View Quest Travels May 22 -31 in a larger map
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As we wait for more news about Mariah’s return to Rochester, we thought this would be a good time to catch up on Quest’s travels. As you can see, she’s still visiting our friends to the north.

Please be sure to keep checking the Falcon Watch section for more news on what’s happening here in Rochester, NY.

Jess

View Quest Travels May 11 – 21 in a larger map
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Sorry for the hold-up on Quest Reports.

She’s really been on the move and she seems to like the north side of Lake Ontario. She definitely likes staying close to water, crossing the US/Canadian border multiple times. As our friend Mark Nash from the Canadian Peregrine Foundation says, Peregrines know no borders.

Jess

We have some very good news from our friend Mike Allen at the DEC. First a note released to the Rochester Watchers from June Summers, GVAS.

“Mariah was released on Tue., May 26 at approximately 3:30 p.m. in the Montezuma Wetland Complex. She is in good health and headed North upon release. She has new bling, a US Fish and Wildlife band on her right leg which has been covered with blue tape with a yellow racing stripe in the middle. Carol Phillips commented that, “Mariah is free to be a Peregrine again.” Carol is right, Mariah is back where she belongs in the wild. So please keep your eyes open when you are downtown.”

and this from Mike Allen………………..

“She was released on the Montezuma wetlands complex at approximately 3:30 PM on Tuesday, May 26th. We chose that site (approximately 45 miles from home) because of the diverse food availability there. I would not be surprised if she might take a day or 2 to re-acclimate to the wild before making her next move. As far as the release itself was concerned we were almost looking for smoke from her tail feathers as she came out of the transfer box like her tail was on fire so I can honestly say that she neither hesitated nor struggled to fly..”

Mariah has been banded with a USFW silver band. Mike covered the band in blue tape with a yellow racing stripe. This will make it easier for the Rochester Watchers to ID her if she returns to Rochester.

We here at the Rochester Falconcam would like to thank Mike, the rehabbers, including Gary the original rehabber that was there that fateful Easter Sunday morning, the DEC and all the folks that were involved.

Oh, and by the way, Mike has shared a few pictures with us that I will share with you soon.

Jess

p.s. As far as we know Quest is doing very well. We’ll be posting about her travels soon. Stay tuned!

A Very Important Update!

Jess

The envelope please (drum roll)…..

In third place with 63 votes was: Let’s change her name to honor her new home in Rochester.

Second place with 90 votes goes to: Let’s do a bit of both, give her a new name but combine it with her original one.

And the winner by an overwhelming majority, with 740 votes is: I like the name “Beauty” just as it is.

She was called Beauty by the watchers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and will continue to be called Beauty by the Rochester Falconcam community.

So the falcon watching continues in Rochester with our new pair now officially known as Archer and Beauty. Local watchers have reported seeing activity that resembles active incubation, but only Archer and Beauty know for sure.

Be sure to go into the Falcon Watch section to read the reports from the Rochester Watchers.

Mike Allen from the DEC forwarded this very positive update from Mariah’s caretakers.

“The doctor was here today and we got a very good look at Mariah’s wing and neck. All the scabs on her wing have dropped off and she has beautiful skin that has grown where they were. Her neck has a big scab that is all dried up and is ready to just fall off. The skin underneath looks great. Mariah’s feathers are in perfect condition. When the time comes, we expect it will be a wonderful release. I love these happy ending stories.”

Very good news!

Jess

View Quest Travels May 1 – 10 in a larger map
(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small + & – signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

Quest showed complete disdain for citizenship and international borders over the past week or so as she hopped back and forth between Canada and the US. She spent the evening of the 1^st and the following morning in the small town of Wilson New York– coincidentally the home town of Falconcam team member Jim Pisello– before zipping over to Port Bruce, Ontario as she continued her westward trek.

On the fourth she was 185 miles (300 km) to the southwest in Napoleon, Ohio. Then, the boomerang part. She went back east, spending two days near Locust Point, a few miles east of Toledo, Ohio. On the 7^th she went northeast to Guelph, Ontario, about 45 miles (70 km) west of Toronto. Her most recent moves were north to the edge of Nottawasaga Bay, where she has spent the past couple of days.

