Bill Thomas Photos

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

High Drama on Fruitvale Bridge (Part II)

On my last entry, the chicks were banded and now are atop the tower at the Fruitvale Bridge.
On May 29th, a group gathered to watch the remaining two chicks, Fern and Marina. Marina had fledged earlier and Fern was a cause of concern as she took off but landed very low on her return and the adults would not feed her so low on the tower.

Fern

Finally Fern takes off and crosses the Estuary and returns to a high ledge where she can continue to be fed by the adults.

On May 30, the parents started teaching Marina how to catch food in midair. The parents transfer bits of pigeon in flight and she grabs it with her talons. This process teaches her to hunt, always in midair, returning to eat on the ledge.

At the end of the day, Fern is flying high, sweeping, stalling and maneuvering well.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

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