[obol] Raptor Raid at Yaquina Head Yesterday

[Cindy Ashy]

It was a bright sunny mid-afternoon at Yaquina Head. I was taking advantage of
the light to study the lichens in Trespass Cove when a Peregrine Falcon flew in
and landed on the east wall. I and several other spectators admired this
elegant bird basking in the glorious sunshine. It was a natural for the cameras
and video recorders as it posed first left then right. The Peregrine Falcon
seen the day before was obscured by tree branches and observed through a
drizzling rain at a greater distance so it took real effort to make out the
details of the bird. Yesterday, however, the details leaped out as if they had
been magnified by the sun. This Peregrine Falcon was definitely a tundra
subspecies with a large white auricular patch and a narrow moustache but unlike
the one from yesterday, it had a darker back and the crown was dark. After
soaking up enough rays and attention, the crowd pleasing falcon flew off around
the north side of Salal Hill and disappeared from sight.

About 15 minutes later, the weather changed suddenly. Dark voluminous clouds
moved in, the wind picked up and began to whistle in an eerie low-pitched kind
of way, and not only did the sunshine disappear, the lighting got
surrealistically spooky and electrified the colors everywhere. Oh how I love
this type of moody weather but I must be in the minority because everyone else
hurried to their cars and left and I had the whole place to myself. Good time
to ruminate over things and walk the path to the lighthouse to see what I might
discover. Looking over at the trees, I saw a dark silhouette which reminded me
of Darth Vader. When I viewed it through my bins I discovered it was a
Peregrine Falcon with its wings opened up but not raised up which made it
appear much larger than it actually is. It was obviously agitated as it was
bobbing its head and tail up and down and repeatedly spreading its tail
feathers. Several times it shook its whole body and twice I saw it pull out one
of its own feathers. Once it zoomed off the tree with great velocity but the
headland blocked my view so I waited for it to come back. On returning it had
no prey and I could tell it was even more agitated than before.

I finally walked on around the lighthouse and was leisurely watching a couple
of Black Oyster Catchers high on the west face of Lion's Head when a line of 11
very vocal Black Oyster Catchers originating from the south side of Seal Rock
alerted me to an adult Bald Eagle flying eastward across the tidepools with a
much smaller bird in hot pursuit and gaining on it fast...and of course it was
a peregrine. I'm used to seeing the larger bulkier gulls chasing eagles at
slower speeds....but the speed difference between the eagle and peregrine was
really quite amazing to see. The peregrine seemed to "bump" the eagle several
times which even when it tried to take evasive maneuvers, the peregrine seemed
to win this contest easily. Once the eagle got well beyond South Rocks and
disappeared from sight, the peregrine cut across the headland at lightning
speed back toward the trees on the southwest corner of the head. However, just
when I thought it was all over, take two, action. The eagle came back around
the headland with the peregrine again in hot pursuit and again catching up with
it again and bumping into it. The eagle disappeared from sight for the second
time and the peregrine whizzed back across the headland. It was only a few more
minutes when you guessed it, here they came again east to west but this time
the eagle landed on the highest point on South Rocks (where I've seen eagles
many times before) which really seemed to infuriate the peregrine which began a
series of dive bombs on the eagle at supersonic speed. This peregrine was just
not going to allow the eagle to be in this space. In fact, the peregrine was
attacking so fast and furious the eagle had trouble getting off the rock to
leave the area. I was there maybe 30 more minutes and did not see the eagle
come back. Better action chase scene than any blockbuster movie.

Cindy Ashy

P.S. Earlier when the sun was still out, I saw an obvious first year Glaucous
Gull which almost seemed to glow against the dark rock it was sitting on. This
was the first one I've been 100% sure about at Yaquina Head...other
possibilities have been just a little too far out for me to be completely sure
with just my 10x bins.

There was also a large number of grebes (in the Western/Clarke's size category)
out between Gonzo and Lion's Head and another half dozen between Seal Rock and
South Rocks, more than I've ever seen there before.


 
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