Subject: Re: Trickflight
Date: Feb 9 11:11:26 1995
From: Karen McMains - mcmains at admsec.wwu.edu



My first job after moving to Washington State after 30+ years as a native
Iowan involved boating alone (first experience) across a fairly lengthy
saltwater crossing (first experience), landing on a set of rocks in the
San Juans (first experience), setting up camp, and observing a peregrine
falcon eyrie throughout the courtship and nesting season (first experience!)

The wonder of all those first experiences is a future book.
One experience in particular fits the current Tweeters thread on
astounding feats by raptors.

One morning a helicopter landed on the rocks to plant signalling devices
for barge testing. The female falcon on the cliffside nearby didn't flush,
but acted agitated. I ran over and launched into my by then
well-rehearsed explanation of what I was doing camped there and why
they needed to give the cliff a wide berth. The three workmen listened
but were a bit skeptical, and then . . . a swallow (cliff, I think), with
the male falcon right on its tail, appeared out of nowhere, moving
unbelievably fast, low over the rocks--the falcon chased the swallow right
over our heads (no more than 10 feet, we could practically touch them, the
noise of the wind in their feathers was quite loud) and then out over the
water and into the trees near the cliff, where we lost sight of them.

The men had seen the entire spectacle, and their mouths were open for a
long time. When he could speak again, one of them exclaimed "That
was worth a million dollars!" Needless to say, the crew were very
respectful of the site after that, even rowing over from the barge
(in a thunderstorm, no less!) to replace the batteries on the
signalling devices, rather than use the copter the next day.

The most interesting thing to me was that the falcon seemed to be using
our presence to distract the swallow. Far-fetched, perhaps, but the
behavior pattern, without anthropomorphizing, began with the falcon
stooping on the swallow, missing, beginning the tail chase and heading in
our direction. As swallow with falcon right behind came over a nearby,
20-foot rock they were right upon us; the swallow swerved up and to
the side to miss us, and the falcon seemed to anticipate the move.

I often saw the falcons chasing swallows, but never saw them catch any.

Karen McMains
WWU, Bellingham
mcmains at admsec.wwu.edu