Please join us Saturday night in the observance of Earth Hour.

Rfalconcam will turn off the cameras at the nest boxes located on the Times Square* and Powers buildings for one hour starting at 8:30 PM EDT. During that time, we ask that you turn off your lights, computers, and non-essential electrical appliances. Of course, we understand that those who recently lost power as a result of the wind storm may not want to participate.

For more information, visit https://www.earthhour.org.

* The cameras will remain on at the Times Square Building if Beauty is about to lay an egg.

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!

Join us December 31st at 10 PM ET on streaming video Channels 1 and 2 to watch the fireworks over downtown Rochester from a bird’s eye view!

We’ll be meeting again later at the Forum Chat & Ustream Social Stream to ring in the New Year together!

And let’s not forget the Watcher’s Toast New Year’s Day at 11 AM, which will be covered live on Rfalconcam streaming video Channel 3!

Look forward to seeing everyone there!

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!

Thanks to the generosity of our dedicated falcon supporters , we raised over $2,200 yesterday, including $1,000 in bonuses for outstanding teamwork by donors who stayed up late to make their pledges at just the right time. Well done, folks!

ROC the Day officials will send us a list of donors sometime in the next few weeks and a full financial statement in February, at which point we will know who to thank individually. Until then, thank you to everyone who donated. Your contributions will be used to fund Rfalconcam operations and improvements throughout 2017.

Just a reminder to join us tonight at midnight as we ROC Rfalconcam!

And, yes, we have a plan to win the $500 and $1,000 bonuses. You can read all about it at http://rfalconcam.com/forum/index.php?topic=16147.

The link to donate should be https://www.roctheday.org/event/rfalconcam (no confirmation yet).

ROC the Day is November 29!

Are you as ready to ROC as we are? Join us on Tuesday, November 29 starting at midnight to ROC the Day for Rfalconcam.

Don’t miss it. Sign up for a reminder at https://www.roctheday.org/Contact-Us/Pre-event-Contact-Us and get the latest news on ROC the Day activities at our Forum.

Let’s ROC the Day together!

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.