Peregrines of Acadia

When you are in Acadia National Park, you can drive around the park on the loop road. As we did so, we came to the spot where Peregrine Falcons have nested each year, for many years, on the cliffs near the Precipice Trailhead parking lot.

There was a ranger there with a scope set-up, explaining all about the peregrines. Fortunately there was a peregrine sitting on the cliff,

way, way up there. Here's a photo, taken through the scope, of what was a tiny pin dot of the peregrine sitting on the cliff. The scopes were cranked up to 60 power. My head shot photo above was taken at another time and place. How cool that some of the visitors who had never seen a Peregrine Falcon, were getting their first look.

The ranger had up a sign showing a photo of peregrine chicks in the nest, really just a scrape in the rocks. The lower photo on the sign showed the location of this year's nest. The peregrines had already fledged, so it was quite unusual to see a peregrine sitting on the ledges at this time of year.

The cliffs were tall.

Don viewing the peregrine.

Then it flew and with my 300 mm lens with the 1.4 teleconverter, I got a shot, albeit small.
What magnificent wild birds. So wonderful that Peregrine Falcons have made a comeback since DDT, which contributed to the thinning of their eggs and reproductive failure, was banned in the 1970's.