Yesterday I was down in Oregon at Smith Rock State Park. One of the routes
has been closed due to Prairie Falcon activity until June 30th so yesterday
was the first day it was open but it seemed like no climbers were aware the
closure was lifted because we were the only ones on that face all day.
From where we climbed (Kiss of the Lepers Wall, in case anyone wants to
look) we could clearly see the scrape, lots of "hawk chalk" on the wall and
we also observed some fantastic, very close-up behaviors on the hike there.
I will try not to anthropormorphose but it *seemed* like there were two
juveniles on the top of Monkey Face (a tall spire) that were food begging
to one adult that was circling above. The adult would buzz the juveniles
and then fly off, then come in again, then fly off... We hiked a little
further and came back to a spot where we could see Monkey Face again and at
that point there where three birds flying (I'm assuming the two juveniles
and the adult). Two had much faster wing beats - again assuming these were
the newly-fledged birds, still learning how things worked. The best part
was that we were able to observe almost all of these flights from above or
at least eye-level and a distance of less than 200 feet. Breathtaking.

Oh, and I made a successful climb of a 5.8, 5-pitch route with two rappels
coming down. **ahem**

Michelle Johnson
Lynden, WA
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