{"id":53,"date":"2008-06-15T13:06:39","date_gmt":"2008-06-15T17:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogshevik.com\/garneredimages\/?p=53"},"modified":"2008-06-15T13:06:39","modified_gmt":"2008-06-15T17:06:39","slug":"peregrine-siting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/?p=53","title":{"rendered":"Peregrine Sighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0“It’s rare that scenes last more than 2 or 3 minutes, so sound helps segue from one scene to another.”
\n(Stephen Hopkins)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

While sitting outside here just before midday, hoping to get an interesting photo or two with the new lens, it was uncommonly quiet.\u00a0 Perhaps too late past morning for both birds and furballs, perhaps the warm temperature and rising humidity creating too languid an atmosphere for even the wilds to be up to their usual activity.\u00a0 Still, it is monstrous pleasant to sit on the back patio during these warmer months and so I simply sat.\u00a0 Suddenly,\u00a0there came a great commotion from behind the trees.\u00a0 All leafed-out now, the beloved trees in our small City\u00a0significantly narrow the already small view of the skies above\u00a0this well-packed neighborhood so I stood alertly, looking up at our backyard’s brief bit of openness.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t a minute before a flock of birds came racing at full-speed overhead.\u00a0 Various species, at least two dozen, with great hue and cry, and obviously on a mission.\u00a0 As I instantly narrowed my eye’s focus from the flock to the discerning of the\u00a0individuals in it, their purpose was quickly identified:\u00a0 a Peregrine falcon had been spotted hunting for the\u00a0little songbirds who grace\u00a0the backyard feeders and this small,\u00a0deadly raptor was now being driven out of\u00a0Dodge by the not-much-smaller adult\u00a0blue jays and grackles.<\/p>\n

They were gone in the space of\u00a0five breaths; the Peregrine stretched out fully, at aerodynamic\u00a0full-throttle with legs extended and held close to its underside, while the jays and grackles flew in messy, yet tormenting formation intended to surround and harrass.<\/p>\n

There wasn’t time to snap a shot, had there even been time to lift the big bazooka lens that now graces the\u00a0face of “Matilda”, the D2Xs.\u00a0 Yet this time there was no twinge of regret for a missed photo op, simply an overriding sense of gratefulness for having just witnessed something truly remarkable.\u00a0 For as I noted back in December, the peregrine falcon is a rare sight in these parts so it is reassuring to see that efforts to help it survive continue to succeed.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0blood-thirsty cries of the feathered mob\u00a0grew faint as the chase quickly disappeared behind the trees surrounding the houses across the street from ours.\u00a0 Then a few minutes later two, then three of the jays made their way back, screaming out the news of the marauder’s attempted invasion.\u00a0 They were joined by a few of the grackles, who\u00a0added to\u00a0the feathered newsboys’ chorus\u00a0with their own\u00a0unique,\u00a0squeaky imitations.<\/p>\n

There would be no real activity for a while after something like this, and so with an unexpected and odd\u00a0sense of accomplishment, we packed up and went back inside the house.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0“It’s rare that scenes last more than 2 or 3 minutes, so sound helps segue from one scene to another.” (Stephen Hopkins) \u00a0 While sitting outside here just before midday, hoping to get an interesting photo or two with the new lens, it was uncommonly quiet.\u00a0 Perhaps too late past morning for both birds and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}