It looks like Quest is restless, and she’s really taking the time to explore. Her activity is a good sign, and the fact that she’s moving long distances– sometimes hundreds of miles in a day– indicates that she’s fit and healthy. Keep watching along with us to see where she goes next!

View Quest Travels April 25 – 30 in a larger map
(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small + & – signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

Intermittent problems with our email system have kept us from getting updates from Quest’s transmitter. So you can imagine our surprise when we started looking at the data earlier today and found that she left Cape Cod around April 27!

On seeing her location in Vermont, the first thing we did was to double-check the data. Sure enough, she’s was moving west. Our next thought was that she might be making a day trip. She’d done that in the past after all. We received no useful data for the 28^th, but the next day found her near Ausable Forks in New York’s vast Adirondack State Park. Then, the big leap, traveling over 300 miles (500 km) into Canada, where she was tracked near Allison, Ontario, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Toronto!

So it looks like she’s decided seven months in New England was enough. We’ll keep a close watch on her. Now that she’s on the move, she could end up anywhere!

Mike Allen sends this report from the Veterinary technician caring for Mariah:

The Dr. was here yesterday and checked her over thoroughly. Her wing web is healing nicely and the neck wound is totally scabbed over. We trimmed off some of that flap of loose skin in the top of the wing and it is healing underneath. He will be back next Tuesday and said after that Mariah will be ready to go into an outdoor mew to stretch her wings and exercise.

Yet more good news!

Photos courtesy of Kate St. John & Karen Lang at the Univ. of Pittsburgh

Kate St. John and Karen Lang served as Peregrine watchers at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007, the year that 81/V, aka Beauty, hatched and fledged. They had a webcam installed at the Cathedral of Learning (what a great name!), and they sent us some pictures of Beauty and her siblings along with their parents, Dorothy and Erie. We’ve compiled them into the slideshow you’re seeing above. It’s not possible to tell from the pictures which of the eyases is Beauty, but we thought you’d enjoy this look into her early life.

Over in Rochester, she and Archer are continuing the daily routine of a mated pair of Peregrines. Watchers report occasional coming and going from the ledge on the Midtown Plaza Tower at a particular location near the southeast corner where we believe a scrape may be located. There is not a lot of activity from the pair, though another mating episode was witnessed around 8:00PM a couple of days ago. This diminution of activity might indicate that egg laying has concluded and that brooding has begun, but it’s impossible to say for sure.

We say might, becuase we don’t have a way to directly observe the suspected scrape. We’re working on that though. We’ve presented a plan to the DEC for installing a camera above the nest location. We believe we can do this with little or no disturbance to the falcons, a primary consideration if indeed the falcons are sitting on eggs. This is all very preliminary though. In addition to the issues above we’d be working in a building that’s largely decommissioned. Cameras don’t work without power and network or internet connectivity, and we have to determine if those resources exist at the Midtown location, and whether we could use them if they do. We’ll post updates when we receive useful information to pass along.

In the meantime we’ll have to depend on our volunteer watchers for information about what’s happening at Midtown. As we receive reports from our watchers we’ll post them over at our FalconWatch Blog, so be sure to check over there from time to time!

Photo courtesy of Jim Pisello

Since we learned the new female falcon’s identity, there’s been a lot of discussion about whether we ought to keep the “unofficial” name her Pittsburgh watchers gave her (“Beauty”), pick an entirely new one, or do some combination of the two. We can’t say it hasn’t been fun reading all the opinions going back and forth, but we thought we’d better try to settle the issue once and for all.

Rather than leaving it to a small number of people to make a decision, we thought it would be best to let the entire community participate. That way everyone who’s interested can have their voice heard.

So you’re invited to take our Rochester Falcon Naming Poll! Let us know if you think we should keep her name as is, come up with a brand new one, or combine her existing name with something else. Those who think we ought to choose a new name or a combined name will have an opportunity to suggest one.

Everyone is invited to take part in the survey, but each person may only answer the survey once. We’ll keep it running through the end of this month. After the survey closes we’ll tally the results. If “Beauty” wins, then that’s the end of it. If giving her a new name comes out on top we’ll hold another poll to pick from the suggested names.

Good luck and happy polling!

-Jess