10 May 2022
Just wanted to share with you some of the photos that have been sent to us recently. Many visitors and photographers enjoy these falcons as much as we do! There are two chicks at this Piedras Blancas site. It is in a large offshore rock that has been a nest site for many years.
Happy trails, Bob
3 May 2022
When I returned from four hours on the south side of Morro Rock, there was a note on my windshield from a fellow birder. He wanted to let me know that he had seen a single chick out on the edge of the “cathedral” hole on the north side of the Rock. That was yesterday, May 2nd. This morning I went to the north side first thing to look. Within five minutes, one came to the edge, then a second one appeared. They relieved themselves over the edge and stayed for three or four minutes.
Tomorrow I’ll try to get a photo.
Happy trails, Bob
Item: I think I missed the hatch date on the north side by a couple of days. The chicks are getting dark around the eyes.
22 April 2022, EARTH DAY
This morning on the south side of Morro Rock, the male landed in a very small hole, one that they stash prey into. As he left the hole, a flutter of feathers trailed him out with his powerful wingbeat. He entered the eyrie twenty yards away with the prey. As he entered, the female came out of the eyrie. After perching a few times at different sites for a few minutes at each, she then left for about fifteen minutes and returned from the sandpit with fresh prey to deposit in a stash hole.
This is what I have been waiting to see. Now you know the young have hatched. Probably within the last 24 hours.
One peregrine source says 31 to 33 days to incubation. Another says 32 to 35 days. So I missed again, either two or four days off.
“What the Hell!” I’ve only hit it once or twice in the last 35 years. But now we have chicks!
“Yeah!” They should be able to be visible by mid-May.
L.W.F.T. *
Happy trails, Bob
* Little White Fuzzy Things
16 April 2022
It’s a blustery day, cold, windy, rainy, not a day I would care to spend at Morro Rock, but here I am watching with next to nothing happening on the south side of the Rock. If I got the start of incubation correct, chicks should hatch by tomorrow.
Gordon Robb, one of the near full time falcon watchers called me from the north side of the Rock to tell me that the tiercel just brought the female a small bird. She took it into the “cathedral” eyrie at 12:40 PM. The parent birds never eat in the nest site, so it’s a good chance we have chicks on the north side of the Rock that probably hatched in the last 24 hours. In about two weeks, we should know how many.
These are our guesses:
NORTH SOUTH
Gordon 4 3
Bob 3 2
Jerry 3 3
Heather 3 2
Happy trails, Bob
30 March 2022
Back to the business of birds. I have been watching the south side pair of falcons daily for the last eight weeks. Everything seemed out of sync. Courtship should have been in December. I didn’t see any going on, but the birds could have been breeding on the ocean side of Morro Rock which I cannot see. It’s only visible from a boat. Breeding should have been in January, February and March, but only recently has been visible.
Now we are in the 15th day of incubation and I am happy. The eggs should hatch about the 17th ofApril, Easter, and we should start seeing the young come to the edge of the nest about the first week in May. The young normally fledge at 44 days old. If I got the first day of incubation correct, they should fledge about May 30th, Memorial Day.
Happy trails, Bob
5 November 2021
We want to give another scholarship! How about you?
Make a donation by visiting Bob at Morro Rock, sending us a check (address is at the bottom) or pressing the DONATE button to the right.
Our previous CalPoly Scholarship students wholeheartedly want us to give another scholarship too! We have heard from some of our Scholarship students recently and they know what a difference it makes. They are a great example of what your money has made possible.
Our first CalPoly Scholarship Student was Wren Thompson will be going to the University of Washington to get a Master of Arts in Museology. You may know that museums make the world a better place by offering broad educational experiences.
Our second scholarship student, Nicole Robin Durtschi, has been “working as a biologist at Oceano Dunes, with the breeding Snowy Plovers and Least Terns! It’s been a very unique experience, with plenty of challenges, but of course plenty of amazing experiences. Being able to watch chicks grow up is pretty incredible 🙂 And spending most days out on the beach has really helped me learn my shorebirds!” She is an avid birder now. I’d love to visit with her to learn about the Least Terns and Snowy Plovers this coming year.
With a look at two of our students that you have contributed to, I ask you to contribute now to our Cal Poly Scholarship by pressing the DONATE button ON THE RIGHT or sending us a check made out to PCPW and mailed to PCPW, 765 Center Ct., Morro Bay CA 93442.
Happy trails, Bob and Heather
9 June 2021
The south side chick, the only one to this new pair of falcons fledged this morning at 9:40 AM traversing the face of the Rock from left to right in a smooth glide landing on a chalky bluff 300 yards from the nest site. The landing was on a near vertical face with no crashing or tumbling, he stuck the landing! A few more short fifty yard flights ending with the last on the top of a large boulder on the sky line.
Soon everyone started to show up. All this time the adult female had been flying overhead in large circles chasing gulls and vultures or anything that might come near her young. She at times would stoop on her chick trying to get it to fly more. The young would not budge.
She later brought the chick a small shore bird. Everyone was thrilled to see it rip into the prey. After consuming all the body and organs, he then swallowed each leg whole, thighs, leg and toes!
Happy trails, Bob
Item: Jack and Petra Clayton have a Flickr website where you can see her latest photos of the peregrines. Trying to adjust the shorebird leg to gulp it down takes some juggling!
25 May 2021
The south side chick made its debut at the diving board hole at 21 days old. That would be three weeks behind the north side chicks.
On the north side, the three young have been flying for four days. They are 48 days old. It looks like we have two females and one male.
A lot of visitors are showing up to view the north side young flying and being fed. Every hour or two it is complete pandemonium… screaming, flying, chasing the parent to seize prey from its talons in mid-flight. It might last ten minutes, then silence to eat and rest. After an hour or two it starts all over again.
Today with the many visitors, we had three spotting scopes up with folks waiting for a turn. By the end of the week, I should have the big screen up and going. If you plan to visit the “rock” at Morro Bay and see these magnificent birds, you can’t see everything in ten minutes. If you want to see the good stuff, bring a chair.
Happy trails, Bob
Item: On the south side eyrie, we’ve only seen the one chick. There could be more. Stay tuned.
16 May 2021
This past week, our friend, Cleve Nash completed his life at age 79. He was a self-taught photographer and naturalist who donated so many of his very fine photographs to our Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch website here. Living in Cambria and Santa Margarita, he traveled to where the birds that he loved to photograph were, Shell Beach, Bob Jones Trail, Atascadero Lake, Santa Margarita Lake, etc. Some of his favorite birds were the White-tailed Kites at Isla Vista.
Morro Rock was a place he’d always come to see the peregrines court, nest and rear chicks over the years. We had expected him to show up as the chicks were ready to take their first steps onto the nest site ledge to show themselves off. It was his tradition. Bob and I use his photographs still because they’re the best!
He was a gracious and generous person who always had time to be with us. He had a great dry sense of humor. We cherish the twenty plus years we’ve known him. We’ll always hold him in our hearts.
Happy trails, Bob and Heather
5 May 2021
News flash! Gordon Robb, ardent falcon observer, called late this afternoon to tell me he saw a falcon chick in the north side “bowling ball” nest site.
“I’ll be right there!”
Six minutes later I arrive and now two chicks are visible. In twenty minutes, we have four scopes, two cameras, five sets of binoculars! Tomorrow will see a lot more optics.
Happy trails, Bob
