A hulking menace appearing to guard her prey.
A much shorter post today. After yesterday’s ultra-marathon edition of Feathered Photography I think we can all use a break.
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 1250, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
This photo is from early January, 2018. I found this presumed female (based on size) Peregrine Falcon soon after sunrise as she was feeding on the remains of a frozen coot mostly hidden in the grass. It was damn cold and due to thick cloud cover the light was low as indicated by my camera settings. And almost everything in sight was covered with thick hoarfrost which set the mood for all of my photos that morning.
All we can see of the coot is a few black feathers sticking up out of the frosty grass, along with a couple of bloody bits that provide a small splash of much needed color to help tell the story in the otherwise low-color image. I think her hulking presence over the coot is intimidating, probably exactly as she meant it to be.
If we ever get any more super cold weather or that stuff called snow around here again I’ll have reasonable hope for another close up Peregrine Falcon opportunity similar to this one.
As it stands this impressively menacing female was my last one.
Ron
Beautiful photo. I really like the muted colors – feels like winter. And the very intense look on her face is definitely worth a thousand words.
That poor coot went to a good cause. What a gorgeous falcon! She means business for sure!
Such a grumpy face! She seems to be daring all comers to take one step closer. I keep hearing the seagulls in “Finding Nemo” declaring “Mine! Mine! Mine!”
Melanie, I’ve gotta admit, I’ve never seen Finding Nemo…
Sorry to be late, but just WOW! in that ridiculously redundant way 😉
Not a doubt in my mind that she’s a SHE!
Ain’t outside grand?
“Ain’t outside grand?”
It sure is, Laura. Even when you’re freezing your ass off.
Love the shot, the texture of the snow and her guarding her kill. Have you seen a Magpie hunt a vole? I got some shots yesterday, a first for me.
I think I remember seeing a magpie chasing a vole once, Jane. No photos though.
She looks like she has drawn a line in the snow and is daring you to even THINK about crossing it. Love it. And she is simply gorgeous, isn’t she? I saw what I think was some type of falcon (the shape of the wings was far more V-like than anything else) today. It was very high so I would have needed a telescope or binoculars and my 18-year-old eyes. 😀
Arwen, I’d give almost ANYTHING to have my 18 year old eyes back. Even my 35 year old eyes were almost as good but soon after that my ocular acuity began a steep slide downhill.
“Menace” is certainly not the term that immediately comes to mind when an opportunity to draw close to one of the most spectacular birds on the planet presents itself. The look is part of the mystique of Peregrines, especially the adults.
Different strokes, Jim. You use your words, I’ll use mine. In this context and in this pose I see her as a menace to anything that threatens to take the prey she’s obviously guarding.
Fair enough. Interesting as well that the coot was apparently frozen (hoarfrost on feathers, your text) that indeed she (I agree) was a tad on the hungry side. I have witnessed Peregrines taking a variety of prey that one seldom reads about, but do not recall ever witnessing one feeding on carrion. The feather indent on the breast further attests that she had not had meal in a few days, but groceries is groceries.
Nice shot; thanks for sharing.
Jim, I wondered if the coot might have been her own kill from the evening before since Peregrines are well known to cache and store surplus prey but as you said her crop appears to be empty.. By most definitions carrion is “decaying” flesh and the coot being frozen would still be ‘fresh’.
Carrion or not she was one hungry bird.
Good thoughts; forgive my techno-speak.
As stressed as she apparently was then she could have remained in the area and returned for leftovers which would be quite unusual. Once they leave a kill, they typically do not return and are not “territorial” or protective ala balds and goldens on a winter kill. If challenged, they typically just leave and look for additional opportunities.
Quite the story with which to close out 2020; helps me to think a bit deeper with some of my own images.
“helps me to think a bit deeper with some of my own images”
Nice to know, Jim. Thanks.
This Peregrine Falcon is even more scary than just it’s stare. It looks like it has three nares and an unnaturally wide gape. Might just be the camera angle (ground level from your truck? Neat trick.) or it’s a menacing mutant. The hoarfrost adds to the scene of carnage.
