Subject: RE: Peregrines at Damon Point
Date: Oct 29 21:41:09 1996
From: ZT - zath at u.washington.edu


Good evening all!
Today I cut class (uh oh!) at the U and my girlfriend and I headed out
to Ocean Shores in search of the recently reported Peregrines. Neither
of us had ever been fortunate enough to spot one.
We hadn't been at Damon Point for more than a few minutes when we
noticed a swirl of several hundred Dunlins just off shore. It took a
second or two before we noticed the pair of dark triangles just above
the fury of Dunlins at which we both exclaimed, "Peregrine!" And sure
enough it was the tail end of an unsuccessful hunt. The bird flew over
and out to a platform offshore to recuperate. So we waited.
We didn't even see the bird approach the second time and were once
more alerted by the shorebird activity. This time the Peregrine
performed, climbing and spiralling down into anxious cloud three or four
times before it latched on to a Dunlin and carried it off to sea. We
couldn't have been more awe-struck! A few minutes later an immature
Peregrine bolted by.
Is this corkscrew hunting method of the Peregrine the common
observation? (Naturally, we had both expected the warp-speed stoop.) It
sure seemed effective in herding the Dunlins into a dense, seemingly
motionless sphere for the Peregrine to pierce.
Zachariah Thompson
zath at u.washington.edu