Peregrines vs Palm Warblers

not much of a match-up really.

but first, there's still one spot left on the 8 person trip I'm organizing to Costa Rica, $1550 for 8 days, Savegre highlands, and 2 mid-elevation spots, Tapanti and Rancho Naturalista.  Read more here.

Back to the pier this morning.  There were a lot of passerines coming off the calm lake.  Unlike last week's ill-fated thrushes, these seemed to have no problem reaching the shore under their own power.  Some sought shelter in the iron-work of the pier.

We weren't the only ones watching.

There were a couple of Peregrines working the area, one way out over the lake and another sallying forth from the lighthouse.  It didn't show much interest in the birds on the pier.  The birds flying off the lake however were another story.  It made a few smooth passes by the end.

I wasn't for sure it would be that interested in the tiny warblers dominated by Palms

 or the Yellow-rumps that made up most of the remainder (exceptions being a chestnut-sided and this Pine)

but I was wrong.  The peregrine purposefully flew out, flared, and fairly effortlessly snared a warbler.  I think it flew more or less directly out of the sun; I doubt the warbler saw its doom until it was captured

 It's another Palm Warbler.

The overwhelming majority of the birds made it ashore though, we walked the grass finding a sedge wren.  Nelson's sparrow will have to wait a few days.