PA: Peregrine Landscapes of October

Being stuck in-state with strict travel restrictions due to COVID, it's a good thing Pennsylvania is big. I've been going here and there for hikes, research, staying outside as much as possible, and masked up when close to other people not inside my small family bubble. It's been a little inconvenient and sometimes claustrophobic working two jobs from home, but better safe than sorry. On weekends I am out, out, out! In October - the month when we see many falcons moving south along the Atlantic Flyway, I've had the thrill of seeing Kestrels, Merlins, and Peregrines almost every weekend. 

The Susquehanna River is an important arm of the Atlantic Flyway.

On a recent research trip to Chester for work on air quality activism, I discovered some strange but engaging sites that I had to investigate a little more. The enormous, and I mean behemoth, Chester Waterfront Station power plant is right on the Delaware River, another arm of the Atlantic Flyway. As I was walking the Riverfront Path I stopped a while to watch a Peregrine Falcon hunt from and return to the steel arm of the coal boom as she pursued ducks, gulls, and pigeons.  After several attempts to punch a few gulls out of the air she finally snagged and killed a duck. She landed on a bridge pier,  plucked it, consumed it, and moved back to the coal boom to watch for her next opportunity.

Peregrine perched on the outside corner of the coal boom.

This colossal structure was built in the Beaux-Arts style of the early 20th century which incorporated monumental architectural features including Roman-like columns and massive edifices that, according to historians, was supposed to elicit a grand permanence and strength. The plant supplied electricity to Chester and its massive industrial shorefront as wartime industry was at its peak. The housing boom intensified the need for electricity and at one time this plant was a star in the crown of Pennsylvania Electric Company's network of generation stations.  I learned from a local fishermen that Peregrines may have nested on the Commodore Barry Bridge last summer. Cool beans! He really knew his birds and fish and offered that the duck the Peregrine had killed had been one of Mallards that frequent the old wharf area.  

Chester Waterfront Station and the Commodore Barry Bridge on the Delaware.

I took a mid-month trip to the Quehanna Wilderness Area in Central Pennsylvania to look for elk, and though I heard plenty (boy, do I love that bugling!) I never saw one. But all was not lost because I did see two Peregrines and a Merlin hunting over Beaver Run Pond while hiking the Marion Run and Beaver Pond Loop.  Just after I left the area to continue my hike, I met two other hikers who had observed a few hours earlier, a large bull elk and a harem of seven cows bedded down in the woods where I had been just been. When I told them about the falcons they were so excited and hurried on to the pond, hoping to get a life bird sighting with the Peregrines. I hope they saw them!

Peregrines overhead (but not visible in my cell phone picture)

My October Peregrine sightings continued when a friend and I visited the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. We stood in a wicked cold wind as the bird went into a stoop over the restored wetlands to catch a dove or duck - it was too far to tell what he was hunting. I love this park because of its thousand-acre restored grassland and wetlands, reclaimed from a disused strip mine. The birding here is fantastic any time of year and you don't have to go in through the Visitor Center to access these vast grasslands. There are trails and walkable roads throughout the park. 

Restored Eastern grasslands at the Flight 93 Memorial (Visitor's Center on hill)

My favorite sighting of October happened at Gettysburg National Battlefield, another excellent birding park whether you go for the history or not. I was with family exploring the wide-open valley where Pickett's Charge happened when standing at the edge of the Confederate woods looking towards the Union ridge. I caught sight of a Peregrine wheeling over the field when *poof* there was an explosion of feathers as the falcon made her kill in mid-air. 

Looking towards the Round Tops from Seminary Ridge when *poof*

The thing that all these sightings had in common was wide open sky. The vastness of the autumn landscape includes what is over our heads, spectacular cloud formations, dawns, and sunsets - and - with a little practice - you can spot, hear, and watch those high-up and lightening fast raptors that claim sky as their domain.  Put down the camera and binocs for an hour or so and just watch the stretch of sky for the lone dark silhouette of our fastest hunter or follow a murmuration of starlings or grackles and see if you can't spot the falcon as he whips in and out of the flock.  

Notes: 

Peregrine Falcons in Pennsylvania https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/WildlifeSpecies/PeregrineFalcon/Documents/Peregrine%20Falcon%20Management%20Plan.pdf

History of the Chester Waterfront Station  :http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/pa/pa3600/pa3680/data/pa3680data.pdf

Flight 93 Memorial    https://www.post-gazette.com/news/environment/2020/07/01/Flight-93-National-Memorial-bees-wildflowers-regrowth-Charles-Guadagno/stories/202006260064