A Prairie Falcon Bonanza

Last week in Montana’s Centennial Valley I witnessed a Prairie Falcon phenomenon that was completely unexpected. In fact I’d go as far as to say it blew me away – to the jaw-dropping point.

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Prairie Falcon Hunting Grasshoppers In A Storm

Grasshoppers are not typical prey for Prairie Falcons. Studies indicate that the main foods taken are other birds (Horned Larks and meadowlarks are favorites), small mammals and lizards but in a pinch they do consume flying insects, including grasshoppers. This bird was intent on doing just that.

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Prairie Falcon With The Great Salt Lake As Background

Yesterday a comment from one of my readers on a recent post got me thinking about Prairie Falcons. In the comment “James” said ” I would love to see some more shots of the prairie falcon if you have any”. I’d been considering posting more images of this beautiful female and that comment prompted me to get off my duff and finally do it.

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Banded Prairie Falcon – A Fascinating Update

Two days ago I posted about a very tame juvenile male Prairie Falcon I photographed last week in the Centennial Valley of Montana.  The bird had two bands and I was extremely curious about where, when and why the falcon was banded and by whom so I asked for any insight my readers might have about the bands.  Several of you jumped in with advice and suggestions, for which I’m much appreciative. But it was the superb sleuthing of my friend Mike Shaw that paid huge dividends.  Mike did some research and learned that the colored band on the falcon (left foot) was issued to Doug Bell, Wildlife Program Manager for East Bay Regional Park District out of Oakland, California.  On Tuesday, figuring that Doug might be interested in knowing that his California bird was now in the wilds of Montana, I emailed him with a link to that blog post and an offer to supply any more information about my encounter with that bird that he’d be interested in.  I also asked him if he might tell me a little about his experience with the falcon. Yesterday Doug responded generously with information and photos.  Since many of my readers expressed an interest in knowing about the history of this young bird I decided to update you with a new post rather than add an addendum to the previous post that many might not see.  Besides, there’s a lot of new “stuff” here.  Image property of East Bay Regional Park District – used by permission Doug and his team banded “my” Prairie Falcon…

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The Tamest Prairie Falcon Of Them All

In yesterday’s post about grasshopper-eating Prairie Falcons I promised that today’s post would also be about Prairie Falcons. It is, but only one of them – probably the most approachable larger falcon that I’ve ever encountered in the wild.

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Montana Prairie Falcons And Hordes of Grasshoppers

I learned something last week in Montana’s Centennial Valley – Prairie Falcons eat insects.

In the past I’ve only seen them eat birds and small mammals and cursory research had backed up that observation but if you dig a little deeper in your research (Birds of North America Online, for example) you’ll find mention of lizards and insects being included in their diet. My friend (master falconer) Mark Runnels says that “Prairie Falcons will eat anything. In really bad years I have even heard of them feeding on carrion. You’ll never see a Peregrine do that!”

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