Nest monitor, Mr. Scott Wright, visited the nestsite recently and saw an amazing sight. Buckeye caught a bat and brought it to the nest for SW to feed the eyases.
Mr. Wright reports there were workers on the building, and SW did not fly at them while Mr. Wright was watching, but after the bat feeding, she did fly at him as he watched from behind a window.
Mr. Harvey Webster of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History believes it was a Big Brown Bat. He says, “We tend to regard Peregrines as exclusively bird hunters, but according to Tom Cade, dean of falcon biologists, there are numerous records of them visiting the entrance to major bat caverns to prey on bats and they regularly hunt flying foxes on tropical islands in the Pacific”.
Mr. Wright reported there were “Loads of Blue Jay feathers in the box. Blue Jays will have huge flocks along the shore in the spring. At Crane Creek Magee Marsh I have see flocks in the 100's flying over. Easy target maybe”.
With all this good food, the eyases are growing stronger and exercising their muscles.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife will band the eyases on 5/8/09, around 10:00 am. They hope to have a camera linked to the website to post images of the banding, so tune into: http://www.falconcam-cmnh.org/news.php
Our thanks to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for sponsoring the FalconCams.
Photos are courtesy of Scott Wright, volunteer peregrine nest monitor. They may be used by children for school and/or personal projects, but please give Mr. Wright photo credit. All others must contact Mr. Wright directly for permission to use his photos.
