At approximately 10:43 am, Beauty and Dot.ca’s 2nd eyas hatched! Here is a series of pictures taken by Rfalconcam’s main camera showing the “break out”!

Later in the day, Dot.ca brought food to Beauty in the nest box and he watched as Beauty fed the two young falcons.

Sharp-eyed Rfalconcam watchers have spotted a pip in one of the two remaining eggs. A 3rd eyas should be arriving very soon!

We are happy to announce the arrival of the first eyas to hatch here in Rochester, NY in 2015!

At 12:28 pm, we got our first good look at a pip, a small hole in the egg.

Falcon Fans around the world were thrilled at the appearance of the young falcon at approximately 1:47 pm.

Both parents, Beauty and Dot.ca, welcomed the new arrival.

There are 3 more eggs in the nest box, that should hatch within the next day or two.

Click here to watch the Rochester Falcons!

As many of our readers may recall, a pair of Peregrine falcons became frequent guests at Seneca Towers last year. One was a banded female from Luzerne County, PA. The other was an unbanded male. Two naming contests were held, and the winning names were Luzerne and Veteran.

Sadly, Luzerne was found dead in July, but another female, Billie (formerly Billy) from Buffalo, was spotted with Veteran in August. The two remained together until September when Veteran disappeared, presumably migrating south for the winter. A 2nd tiercel was soon spotted with Billie. He was banded and still wore yellow tape on his USF&WS band indicating that he was fairly young. His other leg sported a black over green band with 99/BA printed on it. A bit of investigating uncovered his banding records, which showed that he was not given a name at that time.

Of course, not having a name didn’t stop our watchers from calling him something other than “banded tiercel with yellow tape on one leg and black over green on the other” (the 99/BA part wasn’t determined until later). He was temporarily referred to as Mr. Yellow Tape, but given that the tape could fall off at any moment rendering this name obsolete, another name was needed. We could have chosen to hold another naming contest, but that would have been a lot of effort for a falcon that may have just been passing through on migration. Another option was to call him Seth, the runner-up in the contest that named Veteran, but we did not want to “use up” that name on a visitor that could be leaving in a few days. So instead, he came to be known as 99, a good temporary name for a migrating falcon that surely would be leaving soon, or at least in early spring when Veteran returned.

Well, 99 didn’t leave. He stayed all winter and is now Billie’s mate, which raises the question of what to call him. Do we stick with 99, or should we change his name to Seth? Or should we run another naming contest? We decided to ask the falcon watching community for their opinion.

We created a poll on the Rfalconcam Forum and asked members to  choose one of the following:

• Keep the name 99
• Change his name to Seth
• Allow name submissions (start another naming contest)

The poll ran for two weeks, and today we are pleased to announce that the community has decided to change 99’s name to Seth.

Rfalconcam Forum Poll Results

Keep the name 99 38.9% Change his name to Seth 58.3% Allow name submissions 2.8%

By the way, the name Seth was originally submitted in honor of Seth Green, the namesake for the road that Seneca Towers is located on, and the nearby park. Seth was a well known fisherman in the Rochester area and instrumental in the fish hatching industry.

This afternoon at approximately 6:16 pm, Beauty laid her 4th egg in the nest box on top of the Times Square Bldg in Rochester, NY.

Here are a couple of images of the moment captured by our main camera.

Beauty laid her third egg today. It happened at approximately 9:19 am EDT, a few hours later than her fans’ predictions but well within the normal range .

Both Beauty and Dot.ca have been on the eggs most of the day. This 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 Beauty’s eggs have come at a more-or-less typical peregrine pace, if she does lay another egg we should see it in the next 2 to 3 days.

We are happy to announce the arrival of Beauty and Dot.ca’s 2nd egg, which arrived at 10:47 pm!

Please join us tonight in the observance of Earth Hour.

Rfalconcam will turn off the cameras in the nest box for one hour starting at 8:30 PM EDT.

https://www.earthhour.org/

At approximately 2:46 pm this afternoon, Beauty laid her first egg of 2015 in the nest box on top of the Times Square Bldg. in Rochester, NY.

Peregrines usually lay their eggs 48 to 72 hours apart, so sometime on Sunday or Monday we should see egg #2.

Last year Beauty laid a total of four eggs. We’re expecting about the same number this year, but who knows. There could be five! Dot.ca has proven himself to be an apt provider for his family so we have no doubt that if we get a clutch of 5 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 Dot.ca 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!

Well, you know we love to hear news about our Rochester falcons, especially when awesome pictures are available!

Jerry Anderson posted a picture of a Peregrine Falcon he had watched hunting at Gallagher Beach (Buffalo, NY) on the Buffalo-Niagara Rare Bird Alert. He reported the following:

“This is one of the Peregrine Falcons I regularly photograph at Gallagher beach. There is usually a pair.”

Gallagher Beach is not that far from Central Terminal, where Diamante and Gleig nest. It would be interesting to know if Gleig is the 2nd falcon that Jerry has been seeing.

Jerry kindly gave us permission to post his pictures of Diamante. We knew you would all love to see him!

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 12 noon, which will be covered live on Rfalconcam streaming video Channel 3!

Look forward to seeing everyone there!