Date: 10/12/26 3:48 am From: Nate Dias (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Re: CBBT Peregrines
Mike,
I have seen Peregrines using hurricane winds to hunt / capture less strong
flying birds. For example, when they fly down the beach and jump
shorebirds and gulls, the other birds cannot make headway into the winds,
or do so very slowly. Peregrines can use this to catch prey fairly easily.
Nathan Dias - Charleston, SC (currently in Ecuador the next 5 weeks)
On Sunday, October 11, 2026, mtove <carolinabirds...> wrote:
> 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 7th 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?
>
>
>
> Mike Tove
>
> Cary, NC
>
"These days I prefer to hunt with a camera. A good photograph demands more
skill from the hunter, better nerves and more patience than the rifle
shot." -- Bror Blixen
