Our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation sent us this image of a banded Peregrine that was spotted at Frenchman’s Bay, right next door to the Pickering power plant where Quest has been hanging out. The picture was taken by Denis Gauthier on the afternoon of September 12^th and reproduced here with his kind permission. Quest’s tracking data from that day places her squarely at Pickering.

Big Frank, one of the CPF’s falcon watchers, worked with Mark and Marion Nash to see if they could identify this bird. An enlargement of the picture yielded an all black band with 33/Y ID. It turns out this guy isn’t far from home. He’s Kendal, a tiercel hatched in 2009 at Toronto’s King Street nest.

We haven’t heard of any repeat sightings of young Kendal, so there’s no way of knowing whether he’s still in the area or if indeed this is the male who’s been hanging out with Quest. But if it is, it’d be another wonderful Rochester-Toronto connection in the Peregrine world. In any case, he’s one good looking bird!

A huge note of thanks to Big Frank for letting us know about Kendal, and to Denis for his great pictures, a couple more of which we’ve included below.

     

Our search for a new logo has come to an end. The voting was close all the way through the contest, and it was a nail-biter right up to the final minutes. But after all the votes were counted, one design came out on top.

We want to thank everyone who took the time to review both of the design finalists and to cast a vote for your favorite. Now the Rochester Falconcam is happy to reveal our new logo!

You’ll be seeing the new logo on our website in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Recently the Rfalconcam’s Merchandising team embarked on an effort to update the logo we use on our website. Our current logo features Kaver in a stylized egg. It has served us well since the Genesee Valley Audubon Society took over the falconcam from Kodak back in 2007. We know that many of our watchers are very fond of the logo, and we intend to retire it with all the honor it is due. A new logo will help us to update our look as we move into 2011 with new cameras and a new and improved web experience.

Several weeks ago we put out a call to graphic designers to submit their ideas for a new logo. Using the popular Crowdspring website to manage the process, we received over 100 submissions that literally covered the spectum of design, color and content. We want to thank all of the artists and designers for their very engaging submissions!

Whittling down the list of submissions was a difficult task. We listened to the feedback from the Rochester Falconcam community, and that feedback figured prominently in our deliberations. After much discussion and wrangling, the Merchandise Committee has settled on two logo designs.

A couple of notes about the logos… oftentimes the designers included sample banners or other graphical elements in their submissions to demonstrate how their logo might work. The submission on the right includes such a banner at the top. This banner is for illustration only; it’s not the banner that we’ll be using and it’s not part of the submission. When you’re evaluating the choices, please concentrate on the logo itself, not on backgrounds or other style elements that may also appear in the picture.

Also, you can get a larger image of the logo by hovering your mouse over the upper right corner of each one. When you see a little magnifying glass icon appear, click it to open a larger view of the image. If the image runs off the top of the screen just move your mouse onto it, then click and drag it to view the whole thing. Close the large image by clicking the “X” in the upper right corner.

Now we’d like your help to choose our new logo! Click the logo images above to go to Crowdspring’s website. There you can view both of the logo finalists. You can assign a rating to each one, ranging from one to five stars. You can also leave comments or feedback about the designs. We hope you’ll keep your comments constructive, as the designers clearly put a lot of time and effort into their submissions. We’ll keep the voting open through Sunday, December 5th. After that, we’ll reveal the winner of the voting and adopt that design as the new Rochester Falconcam logo. So head on over to Crowdspring and let us know what you think!

As she’s done in the past, Quest threw us a curve ball. After weeks at Pickering, she suddenly decided to take a trip east to Prince Edward Point. She stayed a couple of days then returned to Pickering, but not before making a stop-over in Port Hope on the 18^th. Maybe she decided to take a flight down memory lane now that she seems to be settling down.

Rochester Falconcam team member Joyce Miller, who spent last weekend watching Quest, has sent us another couple of photographs.

