Force 9 at the north face of Morro Rock…

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Blowing sand
Photo by Bob Isenberg

Posted in Morro Rock | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Now hear this…

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch
Not tonight, honey...

Not tonight, honey…                                                                  Photo by Cleve Nash

“Now hear this. Stand clear of all weather decks, due to high winds and heavy seas. Batten down all loose gear.” You can bet the peregrines are hunkered down with wind gusts to 60 mph, white caps and sand blowing across the beaches, but all is well with both pair of falcons.

The north side pair are due to hatch sometime this week. We are looking to see her take prey into the eyrie. This will be the first indication that the chicks have hatched. After that happens, we should begin to see the young ones in a couple of weeks when they come to the edge of the nest site to defecate. Teetering on the edge of certain death, they will show no fear and will do their business.

The south side pair after abandoning the “diving board” eyrie, re-grouped, re-bred, re-clutched and have been incubating for the last week. As much as we hate to see the loss of the first set of eggs, it gives us a wonderful opportunity to watch the north side chicks develop, feather out and fledge and then we will be able to see the south side young go through the same scenario when the north side chicks are flying.

Cleve Nash is working on a third pair in the county that is trying to set up housekeeping. The tiercel is making his best efforts to breed, but she has rejected his amorous moves several times so far. If this works out and she comes around, we could have babies well into the summer!

Hopefully, this weather that we are having will calm down a little and I will be able to set up some spotting scopes. It’s hard to write about something when you can’t see what’s going on.
Happy trails, Bob

Posted in chicks, falcon, Morro Rock | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mildly obsessive-compulsive…

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

IMG_2338

Cleve Nash and Bob Isenberg

Photo by Heather O’Connor

Bob and I had been talking together about how to introduce to you our friend, the fine photographer, Cleve Nash. So that we would have examples with which to educate everyone, he has been generously donating his photographs. They cover all examples of the life cycle of our peregrine falcons along with other visiting birds. After a couple requests to Cleve, I received an email with the following. ~Heather

“Heather has asked me write a bit about why and how I came to take so many photos of peregrines.

It all began about ten years ago when my decades of photography and videography had distilled to a passion for capturing video of the Pacific and its mammalian inhabitants, particularly southern sea otters. One spring day I was at Morro Rock wrestling with a cumbersome but effective setup that mated a large professional camcorder to an even larger astronomical telescope when one of the local watchers suggested I go around to the south side and try my gear on the nesting peregrines. Just for the heck of it, I did and managed through sheer luck to grab some action that I thought was pretty cool. So was launched a mild obsession.

Photographing peregrines at Morro Rock is challenging. Except for a couple of days when the young first fledge, the birds stay very high. It is rare to get a shot of less than 100 yards. A chick in the diving board nest? With a decent angle, you’re talking 150-160 yards. A good camera with a big lens will get reasonably good results. But if you want the feather and fuzz detail of that nestling, you are faced with the trials and (few) tribulations of digiscoping. You no longer have the luxury of automatic focusing, and that 150 yards is filled with heavy, moist moving air that distorts the image entering your camera like heat waves rising off a desert highway. Add the Rock’s nearly constant winds that rattle your gear — at very high magnification, the smallest vibrations are highly magnified too — and getting a sharp, well exposed image becomes the holy grail and the great white whale for even the mildly obsessive-compulsive. Can’t wait for those babies to appear. Hope I can get some good shots for you.”
By Cleve Nash

Posted in chicks, falcon, Morro Rock | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Taboo…

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch
Photo by Cleve Nash

North side falcon                                                      Photo by Cleve Nash

Observations continue on both north and south side pairs of peregrines. Cleve Nash has been mostly watching and photographing the north side, which are in about their second or third week of incubation. All is going well. The north side of the rock is good for photos of food exchanges and action over the large parking lot where Cleve is not usually shooting into the sun. For more general purpose photography, the south side can be better being that the birds are lower and usually closer with the sun behind you.

I am for the most part, set up on the south side. This pair of falcons continue to breed and frequent the “lower five” nest site which was used in 2011, after a previous failed nesting that year. Today she spent two hours in there, then out and about flying and perching. So, I believe, this is egg laying behavior. We should know by this weekend. During the time I have been at the rock this week, I have not seen them come close to the “diving board” nest site, since they abandoned it a week ago. It’s like the hole is taboo.
Happy trails, Bob

P.S. If you have read this far, please, remember to leave you email address in the box to the right to receive notice for each new posting of our ongoing saga.
Thanks, Heather

Posted in falcon, Morro Rock | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Cause unknown…

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Photo by Bob Isenberg

Yesterday, I thought something was strange when she left the “diving board” nest site, and the tiercel did not go immediately in to take her place on the eggs. Instead, after she left and landed on the chimney, he proceeded to follow her there upon landing. They copulated there. Neither bird returned to the eyrie for ten minutes, which I thought was very unusual because it seems the eggs are never unattended more than a minute.

Today on arriving at Morro Rock, I saw both falcons perched in different holes. The female was on the edge of one she used as a nest site in 2011, after a failed nesting in the “mail slot,” another previous nest site. The tiercel was perched above her in a second row of five holes. Today in the few hours I spent with the birds, neither of them went to the “diving board” nest site, but remained outside in view copulating twice and frequently returning to the 2011 eyrie.

This has really rattled me to think they incubated the eggs for 16 days then phhhhht… What could have happened? I’ll still be here watching and hoping for a second clutch of eggs and keeping you posted. It happens. This isn’t the end.

