Love the water

Pokie, the tiercel Peregrine watches Skula the Gyrfalcon bath with great interest. Enough to interupt eating his morning sparrow breakfast.

When Skula was done, Pokie was in that pan in a flash and had a ball. I think Peregrines were called Duck Hawks because they love the water as much as a duck.

While Skula jumps out the minute he feels like he is being watched, Pokie had to be removed from it to dry off in the sun. Just like any kid.

Since this is an age that young Peregrines are still staying up on their nest ledge, makes you wonder if bathing interest is one of the forces that makes them fly for the first time. Urban Peregrine watchers might put bath pans on nearby rooftops so that the young branchers can get some relief.

Newest member of the family

It is hard to imagine this fuzzy baby peregrine being scarry to anything (other than this wad of tissue). Just home with me, from his breeder's hands, Pokie, a tiercel, is growing rapidly. His mother is an anatum peregrine of Canadian origins. His father is from California stock. Both, results of the re-introduction efforts started 30 years ago, no longer needed today for wild release.
I can't wait to start taking the little guy out for his first flights. While he is still so young I am taking him to work and everywhere so as to make him as tame as possible.
It is still too early to tell if he will be a human imprint. I think he was left with his parents a few days too long(for imprinting to me). He still hisses at the approach of my hand. He can probably be paired with another peregrine in a couple of years, if I should want to attempt falcon breeding.
This morning I sat with him on Main street in Boise, out front of the Owyhee Plaza, waiting for my wife. Pokie was able to watch the Boise peregrines fly in and out of their nest box with great interest. Little did he know(at least in a way I could recognize) there were four baby peregrines like him up there, waiting for their day to fly. He may even end up interacting with one of them later this summer in their flights around the Treasure Valley.