Most of our readers probably know by now that Mariah was released from her rehabilitation a couple of weeks ago. Before leaving the veterinary facility near Syracuse where she’d been recuperating the DEC’s Mike Allen took a few pictures to show just how completely she’d healed

          

Wildlife officials at the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation took her to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge about 40 miles (64km) east of Rochester. As she flew northward Mike Allen got this picture of her taking wing

Before letting her go, Mariah got a nice bit of new jewelry in the form of an aluminum US Fish and Wildlife band. To make her stand out from the falcon crowd, Mariah’s band was tricked out with blue tape and a yellow racing stripe

Since her release, she found her way back to Rochester. If you’ve been keeping up with the reports of our on-site watchers in the FalconWatch blog, you’ll know that she’s been spending a lot of time in the Genesee River gorge below the High Falls. Check back often for the latest updates!

---

Speaking of updates, the news on Archer and Beauty is that they’ve apparently moved from the narrow ledge on the Midtown Plaza Tower. It looks like they abandoned any eggs they may have laid. Our watchers haven’t witnessed any nesting-like behavior from the pair for the past several days now. Whether they did lay eggs that failed or didn’t lay any is something we may never learn. The ledge where they’d been spending their time is very narrow and without a bucket truck or some similar conveyance physical access to the ledge is nearly impossible.

So where’d they move to? As it turns out, Archer and Beauty headed a few blocks west and across the river, ending up at the Times Square Building. Astute readers will recall that this is the location where we installed one of our nest boxes this past winter, and outfitted it with a few cameras. We never turned them on because frankly there wasn’t much to be seen. At first watchers reported that the falcons were only landing on the corners of the building, but before too long we began to see them moving toward the nest box, and even going inside.

Yesterday evening Rochester Falconcam team member FalKenn Martinez was at the site working to get the cameras up and running. There are still some technical problems to solve, but now that we know there’s activity at the nest box we’re moving into high gear. While he was working on the high-resolution Main camera, both Archer and Beauty showed up at the nest box! Ken was able to grab a couple of pictures of them, which got stored on the camera controller’s hard disk. Since we’re not yet connected to the Internet there’s no way he could transmit the pictures, but he did the next best thing, snapping pictures right off the monitor screen with his cell phone camera!

     

The image quality leaves a little to be desired, but who cares!?! Archer looks an awful lot like Kaver, doesn’t he? It’s those good genes of his! And that second picture appears to show them bowing to each other. That could indicate that they’re pair bonding. It’s late in the season, but these two are young and healthy, and it’s just possible that they could go through another courtship and mating cycle, and even lay eggs!

Could we be looking at another clutch in the making? It may be that our fledge watchers will yet have an opportunity to practice their skills on the streets of downtown Rochester. We’ll keep working to get the Times Square cameras on-line so that we can all keep an eye on Archer and Beauty at their “new” home.

View Quest Travels June 1-9 in a larger map with a legend
(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.)

Quest seems to have found a preferred location in Port Hope, a few miles west of Cobourg, Ontario. She continued her late May stay there until June 2nd when she flew to a rural area 15 miles west of Kingston, Ontario. She spent 2 days there before returning to Port Hope.

This is a rural area covered with woodlands and agricultural fields on the lake shore that seems to have little in the way of tall buildings or other structures from which Quest could hunt. It’s likely that she’s dining on shorebirds or perhaps some smaller arboreal birds.

---

By the way, we’re trying something new. Beginning today we’re publishing a new map that will always show Quest’s movements for the last seven days. Each day we’ll update the map with the most recent information that we have. That way you can follow her travels on a daily basis.

You can find Quest’s one-week rolling map by clicking here or selecting it from the list of pages at the upper right side of this page.

Believe it or not, falcon watching is serious business. Our volunteers make it look easy, but there’s a lot to think about when the binoculars and scopes, field guides and notebooks come out. In the city a watcher needs to keep in mind all the potential hazards of urban life, while still searching for a bird that may be hidden in a shadow, tucked into a building’s decorative cornice, or circling high overhead emerging into the brief stretches of blue sky framed by high-rise offices. Putting aside the challenges of a city, watching falcons begins as it does with watching any bird. The American Birding Association publishes its Birding Code of Ethics. Our local falcon watchers are expected to follow this code, but that’s only the beginning of their responsibility.

