Peregrine Falcon

Over the last several weeks, my brother J has been watching a Peregrine Falcon that often perches on the cell phone tower at the fire station where he works. The days that he's been there have mostly been quite overcast and dark, and I was eager to get a chance to drive out there and photograph the bird in decent light. Thankfully today (his last day at that particular station) was lovely, and when I he told me the bird was there late this morning, I headed out there right away. I was there for maybe 20 minutes or so, and the falcon turned this way and that, stretched and scratched itself (hey BK, those pics are for you!) before flying away. Good timing! I could have stood there and watched it all day, so it's probably good that it left. The ground swirled with pigeon feathers, and pigeon wings and entrails were hanging off the tower (gross). J says there are lots of pigeon parts and dead pigeons under the tower.

Pretty cool! This is the first chance I've had to photograph a Peregrine. I've only ever seen one around this area before, and it was at a distance and moving fast.

I still don't know how people get really crispy clear photos. When I win the lottery I need to buy new Nikon lenses, because I'm pretty convinced that the old Tamrons just don't quite cut it with the D80. However, since I shoot for reference, it's all good.

The background looks different in the first one because there were no clouds right then... that's not something I altered in the photos, fyi.