Thanks for your reply. Yes. Although I have seen many, it is not that often to see one at its most exciting. Actually the Peregrine Falcon is surely among the
most often or widely written about of the world’s wild birds. Maybe in the top 10. Because of its long association with people, the extent of its distribution and the high regard in which it is held (except maybe by those who prefer the company of the birds
it eats). Though not especially big or small or colourful it is surely among the most dramatic of any birds to watch. There is at least one whole book (by Dr Derek Ratcliffe) about them (I have a copy signed by the author) that has relevant information but
that is mainly based in England. and not many general bird books would not include them. So I suspect many different answers to your question may all be true. A few points: Peregrine means wandering. Although that is not especially true in Australia, where
they appear to be mostly resident. The bird in your photo is a young one. The one I watched was (I’m pretty sure) an adult. It never got closer than about 200 metres but I think close enough to pick adult features. I suspect that there is lots of data for
the range or size of the territory of breeding pairs of Peregrine Falcons but it surely would vary greatly according to habitat. I would not expect there would be anything like a consistent answer for single birds. Then the question is how do you define territory
(probably different from home range), could be the area immediately defended around the nest which is normally fairly easy to describe, or defended from other predators or distance to another neighbour of the same species, which surely is often greater than
what they actually defend…There won’t be many places in the world where their population density is limited by their own territorial defences..
There is the well known nest site at red rocks gorge, which is maybe about only a few minutes flying time for them from Mt Taylor. I usually see them flying
over my home more or less a few times each year.
Philip
From: Richard Lane [
Sent: Wednesday, 26 June, 2019 1:48 PM
To: Canberra Birds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Peregrine Falcon observation
Hello Philip.
What a special treat that must have been!
Do you (or others) have any idea of the range or size of the territory of a single Peregrine Falcon? I observed (from quite some distance) a Peregrine Falcon at Jerrabomberra Wetlands (JW) on June 17 (see attached photograph). This bird
(or another?) has been seen around JW on several days.
On Mon, Jun 24, 2019 at 8:27 PM Philip Veerman <> wrote:
Whilst travelling home from the meeting about JW requested by Jenny Bounds’ message, I was travelling about 80 km/h along Sulwood Drive on the southern side of My Taylor. A bit
past the parking area for people doing the summit walk. I saw a Peregrine Falcon flying over the southern slopes of Mt Taylor and stopped to watch it, for about for what turned out to be about 30 minutes. Fortunately plenty of road verge there and the bird
was easy to refind after stopping. It was flying tight circles then perched on the tallest dead (burned out) tree stump available. It sat looking around for about 5- 10 minutes then flew off gaining height then flying over Sulwood drive over eastern Kambah,
then from a height of maybe 300 metres was into a stoop, down to below the horizon from my viewpoint. About 2 minutes later it reappeared flying low over houses but quickly gaining height, again flying over me at about 200 m high and I could not see any sign
of it carrying prey. As it continued almost over the perch it had been on before, it dropped something. If it was prey it was small and eaten quickly, but the way it fell was looking more like a stick. A few more circles around gaining height with minimal
flapping then a speedy entrance again over the road and over Kambah then another very impressive stoop about 200 metres from the first one, again to down to below the horizon in maybe one or 2 seconds . Again it rose up it appears without a sign I could see
of successful hunt and continued to fly in rising circles until disappearing over the horizon of Mt Taylor. I did not see any evidence of what it was presumably hunting.
This spectacular performance is what they are famous for but “not something you see every day”.
Philip
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