Famous Peregrines

This awesome photo won an international photo competition. It is a photo of a falcon positioning for a swoop or dive kill on whichever of the thousands of starlings it chooses. The photographer describes the flight as a dive but it isn't. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4355628.stm Falcons in a dive have their wings half or fully folded.

I watch startlings every morning on my commute and am hopeful a falcon will take up residence on a Federal building nearby.

The best falcon flight I ever saw was at Cape May in early October four years ago. A sanderling had become a target for a falcon as it drifted offshore near the hawkwatch a few hundred yards from the point lighthouse. Seconds later another falcon, presumably one that had been a half-mile up in the sky, attempted a dive kill and had to pull up before hitting the water. Then two more peregrines joined in swooping over and over as the sanderling tried to hug the waves. Forty birders trained their scopes on the sea as the scene unfolded over several minutes. Finally one falcon clipped the shorebird and another caught it in midair. For the next two minutes the other falcons chased the winner attempting to get its prey. It disappeared out of sight near the “beanery” on the west side of the point. Twenty minutes of chatter among impressed birders passed and then… radio call from the tag station behind the beanery: “Just tagged an immature peregrine. Silly bird dropped a sanderling for our dove bate.”

Somewhere out there is a five year old falcon with a ring on its foot making its way down the Atlantic coast. A little wiser and a little more famous. But not as famous as the falcon chasing starlings in this photo.