A few comments:
1. I have seen Peregrines and other raptors elsewhere "use" bridges while crossing bodies of water. If there is a crosswind - even a fairly light breeze, the bridge structure interrupts the air flow and causes small up-currents and eddies, and raptors are vary good at using these to reduce the energy needed to travel. This is much smaller scale but comparable to the way mountain ridges provide migration paths for raptors. I remember 20 years or so ago watching Red-tailed Hawks using updrafts off McNary Dam to cross the Columbia River from Washington into Oregon.
2. I also agree that Peregrines may be "least concerned" about open water crossings, but I would add Osprey as a second species very comfortable crossing open water.
3. Most of the Peregrines seen on Atlantic coastal hawkwatches are the Arctic subspecies, and the great majority of them winter well south of Virginia and the Carolinas, so I would vote for yes they come on south and are just missed. How do they cross the urban sprawl - likely at altitude. Once they pass that, I suspect a lot of them are missed because they are traveling 1,000 - 10,000 feet above the ground. I also suspect a lot of them take off from the Cape Hatteras area and fly directly over water to the Florida coast and/or to the Bahamas. And I would not be surprised if quite a few transit OBX offshore, as well.
Wayne Hoffman
Wilmington
From: "mtove" <carolinabirds...>
To: "carolinabirds" <carolinabirds...>
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2026 2:19:22 PM
Subject: CBBT Peregrines
Today (Oct 11) returning from the Kiptopeke, VA Hawk Watch – while crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, I had 6! Peregrine Falcons flying along (over & beside) the bridge part (plus a 7 th along the hwy maybe a mile before the CBBT. Two of them even landed (momentarily) on the roadway in front of my car. In over 5 decades of birding (including hawk-watching), I’ve never seen anything like this. The birds seemed to be hugging the bridge to minimize the impact of the wind and rain from the remnants of Hurricane Isaisis. However, I’ve long wondered if migratory hawks use the bridge to cross the Chesapeake Bay. While this is but a single data point, some observations can be made: On the one hand, the storm was unusual compared with usual weather conditions. On the other hand, Peregrine is the one raptor probably least “concerned” about flying across open water. None-the-less, I think demonstrates that even a bird as tough as a Peregrine Falcon will seek to follow a less risky path (near a solid structure such as a bridge) as opposed to striking out across open water with no possible landing point until reaching the opposite side. All seven of the birds I saw today were in juvenile plumage. By point of reference, yesterday, at the hawk-watch, there were roughly 70 peregrines; the vast majority young birds (usually the majority of birds I see there are adults), and the previous day, some 160 birds.
Yes I understand I’m talking about Virginia, not the Carolinas, but in fall migration, most if not all the Virginia migrant birds wind up in, or transiting North Carolina. Moreover, I suspect that vast majority, perhaps all of the Peregrines on the Outer Banks come from these Virginia migrants. However, the numbers seen at Kiptopeke every fall, dwarfs the numbers seen anywhere in NC (much less the OBX). Where the birds go after Kiptopeke is unknown – including they theory that they “cycle” back around without crossing the water. After today, the evidence is they do cross and are simply missed. Accordingly, after crossing (reaching the urban sprawl of Norfolk and Virginia Beach), where do they go?
