The Kodak HQ, known as Kodak Office around here, has been the site of a nestbox used by Peregrine Falcons for the past 10 years. Peregrines are an endangered species in New York State and Kodak was happy to help with repopulation efforts by allowing a nestbox to be placed high atop our tower. A couple of Peregrines soon moved in and set-up house. Each Spring they return and the cycle of life begins anew. A set of webcams were put in place and the rest is history. The Kodak Birdcam project started small and grew in sophistication and audience each year. In 2006, over 300,000 different people from 149 different countries generated many millions of page views.

The drama that occurs each year is addicting. It is a serial of stress for falcon fans that repeats each season.

Will they return? Will they mate? Will Mariah (the female Peregrine) lay an egg? Will there be more than one egg? Gosh, can there really be five?! Will they hatch? Will Kaver (the male) be able to feed all of these young? Does banding scare them? Will they fledge safely? Will they learn to hunt properly? When will they leave? I hope they return next year. Repeat.

With 10 years of amazing experiences associated with Kodak Birdcam, I could write tomes but in the spirit of this blog I'll let the pictures generate the thousand+ words. Here are some of the "greatest hits" images. Photos 1-3, 5, and 7 are from Birdcam, the other eleven photos are ones I shot. Enjoy.

Click on thumbnails to see the full view of each with caption information included.

In 2007, Kodak partnered with the Genesee Valley Audubon Society to help expand the voice of this program. You can check out the live feed at Rochester Falconcam where Mariah and Kaver are looking after four eggs that are ready to hatch any moment. Will they hatch? Will Kaver be able to feed them all? And so it goes...

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