New Bird on the Tuolumne River Trail! A Peregrine Falcon

It's always such a great moment when one sees a bird for the first time, or sees one the "home turf" for the first time. I had one of those marvelous moments today during my customary walk on the Tuolumne River Parkway Trail. There is a long-dead Cottonwood snag on the western part of the trail that is kind of a roadhouse inn for many kinds of birds. The high branches provide a wide-ranging view of the surrounding terrain so on a given day I might see American Kestrels, Ospreys, Red-tailed Hawks, Turkey Vultures, and on less common occasions, Red-shouldered Hawks and Merlins. The tree is also the nighttime roost for several dozen European Starlings, and home for a family of at least five Acorn Woodpeckers.

I was a bit pressed for time, and conditions were overcast and gloomy, so I wasn't expecting to see all that much, but as I approached the snag, I saw a bird larger than a starling but smaller than a hawk. I always assume it will be a Kestrel, but something seemed "off" about it. It was darker than expected, and I couldn't see the black face bars that distinguish Kestrels. I got the cameral out and took a few pictures, then tried to move closer, but alerted by a loud family on the trail, the bird bolted up the river. I thought it might be Merlin since I saw one there just a few weeks ago, but as I studied the photos on the camera I realized it wasn't that species either. I zoomed in and realized I had a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus). It is the first one ever reported on the trail, making a total of 150 species now known from the "Parkway" (it's not totally uncommon in the county, but the Tuolumne Parkway has only been watched carefully for the last five years or so)

Seeing the falcon reminded me of my other sighting last year. A friend of mine who works for the local irrigation district had alerted me to the fact that Peregrines had a nest in the cliffs above a small dam on the Tuolumne River at the east end of the county. I was given permission to enter the property to have a look and I wasn't disappointed. The falcons were busy discussing something or another, and were flying from perch to perch on the high rock cliffs.

I've only seen the Peregrine Falcons in a few other places, in Oregon and at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. It was great to finally see one in my own "backyard".
 

Back From the Brink: Peregrine Falcon at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

I saw a particular bird species for the first time on Thursday after hoping to see one of them for years. It was a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), one of the iconic success stories of the environmental movement. The species was on the brink of extinction because of DDT contamination, but the banning of the pesticide allowed populations to slowly recover. Although they are no longer on the endangered species list, their total world population is only around 140,000 individuals. But for all my searching, I'd never seen one until last week when I visited family in Florence, Oregon for the holidays.

Now, I realize that Florence is not the location I mentioned in the title of the blog. That's the funny part. It was dusk and the bird was so distant that I only got a few fuzzy shots that were only good enough to identify the bird. The best shot, much photoshopped, is below.

Fast forward to Saturday. We were on the long drive home, but we can rarely resist the urge to see what's going on at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in California's Great Valley near the town of Williams. There is a marvelous six-mile auto tour through the refuge. We were on the back half of the drive when I saw an unfamiliar bird up on of the trees. Very much to my surprise it was another Peregrine Falcon! And this time I got pictures!

It was a great trip through the refuge, but I was deeply bothered by one thing: no one was minding the shop. The visitor center and bathrooms were closed and there was no law enforcement anywhere. Technically people could have driven in and vandalized anything they wanted. They could even have shot birds There was in fact shooting going on in the distance, but I don't know if it was legal or not). It was the partial government shutdown of course. Trump has left our national parks, monuments and refuges unprotected because of his obsession with a useless wall. He has much to answer for.