Because Peregrines are endangered in New York, observers need to take extra care to ensure that the falcons aren’t disturbed or otherwise stressed unnecessarily. To help keep everyone on the straight and narrow when it comes to watching the falcons, the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation has provided some advice that we’ve incorporated into our best practices.

Our first concern is always the welfare of the falcons we’re watching. As much as everyone would like to get up close and personal with a Peregrine (okay, maybe not everyone would like to!), the rule of the day is to watch without impacting the falcons. That means avoiding loud noises and keeping your distance. How close is too close? Well, the best advice is that if your presence causes the falcon to look at you, vocalize, or change its behavior, you’re too close. Despite our friendly intentions, a falcon sees us humans as potential threats. By looking at them we can increase that threat response.

Position is also important. It’s better to observe from below a falcon rather than above. Falcons and other birds of prey don’t like activity above them. You may recall that’s one of the reasons DEC didn’t place a nest box on the Four Seasons building; the proposed site for a box was below an office with lots of windows where the movement of people inside could have been seen by the falcons. Even better is to observe them from behind cover. If they can’t see you, the chance of unduly stressing them is minimized. New pairs can be especially sensitive to disturbance while establishing a new nesting area. Too much human activity can prevent them from settling down and successfully raising young.

Watching falcons or other protected species like eagles can actually have legal ramifications, as they are protected by both state and federal laws. In New York State, you should not get closer than 350 feet (about 100 meters) to an active eagle’s nest. There’s no set distance for falcons, but the guidance about not disturbing them is based on the NYS environmental law, which considers harassing a protected species to be the same as injuring or killing one. That’s serious business.

Watching in an urban environment brings its own set of challenges. Tall buildings may limit a watcher’s ability to see a falcon or follow its flight. Many times the falcons nest or perch on private property, so it’s important to get permission from the property owners before setting up shop with scopes, cameras, lounge chairs and cool drinks. One advantage of watching in the city is that you can often find cover. Watching from behind the corner of an adjacent building or even from a parked car can help to hide a watcher from the object of their attention.

When the fledglings begin to fly watchers in the city need to be aware of traffic on busy city streets in addition to all of the concerns we’ve already talked about. The personal safety of the watchers is important too. Watching in groups not only provides greater security, but it has other benefits as well. Members of the public often ask, “whatchalookinat?” It’s a great opportunity to educate the public about the Peregrines. Having multiple watchers means we can keep an eye on the falcons while explaining to passersby what’s going on. It also means there’s usually a pair of binoculars that can be lent, or a scope through which to get a good look at a perching falcon. Watching in a group also allows the watchers to cover a wider area. That’s important if a fledgling disappears and needs to be found. In those cases, 2-way radios and cell phones are useful tools to keep everyone up to date about what’s going on.

We don’t yet know what 2009 will bring in terms of fledging activity, but Rochester’s volunteer falcon watchers are already adapting to an environment that’s a lot different than the one they’ve been used to for the past decade. Gone are the open skies near Kodak and the High Falls gorge. Now it’s busy city streets and skyscrapers on every side. Adjusting to this new reality while keeping the falcons safe and not disturbing our new pair will be a challenge but our team of seasoned watchers is up to the task. With guidance from the DEC and our customary care for the Peregrines’ welfare, we’re confident that we’ll have another successful year of falcon watching here in Rochester.

Those of you who have been following our FalconWatch blog know of the recent change in the falcon situation in Rochester that has led us to reevaluate our plans to relocate cameras. While we continue to monitor the activity of Archer, Beauty, and Mariah in order to determine where to deploy our Main Camera, we have replaced our Main Camera View page with a new slide show featuring recent photos taken by our falcon watchers. We hope you enjoy the show.

If you have taken pictures of the Rochester falcons in 2009 and would like to have them featured in our slide show, please email them to the following address:

rfcCommunity@rfalconcam.com

Be sure to resize your photos to 1024×768 pixels or smaller and include a short description with each photo. Also include our name so we can give proper credit. Your photos should appear in the slide show within 24 hours.

View Quest Travels May 22 -31 in a 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.)

As we wait for more news about Mariah’s return to Rochester, we thought this would be a good time to catch up on Quest’s travels. As you can see, she’s still visiting our friends to the north.

Please be sure to keep checking the Falcon Watch section for more news on what’s happening here in Rochester, NY.

Jess