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Mammoth Springs

Sunday, May 31, 2020

A living missile


This was filmed at Torrey Pines several years ago. I was looking at some of the sequence shots I took Friday of the young peregrine falcon, not even a week in the air, divebombing the pelicans. Amazing really. That this behavior is so innate. Bird is a month old. Not much bigger than a sparrow. Taking on a whole flock.

It was incredible. Several pelicans went upside down to evade the invader. One almost completely lost it. Ultimately everyone regained their balance and flew away.

Click on them and they will enlarge.










1 comment:

Jon Harwood said...

Pigeons have a mutation that occurs enough for it to be an adaptive one. Certain pigeons in a stress situation get a neurological backfire that causes them to tumble out of control briefly. This is very effective against raptors who rely on projecting the pigeons flight path to intercept. This mutation is selected for by breeders to produce "roller" pigeons.