Hamilton. ON. June 27, 2024. This is just one of those totally unexpected and serendipitous urban sightings. My companion and I were on a catch-up lunch, two birders with lots to share and cross-check. We were both going easy on the alcohol and neither of us had ordered a particularly large lunch, but all was well we had a shady spot in a large and open patio alongside a busy street.
I have no recollection of who was where in his story when we were simultaneously distracted by small background sounds, non-urban sounds that rose above the clatter. Almost in unison we said “Peregrine Falcon?” and looked up. Two young falcons swept low across the open sky, almost in formation and calling a scratchy “chrea chrea chrea” as they passed. Then as if to impress anyone who cared, the two banked left into a u-turn and did a low overhead fly-past. And that was it. We were impressed and thrilled while none of the other lunchtime diners showed any interest so, we kept it to ourselves, Barry said he’d do an e-Bird report and I made a mental note about this spontaneous Birds of the Day.
This bird resembles the original anatum as all of the current ones with the rufous in-between the barring on the flanks and in-between the breast and belly spots shown here do, just like the original bird. My father, uncle, and grandfather used to trap them on migration at Assateague Island off of Maryland for falconry in the Depression.
It’s funny u are posting this article about Peregrine Falcons. As my wife and I have been introduced to 3 young Galcone using our plastics Turkey Meat containers we fill with water for the other birds in our area to use as it’s been very hot the last week. These 3 young falcons have decided they are great to take baths….