Finally had some time to go through my images and choose some pictures of the
peregrine falcon pair to share with the listserv. As Dave mentioned, I was at
Stewart Park yesterday morning, had gone there after dropping my daughter off
at school, as I'd seen Dave's email about the peregrine. I found one sitting on
a tree in Jetty Woods, across from the boathouse, at about 9:30. After about 20
minutes, it suddenly took off in hot pursuit of a gull that was flying by. It
swooped down on the gull which screamed repeatedly and did its best to evade
the falcon. I realized that there was a third bird in the air and that it was
another peregrine, also chasing the gull. The three of them took off north and
rounded the corner there by the Swan Pen and were out of sight. I ran around
the Swan Pen the other way, camera in hand, and when I got to the point I saw
them on the ice, quite far out, to the northwest. The gull lay lifeless and the
considerably larger peregrine of the two, which I'll refer to as the female,
was busily plucking the gull's feathers while the other rested on a perch
nearby. After a few minutes, the male approached, making a chirping (begging?)
sound, and the female allowed him to eat, even offering some of her bites. She
soon moved away and stood by for a few minutes, and then returned and ate along
with the male. She repeated this behavior a few times, walking away for a bit,
then returning and joining in. After a while, the male flew away to a mound at
the edge of the ice, close to the many geese that had landed there while they'd
been feeding. He did what looked like a retching action for a while, and may
have been coughing up a pellet. As you can see in the some of the later
pictures, their crops were very full. The female flew off soon after, south
along the inlet and out of my sight. The male began to call and I heard her
respond. Soon after he took off (though I didn't see in which direction as I
was looking away). All in all I watched them for about an hour and a half. It
was a huge thrill for me as it was only the 2nd time I'd ever seen a peregrine
falcon. And to watch that cooperative hunting and feeding was just fascinating.
I hope someone can identify the hapless gull. I included a couple of pictures
that show the tail and a wing. I was too dazzled by the action to identify it
while it was in the air.
I've put up 32 images in my gallery on the CBC web site, at
http://www.cayugabirdclub.org/gallery
I shot the pictures with 700mm (a 500mm lens plus a 1.4x teleconverter), and
still had to crop pretty heavily, so please excuse the image quality. There was
not much light and I was handholding.
I hope people enjoy the pictures. I'm glad to have the opportunity to share the
experience.
Melissa
Melissa Groo Fine Art Photography
http://melissagroo.com
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