Peregrine Falcon discussion and pics

There has been some recent debate about Falcon closures so I thought I would post three pictures of peregrines to show how amazing and bad ass these birds are. I haven't posted pics within a forum before so I hope it goes through. This is a series of 3 pictures. The first is the male carrying a small songbird with the female very close.

In the second shot you can see the female getting closer, about to complete the transfer.

In the 3rd pick you can see the female start to flip over and she will actually fly upside down momentarily to receive the prey from the male.

The female then went to the nest to feed the baby falcons their catch.
Photos by Will Sooter
When I look at these pics it makes more sense (at least to me) why we should avoid nesting sites at sensitive times. The birds are most sensitive to disturbance during nest selection and while incubating the eggs. If disturbance occurs during selection the pair will go elsewhere. If disturbance occurs during incubation the problem of low egg temperature is an issue if the parent is repeatedly in flight more often. Once hatched the birds are quite resiliant but repeated disturbances may interfere with hunting.
Scott (edited on 6-5)

Amazing pics! How many frames per second was it shot at? And how long is your lens?

bio wrote:If disturbance occurs during selection the pair will go elsewhere.

Exactly. NO MORE CLOSURES!!!

Cool pics though. I've seen these guys nesting up close from the comfort of one of our offices in Minneapolis. The birds were nesting on the ledge of our building. They are really sensitive that way.

I saw two collide (for lack of a better term) midair and stay latched onto one another plummeting about 90 feet before releasing each other just feet above a outcropping and swooping out in separate directions. It was, by far, the wildest bird stunt i've ever been fortunate enough to see in person. It looked almost as if they were wrestling but perhaps it was a mating thing(??). I don't know enough about their habits and have never taken the time to research it but what a way to mate! Could you imagine? Looking over your shoulder.. "hurry up, honey!!".

Was at Penitente this past weekend. At the far end of the Rock Garden (near the road) is a nest for some type of Hawk. The nest is right in the middle of the route.

I got some great photos of the little hairy dudes in the nest. Can't be more than a couple weeks old. Avoid the area if possible. (even though I was there bugging them!)

Ray

Cool pics of 'sharing-a-meal' ~ A new perspective on "food-2-go"

Ray Lovestead wrote:I got some great photos of the little hairy dudes in the nest. Can't be more than a couple weeks old.

Ray can you post one up..?

mike mullendore wrote:600mm? i am curious as I am in the market for a lens of that focal length and like the photos. Brand? oh, keeping with the thread, peregrine falcons are nice.

i'm not sure about the specifics as I am not the photographer. The photographer is Will Scooter, who gave me permission to submit these copyrighted photos.

I have personally never been affected by the closures. I think I have climbed somewhere where I "shouldn't" have been before. I heard and saw the birds, and they weren't happy to see me. I was far enough away that it didn't seem to matter too much.

I'd have to say that at first thought, I would support some restrictions on any human activity in order to facilitate ecological benefits. Of course the restrictions have to be reasonable.

I don't know all the details about bird survival statistics and how climber presense affects this. I don't know how the climbing season is affected by these rules. I do think it is rediculous to whine about it though. Shouldn't we as climbers respect the wildlife that inhabits those crags we so dearly cherish. And if those birds need a few months to themselves to survive, why shouldn't we allow that?

So on the surface, my opinion would be that I support the ban, but I really don't know enough about the issue to be a good judge.

What about bans on commercial activity on protected lands? Drilling for oil in alaska and detroying mountains in Colorado for oil shale would surely benefit us economically and provide more fuel independence. I think those bans are good ones. We should at least try to protect as much as we can for as long as we can. Eventually we might have to destroy a few mountains though, unless we really change to whole mindset of the world with respect to resourse conservation.

Who supports lifting some bans on other protected lands or habitats for commercial exploitation? Is that really better or worse than personal recreational exploitation?

Complicated issues, deal with, we all must. (in a yoda voice)

Joseph

Thanks for posting this. I'd like to think that climbers are a bit more sensitive to environmental issues than most. Below are photos taken two days ago of a family of red tailed hawks trying to make do in our world (Penitente). Who wouldn't want to protect this?? Above and below the frame are bolts.

All wildlife should be allowed to exist regardless of our recreation. Birds will not mate if threatened or interrupted (just like me). Peregrine Falcon's have established themselves in many large cities and do quite well hunting their favorite prey, pigeon. But this is an exception.

Mike - You can't go wrong with a canon setup. I use a canon xti (400d) and a 300mm f/4 lens. The crop factor of 1.6x of that body combined with a 1.4x tele extender gives me about 670mm of reach. BTW - a 600mm lens cost 12,000 dollars. If you have that much.. can I borrow some??

Ray

Daryl Allan, what you saw was a breading in progress. Very cool and lucky for you. Did you buy a lottery ticket?

Not so famous old dude, you still don't get it do you?

phil broscovak wrote:Daryl Allan, what you saw was a breading in progress.....Not so famous old dude, you still don't get it do you?

'breading'...??? - Phil this ain't no KFC road show :)

NSFOD is on Thorazine now ...

birdies!!1

^'^ ^'^ ^'^

those kinda look like birdies don't they?

kirra wrote: NSFOD is on Thorazine now

Oh yeah, must have forgotten my regular dose earlier.

Glug, glug...ahhhhh.

Now let's try again: Gosh those are some nice pics. Powerful, graceful creatures they are, indeed. The little eyasses are sooooo cute.

Mmmmm, that's better. Thanks Kirra!

breading - classic

Mike,

The Canon 300 f/4 L IS is an outstanding lens with or without the teleconverter. The only drawbacks to the teleconverter are that it halves the amount of light (to a f/5.6) and thus also slows down the focus rate.

mmmmm... bread

I'm pretty sure the parents serve meat to the youngsters without breading but I'm no expert!

Mike,
A teleconverter also cuts your depth of field in half, so focus becomes even more critical. Combine this with slowing your lens down so you need to shoot at slower shutter speeds and blurring becomes a real issue.
Stay away from teleconverters, buy a bigger lens.

IMO

Oh man, I make one little typo on a quickie post and I get sliced and toasted. Guess I shoud have just loafed off instead.

love ya-maan..! -Hahaha- have a nice weekend :)

phil broscovak wrote:Daryl Allan, what you saw was a breading in progress. Very cool and lucky for you. Did you buy a lottery ticket?

Cool! Thanks, i've been wondering if it was a territorial dispute or mid-air luvin' since i saw it. Talk about minute man... Thanks!

Just to bring this thread back around from the massive Peregrine F-stop circlejerk, I have recently started to get a little disgruntled about Peregrine closings, particularly at Thumb Butte and Granite Mountain in Arizona. I very much support protecting threatened or endangered species and have been happy to comply with the closures. However, it has become very clear that the NFS pays very little attention to if the birds actually NEST or not, and if they have recently at all. They just close it every year like clockwork and forget about it.

If there was any evidence to suggest that the birds were nesting, or had in recent years nested, or were likely to nest I'd not complain, but at this point there is none of that. I don't see why a partial closure wouldn't be preferable to a full one, other than that the NFS can make a broad, black and white rule and forget about it.

So my issue is not with the birds or wanting to protect them, but with sacrificing for something is likely not helping.