> [peregrine snack snipped]
While I haven't been lucky enough to see a successful Peregrine strike,
I did see my local Peregrine on Wednesday January 8, 1997 after a long
absence. This was rather eventful day in parts of Canberra - there were
warnings of severe storms issued by the Bureau of Meteorology which
fortunately missed Russell (and my car parked in the open), though there
was heavy hail in nearby Kingston. A small tornado touched down in
Tuggeranong to the south of Canberra, and passed along the Murrumbidgee
River Corridor with no apparent damage to houses (unlike a tornado in 1966
which ripped through Tharwa village and Cuppacumbalong property.)
A message warning of "the worst hailstorm on record" due to hit in about
30-60 minutes arrived via local e-mail, so I headed to a window overlooking
Lake Burley Griffin to see if there was anything coming our way. There didn't
seem to be anything serious on the skyline, but I did spot the Peregrine which
was far more interesting. :) It was making some very aggressive stoops,
though I couldn't see at what (my guess was some starlings or Rock Doves hiding
in the buildings which it was trying to flush out). At one point, it diving
straight towards one of the buildings, then banked sharply left along the face
of the building past the entrance and back above the courtyard. At the time,
a gentleman making his way into the building - had he looked up, I'm not
sure what he would have made of the Peregrine hurtling towards him!
There has also been a Nankeen Kestrel around the buildings, which was nice to
see while the Peregrine was absent. On Wednesday December 18, 1996 I spotted
it sitting on a ledge on the building opposite my window, preening. The local
sparrow population was sitting on the ledge some distance away, looking rather
apprehensive and flighty whenever the Kestrel moved. The Kestrel then
proceeded to make some short runs along the ledge, apparently looking for
Bogong Moths in the air vents and eaves. It stopped from time to time to
tilt its head to look skyward orgroundward, but I couldn't figure out why.
I've seen it on a number of other occasions soaring past my window on
updrafts, and also streaking past at high-speed behind the roof of one of
the buildings.
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