If you’ve been watching the cameras at the Times Square building or following the recent reports from our fledge watchers, then you know that after 44 days of incubation, Beauty and Archer began disposing of the eggs in their nest box. All of the eggs turned out to be unviable. At the same time, watchers have reported that Unity has not been incubating her eggs for over a week. So at this time it seems unlikely that we’ll have any eyases in Rochester this summer.

It is possible that Beauty and Archer could begin laying a new clutch of eggs. It’s unusual for Peregrines to double-clutch, but it’s not unheard of. As for Unity, it’s anyone’s guess what she’ll do. Undoubtedly the stress of having their nest sites relatively close together, combined with Archer splitting his time between both nests, contributed to this less-than-desirable outcome.

While we wait to see what will happen here, the Rochester peregrine falcon legacy continues a couple of hours north in Toronto, Canada. Rhea Mae (b. 2006) and her mate Tiago are raising four eyases. They were recently banded by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Rochester Falconcam team member Carol Phillips attended the banding and took plenty of pictures of the happy event. Not too far away, her sister Linn (b. 2007) and mate Ruben are raising 3 young eyases. And after settling down earlier this year, our cyber-falcon Quest (b. 2008) has been incubating a single egg which just hatched within the past day or two. You can see more pictures of Quest, Kendal and their new eyas HERE.

So even though things haven’t gone the way we’d like in Rochester, there’s plenty of good news this year for falcons that were hatched right here.

Even before we knew Unity’s identity, Rochester Falconcam team member Carol Phillips was busy working with our good friends at Kodak to get access to the site for our crack team of watchers. Recently her persistence paid big dividends as Kodak invited a few observers to take a closer look. Falconcam team members Joyce Miller, Lou Capuano and Jim Pisello accompanied Carol to the power plant at Kodak Park’s Weiland Road location for a brief tour of the facility and our closest look yet at the site Unity has chosen for her nest this year.

Bruce Moyer, from Kodak Corporate Security met everyone at the gate and led them inside. The power plant burns coal and oil to produce heat and generate electric power for many of the buildings throughout the Eastman Business Park complex. Kodak owns the facility, but it is operated by Duke Energy.

Inside the team met Duke Energy’s Bernie and Ted, the plant managers, and geared up with hard hats, safety glasses and hearing protection. A ride up a freight elevator ended at the top floor where all the excess heat from the steam turbines made for a sauna-like experience. Ted, who had a previous life as a biologist, led the group onto the roof overlooking the nest area. From there, two eggs were plainly visible in the substrate on the protected ledge. The material on the ledge looks to be pigeon droppings, deposited over many years. Ted claimed the pigeon population had dwindled even before Unity’s arrival last year, and the team saw only a handful of birds while they were on site. Unity had put in an appearance earlier with an overhead fly-by that ended with her disappearing around the back side of the plant. Some more of the pictures from the tour, taken by Lou and Jim, can be seen in the slideshow below.

With two eggs in the scrape, could a third be in the works? The plant operators noted that the last egg was laid many days ago, so it doesn’t seem likely that Unity will be laying another. And though the nest is not monitored actively, it was clear from interviewing the Duke Energy folks that Unity is not spending a great deal of time on the eggs. That’s not the behavior you’d expect for a falcon that’s in “hard” incubation mode.

So what does that mean? Given Unity’s young age and the fact that this is her first clutch, it’s possible that these eggs won’t hatch. It’s not all that unusual for a falcon’s first clutch to fail, and Unity is under some stresses which might contribute to a brooding failure. Her mate, Archer, is not around as much as he should be, since he’s spending a great deal of his time at his “primary” nest site with Beauty. That alone may mean that Unity has to spend a lot of time off the nest in order to feed herself, defend her territory, and so on. According to some reports from our watchers, she’s not showing too much interest in brooding, either. That could be a symptom, or a result of the stresses in her environment.

The folks from Kodak and Duke Energy are enthusiastic about having a falcon family at their site though, and they’ve generously offered their assistance in keeping an eye on things. Since the site isn’t monitored nearly as closely as at Times Square, it’s possible there’s more activity going on there than we realize.

