Henne and Tweets

Yes, Prairie Falcons have been in that general area in the past. If you got a good look at it when it flew in, did it have the black axillars (black "wingpits") on the underside of the wings. This is a reliable mark for Prairie Falcon, and isn't present in Peregrines.

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
mail to bellasoc at isomedia dot com
----- Original Message -----
From: Henne Queisser
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 6:12 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Prairie falcon? at West 90


A small group of us were birding the Skagit and Samish Flats today. At the West 90 we saw a brown colored falcon fly onto a telephone wire. It had the peregrine "mustache" but the mustache was pale brown. The breast was more speckled than striped, the head and back were brown. Feet were yellow. Looking at Sibley it looked most like a prairie falcon. The only other possibility was an immature peregrine. It was too large to be a merlin.



Has anyone else seen this bird? Are prairie falcons possible in that location?



Thanks.



Henne Queisser

Redmond, EA



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