Regarding the Prarie vs. tundrius Peregrine identification near Jensen
access, I can only comment on what I saw. Most likely, we saw 2 different
birds since there was no one else besides us watching this bird that I
could see for the duration we did. We watched it for 20 mintues through
the spotting scope at about 50 yards and were able to see many differnt
angles before the dachsunds scared it off. In addition, it was feeding on
a Snow Goose, not a Canadian. There's a lot of prey to choose from in that
area and many raptors.

The field marks we observed were: narrow brown malar, whitish superciliary
eyestripe, brown cap, creamy patch below eye, brown patch near ear, orbital
ring and cere were bluish gray as were the legs, cream colored front
streaked with brown, with the crop area more heavily streaked than the
belly, back was rich brown with russet edging on feathers (no barred
feathers), although it was not perched on a limb, as it "perched" on the
breast of the goose, it's tail feathers did not reach the tail tip. The
clincher would have been to see the dark axillars, but when it flew off, it
had its back to us. However, I'm 99.9% sure we saw an immature Prarie
falcon. A Prarie falcon of unidentified age was seen the previous week at
Jensen by us and others, so there is the possibility that it was the same
bird and is still in the area.

Cindy Willis
Whidbey Island
willisc at immunex.com


>Dear Cindy:

>You'll see my note a few back on Tweeters, I goofed--you note a Snow
Goose,
>we had a Canada, so I guess we had different falcons too! On the fly I
>figured the way you described that we saw the same goose kill, so close to
>Jensen parking lot and all.

>Sorry about that!

>Scott Atkinson


>Dear Cindy:

>That is the same falcon we saw (look back a few messages). We judged the
>bird to be a 1st year tundrius Peregrine, not a Prairie. I noted that in
>flight as it circled the underwings were pale, not black, as with Prairie.
>The bird also had very heavy dark "moustache", so much so that it looked
at
>first as though the throat looked dark too, but that just at first
>look--the
>throat was whitish. It certainly was an interesting plumage for a
>Peregrine, though. Interestingly, there was also a report of Gyr in that
>area on Saturday, I believe, also.



>From: WillisC at immunex.com
>Reply-To: WillisC at immunex.com
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: Prarie Falcon
>Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 07:30:51 -0800
>
>On Saturday, Jan. 13, Dennis Ryan and I watched an immature Prarie Falcon
>feed on an immature Snow Goose for about 20 mintues in a field near the
>Jensen access. We saw it after the kill as it was plucking the goose. It
>fed quickly for about 10 minutes until it's crop was bulging then stood
off
>and cleaned it's feet. After awhile, it started doing a pumping motion,
>moving food out of the crop. Then it got back on the goose and continued
>feeding until a couple walked by with their 2 dachsunds and scared it off
>the goose. Most people had stopped to look at the flocks of Snow Gesse
and
>never saw the falcon feeding.
>
>Cindy Willis
>Whidbey Island
>willisc at immunex.com