check out CoastalRaptors.org and see field notes for some really interesting shots.
Posted on 05/04/2013 7:28:53 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER
The Peregrine Falcon, also known as the Duck Hawk (a fact you won’t soon forget after watching this video), is a spectacular bird of prey. Claiming the title of fastest member of the animal kingdom, a Peregrine Falcon can reach speeds in excess of 200mph during its characteristic high-speed hunting dives — take that cheetah.
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Should have ducked.
“The Circle of Life....”
I was out plowing one day and got to see a falcon take a mourning dove out right in front of me. Was way cool.
Fascinating video.
really neat video. thx for posting
recorded speed 240 mph in a dive.
I photograph for a research organization that studies/bands aviary raptors (per.falcons, hawks, eagles, merlins, owls).
When a per. falcon hits it’s prey, it’s like a bomb has exploded. Feathers everywhere. They have a “nub” on their beak that is reinforcement for the beak in those collisions.
And when my favorite, merlins, hunt, there is a reason they are called sky sharks
Fascinating to see.
Never say this in real life, but on a semi related note, several years back we were off-roading in the desert in AZ. Noisy VW engined buggy. As we passed through a washout, there was a HUGE raptor (Im not a bird guy so no clue what it was exactly) sitting on a rock about 10 feet away sitting there staring at us. Didn’t move.
No fear whatsoever.
I was canoeing on a nearby lake last fall and had a wood duck swimming just a few feet away. Suddenly a snapping turtle lunged up from below, grabbed the duck by the neck, and pulled it beneath the surface. It happened in less than five seconds; if I hadn't been looking right at the duck at the right instant, I wouldn't have seen a thing.
In that area, may have been a golden eagle (does not have a white head like the baldie does). It can track about 3 or 4 things at one time. You were just “noise” on it’s radar and not “worthy” of worry in it’s hunting protocol.
Parker AZ. It was grey/browish. I was thinking that it was thinking we looked more like dinner ;)
YUP!! On a corner on the upper West side of Manhattan one day I watched a falcon take out a pigeon. When the feathers floated down they were all around a woman waiting for the light. "What happened?" she asked. "Falcon just got lunch." I replied. She freaked!
I once got within 6 ft. of a female merlin. She was perched on a pipe in the basement of a building at 133 & Lenox in Harlem. She looked OK, clear eyes and feathers dressed. I backed off and about a half hour later she was gone. The only way I could figure she got there was down an airshaft and through a broken window.
Lots of falcons, merlin, kestrels and hawks in upper Manhattan.
i watched a turtle takeo ut a slug one day- in the blink of an eye it was over
I’ve seen bald eagles sit for 2 hours while hunting.
Targets are on the board in fire control. Once and a while they take a look your way (it may have been tracking you lonnnng before you ever saw it) and then go back to pinging for target acquisition.
And then for reasons I don’t know, it up and leaves. 2 hours!!!
They are lazy buggers who would rather go for carrion then waste energy hunting. Had you fallen down on the ground, you may well have been it’s dinner!!!
A hawk or falcon will make the kill. An eagle swoops in. Then a raven runs them all off (at least here on the WA coast). That’s the great circle, Poomba!
I have no doubt it would have left considerable scars. So Simba just kept on motoring down the trail ;)
check out CoastalRaptors.org and see field notes for some really interesting shots.
Wow,just wow.
Dead duck?
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