SAN JUAN REPORT – MONDAY JUNE 25 2007
The Shaheen sailed with a crew of Pat, Martin and Ed.
"Raccoon" – First (and last) visit of the year to this island. No signs of Peregrines anywhere, active 1997-2004. Conclusion: No occupancy.
"Guillemot" – Martin immediately spotted a falcon flying out of sight at the south end of the long east wall cliff complex. A passing pigeon quickly brought out the falcon, a Peale’s type female. The male came in briefly to see if he could share the pigeon, then left far to the southwest on a hunting mission. The female eventually lost the pigeon to a pair of Bald Eagles (how many times have we seen that?) She changed perches multiple times on the far south end of the cliff complex. We decided to check out the cliff face and Ed almost immediately spotted the nest ledge with at least two downy young. No facial feathering and no primaries showing….look like 15-17 days old in comparison the Peregrine Fund guide (shows photographs of developing young). Banding party needed Saturday!
"Carolina" – Female standing on a fresh kill on a rock near the water line (see below).
Photo above and below by Martin Muller
Bald Eagle comes in to “share” and is pummeled and driven off by both adults (see below).
Female returns to pigeon preparation on the rocky beach, then carries it low into a tree. Eagle returns and male drives him to the ground. Eagle persists and eventually the female stupidly (to us) flies out over open water carrying the pigeon instead of continuing to hide in the trees. The eagle chases her and forces her to drop the pigeon into the water. The eagle retrieved the pigeon and flew north with a PEFA escort.
Pat Little shot these five images of the female peregrine making a tactical error and flying out over open water with prey, while being pursued by an adult Bald Eagle.
On the cliff there are two raven stick nests with ample mute streaks as well as lots of small streaks denoting favorite PEFA perches. No food begging heard during 2-3 hours and no visits to any ledges by either adult. These guys are going to fool us and present fledged young soon. They were banded last year on 30 MAY.
"Fox" – a long frustrating attempt at reading the adult female’s VID band that ultimately paid off. What seemed like a good strategy of putting two scopes ashore, one near her favorite tree on Young’s Island and one on Burrows, then toss her a pigeon, didn’t work out. Mom led us on a merry chase, perching just out of scope range or discretely covering her VID band. I got one great look at her right leg and read the last digit of her UPSIDE DOWN FWS band, “5” (No, I was NOT on that banding expedition). I finally got a decent look and saw the bottom letter was Vertical V and the top had a rounded sideways letter (P?, R? S? B?).
The single eyas on the ledge is almost fully feathered. The photo blind has been removed. After several hours of this we declared defeat and left.
A later review of our banding records showed only one bird with Vertical V and a FWS band ending in 5 – "Raven", banded 27 MAY 2000. We’ve had a double-banded female at Burrows since at least 2004 according to my notes.
"Coyote" – We were initially perplexed when the eyrie ledge was empty….since these young were a few days away from fledging. Eventually we located two youngsters and heard a third “branching” along the ledges and cliffs. They were scampering up the incline while vogorously flapping their wings. Both adults were vigilantly standing guard and one of the youngsters was given some food by Mom. Hopefully the fourth youngster was just snoozing, but we did have coyote scat at the bottom of the cliff at banding time.
End of report.