The Rochester Falconcam wants to extend our gratitude and thanks to Bruce Moyer and all the folks at Kodak, who continue to be terrific partners, and to Ted, Bernie, and all of the falcon fans at Duke Energy for their help and hospitality. We’re looking forward to seeing what happens at this site with Rochester’s newest Peregrine, Unity.

Our friends at Kodak sent over a couple of pictures taken yesterday afternoon near 1PM local time, on the 18th floor balcony of the Kodak Tower. The pictures show two adult Peregines, both about the same size, having a pretty intense-looking fight:
     

If you look closely at these images (click them to view larger versions) you’ll see that one of the falcons sports a purple leg band, while the other has a black and green band. We know that Unity’s USFWS band is purple, and Beauty’s state ID band is black/green. At the time of the fight, Beauty was not on the nest at Times Square. She had left about 20 minutes beforehand. We didn’t have any watchers at Kodak Park at the time to see whether Unity was there, but the chances that we have 2 adult Peregrines from the midwest US (where they use purple USFWS bands) at this time of year is unlikely.

According to the photographer, both birds flew off to the north soon after the photos were taken. Beauty returned to the Times Square nest box later in the afternoon, looking pretty normal for her, and Falconcam team member Carol P reports that Unity was at her KP nest when Carol dropped by around 3:45PM yesterday.

So, what’s going on here? Peregrines’ natural territoriality and aggressiveness is on overdrive during nesting season. We’re hopeful this was nothing more than a territorial spat, rather than a sign of things to come. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation going forward, but with any luck this was a one-time dust-up that helped both of our resident females to reinforce their respective territorial boundaries.

The peregrine falcon that has taken up residence at one of the Kodak Park buildings in northern Rochester defied all attempts at identifying her by her black and red ID band for over a year. The persistence of our watchers paid off in the end though. On New Year’s day Rochester Falconcam team member Joyce took some pictures which made an ID a near certainty, but out of an abundance of caution we waited for an opportunity for a clear photo in bright light.

This past Mother’s day was nice and sunny in Rochester. Joyce and fellow watcher “MAK” were back at it, keeping an eye on the falcon. When it flew to a nearby building and landed on an antenna they sprang into action, capturing the pictures you see below. The bird’s ID band is clearly visible, and we’ve confirmed that Rochester’s newest Peregrine-in-residence is Unity. Unity was hatched in 2009 at the University of Toledo in Ohio, several hundred miles west of Rochester. Her ID band is black over red 71/H. So welcome to Rochester, Unity!

Unity, photo by MAK

Photo by Joyce

Unity, photo by Joyce

Even better news is that she has a mate, and may be incubating eggs in a small alcove at the Kodak Park facility. The most surprising news though, may be just who her mate is. Our watchers are 99% sure that the male falcon who visits with Unity is none other than Archer!

The Kodak Park site is only about four miles from Beauty and Archer’s nest on the Times Square building. In fact, the KP site is visible from the Kodak tower and from the upper floors of the taller buildings in downtown Rochester. Watchers stationed at Times Square and Kodak Park have tracked Archer’s comings and goings, and the pattern appears to be very consistent; When Archer is at Times Square there is no male at Kodak Park. When the male is at Kodak Park, Archer is never present at Times Square. This could all just be a weird coincidence, but Archer has some distinctive markings such as a white-tipped feather on his right wing that’s nearly a dead giveaway. The male banded falcon at Kodak park has an identical light feather on his right wing. The chances that there could be two males at nest sites only a few miles apart in the same city, with the same distinctive field marks, are– Well let’s just say they’re awfully small. Archer and Unity have been observed copulating and performing all of the activities one would expect of a mated pair of Peregrines including courtship flights and territorial defense against other raptors wandering into the area.

It’s not unheard of for a male to mate with different females at multiple nest sites, though it certainly isn’t the norm. Archer spends more of his time downtown than at Kodak Park, so it will be interesting to see how well he is able to provide for two families, assuming that there are young hatched at both nest sites. We’ve informed the DEC about Unity’s identification, and we’ve also sent word to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to let them know that their girl has found her way here. We are hopeful that the DEC can work with Kodak to install a nesting box or platform at the KP site, and we’re ready to lend our assistance if its requested. In the meantime our crack staff of watchers will continue to keep an eye on both Times Square and Kodak Park to see what develops in this very interesting drama.

