Dakota the Falcon

January 22^nd  brought one of the coldest days of winter so far for central Kentucky. Despite abundant sunshine throughout the entire day, the high temperature for the day remained in the teens. Undeterred by the windy and brutally cold conditions, we decided to do some birding around Lexington and explore some sites around the area we haven't been to yet. It turned out to be a good day to bird by vehicle, as anything more than a couple minutes standing out in the single-digit wind chills had you quickly rushing back to the warmth of the car.

Our first stop was at the Lexington reservoir to look for waterfowl, which did not disappoint. The Lexington reservoir snakes among the roads and housing developments near New Circle and Richmond road. Much of the reservoir is on private property, so most of it is off-limits and good viewing areas are limited. However there is one spot where you can drive across the reservoir that offers good views across the water. In this spot, there were hundreds of beautiful hooded mergansers, two dozen or so northern shovelers, countless mallards, pie-billed grebes, and we spotted a group of seven buffleheads. Unfortunately, the ducks were too far out in the reservoir at this stop for any decent pictures so you'll just have to take my word for it!

After the stop at the reservoir, we hit up another popular birding hotspot, the Lexington Cemetery. Lexington Cemetery exists as a virtual green oasis among the sea of pavement and agriculture that surrounds Lexington. Many of the trees in this large cemetery are quite impressive in size, and a few of them are at least a couple hundred of years old. Among the large hardwoods of the cemetery exists many various evergreens, namely spruce and hemlock; perfect habitat for the rare wintering crossbills. White-winged and red crossbills have been reported from the cemetery throughout the winter but we came up empty-handed on this trip. But all was not lost at this stop, and we still managed to come across several good birds.  

This downy woodpecker was busy working away on this dead branch 

A red-breasted nuthatch allowed me to walk up very close

Of the two nuthatches that can be found in this region, the red-breasted and white-breasted, the red-breasted ones seem to be more approachable from my experience. They are also notably smaller than their white-breasted brethren, and the presence of a black eye-stripe helps to further distinguish the red-breasted from the white. The breast color of the white-breasted nuthatch can vary from an all-white to a rusty color, so this characteristic is not the most reliable feature to distinguish the two by. Red-breasted nuthatches are an irruptive winter migrant, meaning the range and numbers of migrant red-breasted nuthatches vary based on the year. This year, a large number of red-breasted have moved into the region. White-breasted nuthatches on the other hand, are year-round residents.

White-breasted nuthatch for comparison

White-breasted nuthatch for comparison

A difficult bird to spot, this brown creeper is perfectly camouflaged against the dark bark of this tree. Brown creepers will spiral around the base of trees and exhibit nuthatch-like movements, but are much more elusive and cryptic than the nuthatches. They use their stiff and pointy tail feathers as props that help them move about.

Brown creeper

The last stop for the day was at Spindletop farm, which is an agricultural research and teaching complex run by the University of Kentucky that is just north of downtown Lexington. The array of fields, tree lines, and pasture create a great mix of open habitat for some target species we had our sights set on. Northern harriers, horned larks, and savannah sparrows had all recently been reported here. We saw many American kestrels demonstrating their characteristic method of hunting, by hovering in one exact spot over a field whilst scanning the ground for prey. We managed to find the savannah sparrows which were hanging out by this excavated dirt mound. Unfortunately, I never managed to get a good photo of the sparrows.

JohnRyan moves in for a closer shot of the savannah sparrows

The large pond at Spindletop was bustling with waterfowl. Redheads, ring-necked ducks, pie-billed grebes, mallards, gadwalls, and Canada goose were all present. But what happened next was very unexpected...

A trio of redhead ducks at Spindletop

From the distance I could see some sort of bird of prey approaching, and it landed in a tree on the opposite side of the pond. Could it possibly be the northern harrier we'd been pursuing? I brought my binoculars up to take a look and the profile of the bird didn't look very hawk-like to me. The bird took off out of the trees and came flying across the pond directly towards us. I couldn't believe it...Peregrine Falcon!! To my amazement he flew right into the top of a tree not 30 yards away from me...incredible!

Peregrine falcon

 As he was perched in the tree another peregrine started flying around above the pond...awesome, a mating pair!! The pair of peregrines continued to circle around the pond for several minutes and eyed-up the various waterfowl below. Peregrines were historically called duck-hawks, a seemingly appropriate name given to them for their keen ability to take down ducks as prey. Peregrines are known as the fastest living animal in the world. In fact, they can reach speeds of in excess of 200 mph during a dive for prey which is called a "stoop"! Peregrine falcon numbers in the eastern US took a big hit with the use of the pesticide DDT and were once considered and endangered species, but since the banning of the pesticide in the 1970's, the falcon's numbers have slowly been recovering thanks to recovery efforts. Many peregrines have established themselves in major cities around the country, taking up residence in tall buildings and feeding on the abundance of rock pigeons that can be found within the city limits. However, they are still an uncommon bird to come across in wintertime and were a totally unexpected find at Spindletop. Peregrine falcons are elite predators and are an absolute joy to watch as they move through the air with such incredible power and grace.

Eventually they flew off into the distance...however, this story doesn't end here.

After I got back and pulled up my pics on the computer I could see the one peregrine was banded. After zooming in on the photo, I could actually make out the letters and colors of the bands. Peregrine falcon bands are different from other bird bands in that they are colored and only consist of a couple of letters, rather than the metal bands with a series of numbers that most smaller birds are typically banded with.

An in-flight shot exposing his bands

Close-up of the bands

After doing some internet searching, I found out there was an online database that had information about peregrines which have been banded in the Midwest. After entering the information about the color of the bands and the associated letters, it returned a single match! 

This peregrine was a male named Dakota, and he was banded back in 2010 as a hatchling in Jefferson County, Kentucky (Louisville area). I thought it was pretty awesome that I was able to attach a name to this beautiful bird! I have since contacted the KY Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and notified them of the named peregrine that I had found since they are interested in tracking this kind of information. In fact, the lady at the KDFWR who I contacted about the sighting told me that she had personally banded this bird and was excited to see he was doing well and has found a mate. She wrote a nice and thoughtful email back and thanked me for contributing to their database and said reports like this make all their banding efforts worthwhile! All in all, despite the brutal conditions, the birding turned out to be excellent and the experience with the peregrines is a memory I will soon not forget!