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Article in: Updates

Year of the Peregrine Falcon

Each year we get up early on New Year’s Day after a late night on New Year’s Eve to find the first bird of the new year. Last year was the Year of the American Crow and 2007 was the Year of the Red-tailed Hawk.

This year we headed out in the dark to a local park frequented by Peregrine Falcons without much expectations of actually finding the master of all falcons. We made several passes through the twisting icy park road and eventually the sun began to rise. We stopped in a parking lot and from across the river a falconish bird flew in.

Jennie (Veery) spotted him first and Eddie (Birdfreak) got on him shortly after and confirmed it was indeed a Peregrine Falcon and our first bird of 2009!

Peregrine Falcon sketch by Jennie

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3 Comments or Trackbacks ↓ Jump to add comment ↓

Mary Carlson says:

Congrats on the first bird for 2009 – a peregrine falcon! I sure wouldn’t mind seeing that as my first bird of the year. Happy New Year, Birdfreak Team!

Posted on: January 1, 2009 @ 11:27 pm
Jack Armstrong says:

Eddie: What a great bird to start out the new year with. What park did you visit? At the potluck dinner for the Rockford Christmas bird count, the group had a total of nearly 70 species. Dan and Barbara are off to the great, white north of MN so we won’t get the totals until later.

Jack Armstrong

Posted on: January 2, 2009 @ 4:21 pm
The Birdfreak Team says:

Mary: Thanks, we were lucky to find him! Happy New Year!

Jack: We visited Blackhawk Park on a tip from Barbara. We can’t wait to hear the final results for the Rockford CBC! Happy New Year!

Posted on: January 4, 2009 @ 9:04 am