The recent government shutdown, which kept me out of my downtown
Tacoma office, seriously hindered my snooping on the downtown
pair of Peregrine Falcons. But today, just a little while ago
(from 1:25 till 2:35), I've seen them together again.

Just a few minutes after the female--gripping a pigeon--landed
on the old feeding place on the restaurant level (facing east)
of the Sheraton Hotel, the male flew in and landed beside her,
2 or 3 feet away. She didn't chase him off, but she dined alone,
and he just perched, stoically. Spotting a passing pigeon about
5 minutes later, he stooped, missed, and flew up to the corner
of the nearby U.S. Bank building. She finished feeding, then
preened and perched for 50 minutes, and finally flew off. On the
neaby building, he waited another 10 minutes, then also departed.

Though they are frequent companions, I still haven't seen him
feed her yet, and I haven't yet discovered where they roost.
I suspect they may use the top of my building--the First Inter-
state building. I'll keep looking.

I have considered naming them, but I can't bring myself to dub
them with names. That seems presumptuous--hanging human-made
names on them. Their real falcon names are secrets that I'll
never know.

To me, she is simply "the female," large and on her underside
washed with brownish buff. He is "the male" or "the tercel,"
smaller and, by comparison, almost pristine white on the
underside.

By the way, it's a fine thing to be among you tweeters again.
During the furlough, I postponed my regular tweeters mail at
work and had to content myself with reading the digest from
home.

--cheers, Jim Lyles
Tacoma <jrlyles at usgs.gov> or <jrlyles at eskimo.com>