I might not sleep tonight.😱
You’re right, Lyle – it does look a little like she has 3 nares. Looking at a highly cropped version of the photo I believe the one on our far left is just debris.
I was shooting from my truck but she was on a slight slope so it looks like I was at closer to eye level than I really was.
Menacing beauty—what a concept! Peregrines have it nailed. Sorry to read she’s the last you’ve seen—three years seems very unreasonable! But so’s our weather, although here in SoCal we actually got (in some spots) more than an inch of rain and good snow in the mountains over the last 24 hours. I will hope for the same for you, tho’ the forecast is not looking good, I fear.
Chris, I’ve seen a few, very few, others since then but never close with good photo opportunities.
From a safe distance (in both time and geography) I am super impressed. Closer to the event I would certainly be intimidated.
And apologies for yesterday’s long post are NOT warranted.
I hope that you do get some snow (and much needed moisture). Soon.
EC, if we don’t get some fairly soon we’ll be well on our way to big trouble.
I am all too familiar with that big trouble and hope (fervently) that you can avoid it.
Sunday I thought I’d go to the lake to check out our eagle couple the other day. I saw NOTHING… literally. So I headed to the river where the buffet of salmon is still happening. Bingo😁 everybody was there. It was a site to see. Nothing was left hungry that day❗️
Impressive perspective here! Not a face to meet in a dark ally at night! Those black eyes…for some reason they seem more intense and larger on this species! Really like this shot angle…it really portrays her well. A ride to the marsh late yesterday afternoon yielded about 8 or so ShortEar Owls flying. Unfortunately they emerged after sunset during that late twilight time that just doesn’t give me adequate lighting for my lens and just far enough away to complicate it even more. I was glad to see it seemed they all were finding adequate prey as they were swooping down and staying grounded a bit before resuming the hunt. A few observers with ‘mega-lens’ seemed to be getting shots though.
Thanks, Kathy. I envy you your SEOW’s this time of year.I only see them in spring and early summer.
Beautiful! She REALLY shows up against the hoarfrost……..😀 I’m sure, given the conditions, she sure wasn’t ready to give up her meal! Her coloring – dark back and light belly – show up well. We’re pretty dry here – few skiffs of snow, wind, and some slick roads have been it after initial couple of storms this winter……😞 Appears it’s going to be a rerun of last winter with little moisture and moving dirt.
Judy, she was pretty insistent about staying at her coot meal, even with the occasional vehicle driving by pretty close to her. Cold combined with hunger often has that effect on raptors.
Really good shot Ron. Her colors really stand out against that hoarfrost. We finally had snow yesterday although not sure how much. Still dark so have not looked out yet to see if it continued or not during the night. This long long drought has definitely contributed to the lack of prey. We are seeing very few Kestrels and our usual visiting eagles this time of the year appear not to be here. I am participating in the annual eagle count very early in the new year, but I am doubtful that we are going to see anything more than just our nesting pair. Two years ago we had ten that included adults, immature, and juveniles. No sign so far of anything other than our pair.
Thanks, Everett. Even our mountains are mostly bare of snow. For this late in the year it’s scary.
How can we not be impressed by such a glance? The birds of prey are fierce hunters and their presence or absence has much to do with the abundance of preys. That’s the main problem. Where are the preys? It seems that, in your part of the world, some preys are still availabe during the bad weathers. I think about the chukars, coots, grebes or ducks that I have seen in your last blogs. We have not this chance up north: too cold, too much snow. The preys are not in good numbers, so are the raptors. I wish you to meet again the weather that would allow to have your peregrine back. Thanks again to share your fantastic photographs along with your always informative texts.
Thanks, Laval. Around here unless it’s unusually brutally cold with lots of snow we usually have voles and other rodents, some rabbits and a fair number of songbirds available as prey. And there’s usually at least some open water providing fish and submergent vegetation as food for other bird species that also provide a food source for some raptors.