A peregrine!!

We just had a peregrine falcon in our backyard!!! Michelle saw it first and got my attention. I’d seen some kill in the grass earlier today, and the thing came back to snack; it was tugging at black feathers–maybe a crow?  And maybe that’s the predator that made it so we’ve had one black squirrel instead of two since last week. (We saw just a bit of the aftermath…)

We have a good camera on a tripod aimed at the birdfeeder, but the battery seemed to be dead; I grabbed my little point-and-shoot and tried. It’s a terrible picture, and nothing like Eric’s photos from the Peregrine group, but it’s what I could get.  Veer? Is that you?  (Probably not, but…!) I snapped again as it flew past the porch, clearly a peregrine in all its glory, but I missed.

As did, to the relief of the mourning dove and the other black squirrel racing away, the peregrine.