UPDATE! From our friend Kate St. John at the University of Pittsburg comes word that both Unity and Beauty are related! Dorothy, Beauty’s mother, is Unity’s grandmother. That makes Rochester’s resident falcons aunt and niece.

Beauty laid her third egg today. We’re not exactly sure when, because she spent a lot of time in the nest box and she didn’t let us see what was going on. Both Beauty and Archer have been on the eggs most of the day. That might be due to the cooler weather, or it could signal the start of “hard” incubation. If that’s the case, then we should be able to expect one more egg, for a total of four. Since the most recent pair of eggs have come at a more-or-less typical peregrine pace, if Beauty does lay another egg we should see it in the next 2 to 3 days.

In other news, the recent location data from Quest’s satellite transmitter has been nearly stationary for the past several days. Some observers began to speculate that perhaps her transmitter had finally fallen off. But earlier today our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation posted that two falcons, one outfitted with a transmitter, had been spotted on a commercial building in the city of York, Ontario Canada, just east of Toronto. The address for the sighting matched exactly to the location data we’ve been getting from Quest, and Bruce Massey, one of the CPF volunteers, was able to confirm her ID band numbers! It turns out that Quest has been hanging out with a handsome tiercel. Read the full account from CPF watcher Tracy Simpson HERE. Needless to say we’re thrilled to learn that Quest may finally have found a place to settle down, and that she could be starting a family of her own. We’ll keep a close watch on this story, and bring all of the details to you as we learn more!

We were starting to think that there might be a problem with Beauty’s egg-laying this year, but she delivered, depositing egg #2 in the wee hours of the morning. Our best guess at a time, based on images from our cameras is that she laid the egg around 1:14 AM. We didn’t get a look at it until three hours later. After some well deserved rest in the nest box, Beauty left the eggs, but she was back earlier this morning.

So, when can we expect the next egg from Beauty? With our unofficial motto specto subitus firmly in mind the answer is… well, we don’t really know. Beauty’s keeping her own schedule and she’s not letting us in on it. The next egg could be a couple of days away, or another week, so keep watching!

Yep, you heard us right! Some time around 7:30 this evening Beauty laid her first egg of the season. Peregrines usually lay their eggs 48 to 72 hours apart, so sometime on Sunday we should see egg #2.

Last year Beauty laid a total of four eggs, but only two hatched. That’s not unusual for first time peregrine parents. This time around we’re hoping that all of her eggs will make it to hatching. Archer has proven himself to be an apt provider for his family so we have no doubt that if we get the usual clutch of 3-4 eyases, (falcon hatchlings), they’ll be well fed and taken care of.

So, if you want to keep an eye out for the next egg, here are some signs that Beauty may be getting ready to lay the next one. She’ll spend a lot of time in the nest box, sitting over the bowl-like scrape that she and Archer have dug into the gravel. She may look tired and disheveled, and have a heavy, gravid appearance. She can be in that condition for as little as a couple of hours before laying, to as much as a day. Then, when she’s actually delivering the egg, she’ll be restless, changing her position frequently.

The actual moment at which the egg is deposited can be hard to spot, but thanks to our live video streams you should have an unparalleled opportunity to share in the excitement. And of course, we’ll keep our eyes open too, and announce the happy news as soon as it happens!

Just in time for the wearin’ of the green!

Our happy excited watchers– Both online and in person in downtown Rochester– delivered the news everyone has been waiting to hear. It seems Archer decided that the city’s St Patrick’s Day parade was the perfect time to fly back home, but we didn’t get our first pictures of him and his identifying leg bands (not to mention that telltale white feather tip on his right wing) until shortly after 2PM.

He and Beauty wasted no time and got right down to the business at hand, renewing their pair bond through some ritual bowing and sharing of food. Watcher Carol P reported seeing two falcons eating on the Kodak tower yesterday morning. Since then, both have been showing up at the Times Square nest box. They were also observed flying together near the Times Square building. All of these are typical signs of courtship that we’d expect to see in a pair of peregrines getting ready for a new season.

You can join in the virtual falcon watch yourself with the Rochester Falconcam’s five cameras at Times Square. Catch all the action live on our streaming video page, or even take control of our famous PanCam for a personalized falcon watching experience!

