Whooosh!!!!

I never cease to be amazed at how many times when I'm out birding I decide to take One Last Look around before climbing in my truck and driving away, and with that Last Look I'm rewarded with the best sighting of the day. Take yesterday, for instance.....

I'd driven down to Wells in the afternoon to visit some friends. After leaving their place shortly after 4:00 I decided to swing out to the beach area to see if there were any interesting birds about. This wasn't a totally spontaneous move on my part; I'd brought along my good binoculars and my trusty Sibley field guide with the thought of making just such a foray.

From US1 I drove down Eldridge Road, turned off on Ocean Ave, and then onto Webhannet Drive that runs along the beach. I pulled over for a bit and enjoyed some good looks at a couple of female Common Eiders who were feeding in the surf, quite close to the surge line. One successfully came up from a dive with something in her bill--I couldn't tell just what it was--and was immediately set upon by two Herring Gulls who were trying to capitalize on her good fortune and hard work by stealing her plunder. She put up pretty good resistance, but in the end lost out to the gulls' superior numbers and bulk.

There wasn't a lot of other action out there so I headed for the parking lot at the mouth of Wells Harbor, which is usually a pretty good spot for, um, spotting birds. Seals often hang around there as well. No seals yesterday, but there was a largish flock of Double-crested Cormorants, a few Bonaparte's Gulls, several more Eiders, the usual Herring and Ring-billed Gulls, and--a bit of a treat--a Common Loon. We see Loons there with some degree of regularity, but it's always a pleasure when we do. The Loon and the Bonaparte's Gulls are in their off-season plumage now. I had hoped perhaps to see an Osprey or Northern Harrier over the marsh, but no such luck. They've probably mostly headed for warmer climes at this point, though an Osprey flew overhead while I was stuck in traffic on Rte. 128 outside Boston last week, and I did see three Harriers at Plum Island on Friday.

So, assuming I'd seen about all there was to see there I walked back to my truck. I'd unlocked the driver's side door when I turned around to scan the area one more time....and saw something flying very fast in pursuit of a smaller bird, out over the channel. Holy crap! Whazzat??? 

Even before I got my binoculars trained on it--no mean feat when the object of desire is traveling as fast as this thing was--I'd figured out that it must be a falcon, based on the wing shape. And, because of its size, it had to be a Peregrine!! Yup--with a quick look through the binocs I was rewarded with a glimpse of the unmistakable Elvis sideburns of a Peregrine Falcon! Woo-hoo! This was only the fourth one I've ever seen, but the third had been last Friday on Plum Island. Not a bad week for raptors.

Definitely worth taking that One Last Look!