Peregrine Falcon Fledgling

Yearly Diaries

I have absolutely no qualifications that make me an expert on Peregrine Falcons - no natural sciences degrees, no advanced studies of any kind, and no experience in working with them. I am not an expert. What I do know about Peregrines has been learned from years of observation and from talking with people who are raptor biologists and who have been deeply involved in raptor recovery. I am fortunate to be able to call many of them friends. Despite leaning on these people to learn more about what is being seen, you will quickly discover that my observations are sometimes in need of correction. Those adjustments are readily admitted to and set straight as soon as possible.

With the exception of a couple of photographs that were taken by me, the vast majority on this site were taken by people with equal fervor for Peregrines and the talent and equipment to get excellent results. They have generously allowed me to share them with you. I am particularly grateful to Cleve Nash for the use of his images - they fill the site.

To access information from each year I have taken notes on, just click on any of the links below. Each page also includes more photographs, all a treat in themselves.

1999 - Brian Latta and Craig Himmelwright from the Predatory Bird Research Group of the University of California, Santa Cruz played stork to our Peregrine Falcons this year, delivering three chicks - 2 females and 1 male - to the aerie on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22. The chicks were 25 days old. This is the first time chicks have been fostered into the Morro Rock aerie since 1992.                     Read More

2000 - Morro Rock appears to have two new adult Peregrines. No one has been able to identify these birds, but the Peregrines have paired up and have been seen mating. The female is obviously a replacement for the Falcon who died last spring. The tiercel makes me think he is also new to the Rock because his habits are quite different. Most notable is that favorite perching spots are different. Also, he seems to me to be lighter in coloration. His identity will eventually be established by a check of his leg bands.                     Read More

2001 - We begin this breeding season with what appear to be the same two Peregrines as last year, Milli and Rudy. This is a great time of year to see the Peregrines in action, so make a point of stopping by and spending some time observing their behavior. There is some speculation this year of more than two Peregrines being around.                     Read More

2003 - I'm still absent from the Morro Bay area, but have access to lots of interesting news about what is going on at the Rock through Steve Schubert, Roy Burke, Tom and Diane (of the commercial fishing boat the "Diane Susan") and other observers. All quotes are used in edited form and with the permission of the original writer.                     Read More

2004 - It turns out that the first year we thought there were two pair of Peregrines nesting at the Rock (2001), there was really only one pair. Milli, after an apparent nest failure on the south side, moved to the north side in mid-March. I believe she took up with a new tiercel there, leaving Rudy to his recliner and remote control. (The north side male, we had named him "Zypher," was far more aggressive and active than the notoriously lazy Rudy. He was also of normal coloration, where Rudy had been quite pale.) This pair produced three chicks. Brian banded them on May 12, determining that they were about 22 days old.                     Read More

2005 - The new breeding season is well underway with both pair of Peregrines in their usual places and working on producing some new youngsters for us to admire and enjoy. Already the numbers of interested birders is increasing, especially on Saturdays. It's great to see familiar faces returning and it is a lot of fun catching up with what everyone has been up to over the last months. If you don't have a scope there's still a good chance you can get a close-up view of the Peregrines - there is almost always someone around happy to let you look through theirs. So, come on out and join your fellow Peregrine Falcon fans.                      Read More

2006 - The 2006 season has begun with both with both pair of Peregrines still on their respective sides of the Rock. To make it easier to keep track of everyone, here are the names I use for the birds. The pair on the south side of the Rock are Khaos and Elvis. On the east side it's Milli and Esteban. 

Back in August it was noticed that Esteban, our east side tiercel, had a problem with his right eye. He was keeping the eye closed most of the time and was scratching at it. The yellow area surrounding the eye appeared to be quite swollen. My biggest concern was how this problem might affect his ability to hunt. The good news is that the eye was healed and he was back to normal within about six weeks. Janet says Esteban's problem was likely a burr that had gotten under his eyelid.                     Read More

2008 - There have been some interesting observations this winter. Cleve Nash got a photograph of an Osprey carrying off a Bufflehead Duck. A group of birders near the Natural History Museum reportedly saw an otter eating a surf scoter. Also near the museum, two Red-Tail Hawks went on a killing spree involving Black-Crown Night Herons for meals. I witnessed three successful kills and one attempt that ended in two people walking too close and causing the hawk to fly off. The heron stumbled off into the cover of some shrubs. Within a week the herons had realized the folly of sitting in the trees near the museum and abandoned the area.                    Read More

2009 - For almost a week now Khaos, the south side falcon, has been spending a lot of time in a new aerie. Two days ago I thought she and her new mate did an incubation exchange. This morning around 6:25, the tiercel was sitting on the edge of a cave; below and from the new aerie Khaos emerged. He flew off towards the back bay, returning twenty minutes later with what looked to be a Willet. He flew into the cave from which he had come. Khaos followed, retrieving the Willet and taking it to one of their frequent eating spots. The tiercel immediately went into the aerie to take over daddy duties. Success!                     Read More

2010 - This will be the eleventh year I've been jotting down notes to share with you. (In 2002 I wasn in Seattle and didn't write.) Over the years many of you have written to share your own observations or to let me know that you are reading again. Several people have written each and every year from the beginning - wow. You have to have an amazing dedication to stay with what is certainly becoming repetitive. But that is the good stuff, isn't it? Each year repetition becomes more of what is reported because things are going more naturally, requiring virtually no human assistance. So it is a good thing.                     Read More

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Please use the subject line: Peregrine Site Update.