Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch

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

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