Down along the river on a cold morning the male of
the pair of peregrine falcons was perched with his feathers fluffed to help
ward off the low temperature. Just like a human with a down jacket, the
fluffier the insulation the more air is trapped and the warmer the body inside.
Usually when I see either peregrine along the river
the bird’s crop is bulged out by a recent meal. On this day the male’s crop was
more distended than I’ve ever seen it. The tree in which he was perched is no
more than 200 yards from a bridge with a significant population of pigeons,
with even more pigeons and starlings to be found among the buildings on either
end of the bridge.
Life must be pretty easy for this pair of peregrine
falcons with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of pigeons to fuel the birds'
internal furnaces on a cold day.
In one of the few unfrozen spots in this stretch of
the river several male common mergansers were searching for fish. Suddenly one
surfaced with a large fish clamped in its beak –
.JPG)
The other males pursued the successful one in a vain
attempt to steal its catch. With a bit of effort the merganser swallowed the
fish and filled its crop.
Lovely Peregrine shot.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, The Peregrine photo is awesome! Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Have a happy day!
ReplyDeleteWonderful shots!
ReplyDelete