I next found both Golden and Beauty on the Widows Walk (WW). For the majority of my watch, Golden remained there until he finally left, flying back towards the FCT. He ended up on the shorter of the two communication towers, where he moved in out of sight, probably for a nap.

No Freyja sighting today. We’ll keep looking.

We ended our watch at that time and made a quick visit at Seneca Towers, where Dana and I found Beau and one juvie in view.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from today’s watch. Lots of Golden Wings! Enjoy and stay cool!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Watchers (during my watch): Larry O and Carol P.

6:30 to 9:00 am

Hot, hot, hot! Another scorcher with temps up into the 90’s expected today. I decided to stay in the hole (aka Aqueduct St) where there was a lot of shade and a nice breeze. At least it was bearable there.

Thankfully, just after I parked my car, Golden showed up carrying food. He landed on the Wilder Bldg and made his way down to the SW corner. He played with his food for awhile, then cached it near the SW corner. He is such a busy young falcon. lol

Golden made his way back to the ladder and then took off, flying gracefully above me. I felt honored to be there to see just how well he is doing. He headed back towards the Times Square Bldg, where Dot.ca was prepping or eating food on the SE corner nook. This is a spot the adults will cache food.

Golden continued towards downtown where I lost sight of him as he flew directly into the sun over the Hyatt. He next showed up flying high above the Xerox Bldg.

Dot.ca finished with what he was doing and took off, clutching a small “package” of food. DC flew over me, heading east over the river. Not quite sure where he was taking this bit of food?

Beauty had spent most of the morning at the Powers nest box. Larry O joined me for a short while before heading out.

While he was there, a juvie (assumed to be Golden) came in vocalizing. He landed on the NE wing ledge and walked in out of sight. Probably for a nap. Beauty flew over from Powers, landing on the TSB nest box platform. After a few minutes, she walked in to enter the nest box.

I’m just going to say, that I have not given up on Freyja. I won’t for a long time. We have had miracles happen in past years when juvies had disappeared for awhile. I’m still hoping she’ll show up some day. 🙂

The heat was rising and all was quiet, so I ended my downtown watch. On the way home, I stopped to check out the ST juvies. I was just in time to see two juvies flying together over the river. One had a scrap of food and the other one wanted it. The chase was on. The 3rd juvie was eating. So happy to see Billie and Beau’s three juvies doing well.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from today’s watch. Enjoy and keep cool!

Now for the 2nd Part of my morning watch. At ST I found all three of Billie and Beau’s young ones. Two were flying high, chasing each other. One eating breakfast. I just love knowing that these juvies are Mariah & Kaver’s great grand kids!