Photo by Bob Isenberg
Earlier I answered a letter to a blogger and mentioned most photographers use 400, 500 and 600 mm lenses. I don’t mean to disappoint other photographers who cannot afford these very expensive lenses. The photograph above was taken with my Canon SX 35, a $375 “point and shoot” at 200 yards. In the center of this photo is a peregrine sitting on a post high up on Morro Rock. As you zoom in on this photo, you can see what $375 can do. Good luck with yours! ~Bob
Hi Randy, You asked about the best season to watch and photograph the falcons. My favorite time is January, February and March. This is the time you’ll see high speed acrobatics by the tiercel during this courtship and breeding time. Also, many frequent copulations. Four, five or six hundred mm lens with a gimbaled tripod works best. Also, the male will be bringing her birds. If you want to see chicks, it’ll be early April but, they will not be visible for about three weeks after they’ve hatched. This year they hatched April 8th and fledged May 22nd. During brooding, the month of March, you only see one bird at a time except for incubation and food exchanges. If you follow my blog, I will tell you when I see the first copulation. The earliest I have seen this is November 30th. The latest this year was January 2nd. Three years in a row they started copulating on December 26th. Any other questions about photography may be answered by Cleve Nash our resident photographer. We have many, but he is the best. www.clevenash.com ~
Happy trails, Bob
Photo by Cleve Nash www.clevenash.com
This is the sixth in a series of tales about the “famous and not-so-famous birds of Morro Rock.”
She was a fledgling falcon just out of the nest her first day. She was one of three chicks hatched that spring of ’08 on the south side of Morro Rock. Nothing special or unusual about her appearance or abilities, just a “plain vanilla” falcon until she landed on a narrow ledge on her first flight. The ledge and the rocks behind were covered with foliage, a nice spray of yellow flowers and some green vines. A nice backdrop for photos. If she were a bull they would call her “Ferdinand,” but with the floral above and around her she looked like a gypsy until we saw her eating the vine growing around her. Three leaves on a stem, it must be poison oak. Every one was astounded to see this. In the few months she was around the rock, she did well being fed by her parents, but we still caught glimpses of her with her favorite snack. She was given the name Madame Rue, you know “the gypsy with the gold capped tooth.” She’s got a rock with some flowers and some vines (“selling little bottles of …….”)
Happy trails, Bob P.S. If you know the rest of the lyrics you’re showing your age!
Photo by Jeri Roberts of the peregrine just before release..
Rehabilitation has done wonders for our peregrine juvenile who after release is now soaring over the sand-spit beyond Morro Bay hunting and surviving on her own. A true success story. ~Heather
Photo by Jeri Roberts’ assistant
Here is a photo showing the gentle care by Jeri of the juvenile when it was to be moved to another location. Gloves are always used for protection. ~Heather
Photos by Jeri Roberts.
I’m adding a few photos to show how Jeri Roberts rehabilitated the peregrine juvenile. It has since been released. ~Heather
Here is another photo. The one where she is perched again shows the feed door (old dog door) where I can deliver food without being seen and she is going into smaller caged area within the larger flight cage that has shade cloth on it that can act like a “cave” that she seemed to like for eating and sleeping sometimes. ~Jeri
Article and photo by Neil Farrell, Tolosa Press
The article in the following post is what locals read when the Bay News was delivered about town. The people attending the release of the juvenile were Jeri Roberts, skilled rehabilitator of falcons, Brian Roberts, her husband, Bob Isenberg, of Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch, Joyce Cory, birdwatching blogger, Neil Farrell, writer, Jeremiah and Jason of the Harbor Patrrol and me. How fortunate we were to see this exciting event. ~Heather
Article and photo by Neil Farrell, Tolosa Press
A juvenile female peregrine falcon is flying once again over Morro Bay Harbor after being rescued, rehabbed and released by Pacific Wildlife Care.
On Saturday, Jeri Roberts of PWC, along with peregrine researchers and friends, hitched a ride with the harbor patrol to the Sandspit at Sandal’s Cove to release the bird back into the wild. There she will possibly rejoin three siblings, part of a brood that hatched and fledged off Morro Rock this season.
The birds were hatched around Easter and flew their nest high up on the southwest side of the Rock on May 22, said Bob Isenberg, of the group Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch (see: pacificcoastperegrinewatch.org) . This bird was found June 26 with a broken wing, wallowing in the water off the Sandspit. She was going to die, but someone gathered the bird up and set in motion its salvation.
PWC took the bird in at its triage center on the power plant property. Roberts said it was examined by a veterinarian, who diagnosed the wing break. “He prescribed the human equivalent of bed rest,” said Roberts.
So the bird was confined in a crate to allow the wing to heal itself. That presents a problem for a critter that can fly 200 mph and is the fastest animal on earth.
“They can ‘de-condition’ rapidly,” explained Roberts, so the plan was to get the bird moving around again as quickly as possible.
