Sadly, we believe that the male that has been coming to the nest box most of yesterday and today, is not Neander. The last verified sighting of Neander was yesterday (4/22) at 8:00 am at the nest box.

So where is Neander? We know he injured his left leg and needed to use his wings for support and balance last Friday. He also closed his right eye a lot. It seemed that he was improving.

How was he injured? One watcher, Brian H, reported seeing two falcons chasing each other east of the Times Square Bldg. Watchers Carol P and Larry O were out Sunday morning. Neander was flying well and seemed to be very attentive to Nova and their eggs. He spent time incubating the eggs while Nova was out, spreading her wings and chasing a juvie Bald Eagle out of the area.

Later, Sunday morning, Neander settled on the Wilder Chimney. A juvie Peregrine Falcon flew in from the south and circled above the Times Square Bldg while Neander ee chupped a warning for the youngster to move on, which the juvie did, flying south over the Genesee River. Neander did not move from the Wilder Chimney. When I ended my watch, all was quiet and peaceful. No territory battles were witnessed.

Monday, Neander was seen and seemed to be improving. He was still limping badly, but was very attentive to his family.

On Tuesday and today, we were seeing a behavior change by Nova and who we thought was Neander. The male made a lot of frequent visits to the nest box platform. In all cases, Nova did not budge from the eggs. She would wait for him to leave before flying out for a quick break and returning.

After looking closely at the pictures posted by Rfalconcam, we could see differences that had not been noticed immediately. There was a little bit of white above the cere and the black hood was shaped differently than Neander’s. Also, there was no white feather on the left wing. Plus Nova’s behavior change told us that this was not Neander.

This morning, three watchers (Dana, Kathy O & Carol P and Lou too!) spent the morning walking and driving around the area looking for Neander. Shaky and Ei, controlling the Rfalconcam cameras searched all the places our cameras could reach. Neander was nowhere to be found.

During the time we were there, the New Guy (NG for now), spent time on the Times Square Bldg, keeping guard.

On camera, NG was seen bringing in food for Nova. He left it on the platform for her. Only when he left, did she move off of the eggs to take it. Thankfully, he is bringing in food for her.

Just before we ended our watch, NG went to the First Federal Bldg (OCSR) to retrieve a cache from the 2nd Ibeam down. He flew around with it, landing on top of Camera 4. The bit of food dangled from his beak. Nova came out of the nest box, but couldn’t reach the food, so she quickly went back into the nest box to lay on the eggs. NG, jumped down to the platform, but when Nova didn’t move, he took off with the food, heading towards the back of the Times Square Bldg.

There are so many questions that need to be answered. Where is Neander? We will continue to look for him. Will Nova accept NG? So far, she has not allowed him to get near the eggs, but she has accepted food from him. The eggs are peeping and getting ready to hatch. These are uncertain times for us. The Rochester Falcon Watchers are a dedicated and passionate group that care very much for our Rochester Falcons. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this situation and report anything new. I’ll be saying a prayer that Neander is ok and found soon. cp

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025 at 6:07 PM and is filed under Rochester Falcons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.