What is it about Peregrines (urban Peregrines, even) and Cuckoos? Back in
Springfield, Mass, there was a nesting pair of Peregrines on a downtown
building. Their landlords (a bank) had hooked up a closed circuit video
camera of the nest, which eventually was hooked to the local cable system,
where the birds were a big hit, and allowed people to monitor what the
falcons fed their chicks.

Anyway, back to the point of the story, both species of Cuckoo are present
in that area, but scarce. An ACTIVE birder might see 5-10 yellow-billeds
and one or two Black-billeds a year. I felt lucky to find (usually by
ear) one or two Yellow-billeds a summer. But these urban peregrines were
feeding more heavily on Yellow-billed Cuckoos than any other species.
Conservatively they were bringing in several per week, perhaps it was even
several per day (I can't remember, but do remember it was a staggering
number).

It would be like a hawk here subsisting entirely on Northern Shrikes or
something.

Cuckoos must have a special vulnerability to hunting falcons. Funny since
they seem such skulkers. But of all the places a vagrant cuckoo in
Washington could turn up, a peregrine nest seems quite plausible.

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu




On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Dennis Paulson wrote:

> Just a note for those of you interested in arcane bird records.
>
> Bart Rulan, one of our local accomplished bird artists, just showed me some
> photos he took in June of this year at the Washington Mutual Building in
> downtown Seattle. He was photographing the nesting Peregrines, and one of
> them brought in a prey item. His slides show quite well a partially plucked
> YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, presumably just caught somewhere not too far from the
> nest. He's trying to determine the date on which the photo was taken so he
> can submit the record to the Washington Bird Records Committee.
>
> The Yellow-billed Cuckoo bred in this region at the turn of the century but
> disappeared not long thereafter, for reasons quite unknown (a blight on the
> large caterpillars they favor? a decrease in the riparian woodlands they
> inhabit? descent on the area by Swiss cuckoo-clock makers?). Now they are
> quite rare, not even recorded annually, so each bird is noteworthy.
>
> The Peregrine seemed quite satisfied to have got the bird for its state
> list . . .
>
> Happy Holidays to all you tweeters out there.
>
> Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-756-3798
> Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-756-3352
> University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
> Tacoma, WA 98416
> http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html
>
>
>