Get Ready For Something New
Something new is coming to the Rochester Falconcam! We’ve been working on it for a while now, and this Saturday, August 1st we’ll unveil a feature that we think you’re all going to enjoy.
And while you’re waiting for the big event, keep up with Quest by checking out the map of her latest locations.
On an unrelated note… being sharp-eyed falcon fans, you’ve probably noticed that the Falconcam’s high-resolution Main camera has been “stuck” for over a week. We’ve been working on the problem but to date we haven’t had much success. We have a couple more things to try, but it’s possible the fault lies in a problem with the power connection. If we can’t fix it from inside the Times Square building we may have to go the rest of the year without the Main Camera. Even though Archer and Beauty seem pretty comfortable here, they’re a new pair in town. We don’t want to risk stressing them by going out to the nest box until they (presumably) leave later this year. We’ll still have the four others though, so we’ll be able to keep an eye on any activity in the box.
July 28th, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Looks like Quest did not check in on Sunday. no magenta bird symbol, even when I looked for miles around. Did you have storms?
While not seeing anything on the main camera is frustrating, the resident falcon pair come first and, even then, there is not all that much to see, since their visits are so short.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Hey…look at that…announcing Main cam might need to be off for the season seems to have done the trick! Thanks once again for all you do!
July 28th, 2009 at 4:23 PM
Jess has mysterious powers.
Would Jess please announce that I may never win the lottery so I can win it tomorrow?
July 28th, 2009 at 4:51 PM
Allison, she is further to the east. Check the larger view.
July 28th, 2009 at 9:54 PM
4:52pm Tues I saw one of our falcons visiting on the main camera. Always such a pleasant surprise!
July 28th, 2009 at 10:25 PM
Alison, We did have some severe weather here on Sunday including four tornadoes; one in Hilton, very close to Rochester. Would that interrupt satellite communications?
Kathy G, Archer was in the nestbox today at 4:50 again. He appeared to be fanning his wings and searching the skies. Is Beauty accounted for?
July 28th, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Thanks for the update, can’t wait to see what the new thing is. As long as we still have the 4 frames, we sure don’t want to bother or stress out B&A. Will be waiting. Guess I’ll check out Quest.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:11 AM
Hellen, I did look further east (west, north and south) but apparently not far enough 🙂
I believe that storms in Quest’s general area would inhibit good transmission to the satellite, but not necessarily in Rochester where the data is retrieved from the satellite. But I may be wrong.
Mercy, chrissy, what horrible weather you did have – Rochester does not seem like “tornado country” like here in the Midwest.
Great images from the Main Camera now, thanks; you must have threatened it with something real convincing 😉
July 29th, 2009 at 1:18 AM
Clicking on the six (not seven, still no magenta) bird icons on Quest’s map I see that there were NO updates on July 23, 24 or 25, but the red one in the east is the most recent: Sunday, July 26th. which is more than one day ago… So the color code is a nice idea, but the data do not always follow the scheme.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:57 AM
Alison, clicking on the icon in the list on the detailed map will move Quest’s map to that location. However, if you click the magenta icon it will take you to July 26 (red icon). Shaky may need to take a look at that.
Jess, Looking forward to your Saturday surprise! My best guess is either Shaky has rented the QE2 and is taking us all on a world cruise or it’s something camera related.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:19 AM
Quest’s location for the most recent two days was mapped exactly the same in Google Maps, even though the actual coordinates vary by several thousandths of a degree. Thus, the magenta and red icons are superimposed on the map.
The satellite data have been kind of sparse lately, with only a few readings on some days and none at all on others. Even when we get multiple data points for a given date they are often of poor quality as regards the positional precision. It might be more accurate to say that our “daily” map really records her last 7 positions for which we have good data, with the goal being to map one data point on each consecutive day.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:09 PM
The notion that the past two positions (red and magenta) of data from Quest were so exactly the same that there is no magenta icon no matter how close one moves in on the map and that there is no more recent data than three days ago is worrying to me.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:40 PM
Oh gosh. Hope it’s just a glitch. Are there any estimates on how many overcast days would effect battery performance?
July 30th, 2009 at 12:15 AM
Looking forward to your surprise, Jess!
July 30th, 2009 at 2:00 AM
Alison-
I also am concerned (ever the worrier) that there was no position change by Quest those 2 days. Hoping for another update soon that shows movement.
July 30th, 2009 at 2:06 AM
Woo Hoo! Quest is OK! A new location quite a way to the west has been posted for 07/28!
July 30th, 2009 at 2:28 PM
wonderful
July 31st, 2009 at 11:04 PM
Only one more time to sleep and then we get our surprise =D
Today A & B were at the nest box briefly, one in the box at 6:08 AM, both on camera at 6:14 and no one left at 6:18. But someone may have either landed on or taken off from the camera around 2 pm, since it suddenly shifted slightly.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Looks like the data on Quest is very sparse nowadays. Although the stated goal was: “Every day we’ll post her newest location and remove the oldest. On those occasional days where we don’t receive new map locations for her, we may wait a day to update the map, or we may show data points that span a period longer than seven days. We’ll try to keep up with her globetrotting on a daily basis…”
nothing has changed for another three days. Guess the stars are not in proper alignment…
September 25th, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Have there been anymore sightings on Mariah? Last I read was she was back after her rehab and had been seen at Kodak.