I wrote about Twinkies last night because I wasn’t quite ready to talk about the news that had just come in.
Shadow, almost ready to take his first flight.
Shadow, two weeks ago, with his falcon (falcon meaning the female of the peregrine species, tiercel being the male). Come next spring, he would have been of age and they would have been setting up their first nest together.
I had never understood the reasoning behind spending money to bury power lines in this part of the world. Back home, where hurricanes rip through on a regular basis, sure, but here it’s the earth that is more likely to move and cause damage.
Now I get it. There are major power lines criss-crossing major bird flyway territory around the Bay, and word is that he wasn’t the first.
Shadow was stooping (the swift, steep dive that peregrines do at up to a clocked 241 mph) and he hit one of those wires. Apparently one of the birdwatchers saw it happen and got him to the proper rescue authorities, but there was nothing they could do but let him go painlessly.
The good news is that the species has recovered enough that this is not catastrophic, just personal. And his falcon, who already has a territory to claim her own, will thus easily find a new mate.