Rochester Falcons Beauty and Dot.ca’s 4th Egg Arrived Early this morning at 7:56 am! As one falcon fan said “Four on the Floor!”. Or more technically “Four in the Scrape!”. 🙂

Beauty has laid no more than four eggs since she’s been here in Rochester. Will there be a fifth? If there is a fifth egg, it should arrive late afternoon on Monday. We’ll just have to wait and see.

We are very egg-cited to announce that Beauty laid her third egg late this afternoon. Will there be a fourth? We should probably know early Friday morning. Stay tuned!

This morning, at 8:27 am, Beauty laid her 2nd egg. Her mate, Dot.ca, brought her breakfast just before she laid the egg.

Tonight, at approximately 10:24 pm, Beauty laid her first egg of 2017 in the nest box on top of the Times Square Bldg. Many of her fans were on line watching her on Rfalconcam’s live streaming video.

It is with a very heavy heart and much sadness that we have to report the passing of our young tiercel, Genesee.

The Rochester Falcon Watchers have been watching him since his return to the Rochester area last year. He was mostly seen in the Charlotte/Summerville area, but there were reports from birders seeing him along the lake shore hunting as far east as Sodus. We were all very happy to recently learn that Genesee had found a mate.

Yesterday, 1/7/17, Rochester Falcon Watchers Dana Mulhern and Carol Phillips were out checking the lakeshore, hoping to find Genesee and his mate. When driving over the Irondequoit Bay Bridge they spotted a falcon down on the road. They contacted the DEC and Officer Snowden retrieved the falcon. He kindly let us know that it was in fact Genesee and it looked like he had been hit by a car. There was a dead Merganser nearby and he thought that may have been what caused Genesee to come down to the roadway.

Genesee made it thorough that very hard first year which a large majority of young falcons do not survive. He found a mate and we had high hopes that, with her, he would raise young of his own.

Fly Free Genesee. We will miss you.

2016 was a very successful year for our Rochester Falcons. Beginning with Beauty and Dot.ca successfully raising four young eyases to four successful fledges. We can’t forget our other pair, Billie and Seth, who also successfully raised young this year. It was a very good year!

Matilda, Aria, Lilac and Leo have all left Rochester to start their life journeys. We hope they all do well and that we hear about them in the future with mates and young of their own. That is the best news Rochester Falcon Watchers love to hear.

Speaking of that, as you all know, we have been recently reporting that Genesee, hatched in the nest box on top of the Times Square Bldg in 2015, was seen hanging out in the Charlotte/Summerville area. Watchers had reported seeing a female in the area a couple times while Genesee was there.

For the last few weeks, we had not seen Genesee or any other Peregrine Falcons. But, we are VERY happy to report that on January 1, 2017, a local birder, reported seeing two falcons on the Coast Guard Tower on the Summerville side of the Genesee River near Lake Ontario. Falcon fan Kris Genagon, who named Genesee along with another fan, contacted me to let me know that she had found a picture of the two falcons on the Coast Guard Tower! I tracked down the photographer who kindly gave me permission to post his wonderful picture on our website to share with all our fans. The bands on the smaller falcon were definitely those of our Genesee and he wasn’t alone. Genesee has a mate!

Here is the picture that photographer Richard Horsey shared with us.

Sorry to say we are unable to ID this gorgeous girl hanging out with Genesee. But Richard was able to see that she was banded and had red tape over her USFW band and a black/green NYS band. Hopefully someday we’ll be able to positively identify her.

Many thanks to Richard for sharing his picture with us! It is so nice to see that Genesee and his mate are doing well. We hope to see them raising young of their own someday!

Thank you all for helping to support the Rochester Falconcam! We all hope that 2017 will be a successful year for our Rochester Falcons!

The Rfalconcam 2017 calendar and 2016 ornaments are now available and ready for sale at our Zazzle store just in time for the holidays!

The images captured by our main camera this year were outstanding. So many to choose from.

Many thanks to this year’s contributors!

