PEREGRINE FACON PICTURE!
As you may have read, I have followed the progress of a pair of nesting Peregrine Falcons in a nestbox atop the Kodak headquarters building in Rochester, New York, for about eight years now. Kodak has maintained/sponsored this nestbox since 1989. They are wild birds by the name of Mariah and Kaver and have fledged many chicks over the years. Kodak maintains a discussion group including incredible amounts of information about this pair. But last year we had quite a fright. Mariah, the female falcon, the larger one in the picture, was injured during the nesting season. Although she was able to fly, she carried one leg hanging, thus clearly interupting her ability to hunt for herself and her chicks. Normally, the male, Kaver, would hunt for her and the babies as well, as he did. But this amazing event occurred one day and not only did he hunt for her and the babies, he actually brought the kill into the nestbox, prepared it for feeding, and amazingly FED MARIAH and put the food directly into her beak. We had never seen anything like this and raises a lot of questions for me about what exactly is “instinctual” beahvior! I think it is a beautful picture, especially when you know the story behind it. Enjoy!