What of the tiercel who’s been keeping Beauty company since the year began? Our local watchers dubbed him “Mr. T”. He paid a visit to the nest box as recently as Friday afternoon on the 11^th. Our watchers will keep a close eye on things downtown, just in case Archer and the “new guy” decide to mix it up. There’s another Peregrine a few miles north of the Times Square at one of the buildings in Kodak Park. She’s been without a mate all year, so if Mr. T wants to head toward the lake he might find a willing partner there. That would be a win-win for Peregrines in Rochester.

Archer’s arrival comes about a week earlier than his 2010 debut in Rochester. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it will be interesting to see how his arrival time compares from year to year– assuming he continues coming back. One thing you can be sure of, is that we’ll be keeping our eyes glued to the skies in Rochester now that Mariah and Kaver’s grandson is back in town!

Beauty stopped by the nest box at the Times Square building today, and she didn’t come alone. As you can see from the picture above, she was accompanied by a male falcon as well. The pair stayed for the better part of an hour before finally flying away.

Needless to say we were all excited to see a male back in the territory, but was this Archer? Some close-in surveillance with the newly upgraded PanCam revealed that the male had no leg bands. No leg bands = no Archer. Here’s a good shot of the unidentified male taken from our high resolution Main camera:

Clearly this tiercel has no ID bands on his legs. He and Beauty and seemed pretty content, even ee-chupping to each other a couple of times.

A little before 9AM the male ducked into the nest box, and that drew a rebuke from Beauty. She kacked at the male and he left as hastily as he’d entered. He stayed nearby for a few more minutes before eventually flying away to the south. Beauty followed after him, and that’s the last we saw of the visiting tiercel.

So who was this newcomer? Was he a “one hit wonder”, just passing through, or will we see him again? We’ll keep our eyes open, and you can catch all the action on Rfalconcam’s five cameras or as it happens on our streaming video page.

Truth, the saying goes, is often stranger than fiction. Followers of the Rochester Falconcam’s various forums and our Falcon Watch blog will know that there have been occasional reports of a falcon at Kodak’s facility to the north of Kodak Office. We’ve had some thought that this mystery falcon may have been Mariah, since she was seen there last year in the months following her release. In the past few days we’ve been fortunate to get some photographs of an adult peregrine that has been seen at one of the buildings in Kodak’s Eastman Business Park (EBP). You can see that this falcon has a black and red ID band on one leg, and a purple band on the other. When Mariah was in rehab last year, she received a silver US Fish and Wildlife band that was covered with blue and yellow tape.

So this bird clearly isn’t Mariah. But who is it? We’ve been busy putting the word out, and as it happens, purple US Fish and Wildlife bands are used out in the Midwest, as are black and red ID bands. We contacted Barb Baldinger, one of the falcon watch volunteers in Macomb County, Michigan for more information. You may recall that Barb was the one who took the picture of Ihteram that we posted back in 2008. Barb wrote back, but since the ID numbers on the EBP falcon’s band aren’t visible in the picture, she couldn’t give us any help figuring out who this bird might be. We’ll keep trying to identify it, though.

---

While she was responding to our inquiry about the mystery falcon at Kodak, Barb mentioned a new falcon that they discovered at the DTE Power Plant in St. Claire County, Michigan. They’re trying to identify the falcon, and got a picture of its ID Band: Black/Red *G/O, with a silver USFWS band. According to Barb, that band isn’t in the Midwest banding database, so she wondered if we might be able to help with an ID.

Does that band ID sound familiar? We don’t blame you if it doesn’t, but it turns out that band was assigned to our very own Alkyonis, one of Mariah and Kaver’s offspring from 2004! She had to be rescued twice, and spent a few weeks in rehab before finally returning to her family in August of that year. Falconcam team member Jim Pisello participated in one of her rescues, but with two rescues and a rehab under her belt, her future seemed uncertain. So it’s fantastic to learn that she beat the odds and has survived for over five years. Barb has promised us an updated picture of Alkyonis, which we’ll publish as soon as we get it. She did send us a shot that shows the ID band on her leg, so we’ll leave you with that for now.

Update! We’ve received a couple more pictures of Alkyonis, courtesy of Barb Baldinger and Dan Miller. As you’ll see, she’s grown into quite a beautiful falcon!

You can’t make this stuff up, folks!