[TN-Bird] Fwd: Greenbriar Pinnacle Peregrines
- From: Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN-Bird <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 18:12:18 -0700 (PDT)
Hi folks,
Here are excerpts from the notes taken by Keith Watson during a trip
he and I took to a location on the side of Greenbriar Pinnacle in
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A few details on precise
location have necessarily been removed and this has been edited a bit
for readability. It was a heck of a hike. Challenging, rugged, and
even a thunder storm to chase us off the ridge at the end! Please
note that at the bottom, Keith mentions a need for monitoring of this
site. All monitoring would involve about a 10-mile round-trip hike,
staying on trails - the park needs to limit off-trail trips. Let me
know if you're interested in helping out, and I'll pass the word on.
Charlie
Hi all,
Charlie Muise and I hiked and bushwhacked up to near a rock outcrop
on the ridge on the south flank Greenbriar Pinnacle, hoping to obtain
a good view of the ledge where the Peregrine eyrie is located.
On the hike up we both heard a wailing-whining call that was repeated
several times per minute for about 15 minutes; calling was almost
constant during this time period. We then headed upslope climbed
the slope to the unnamed ridge top. After a lot of black flies and
scrambling over and under rhododendron, mountain laurel, rocks, and
downed Table Mountain Pine, we reached the rock outcrop (whew) and
had lunch (12:15). We then tried to climb the rock outcrop but
without proper safety equipment and gear decided it wasn't safe to
try this.
While retracing our steps off the outcrop, Charlie saw a Peregrine
fly over us toward the cliffs, and whining-wailing calls eminated
from that area.
We settled in at our lunch spot at the base of the outcrop, set up
Charlie's spotting scope and began searching for the birds and the
eyrie location. We had a fair view of the eyrie ledge when the wind
would move some branches out of the scopes view. From our location,
we were still probably 50-75 meters below the ledge and 200 meters
away; the outcropwould have been a little better. We heard several
whining-wailing calls, and what Ratcliffe classifies as chupping.
Both birds were observed on the ledge. The female was noticed to be
overall brown in color, yellow legs, and grey or blue cere (not
yellow). She had fairly coarse, vertical streaking on her breast,
consistent with immature, or 2nd year, plumage. To me, this is not
the same female that as present earlier in the year at this site, the
early female being clearly adult in all aspects. But I could be
wrong. Big mystery. Both birds were flying around the cliffs, the
female eventually flew to a ledge spot several meters from the eyrie
ledge and began to pick at something on the ledge. At first I
thought the nest be in this location, but she flew off a just a short
stay and never returned to that spot during out stay. This
might be a food cache (larder).
At that point both male and female appeared on the ledge. We took
some photos with a Sony digital camera through Charlie's scope and
magnified on the camera. The male landed under the large boulder on
the right side of the ledge, the female directly in front of the
hemlock tree on the brown lichen-moss like area. To the left of
this you can see ejected excrement off the ledge face. The male
eventually walked over to and behind the hemlock tree, out of sight,
and chupping was heard.
The female did the same but her tail end was partially observable but
she seemed only to preen. The female backed out, stood on the ledge,
and Charlie observed a blue band on the left leg and a yellow band on
the right leg (maybe orange or faded red). She flew off to a tree
perch and began her whining calls. Male came out later and flew off.
Short time later, male flew back to ledge, was joined by female, and
which time the male flew away; did he leave a prey item? He was not
seen again. While the female was on the cliff ledge, I observed the
left leg band to be green.
On another return to the cliff ledge, I saw green again and her head
appeared more bluish from behind, but still brown overall. I never
saw the right leg band. Female flew to a roost perch below eyrie and
began whining again. She continued to fly around and perch at
different locations in the area.
We found a better viewing spot just below our location, moved the
scope, and had great looks at the ledge, but unfortunately, we did
not see the birds return to the ledge. At that point we had to
leave,
uncertain of female age and status, and any leg band colors.
However, both Charlie and I agreed that chicks seem likely present
behind the hemlock tree, and the male was feeding them (he does this
fairly early in the hatching stage). The female was almost
continually whining which is an indication of the male to BRING FOOD!
A food exchange likley occurred while Charlie and I were descending
the outcrop and the female may have been picking up a larder item at
the site a few meters away from the eyrie (where she was picking at
something on the ledge). But we never did observe actual food
exchange or prey items being handled by the Peregrines.
The relationship between the pair seemed comfortable and no
agression occurred between them, so if this is a different female,
she seems to behaving pretty normally and has adapted to the site,
the male, and the duty of food begging at least. She appeared to be
in a moult.
Perhaps the original female has disappeared and this new female has
replaced her. Perhaps the male is doing the bulk of rearing at this
point. Very curious.
I recommend that observations be continued from the first week of
June, say June 8th, at three day intervals to monitor when the young
begin to fly. For now, I would focus on recruiting volunteers to
observe from the overlook just before anticipated first flight of the
juveniles at say, three day intervals so that accurate documentation
of first flights can be observed. Based on what we think is
happening at Greenbriar, and we've been close so far as to what's
going on, juveniles should fledge around June 12th or 13th through
the 20th. Then I'd have someone there on the 13th and every three
days after to determine the number of juveniles fledged. It will
certainly be an aerial spectacle once the young and adults begin to
fly with each other.
Anyway, if anyone wishes to observe the activity at the ledge, they
will have to try and get near where Charlie and I were on Sunday, and
I wouldn't recommend that except for very experienced off trail
hikers. One other option that hasn't been tried is to come down from
near the overlook area down a ridge to the rocks (from above and see
what that offers) but that would mean about a 4.5 mile hike in, then
bushwhack down to the rock outcrops, back up, then out 4.5 miles.
Logistics of observation at this site are very difficult after leaf
out.
=====
**************************************************
Charlie Muise, Naturalist near
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer." -Edward Abbey
**************************************************
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