[bcbirdclub] Peregrines in the Breaks Park
- From: "Roger Mayhorn" <rmayhorn@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "BCBC Listserve" <bcbirdclub@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2011 00:52:20 -0400
As I have posted previously, some members of the BCBC are working with the
Virginia Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries in a Peregrine Falcon survey in the
Breaks Park this spring. This past Saturday Lynda and I were at the Stateline
Overlook by 8:30 a.m. A few moments later Sergio Harding, the VDGIF
representative from Richmond we have been working with showed up there. About
15 minutes later, as we stood talking, an adult Peregrine sailed by the
overlook below us. Later, Sergio went off to look at some more promising
Peregrine habitat in the park. Meanwhile David Raines had come to the park
after receiving a call from me in hopes of seeing the earlier Peregrine.
By the time David arrived Lynda and I were watching a perched Peregrine on the
far side of the gorge. I had seen the bird dive at a passing Turkey Vulture
then perch in a large tree. We watched the bird for an hour or more before it
took to the air. When it did, two other adult Peregrines joined it circling
over the canyon. Lynda watched one of the birds turn back upriver and disappear
from sight. Another circled rather high and David watched it disappear
downriver going in the general direction of Elkhorn City, KY. I was watching
the third falcon, and I saw it perch in a tree on the far side of the canyon.
By the time I got the scope on the tree the bird was gone. We didn't find it
again.
It is unusual for three adult birds of prey to be hanging out together, so the
sighting is a bit confusing. The fact that these birds were seen in the park is
a good indication that a pair is probably nesting nearby. We are going to
continue to monitor to see if juveniles show up in the park, which would be a
good indicator that they may have fledged from a nest close by.
Roger Mayhorn
Compton Mt
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