The New York Department of Environmental Conservation released their report on the state’s Peregrine population last week. It has some good information about the success of the repopulation program here in New York State.

Read the DEC’s press release

View the full report (in Adobe PDF format): Part 1 Part 2

We’re happy to announce that we’ve turned on the three cameras at the nest box that was installed at the historic Powers Building in downtown Rochester late last year. This is the nest box that used to be located on the Kodak tower. A second nest box has been installed about a block away from this one at the Times Square building.

The Rochester Falconcam team is still working on getting cameras up and running there, and there are some technical tweaks still to be made at the Powers Building. Mariah hasn’t yet put in an appearance before the cameras, but we invite you to take an early look while we wait for the 2009 “falcon season” to move into high gear. Check out the Rochester Falconcam’s Multicam page to see if you’re the first to spot Mariah. And be sure to read the Falconwatch blog for all the latest news from our on-site watchers!

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

It appears that Quest has found a good place to rest in the area around Wood Hollow Road and Chuck Hollow Road amid the woodlands and expansive houses just south of the Siasconset Golf Course. Morning and evening readings form a tight cluster of locations within about ½ mile. Her daytime locations are farther south near the shore in keeping with many of the eyewitness accounts we’ve received over the past months. Data from the transmitter’s temperature sensor continues to show that Quest is keeping warm, with temperatures from 18-25°C being recorded. So as we head toward the latter part of winter Quest is keeping a routine that ought to make it relatively easy for her many fans on Nantucket to keep track of her.

-Jess

The birding populace on Nantucket certainly seem to have taken Quest into their hearts. The latest sighting comes from Edie Ray, who had a close encounter with Quest on the 25^th of January. She sent along some pictures to go with her engaging story too. You can view the pictures by clicking the pictures and highlighted links below. Edie writes:

Late in the afternoon on [January 25, 2009] I pulled into the parking area at Low Beach in ‘Sconset on the Eastern edge of Nantucket Island, Ma. As I exited my car and began pulling on numerous layers of clothing (it was COLD), I noticed a woman with several dogs walking up the trail from the beach. Just beyond her and seemingly undisturbed by this activity I observed a Peregrine Falcon sitting on a sign on the beach. “Must be Quest”, I thought to myself.

I asked the dog-walker as she hurried past if she had seen the Peregrine and would she like a closer look using my binos. She replied that she had indeed seen the bird and had wondered what “that funny stick was on it’s back”. Aha, Quest for sure…

Now on a quest for Quest I headed to the beach and managed a pic or two of her sitting on the sand. As I watched I could see her looking at a flock of Bufflehead ducks feeding just offshore. All of a sudden she took flight and headed out over the startled ducks. I then lost sight of her over the water.

Turning my attention to gulls I amused myself for about forty minutes counting and admiring the many Iceland and Lesser Black-backed Gulls feeding just North along the beach from Quest’s take off point. As I left the gulls and began to head back along the beach to the path I once again saw Quest. She now was sitting on a “shipwreck” looking piece of flotsam and jetsam and looking very photogenic indeed.

     

     

Not wanting to disturb her I approached slowly, pausing at times to let her get accustomed to my presence. At one point she lifted her tail and produced a “nice poop”, good evidence of her success in hunting I think! With her “consent” and a telephoto lens I was then able to get a number of nice shots of her basking in the late afternoon sun.

Leaving Quest I headed up the path to my car. While greeting some arriving birders in the parking lot one of them (Vern Laux) yelled “Peregrines!” I turned just in time to grab my camera and get a pic or two of Quest embarking on an aerial dogfight with a smaller Peregrine right over the beach. Even at a distance we could her vocalizing!

After watching this amazing display until both birds were out of sight I headed for home having had a most memorable encounter with a true master of flight. All in all an afternoon I won’t soon forget!

We’re so grateful to Edie and all of Quest’s fans on Nantucket for keeping us informed about her, and especially for sending along all of the terrific pictures! Quest looks great, and she sure seems to be having a good time on her island winter home.

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

No new real news about Quest, who has stayed close to Tom Nevers for the past week. Most of the stong transmissions came in the early morning hours when Quest is presumably sleeping, so perhaps we aren’t seeing the full scope of her wanderings. What is clear is that she’s returning to the same small area day in and day out, and most likely not venturing very far from it. In fact, on the 28^th of January and February 2^nd, Quest was in exactly the same spot, a wooded area adjacent to the residence at 68 Tom Nevers Road. Since these data points occurred in the early morning and late evening hours, it’s likely this is a sleeping spot for her. If anyone currently resides at that address, they might have a good opportunity to see her.

Other interesting plots for Quest occurred on the 29^th of January, and again on February 1^st. These place her in the vicinity of the Coast Guard radio tower at Siasconset. This is probably the highest point on the island, and if she’s perching at the top of the tower, Quest doubtless has an unobstructed view of much of Nantucket.