As we’ve seen with other offspring, Quest looks like she’s inherited her looks from both Mariah and Kaver. We think you’ll all agree that she looks gorgeous in her adult plumage!

Quest’s latest location data are all clustered in the immediate area around the Pickering Nuclear Power plant in Pickering, Ontario Canada. Not only that, but just this past weekend she was spotted there by Rochester Falconcam watchers Joyce and MAK. They tell us that Quest was once again seen in the company of a male peregrine, and that they were both acting very comfortable with each other.

Even better, Joyce took some pictures! Here’s a few for you

And finally, a shot of Quest passing overhead. Her transmitter is clearly visible in this picture.

We’re very pleased that we’ve finally gotten some pictures of Quest to share with you, and we’re grateful for the efforts of Joyce, MAK, and all the other watchers who have made the long trip to Pickering Ontario in search of our intrepid peregrine. It seems like she’s pretty comfortable at the power plant, and if she has found a mate in this male, we may even be able to look forward to some nesting activity next year. We’ll keep our eye on Quest to see if she decides to make this her permanent home.

Rfalconcam | Promote Your Page Too

For a couple of years now the Rochester Falconcam has had a presence on the Facebook social networking site, including a personal page for “Jess” and a Rochester Falconcam group. We used those pages to keep Facebook readers up to date on our activities.

Now we’ve taken our Facebook presence to a new level with the opening of the Rfalconcam page on Facebook. The page allows us to have a single place to post news and other information about both the falcons and the falconcam program. It also raises our profile as a non-profit organization. That can be helpful for seeking grants and other kinds of funding.

You can help us gain exposure on Facebook. If you’re a Facebook user, click the link above to go to the Rfalconcam page, then click the “Like” button at the top of the screen to become a fan. The more fans we get, the better, so be sure to tell all your Facebook friends about us too!

It turns out there are some falcon fans at the Pickering Nuclear generating station. We recently received word from Margo Sloan, the Biodiversity Program Coordinator, that they’re aware of Quest’s presence at the plant. Margo writes:

…I am aware of a few staff who are avid wildlife photographers. I will be sure to let them know about Quest and see if we can get some pictures of her.

At Pickering Nuclear we have an active biodiversity program and strive to improve habitat and biodiversity in the area. We are very excited to see peregrines here. Alex Robertson Park and Hydro Marsh,
immediately adjacent the station, are part of the Pickering Nuclear property and a large focus of our biodiversity program. We also work with numerous community partners and have been in contact with the
Canadian Peregrine Foundation. We hope that with their assistance wecan be sure that Quest chooses an appropriate nesting site if she decides to remain in Pickering.

I’ll be watching for Quest at the station and tracking her on the internet. I’ll be sure to pass along any photographs if I can get some.

We’re grateful to learn that Margo and the rest of the staff at the Pickering Nuclear plant are on the case. Check back here at Imprints for any pictures or reports that we receive.

Quest’s westward move proved to be short-lived. She has returned to Pickering, with the vast majority of her September data clustered in the area immediately around the Pickering Power Generating station. We assume her male friend is still accompanying her.

Since Quest seems to be settling in, we’re hoping that someone at the plant or birders in the area will be able to get a look at where she might be nesting. If we have any readers in the Pickering/Ajax/Tornoto area, it looks like you’re almost guaranteed to be able to spot Quest near the power station these days. If you do, send us a note to let us know what she’s doing.

Quest closed out August near the Pickering nuclear station, but the first few days of September find her back in Scarborough. We can’t say whether she’s in the company of her tiercel friend, but it would be interesting if she were. Unlike much of August when Quest’s transmitter showed her ranging in a diffuse area from Scarborough south to the lakeshore, she seems to have settled into a tight pattern of movement between Pickering and Scarborough.

Perhaps she’s scouting possible nesting locations, or maybe she just finds successful hunting in these two places. If there are any birders in the Scarborough area, keep an eye out for Quest. We’d love to hear about it if you see her!