Happy trails, Bob

Posted in falcon, Morro Rock | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

“Oh, oh, oh!”

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

IMG_0327Photo by Heather O’Connor

Tenth day of incubation and all is going well so far other than a couple of scrapes with a visiting tiercel that is very aggressive. Both north and south side falcons have splashed him a few times in the bay.

I spent most of the morning with Cleve Nash, our generous and talented photographer, whose photos appear all over our web site. Thank you, Cleve. We were in the north parking lot, about in the middle, with spotting scopes and cameras blazing, plastic peregrine on the roof of my Ford Escape when a nice looking young middle-aged woman said, “What are you trying to attract with that plastic bird?”

I answered, “People just like you, and, I think, it is working.”

We chatted a bit and she saw the female perched outside the eyrie and asked if her mother could have a look. Mom in her “golden years” stepped up to the spotting scope. Just then the male left the nest site and proceeded to mount the female.

Somebody yelled, ”They’re copulating.”

Granma now has a firm grip on the eyepiece and uttering, “Oh, oh, oh!”

The daughter standing behind her says, “What’s wrong Mom?”

Mom said, “Nothing, I think, I just saw them do it.”

The daughter said “Do what?”

Mom said, ”You know.”

Daughter said “Really?”

Anyway, Granma went back to the car to tell Granpa.

A little while later, the daughter came back and said her Mom knew just what was going on, but didn’t see a penis. I explained to her it was a cloacal kiss* unlike ducks and geese who have phalluses.

Happy trails, Bob

*Cloacal copulation: The passing of sperm between male and female vents.

 

Posted in falcon, Morro Rock | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Room service…

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch


Photo by Cleve Nash

Today was a full day of confirmation. Brooding is in the routine now. For the first two hours this morning, the tiercel was in the eyrie brooding. I only knew this when I saw the female arrive about 10:55AM. She had been perched where she was not visible. When she landed on the edge of the eyrie, the tiercel quickly left and let her take over brooding. He hung around for half an hour, then off to the estuary for a kill.

He returned about noon, with prey hanging below. At the elevation of his return flight, the female can see him from a long way off, even while sitting on eggs.

I don’t watch the sky around or over the estuary to see him returning. I keep focused on the eyrie to see her poke out her head. Then I know, he will be here in a minute or so. Their eyesight is incredible. It never ceases to amaze me.

She greeted him on the diving board, took the bird and flew to “the chimney.” He walked into the back of the eyrie to brood. When she finished the bird, she took a couple laps around the rock, then back to the nest.

The tiercel, perching where we could see him, did not return to  relieve her for the next three hours. When he did, he brought her another bird, which she ate, then let him do the brooding for the next two hours.

So much for room service, I went home to king salmon and broccoli.

Happy trails, Bob

Posted in falcon, Morro Rock | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sunday at “the rock”…

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Sorry to take so long to getting back to you good followers but, I have been trying to get confirmation. Many keen observers are always helpful. Here is what I’ve seen and believe is happening. 

Yesterday, Sunday, the few hours that I spent at “the rock,” the female was in the eyrie and out of sight. The tiercel returned to “the rock” with prey. He went into one of his larders. The female, hearing his chupping on arrival, peeked over the edge of the nest site, thinking he would probably bring it to her. When he did not, she returned to brooding, not being off the eggs more than 30 seconds.

 The tiercel then perched high above the eyrie on the skyline. You could see his stomach soiled with reddish brown dust from the nest. Most likely, he had previously been sitting on the eggs. I had to leave before I saw any incubation exchange. Today, I think that I will. So, I believe, that would make Sunday, March 3, 2013, the first day of incubation.

Happy trails, Bob

Posted in falcon, Morro Rock | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Be patient…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Please be patient while we switch over to the WordPress.org website. We will then be able to bring you an eStore and other upgrades! We look forward to expanding our capabilities on the web. Meanwhile, Bob will continue his observations out at Morro Rock, Morro Bay, California, USA. The peregrines are in a very exciting life cycle period since they are about to begin incubating eggs. He’ll let me know when he returns this afternoon.

Thanks for your patience.  ~Heather

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Soiled, but not foiled…

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Soiled, but not foiled...

Photo by Cleve Nash

On the left you can see the female and her wet vent area. The male on the right has brought her prey to eat.

All signs, from observations, tell us that egg laying has begun. Cleve Nash and I have been monitoring the female very closely. Saturday she spent nearly three hours in the “diving board” eyrie, again on Monday, but not as long. We have both noticed visible soiling around the vent, which usually in an indication of egg laying. We, also, see that she is not so apt to do battle with the Red-tailed Hawks or the north side falcons. Let’s face it, you don’t get into a bar fight when you are nine months pregnant.

The tiercel is constantly bringing in prey, sometimes to her directly or stashing it in one of his many larders. If what we are seeing is correct, we should see incubation begin around the weekend of March 2-3. This will be confirmed by the tiercel taking his turn at brooding. In past years, watching this behavior, it seems the tiercel spends 35% of time brooding to the falcon’s 65%. The time off the nest that he gives her has to be spent eating, digesting and exercising so as to keep the muscles from atrophying. It is a delicate balance between the two to bring this about in a month’s time without the eggs being uncovered for more than a minute.
Happy trails, Bob

P.S. Before we had a WordPress website, we used Facebook to deliver information. This was our Facebook entry:

“March 4, 2012. This is the first day of brooding observed. At 12 noon there was an exchange. The female left the nest and the male went in to sit on the eggs.”

As you can see, we are only one day off from last year’s entry. That is if we are correct.

Posted in falcon | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment