Made a short visit to downtown Taunton to look for the local pair of Peregrine Falcons. They popped up right away in flight mode over Taunton Green, and then on one of nearby buildings. After watching a bit, the the female landed on a roof level, rounded granite post and called out to the nearby male. A few moments later, he swooped in, and started copulation sequence.
In this instance, the male falcon mounted from flight onto female. Typically, as the male prepares to mount, the female sleeks feathers, crouches, and leans forward, and may move her tail up and to side. During copulation, the female is normally at an angle of about 45° with wings slightly lifted and extended (from elbow), sometimes tail partly spread. The male makes every effort to maintain an upright position throughout copulation by flapping wings high above body and balancing on his tarsi with closed toes and feet turned inward. During copulation, the male’s neck is extended and curved; he chitters while she gives copulatory wail.
After about ten seconds, the male departed and landed at a nearby perch, while the female remained atop the granite post, then departed and perched atop proximate rooftop
Known breeding pair in downtown Taunton; banded female and unbanded male; Band numbers: 1687-01294, and 64/V black over green Banding date and location: May 20, 2008, NY, Long Island, Nassau Co. Sex: Female
Reference cited:
White, Clayton M., Nancy J. Clum, Tom J. Cade and W. Grainger Hunt. 2002. Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.660
While driving over the Duck Bridge, heading south, noticed one of the peregrines looping flight around the NW corner of the Clock Tower. It landed out of sight. Once around to the west side of the tower, looked around for a few minutes before finding the female up very high, on a perch ledge, outside of a vented window box. The ledge is just below the weather vane.
