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To the Beauty of Birds

Matthew Mitchell in his Deadly Beauty session of the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache, treated us to the sight of a Peregrine Falcon Flaco peregrinus catching its dinner. The Peregrine Falcon is the fastest of all birds capable of speeds of up to 240 mph in a dive. Matthew located a small pond in the middle of nowhere that contained a small number of ducks. He had us line up behind a ridge out of sight of the duck. Then, after he released the Peregrine Falcon we stood up enough to see the ducks. Photo 9406 shows the falcon circling, sizing up he prey. He then swooped over the ducks who instead of flying away progressively dove underwater (photos 9413, 9414, and 9416). On a second pass instead of diving the ducks flew away and that was their deadly mistake – the Peregrine caught one of them and brought it to the ground a few feet from us. After biting off the head he then feasted on the duck (photos 9508, 9509, 9513, 9530). After the feast the Peregrine was hooded (9587,9590). Photo 3336 is of a Peregrine Falcon from the Wildlife Rescue Foundation.

The Yaquina Outstanding Natural Area north of Newport, OR is, as its name implies on of the most outstanding of the wildlife areas along the coast. The rookeries off the coast are close enough photograph the Common Murres (see that page) and other birds. Another treat was a Perigrine Falcon Falco perigrinus in a nearby tree, 8741 alternating between sitting and flying up to 100 mph low over the sea fishing 8857. It is a rare sight to see one of these fishing falcons, let alone capture a photo of it in flight.

Finally, while photographing Brown Noodys in the Galapagos this Peregrine Falcon Flaco peregrimus appeared on the cliff 1260.

Peregrine Falcon