Good Morning Birders, Please forgive this late post. Right after my peregrine sighting, I had to leave for a doctor's appointment. Due to the short term memory loss I've been experiencing, I forgot about it until the bird (or another one) just flew through the yard "on patrol." It flew on, as there was no action on my deck or down through the neighbor yards at the moment which is VERY unusual. Maybe my feeder birds "psyched in" on the bird's presence in the area and took cover. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Here in the Charlotte Park area of West Nashville yesterday morning just a little before 9 A.M., I was looking out the kitchen window through which I can see the backyards of all the houses on the streets bisecting mine. The entire area is a little wider than a football field and the length of three football fields. Just above the third house behind mine, an adult peregrine falcon went into a dive toward a flock of rock pigeons that were feeding on the ground of that back yard. Suddenly, there was CONTACT,..... and peregrine got its meal which it took to a fairly low branch in another neighbor's cedar tree while a startled flock of 20+ rock pigeons scattered in every direction, then regrouped and FLED!!!! That is the third time that I can remember the thrill of seeing a peregrine dive from high in the air to SUCCESSFULLY get a bird meal below. The first time was at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida while I was a graduate student at FSU in Tallahassee in 1967. I was parked alongside the main pond with the top down. I looked up into the air and saw the peregrine diving at top speed. It came right over the car and into the middle of hundreds of ducks in the pond, snatched a gadwall and somehow managed to lug the bird to the branch of a pine tree several hundred feet away where it proceeded to eat. The second time was downtown Nashville at Christ Episcopal Cathedral several years ago when a peregrine dove from high above the parking lot toward a flock of rock pigeons on the cathedral roof, grabbed one and flew up onto a small structure on the roof and began its meal. Of course, I've seen a few start to dive and give up when the bird(s) flew OR (horror of horrors) the peregrine MISSED. I think I've only seen one miss, but I've seen them have to give up mid-dive because the hoped-for meal saw them coming and "got the heck out of Dodge!" May birding give us all many peregrines and other fabulous birds! Dee Thompson Nashville, TN **************The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. Go to AOL Music. (http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565) =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________