Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Peregrine Kill

I've been observing and photographing Peregrines in NYC for four years. Here in Manhattan there are some convienent and accessible areas to see some great action. Downtown, the falcons of 55 Water St. are best viewed from east of the FDR (kind of a hike to get there). But nonetheless, they are a reliable way to see Peregrines as they can first be monitored from their webcam before venturing over. In Midtown, the GM Peregrines have been very active but are very high up so close up views are rare. Uptown, the Peregrines of Riverside Church make for some spectacular imagery as they roost on gargoyles! On the downside, their scrape is not visible from the street they dont frequently hunt directly around the Church. The Peregrines on the GW can be seen often but are also fairly high up and no pictures of the bridge are permitted. In my humble opinion, the best place for viewing Peregrines still remains Broadway Bridge. It affords close up views, great scenery, awesome accessibility and numerous viewing angles. Here are some of my pix from there last year. I plan on going up again for the Audubon Bird Count on my bike on 5/13 so if anyone's interested, shout me out.
A killer lurks...

and launches,

into the abyss!

Look like he's taking out the trash.

He swoops around,

chasing pigeons through the bridgeworks!

Suddenly, there are two!

He makes another pass

and goes in...

for the...

kill!

He strips the carcass for the young!



1 comment:

Ben C. said...

James,

Nice shots! What camera was used? What was the optical zoom? Any image stabilization?

Thanks for posting these.

Ben