Hello tweets,

I have looked at many falcon kills and this sounds like maybe one!
The falcons ( peregrine & merlin ) seem to really enjoy eating the meat
out of the back and around the keel/breastbone. Another sure sign is
that falcons break the necks of the birds they take, so I always check
that. Finally, falcons pluck: often you see a ring of plucked feathers
around the corpse. Accipiters seem to break off feathers as much as they
pluck, whereas falcons seem to be pluck specialists. Anyway, just some
thoughts to add to the discussion.

On Mon, 11 Nov 1996, Tracee Geernaert wrote:

>
> Apparently the back of the duck was eaten first and the bird had been
> flipped over and there were pick marks at the breast meat. The head was
> still attached and intact. It was a very foggy morning but it may have been
> clear and bright earlier in the night. I think it probably was not an owl
> unless it was killed by one and then scavenged by something else .
> Tracee Geernaert
> tracee at iphc.washington.edu
> International Pacific Halibut Commission
> PO Box 95009
> Seattle, WA 98145-2009
>
> >One can tell a lot about the nature of the predator by the condition of the
> >bird. Owl, eagles, hawks, falcons and coyotes are all possibilities here
> >and each will dismember and consume the prey differently. Owls tend to
> break
> >their prey into chunks and swallow these whole. Hawks and especilly falcon
>
> >pick at their prey. Often, only the breast has been eaten, leaving the
> rest
> >of
> >the bird laid out on its back. Coyotes gnaw on medium sized prey items
> >usually chewing off the head first. Coyotes leavings tend to be sloppy
> >piles of feet and feathers.
>
> >As to night hunting, was it a full moon? new moon? clear night? cloudy
> night?
> >Diurnal raptors, especially the obligately visual (or nearly so) falcons
> would
> >be unlikely to hunt except on the brightest of nights.
>
> --
> *********************************** I was of three minds
> * Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR * like a tree
> * mpatters at orednet.org * in which there are three
> blackbirds.
> *http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters* -Wallace Stevens
>