Saturday, April 3rd Falcon Watch
By Lou
Dana, Carol P and myself spent the morning out on the Broad Street Bridge watching Beauty and Archer. We had a few interesting observations, including seeing A & B copulate on Mercury’s moneybag and seeing Archer catch a Woodpecker. We saw a couple of other falcons too, including a Kestrel and a juvenile Peregrine. Non-falcon sightings include a drake Merganser, the discovery of a secret Pigeon hide-out, and an evil Green-Garbed Gnome peering out of the Reuters building, giving Carol the heebie jeebies.
To me, the highlight was seeing Archer catch the Woodpecker. It was the first time I’ve seen a falcon actually catch a bird like that and Archer made it look effortless. He easily snatched the bird out of the air near the Convention Center after chasing it horizontally across the river. I have some pictures in the attached album (click on the pic)… it looks to be a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker that he caught.
April 4th, 2010 at 12:39 AM
Pigeons..OK…Woodpeckers…ahhh! Poor little bird. Great catch Lou, I guess for both of ya’s. 🙁
April 4th, 2010 at 5:46 PM
Great action shot!
April 6th, 2010 at 11:22 AM
Good photo, but a beautiful woodpecker….naw….but thats life.
April 6th, 2010 at 4:34 PM
Poor woodpecker! It is good to see the falcons doing so well though. they will need to be well fed if they have lots of eggs. thank you!
April 7th, 2010 at 7:21 PM
Can you tell me band numbers for Beauty and Archer. I have been checking the falconcam but am not sure which of the two are in the nest.
April 11th, 2010 at 11:55 AM
Beautiful photos Lou, thanks for sharing!!!
April 13th, 2010 at 4:06 PM
Thank You!