[SBB] New Year's Peregrine at Santa Clara Hilton

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Happy New Year Everyone,

 

Janet and I were invited to spend New Year's Eve at the Santa Clara Hilton as guests of our daughter and son-in-law.  (He is a manager there and was assigned manager-on-duty for New Year's Eve.)

 

He has been inviting/asking me to stop by some evening to "check out the big bird that roosts at night on the ledge of the sixth floor".  They discovered this mystery bird by finding pigeon feathers, heads and carcasses on the ground on a regular basis.  I showed him the Peregrine Falcon illustration in Sibley, but he wasn't sure.  He had only seen the bird at night.  He has been telling me about this bird for the last 2 months, so I put my binoculars in Janet's overnight bag.  I had checked the hotel one day around Thanksgiving during mid-morning, but no bird.

 

We checked into our room around 8:30pm and about 10, I remember the bird, so I grabbed my bins and asked Chris to show me the roosting location.  He said it always roost on the ledge of the sixth floor on the southeast side of the hotel.  This is almost directly over the dumpster area, which is where they were finding the pigeon "pieces".  It was somewhat dark, even with the hotel park lot lights, but eventually my eyes adjusted and I was able to see the unique and distinguishing facial marking of a Peregrine.

 

After welcoming in 2007 and calling a few friends, I figured this would make for a good "first bird of the year" species, so at 12:40am I went back outside hotel and put Peregrine Falcon atop my 2007 Year List.

 

I'm sure others will have found a Peregrine or two for Bill and Kendric's 2007 Santa Clara County List, but I'm going to claim the earliest one of the day!! LOL!!

 

I hope everyone finds lots of good birds in the New Year and get to see all the birds that they chase!!

 

--
Randy & Janet Little,
Milpitas, CA
chenrossii AT comcast DOT net

"I bird because the voices in my
head tell me to."

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