Just a few nuggets…

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Image

Just a few nuggets from the rock today. The video we posted of “Rosie,” the Shell Beach falcon, did not capture the coloring because of lighting and location. Here is a still of her the same day by Cleve Nash.

Image

Today Cleve has been wandering around the Morro Bay State Campground looking for young horned owls which have eluded him for the last week. Not any more! Five fledglings were near an old nest site that he had watched in the past few years. These birds are so hard to see. You can be really close and miss them because of the perfect camouflage coloring. Cleve was alerted by the call of one of the young. Turning around, they were right there in front of him.

The Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus, is probably the most feared enemy of the peregrine falcon, especially the young, if they are not tucked in a hole out of sight. We’d like to share more of these fascinating photographs. Please go to Cleve Nash’s website.   www.clevenash.com   ~Bob

Posted in falcon | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Shell Beach peregrines with a pigeon

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Video by Cleve Nash

June 30, 2012  We are still inundated in fog half way down the rock. Visitors coming to see falcons on a Saturday afternoon are relegated to looking at superb photographs. However 15 miles down the coast in Shell Beach, it is bright and sunny and 2 of our contributing  photographers, Cleve Nash and Bob Mancuso,  are taking video and still shots of a pair of adult falcons. They wondered if we liked sitting in the soup in Morro Bay. We replied “Not Exactly.” because Bob received notice on his parking place by a passing seagull. Yuk!

The video shows the pigeon that the female brought into her perch. Meanwhile the male patiently waited for a tidbit. She eventually gave it up.

The female is brightly colored with some rather different colors. Cleve called her “Rosy” for the blush of breast feathers that were on either side of her breastbone.  Normally they are a bright white.     -Bob, Cleve and Heather

Posted in falcon | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

And the fog rolled in…

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Image

Photo by Heather O’Connor

Some days at the rock viewing can be challenging. I still like the atmosphere. It is a cool Pacific Ocean and hot inland temperatures that produce a marine layer of fog. A bit mysterious and intriguing. One never knows what one will see.

The top of the rock was barely visible today. Bob did see the peregrines snatch  a shorebird on the beach below, an uncommon occurrence for some reason. The falcons prefer to go over to the estuary and sandspit to hunt. That is where the juveniles are presently. Both male and female brought back prey for themselves to eat at the rock. Will the juveniles have to return to the rock to find food delivered?

Whether one is on foot, on bike or in a car, a trip to the rock on the winding paths and road is worthwhile no matter what the weather. The sighting of bushtits madly dashing through the woody shrubs was exciting. The sound of shorebirds gradually materializing from the fog, we could identify easily. Long billed curlews flew so gracefully over the inlet into the bay.

-Heather

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

Incoming !

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Image

Photo by Cleve Nash

“Oh, Bob, I’m so glad you are here. Jeanette said you would be.”

Second lady: “Jeanette said to look for a tripod and that I could look at the falcons.”

Third person: “She said his name is Bob. Are you Bob?”

“Yes, I am. Who told you? Jeanette?”

Fourth person: “Are you Bob?”

“Yes, I am. Did Jeanette send you?”

“I don’t know Jeanette. I’m just visiting, but saw it on TV”

Anyway, they all got to see the adult female bring in a shore bird to pluck and eat.

Thanks to Jeanette Trompeter and “No Place Like Home” on KSBY. I’m happily inundated.

-Bob

Posted in falcon | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Nature’s way…

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

June 25, 2012  The first of the Heermann’s Gulls arrived at the rock today. They will be around for the next six months. This gull is quite a bit smaller than the Western Gull, and I have on occasion seen the falcons take them down. For most of the year, we have three predominant gulls, Western with pink legs, Heermann’s with black legs, Ring-billed with yellow legs. The falcons are very active in taking down the downy Western Gull chicks, two today in three hours. Cleve Nash and I have been watching one nest site of gulls. On the 22nd of June, there were three young, today the 25th there are two. When I watched them take eleven chicks in five days, I stopped counting. This is real bird control, nature’s way. -Bob

The photo below is by Cleve Nash. Our gratitude to Cleve for these fine photos. His work can be see at www.clevenash.com

Posted in chicks, falcon, gulls, hunting | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Western Gull chicks

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

Western Gull chicks

Photo by Cleve Nash

Posted in gulls | Tagged , | 1 Comment

When things are slow, we always have other birds…

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

June 24, 2012  Balmy and sunny today. I spent a couple of hours with Cleve Nash getting some shots of young gulls just out of the nest. The adult falcons have had a banquet with them, but in a few weeks they will be too big to carry. The only juvenile that I have seen at the rock is Solo chasing Mom and Dad on the north face. He has picked up his mother’s habit of harassing vultures and getting quite good. I can see the south side young with the spotting scope sometimes, off on a distant dune of the sandspit, but it’s a long way off.

I talked to some birders this morning that had seen both Lazuli and Indigo Buntings on Turri Ranch Road near the windmill. Also peregrines, adult and juvenile, near the heron rookery.

The photo of the Indigo Bunting is by Roger Zachary, one of the counties foremost birders.

See his site on www.flickr.com  Image

Swainson's Hawk

Posted in falcon, gulls | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Summer Solstice

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

June 20, 2012. Today the solstice celebration will take place in the parking lot at the rock. A few of the local Native Americans have gone up to the top of the rock last night with a park guide, where they will have a small fire. At the base of the rock, the dancers with drums and flutes will have a large fire next to the parking area.

The young falcons are still camped out on the sand spit, about three quarters of a mile from here. The adults have taken nine young gulls in four days to them.

Another little nugget I thought I would share… Last year about this time, two of the young falcons from the north side chased a pigeon down into one of the three 500 foot smoke stacks at the power plant. Pacific Wildlife Care found them at the bottom, a little disheveled, but in good shape and subsequently were released.   ~Bob

Posted in falcon, gulls, juvenile | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Landing gear !

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

June 16, 2012 Since there is not a lot of action right now at the rock, I wanted to share some behavioral actions that are happening as we speak. The south side female has been perched for about 40 minutes. As one of our visitors was watching her through one of our spotting scopes, she launches off the perch and circles the face, then out around to the ocean side of the rock. Within two minutes she appears from around the front of the rock carrying a shorebird in her talons. As she crosses the bay toward the sandspit, she lowers her legs still clutching the prey for a few seconds, then brings them back up close to her body. She repeated this gesture several times until one of the young flew up to her. She then dropped the prey for the young to catch which it did. What I have tried to describe here is much like an aircraft lowering its main landing gear several times with a big banner between the wheels that says “Dinner.!”

I’m sure I’ve seen this before, but I never grasped that it was an advertising gesture. I’ve been carefully watching this activity for the past three days that she has done this.

-Bob

Image

Photo by Cleve Nash

Posted in falcon, hunting, juvenile | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Gull chicks are about ready…

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

The young Western Gulls are coming out of the nests to wander around. The falcons know it. Now and the next few weeks, they are just the right size to kill and carry off. The adult gulls are protective of them, but the falcons will use a technique where one will distract the parent by diving on it. The second falcon close behind grabs a chick in one swoop and carries it off.

Yesterday the south side female was here by herself and made eight passes at two chicks on a bare slope and came up with nothing. All she was able to do was distract the adult gull. Without help she can’t get back fast enough. There will be many more chances.
-Bob

Image

Photo by Cleve Nash

Posted in gulls, hunting, juvenile | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment