Duck Hawk Wintering in Ontario, California
Duck Hawk Wintering in Ontario, California.
During the first part of January, 1920, in the vicinity of Upland, California, a pair of falcons were seen flying high overhead, uttering their piercing cries. The birds were again seen, sitting in a large blue gum tree located at the corner of an orange grove about one-half mile from where they were first seen and perhaps two miles from the main business district of Ontario. These birds were far too wary to be collected. The birds stayed in this general locality until about the middle of February and were not seen again after that until about December 1 of the same year when they were located in the same large blue gum. On December 19, one of the birds was shot and proved to be an imature female Duck Hawk (Falco peregrinus anatum). On December 31 the other was collected. This bird was a male, adult. The stomach of the first bird collected was empty, and we are indebted to Dr. H. C. Bryant for a report on the stomach of the bird collected December 31. It contained largely feathers, while the gullet held the feet, a few bones and feathers of the Western Mourning Dove (Zenaidura macroura marginella), and pieces of flesh, apparently from the same bird.
Gordon Nicholson, Wright M. Pierce
Claremont, California, March 4, 1921
