Peregrine Falcon Bolts For The Beach

On July 6, three immature peregrine falcons were leased by the Georgia Game Management Section from hacking site on the rim of Tallulah Gorge. Typically the young falcons will remain in the area where they were released for six weeks or so before they migrate out of the area. But one of the young falcons at Tallulah apparently had more than its share of wanderlust.

On Friday, July 12, the falcon, a female and the biggest of the three, disappeared.

In an extraordinary turn of events, the falcon reappeared three days later approximately 230 miles away in a salt marsh near Georgetown, South Carolina.

On Monday the bird was observed in a salt marsh near Georgetown taking down a tern. But the tern fell in the marsh mud and the peregrine nearly became mired up, too. The weakened bird finally gave up the tern and flew off. It flew only a short distance and landed, exhausted, on the deck rail of a house overlooking the marsh. It was as lucky a selection of a landing spot as the spent bird could possibly have picked: the house belonged to a veterinarian.

The vet caught the beleaguered bird and nursed it back to health while he tracked down the owners from the serial numbers on the radio transmitter.

“We don’t know how the falcon got so far away so fast,” said Game Management Biologist E.J. Wentworth. “She may have been caught in an updraft or high wind and been carried off. If she became disoriented and was unable to return to the hacking site she may have just kept on filying. It’s a miracle that the people who found her knew how to take care of her.”

The errant falcon was picked up July 18 and brought by truck back to Tallulah Gorge. It spent three more days recovering from its long-distance beach excursion before the hacking cage was once again opened. And, at least as of July 22, said EL the peregrine was again honing its flight skills, flying beautifully up and down Tallulah Gorge.