If you’ve been following the reports from our on-scene watchers at the FalconWatch Blog, you’ve already heard the good news. If you haven’t, why not??? Anyway, we’re happy to announce that Mariah flew back into Rochester a few days ago! A non-resident falcon (female) and tiercel (male) had been making themselves at home at many of the perching spots familiar to our volunteers for the past couple of months, but they both left the area as soon as Mariah returned. Some research suggests that migrating Peregrines may have nearly as much affinity for a particular wintering site as they have for their home territories. Interestingly, these winter migrants aren’t often interested in taking over a territory, just in having a place to roost and hunt during the winter. When the regular residents return, the migrants often leave without engaging in territory battles or other disputes, to head back to their own “home” territories. Perhaps that’s the case with our winter visitors this year. In any event, we’re glad that Mariah has returned to Rochester for an astounding 14^th year!

She’s been spending a lot of time on the Kodak tower, so there’s still some uncertainty as to whether she’ll find and move into one of the two nest boxes that have been placed downtown for her. Our dedicated watchers will be braving the mid-winter freeze here in town to keep an eye on her, so keep checking back for more reports!

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

Thanks to Quest’s regularity, continuing gaps in the location data from her transmitter haven’t hindered our ability to follow her movements. As you’ll see from the latest map she continues her stay in the Tom Nevers neighborhood. In an unusual coincidence, Quest’s trip up the beach on 22 January found her in exactly the same location as she was on the 1^st of January, right down to 1/1000^th of a degree! The time stamps for the location data are different for each day, so this might indicate that she has a favored spot at that location.

Perhaps the most interesting data from the past week concerned the temperature. Quest’s satellite transmitter has a small temperature sensor built into it. This sensor measures the temperature of the transmitter unit, which is influenced by the temperature of Quest’s environment, and also her own body temperature. Provided that the signal strength is good, we usually receive a temperature reading along with each location. Often, the temperature readings aren’t much different than the ambient temperature at her location. This most likely means that Quest is in a relatively exposed location.

The interesting bit is that for the past week, while average daily temperatures in Nantucket have hovered between -1° and -4°C, Quest’s temperature sensor has been reading 20 to 25 degrees higher than that. In fact, the temperature reading on 26 January was 32.39°C, or 90.3°F. That’s a pretty high temperature for the middle of winter, and it may indicate that Quest is finding good shelter from the elements. It’s yet another positive sign that her survival instincts are developing well.

-Jess

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(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

It’s been a few days since our last update, but Quest didn’t give us any surprises. She has continued to spend her time in the Tom Nevers neighborhood, her home for the past few weeks. She ventured northeast east to Sankaty Head on the 9^th but for the most part she seems content to stay within a relatively small area.

We can assume that the very frigid temperatures that descended on the United States last week kept her movements to a minimum. We’re happy to see that she weathered the arctic blast without undue difficulty. It’s yet another hopeful sign that Quest may go on to a long, fruitful life.

-Jess

View Larger Map
(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small “+” & “-” signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

Despite some gaps in the daily emails from the ARGOS satellite tracking service during the past several days, there’s enough data to show that Quest is staying between the communities of Siasconset and Surfside on the southern shore of Nantucket Island.

The reliable data points indicate that she’s spending much of her time along Tom Nevers Road. Satellite imagery shows this to be a wooded residential neighborhood with plenty of single-family homes. Click the View Larger Map link then click the Satellite button to switch views. Some of the houseslook quite large. It’s likely that the woodland provides a refuge for Quest, sheltering her from the worst of the precipitation and especially the wind which has been quite fierce in recent days.

-Jess

Members of the Rochester Falconcam recently took a few hours to install a trio of cameras at the nest box that was placed on the Powers Building about 6 weeks ago. Some internal connections still need to be made, but we can comfortably say that we’ll be ready to bring the images to you if Mariah makes use of this box in the spring.

Carol Phillips put together a photo journal of the work done by the team. Check it out here!

The second nest box should be installed at the Times Square building in the next week or so. There are a few technical challenges at this location, but we’re planning to install at least 2 cameras there as well. We’ll bring news of that work to you as soon as we can.

-Jess

Photos courtesy of Mark Nash, Canadian Peregrine Foundation

We’ve received some happy news from Mark Nash and our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation— Linn is back!!!

You may recall that Linn was spotted there at the beginning of the year, but then she left for parts unknown. She’s back now, and she’s brought a friend, as Mark Nash reports:

Over the past four plus weeks, we have been getting regular sightings of a pair of peregrines that have been hanging around the Bell hack site at Pharmacy & Eglinton. Both birds (a male and female) have been observed coming in and out of the hack box, as well as roosting, sleeping and feeding regularly on various elevations on the Bell building. This morning we were able to confirm Bruce Massey’s observation of the female’s band number that he [observed] this past weekend (November 8th & 9th 2008) – Black 91 over Green V.

She has been identified as Linn from Rochester – produced at the Kodak nest site in 2007!!

Her male friend also [wears] a Black over Green colour marker band (but we have not been able to get his numbers yet). BUT his USFWS band appears to be a purple/mauve colour. While it may be a coloured tape, it does not appear to be case. We will continue to monitor the site in the hopes that we might get an ID on this guy.

Mark sent along some pictures of Linn the male who accompanied her, presented here for your viewing pleasure.
          

What a beauty she is in her adult plumage! We’re thrilled to know that Linn is back. If this male is her mate, they’ve chosen an excellent spot to nest and raise young in 2009! Our gratitude and appreciation go to Bruce Massey, Mark Nash, and all the great folks at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation for keeping an eye out for Linn, and for welcoming yet another Rochester peregrine to grace the skies of Canada!

-Jess