“Peregrines are high strung,” she said, “and the triage center has a lot of activity, a lot of noise.” So the bird was transferred to Roberts’ home in Prefumo Canyon. There she has graduated sizes of flight cages, from 6-foot, to 12’, then a 15’ X 10’ and eventually into a 30-foot flight cage.
Though she has another peregrine that along with a Merlin, are used for PWC’s educational programs, they don’t take to company very well.
“You can’t mix two peregrines together,” she said, “they will kill each other.” Playing nice also apparently doesn’t apply for the parent birds either, that’s why they had to release this one on the Sandspit instead of at Morro Rock. Its parents would likely drive her off and Roberts said they would probably have to rescue it again.
In the big flight cage, Roberts said the falcon shared time with an owl also being rehabbed. “They traded off,” she explained. “We had this whole diurnal and nocturnal thing going. I’d take the peregrine out in daylight and the owl would come out at night. We try to get the birds back out into the wild as soon as possible.”
It took about eight weeks to finally release the falcon, which isn’t cheap for an all-volunteer non-profit organization. The falcon ate two 5-week old quail a day, costing more than $5 a day.
“We did right by the bird,” said Roberts. “It’s an expensive undertaking, with x-rays, vet visits, the good diet and feather supplements. She was still growing feathers. It’s turned out very well.”
Once nearing extinction due primarily to habitat loss and poisoning with DDT. The peregrine falcons have made a remarkable comeback since the population hit rock bottom in the 1980s.
Now the four young falcons will have to carve out a niche for themselves but not necessarily here. Falcons are known for traveling far from home to settle down.
For instance, birds that have been tagged locally have shown up in the Channel Islands, Los Angeles and even San Diego.
Isenberg said peregrines have been documented nesting up and down the Central Coast spaced out about every 8-10 miles. Locally there are pairs in Montaña de Oro, Morro Rock, Hollister Peak, Avila Beach, Pismo and on down.
According to Wikipedia, peregrine falcons are the second most widely spread species of bird in the world. About the only place they are not found is Antarctica and above the Arctic Circle.
The birds have adapted to urban living too, nesting on tall buildings and even cathedrals in many large cities. Oddly enough, in the cities, a falcon’s main prey is pigeon, which Wikipedia said is the most widely spread species. On the Sandspit, the falcons have apparently been snacking on snowy plovers.
Video by Bob Isenberg
Opening the box to release the rehabilitated juvenile peregrine. Be sure to read the story in “Strength and stamina… part 2”
Video by Bob Isenberg
This is a story that we here in Morro Bay have been waiting for. The young injured falcon. Heather has done all the leg work, phone calls, logistics, news, etc. I think it is hers to tell. Happy trails, Bob
I guess the ball is in my court, so here goes… When I was at the Coastal Discovery Fair for Friends of the Elephant Seals last month, Marcelle, a friend, mentioned that she had heard of and injured falcon, so I went on a search to find out what had happened. Links to the Pacific Wildlife Care Center connected me to Jeri Roberts who was rehabilitating the peregrine. Its wing had been broken most likely in a crash with prey due to a miscalculated kill or jousting or a collision with a power lines or guy wire. Lots of possibilities, but the broken ulna needed to be wrapped to the more stable and stronger radius bone. She was mending.
After weeks of careful and conscientious attention, this young falcon who had been injured June 26 was now ready to be released. Jeri had increased the size of her cage gradually from a small confining crate to a 30 foot flight cage. We wanted to release her on the sand-spit where the she had been found. We needed a boat, a way to transport her. We spoke with Kevin at SubSeas Whale Watching Tours who suggested that we might call on the Harbor Patrol. Putting her in the same location where she had been found would be the best.
Leaving home in Prefumo Canyon, Jeri had said that the falcon had started quacking when she smelled the sea air near Los Osos and more loudly quacked as the car in which she rode neared the Morro BayCoast Guard Station. Off we went on the Harbor Patrol boat skippered by Jeremiah to the sand-spit. Stepping onto the sand-spit, we climbed the sliding sand up to the perfect place to release her, a wide open area. Jeri opened the blue box lid slowly and off our youngster went, so gracefully on wing, flapping and gliding and covering distance so easily. She was a very happy bird! She made a few loops to orient herself and started to gain height and go further. The falconer’s term is “she was ringing up.” We were all amazed at her strength and stamina. Jeri was so pleased to see the conditioning of our very athletic bird paid off. Often a bird would fly and then quickly rest. This one had the endurance needed to go far and wide. Off and over Morro Bay and the Estuary towards the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History. She then perched in a very tall eucalyptus. She had recovered.
After a small jaunt to the mouth of the inlet to see thousands of Sooty Shearwaters and a few humpback whales spouting, we all headed back to the dock having seen the very satisfying recovery of a peregrine falcon. ~Heather
