We have received some very good news from our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation. Quest no longer has her transmitter. Rfalconcam Forum member Donna Cook was able to capture some pictures of Quest taken by the Harlequin falcon cameras. She immediately noticed that something was missing. The transmitter antenna we were so used to seeing on her back was gone. She shared the pictures with other members of the forum and members of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation (CPF).

– Picture of Quest from the Harlequin Falconcam

Many thanks to Donna and CPF Member, Bruce Massey, who positively identified that it was Quest at the Don Mills nest site and that she no longer had her transmitter! Here is Bruce’s report.

Quest Has Shed Her Transmitter and On Site with a Potential New Suitor
December 21, 2014 – Toronto – Don Mills

Posted on December 21, 2014 10:53 pm

Here are some images of a young Quest with her transmitter in 2008. She did a lot of wandering her first year and made lots of friends, especially in Nantucket and Cape Cod.

For the holidays, we are offering four new Rfalconcam ornaments. Each ornament features two images of our young falcons hatched this year in 2014; Nettie, Tesh, Mercury and Nor’easter.

We hope that you enjoy these ornaments. As always, we thank you for your support of Rfalconcam.

Here are the links for all four ornaments.

Nettie:
http://www.zazzle.com/2014_nettie_ornament-175645792723121663

Tesh:
http://www.zazzle.com/2014_tesh_ornament-175122884672431314

Mercury:
http://www.zazzle.com/2014_mercury_ornament-175940804421380264

Nor’easter:
http://www.zazzle.com/2014_noreaster_ornament-175092420510225340

Thanks once again to the generosity of our dedicated falcon followers, we raised nearly $2,500 yesterday, including two bonuses totaling $1,500 that were earned by carrying out our time-honored plan to donate en masse between midnight and 1 am in order to increase our chances of winning.

ROC the Day officials will send us a list of donors sometime next week 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 2015.

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=13907.0.

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

ROC the Day is December 2!

Are you as ready to ROC as we are? Join us on Tuesday, December 2 starting at midnight to ROC the Day for Rfalconcam.

Did you know that every odd hour (1 AM, 3 AM, etc.) one lucky ROCstar (that’s you!) will be randomly chosen to give an extra $500 bonus to the charity of their choice? There are 12 chances to win!

And did you also know that on the even hours, the organization with the highest number of donors for the preceding two-hour period will get an extra $1,000?

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

Let’s ROC the Day together!

The Rfalconcam 2015 calendar is now available and ready for sale at our Zazzle store just in time for the holidays! There were some stunning images captured by our main camera this year. So many to choose from.

Many thanks to this year’s contributors; Annette, Ginny, Pat, Donna, Teresa, Kris, Ei (Dumpsterkitty), Kathy, Lisa, Dana and Carol.

Please consider purchasing one for yourself to help support the Rochester Falconcam.

Link for New Calendar:

http://www.zazzle.com/2015_calendar_main_cam_collages-158789746649432508

Special thanks to Merchandise Team Member Dana for putting this calendar together. All your hard work is much appreciated!

If you’ve been following the RFalconcam Falcon Watch Blog, you know that all four of the young falcons that hatched on top of the Times Square Building have fledged successfully. Nor’Easter, Tesh, Mercury and Nettie have left the area. We wish them well as they begin their journey and we hope to hear about them in the future.

We would like to thank all the folks that came out to help with the fledge watch this year. To keep an eye on the young Peregrine Falcons as they took their first flights and trained with their parents, Beauty and Dot.ca.

There were a few anxious moments, including a premature fledge when a strong gust of wind swept Tesh off of the wall near the nest box. She ended up on a low awning above the sidewalk on the corner of Main St and Exchange. The Rochester Falcon Watchers gathered to surround the area and keep her safe until she was strong enough to fly again. When she did take off, she gained altitude and landed on top of a taller building where she remained for the evening. The next morning Tesh was off and flying well, eventually making her way back to the nest box and her family.

We had more good news, this time from Syracuse, NY. Pigott, who had been hanging out for the last few years on a building south of downtown Rochester, was positively ID’d as the new female at the Syracuse nest site. She left Rochester in March and it didn’t take her long to find a new territory and mate. We were thrilled to hear that she successfully raised a daughter.

2014 was a very successful year for the Rochester Falcons!

The following is from June Summers.

Thank you to the Falcon Watchers for putting in thousands of hours tracking the Peregrine Falcons, fledglings and those falcons just passing through. It’s amazing to learn the number of falcons that pass through Rochester on migration that our Falcon Watchers find and often identify by the band numbers. The Falcon Watchers are great ambassadors to the public for the falcons and GVAS. They are frequently asked what they are watching with binoculars. Their reply is always, “Peregrine Falcons.”

June Summers
President

The FalconWatch blog database was corrupted beyond repair. Fortunately, it was able to be restored from Saturday night’s backup. This means that everything is back online except for MAK’s Sunday (8/10) Fledge Watch report.

Rfalconcam’s web server started experiencing several problems just before midnight. Steps were taken to correct the problems, but they were not entirely successful, resulting in additional problems this morning. Work continues on finding a resolution. In the meantime, all website functionality has been restored with the exception of the FalconWatch blog. Expect the blog to be unavailable for the remainder of the day.

Today at 10 a.m., the NYSDEC (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation) came into Rochester to band the four eyases in the nest box at the top of the Times Square Bldg. They all received two bands each, the USFWS band and the NY band. Colored tape was placed over the silver USFWS band to make it easier for the Rochester Falcon Watchers to keep track of the young falcons when they fledge, taking their first flights.

First banded was a male named Mercury. Mercury was the Roman god of commerce and was carried by the north wind as messenger of the gods. He is depicted on a Rochester landmark, the statue atop the Aqueduct Building, upon which our falcons love to watch, eat and mate. Submitted by Erin Aumick of Caledonia, NY; Linda Barker or Watervliet, NY; and Patricia Cary of Rochester, NY.

Second banded was a female given the name Nettie. In honor of our friends at Netsville for providing five years of free internet access for Rfalconcam’s cameras at the Times Square Building in Rochester, NY.

The third, a male eyas, was named Nor’easter. Nor’easter is a powerful storm that affects the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada. It is named Nor’easter because the storm travels to the Northeast while the winds come from the Northeast of the coastal areas of the United States and the Atlantic Canada. Nor’easter causes flooding and erosion of the coastal areas, hurricane winds and heavy snow. Submitted by Dana Mulhern.

The last and forth eyas banded was a female. She was given the name Tesh. In honor of Qetesh, a peregrine falcon and the first feathered member of the educational team of our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation. She came to CPF in March of 1999 and has since passed away. The Canadian Peregrine Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting the recovery of the Peregrine Falcon and other raptors at risk. Submitted by Kathy Olney.

The eyases were quickly returned to the nest box. For awhile, the eyases did not move or make a sound. One, Tesh, was lying on her back. Finally, about 30 minutes later, Beauty (the mom) returned to the nest box and all was well. The eyases all moved towards her, including Tesh!

Here are a few more pictures from the 2014 Rochester Falcons Banding Day.