![\"peregrine](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/peregrine-falcon-2625b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nI found this juvenile Peregrine Falcon along the causeway two months ago. Juveniles tend to be more approachable than adults and this one kindly\u00a0allowed me within range. Most of the rocks along the causeway are bright white so they don’t make ideal perches for photography but I appreciate a wild\u00a0peregrine on any perch, any time.<\/p>\n
My friend Mike Shaw said of this bird – “Its eye ring, cere and feet are yellowing up quickly for such a young bird”. Mike really knows his raptors so when he says something about one of them I pay attention.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"peregrine](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/peregrine-falcon-2625-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I’ve mentioned this before on my blog\u00a0but whenever I get a good look at the nostril cone of a falcon I point it out. Falcons are known for their high-speed flight and peregrines are the fastest birds of all and that fact presents a problem. At those incredible speeds air rushing into the nostrils would make efficient breathing difficult or impossible (some say it might even burst the lungs but this is difficult to verify). So falcons have a cone (baffle)\u00a0just inside each nostril that disrupts the air flow and reduces the pressure of the air entering the respiratory system. That cone can be seen pretty well in this extreme crop of the previous image.<\/p>\n
Early jet engines had the same problem. As those aircraft became faster and faster the engines started choking out because at those speeds the air largely bypassed the air-breathing\u00a0engine. Engineers found the solution by looking at the nostril cones of Peregrine Falcons. Modern jet engines have a metallic cone in front of the engine to disrupt the airflow and allow the engine to “breathe” more efficiently.<\/p>\n
We can thank Peregrine Falcons for that, which is exactly what I did as I looked out the window at one of the engines on my recent flight to Florida. At 35,000 feet\u00a0and 600 mph\u00a0I was incredibly grateful that those engines weren’t stalling out…<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve seen a fair number of Peregrine and Prairie Falcons on Antelope Island this winter but this is the only one that hasn’t proven elusive.<\/p>\n