Thursday, April 21, 2016 at Steele Creek Park, Bristol (Sullivan Co.) TN,
I was filling birdfeeders on the porch at the nature center when I heard
something odd. Actually I felt a vibration from the air with my body, kind of
like how it feels when a Ruffed Grouse is drumming, only faster. It made me
look up, otherwise I would have missed what happened next. At the apex of the
vibrational crescendo, a bird streaked into view from above the porch at
incredible speed, followed the slope of the front yard at about the porch-roof
height down to the lakeshore about 200 ft. away and between two alders on the
shoreline, then banked left behind the trees and over the water out of sight.
I never saw it flap its wings. Its undersides were light, its back very bluish
gray, and its wings were long and pointed. That was all that I had time to
see. I did notice that the Purple Martins that had been sitting on their
gourds had all scattered and were high above the lake.
Today, Saturday April 23, I again saw a Peregrine Falcon fly over the same
part of Steele Creek Lake, but this time flapping at slower speed at just above
treetop level. It seemed once to dodge something I couldn't see, perhaps the
Eastern Kingbird I saw in the yard earlier. Again I noticed all the Purple
Martins had gone high over the lake.
All afternoon today there were a lot of raptors crossing the park and
catching thermals, mostly Turkey Vultures and Red-tailed Hawks and a few
accipters.
Don Holt, Naturalist
Steele Creek Park
Bristol, TN