Check out these links to view the calendar & ornaments and please consider purchasing one for yourself to help support the Rochester Falconcam.

Link for New Calendar:

http://www.zazzle.com/2017_calendar_main_cam_collages-158772796372178857

Links for 2016 Ornaments:

Link to Aria Ornament:

http://www.zazzle.com/2016_aria_ornament-175404078140661808

Link to Lilac Ornament:

http://www.zazzle.com/2016_lilac_ornament-175293429581437537

Link to Matilda Ornament:

http://www.zazzle.com/2016_matilda_ornament-175342886145128550

Link to Leo Ornament:

http://www.zazzle.com/2016_leo_ornament-175554607519469721

Plus a bonus ornament for Genesee in his adult plummage!

http://www.zazzle.com/2016_genesee_ornament_in_adult_plumage-175993882696953920

Special thanks to Dana and Lou!

Thanks everyone!

Here are some additional pictures of Genesee provided by Rochester Falcon Watcher Dana Mulhern!

We wanted to share this good news with all our falcon fans. Especially those that watched our cameras in 2015. Remember Genesee? Well he’s been spotted north of Rochester on a cell tower. Rochester Falcon Watcher Dana first spotted him a week ago, but could not get a positive ID. He was back on Sunday and watchers Carol and Joyce joined her to try to get an ID.

Dana finally was able to get a picture showing his bands and Carol verified through her scope.

We are always happy to see one of our young ones doing so well a year after they fledge. Here is a picture showing Genesee as he took his first flight from the Times Square Bldg.

More pictures of Genesee from 2015!

If we get any more pictures of Genesee, we will post them here.

This morning, at approximately 10:30 am, our friends from the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) arrived to band the four eyases in the nest box on top of the beautiful Times Square Building. All involved gathered in an office on the top floor. Assignments were handed out and it was soon time to collect the eyases.

The extraction went very well. Both Beauty and Dot.ca were flying overhead, back and forth.

All four eyases were put into separate buckets.

They were carried down to the room where all the banding equipment was set up.

Each eyas was given two bands, a silver USFW (US Fish and Wildlife) band and a New York State Band. Three of the silver USFW bands was covered with colored tape, red, blue and yellow. The fourth one was left uncovered by tape. This will help the Rochester Falcon Watchers to more easily identify the young falcons after they have fledged (taken their first flights).

They also received their new names. Please join us in welcoming this year’s newest Rochester Falcons.

Matilda (Female) – (Battle Maiden) of Gothic derivation, derived from words corresponding to Old High German “mahta” (meaning “might, strength”) and “hildr” (meaning “battle”)

This name was chosen by Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK (Margaret Kurtz)

Black 84 Over Green BA – Red Tape over USFW

Aria (Female) – Aria, which means wind and, in some meanings, bird.

This name was chosen by Rochester Falcon Watcher Jeanne Yamonaco

Black 85 Over Green BA – Blue Tape over USFW

Lilac (Female) – for Rochester’s signature flower. Rochester’s most beautiful flower is paired with Rochester’s most beautiful birds.

Name Submitted by Susan Stifter of Rochester; J.R. of Scottsville, NY; and Melissa Slaughter.

Black 86 Over Green BA – Yellow Tape over USFW

Leo (Male) – the lion. Fifth sign of the zodiac, personalities are strong and created to shine. Also a constellation.

Name chosen by Peggy Quinn’s 4th Grade Class at Pine Brook Elementary School, Greece, NY.

Black 22 Over Green BA – No Tape over USFW

After all the eyases were banded, they were quickly returned to the nest box and the care of their parents.

Both Beauty and Dot.ca continued to fly overhead as the eyases were returned.

Each year, the DEC will collect all the debris in the nest box. This will help them to determine what the falcons are eating.

The banding went very smoothly and we here at Rfalconcam and the Genesee Valley Audubon would like to give special thanks to the folks from the DEC. We so appreciate them for all they do! Thank you!