Falcon Watch, 07:15-09:00

I had no sooner parked my car, than I saw Mariah flying low across the eastern facade of the Kodak Tower, something large and white fixed firmly in her taloned grip. Shaky arrived right behind me, and we headed toward the bridge. Cathy Zummo & Brian H met us at the entrance to the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge, and informed us that a crow had just chased Mariah out of the gorge, where she had been hunting. We didn't see her emerge, and we were further informed that one of the adults had fed the eyases around 6:30, so we assumed that Mariah was having her own breakfast.

Upon the bridge, we were joined by Dan Stiehler, June Summers, & Tom along with his son Ryan, who had learned about Peregrines while doing a school project. There we watched Kaver come off the Kodak Tower, fly over our heads past the High Falls Brewery, and go into a spectacular stoop. He pulled out of his sudden hunting dive before connecting with his prey, though, and flew back to the tower:

Mariah and Kaver both treated us to several stoops this morning, but we didn't witness any hits. Meanwhile, the shot of the day came from this Great Blue Heron, who flew low over the bridge on his way to hunt at the base of the High Falls:



As he circled in for a landing, a second Heron appeared in the mist of the falls. At about the same time, an angry crow began chasing the first one:




Eventually, we lost sight of the herons in the dense spray from the falls.

The family of American Kestrels was out too, with both the male and female playing the role of chaser and chasee for Mariah and Kaver throughout the morning. Here's Kaver returning to his hunting perch on the iron lillies atop the Kodak tower steeple after diving on one of the Kestrels:

The number of watchers expanded on the bridge, with the arrival of Tom & Babs, Carol P, Kathy G & Kath O, Joe Lighthouse, Lisa McKeown/Falcon Flyer, and Larry O'Heron. Fellow techno-birder Marcia Lyman brought her excellent Kowa scope, and also provided us with handy laminated cards showing each eyas's band color and DEC band numbers. On the reverse of the card is a stunning shot of Mariah that FalKenn Martinez took, so that when we get the inevitable questions from passers by, we can show them just what it is that we're looking at. THANKS, MARCIA!
Here, Marcia (at left) receives some help in laminating the cards from Carol and June while the rest of us take a break from the falcon watch:

There wasn't too much activity to see after that, and as the clock crept past 9:00, I decided to head home. Back at my car, I took this shot of Mariah perched on the southwest corner of the "Launch Pad":

All for now!