Peregrine Dive

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Wonderful shot, Steven. Peregrine's are such beautiful birds.

It's a poingient thread as I have been trying to photograph a pair of Peregrines with their 3 fledglings just the last few weeks - when I could manage the time and also have the right conditions to get out to see them. This pair of Peregrine's is new to me, closer to where I live, but I haven't had much of a chance to get out to see them but I have managed a few decent shots. They inhabit a long cliff face along the ocean front and you need the right wind conditions to get the right updrafts etc for them to teach their youngsters aerobatics in order to catch prey ie: other birds. The they could be almost anywhere along the cliff top and you then need to walk to where they are and by that time they may have got tired of flying and go and roost for about 40 minutes or so. Can be a little hit and miss.

I have been following another pair of Peregrines at another ocean front cliff face for the last 12 years but it is much further away across Sydney and can take well over an hour to get there and thus can be wasted if the conditions aren't right. It's really only worth going in springtime when they are feeding their young and then later fledging them and this only lasts for a few months.

They are an amazing bird, their speed is incredible and the highest speed has been clocked at 389kmh (242mph) in a dive!
 
Wonderful shot, Steven. Peregrine's are such beautiful birds.

It's a poingient thread as I have been trying to photograph a pair of Peregrines with their 3 fledglings just the last few weeks - when I could manage the time and also have the right conditions to get out to see them. This pair of Peregrine's is new to me, closer to where I live, but I haven't had much of a chance to get out to see them but I have managed a few decent shots. They inhabit a long cliff face along the ocean front and you need the right wind conditions to get the right updrafts etc for them to teach their youngsters aerobatics in order to catch prey ie: other birds. The they could be almost anywhere along the cliff top and you then need to walk to where they are and by that time they may have got tired of flying and go and roost for about 40 minutes or so. Can be a little hit and miss.

I have been following another pair of Peregrines at another ocean front cliff face for the last 12 years but it is much further away across Sydney and can take well over an hour to get there and thus can be wasted if the conditions aren't right. It's really only worth going in springtime when they are feeding their young and then later fledging them and this only lasts for a few months.

They are an amazing bird, their speed is incredible and the highest speed has been clocked at 389kmh (242mph) in a dive!
Wow, nice Lance. Good luck with that family; hope they become regulars in your viewfinder. I'm thinking this one must have been from one of the office tower nests fairly nearby across the harbour as I caught him near the end of a couple of 5km long arms (spits) into Lake Ontario so but for some trees an incredibly flat landscape -- tho I've just looked it up and they are known to nest in trees and even on flat ground where in their range that's all that's available.... Hope to see him again! And yes the fastest animal on the planet with their dive speeds! Wow!
 
Wow, nice Lance. Good luck with that family; hope they become regulars in your viewfinder. I'm thinking this one must have been from one of the office tower nests fairly nearby across the harbour as I caught him near the end of a couple of 5km long arms (spits) into Lake Ontario so but for some trees an incredibly flat landscape -- tho I've just looked it up and they are known to nest in trees and even on flat ground where in their range that's all that's available.... Hope to see him again! And yes the fastest animal on the planet with their dive speeds! Wow!
Thanks for the additional info. The original Peregrines that I have been watching over the years just lay their eggs on a ledge on the cliff on some sand, no nesting material!!
 
Thanks for the additional info. The original Peregrines that I have been watching over the years just lay their eggs on a ledge on the cliff on some sand, no nesting material!!
Thanks for the additional info. Going to have to read deeper on these guys!
 
Qute literally one of the last shots of the day; got four bursts of shots of this bird. Was packing up to walk back to the car with the sounds of what I thought was a gull squabble and then something clicked and I realized I also heard a bird of prey -- this Peregrine Falcon was trying to breakfast on one of the gulls. He was unsuccessful. In identifying him later I learned their diet consists almost entirely of other birds that they catch in flight. Their dive speed makes them the fastest animal on Earth. By the time I got to a spot where I could get him and the gulls in any sort of useable shot (this shot is cropped considerably) he'd given up and left (presumable in search of birds less adept at flying than gulls :) ).
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Beautifully captured, I particularly like that the trees give some perspective.
 
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