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!

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).