High Drama above Fruitvale

You've heard of the Maltese Falcon, well yesterday's adventure involves a peregrine falcon couple and their three downy fledglings.  We gathered at Pet Food Express on Blanding to watch four intrepid scientist/workers who scaled the bridge high above the estuary to secret the babies from their nest in order to gather information and band them with a minimum of disturbance.  Approximately a dozen birders with binoculars and cameras gathered below to record this event.  Double click on photos for a bird's eye view.

The men watch while the parent peregrine watches them.

Thank goodness the climber wears a helmet as he replaces the newly banded bird back in the nest.

While the banding takes place the parents swoop and zoom above anxiously.

Work now completed, an hour elapsed while the adults got closer and closer to the nest.  Finally a parent bird gathers some food stashed on a girder to feed her babies

 

   May 28, 2011      Here is the female fledgling who is not yet flying.                                                                              

May 28, 2011.  The male in the two photos above stays close but is now flying nearby.