Learning to hunt the hard way

Last week while guiding a striper fishing party I had worked the boat well up onto a mud flat. As I tell many clients I have all kinds of courage when the tide is rising. We were in roughly a foot of water but the fish were there chasing bait to the surface in that shallow water. I heard a kingfisher yell as they do on the late summer and did not really pay any attention. In a moment he was right in front of the boat still nothing that unusual except we were far from shore where they usually hang out. Something did not look right about the way this one was flying and he caught my eye because of his darting motion in the air. His head was also tucked way down against his body also pretty unusual.

I pretty quickly noticed the reason for his strange behavior; right behind him was what I at first thought to be a hawk of some sort. Of course by now my attention is fully focused on the drama playing out in front of us. I realized that the following bird was not a hawk but rather a peregrine falcon. The falcon made repeated attempts to hit the kingfisher in the air but missed every time. I assume that the falcon was a juvenile learning all about hunting for his own meals. The best part of the story is that the splashing fish had the clients so focused on fishing that I am pretty sure they did not even look up when I pointed out what was happening.

Last I saw the pair of birds they were far out over the channel and headed for the opposite shore. I can’t imagine that the falcon was successful that time but I’m sure he found another bird that was not watching as carefully.

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