Now Appearing on Half Moon Bay State Beach: The Fastest Creature on Earth

[Donna]

Want to see the fastest creature on earth?  If you are lucky, you can see it right here in Half Moon Bay just by taking a walk on the State Beach.

Who is this remarkable creature?  The Peregrine Falcon—a bird of prey, renown for its agile flying—can reach speeds of over 200 miles an hour when diving through the air to catch birds in flight.  (One Peregrine Falcon was clocked at 242 miles per hour diving after a lure).  You can see a National Geographic video of the falcon's speed being measured by clicking on the video in the media box to the right.

Since earlier this fall, a Peregrine Falcon has been seen preying on the gulls that gather at the mouth of Pilarcitos Creek—between Francis and Venice Beach.  The bird is easy to recognize—about the size of a crow, with a blue-gray back, light underparts, and a distinctive dark band extending down below its eye—sometimes referred to as its "moustache."  Its dark eyes stand out against yellow eye rings.

The Peregrine Falcon is also sometimes called the "Duck Hawk" because of its fondness for waterfowl.  Its diet threatened its very existence in the middle of the last century, when DDT in the food chain—transferred from fish to waterfowl and then to the falcon—caused thinning of the shells of its eggs so that they were crushed by the weight of the incubating adult.

Peregrines, which were once widespread across all of North America (and all other continents except Antarctica), totally disappeared east of the Mississippi River, and numbers dropped elsewhere as well.  The falcons have recovered, thanks to the banning of DDT in 1972 and breeding programs that helped reestablish it.

To look for the Peregrine Falcon on Half Moon Bay State Beach, walk north on the beach or along the Coastside Trail from the Francis Beach parking lot until you get to Pilarcitos Creek, or enter the beach from the Venice Beach parking lot and head south to the creek.  The falcon can sometimes be found on a driftwood stump surveying the gulls and at other times actually feeding on a gull it has already captured.  Sometimes it makes its presence known when it dives into the gull flock, sending the seabirds scattering in all directions.

If you don't find the Peregrine on the beach, keep on looking for it.  Peregrine Falcons have been seen at many spots along the San Mateo Coast, from Año Nuevo to Mori Point, including over Pillar Point Harbor and along Highway 1 near Frenchman's Creek.

"Peregrine" means "traveler"—an appropriate name since some Peregrine Falcons migrate great distances, almost pole-to-pole.  Peregrines are seen along our coast during most of the year, however, so the falcon on our beach may be here for a while.

Half Moon Bay Patch