Osprey vs peregrine falcon (eastern Ontario) (1 Viewer)

It's always great when you are around when interactions like this happen. Following a family of ospreys. Not much unusual happens when I am around. However, this weekend the adult osprey watching over its nest sounded the alarm call. It did this for awhile before taking flight.

Soon I saw it was chasing and being chased by a juvenile peregrine falcon. The falcon looks to be a fledgling from this summer. At that age they are more curious than anything. They may chase birds but don't know how to really hunt. Likely this young peregrine just happened into the osprey's territory and with young in the nest was not going to put up with an intruder.

In the end they put on a good show but both went their own way after a while. Took a photo from the aerial encounter.
http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/image/165801519/original

Cool shot. Last year, I saw two Hobbys chasing a juvenile Peregrine which was presumably in their territory.

Jon Turner said:

Cool shot. Last year, I saw two Hobbys chasing a juvenile Peregrine which was presumably in their territory.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I did not know what Hobby's were until I Googled it. I see they're falcons too. In eastern Ontario, we only have 3 falcon species. American Kestrel, Merlin and Peregrine. We get the odd Gyrfalcon during the winter months but it's rare.

When i lived in Portland ,Oregon,I watched Peregrines nesting on a bridge over the Willamette River...nearly every bridge in the Portland metro area had a couple of peregrines nesting,and Ospreys asl nested along the river in numerous spots...It was common to see the female peregrine calling loudly and swooping back and forth when other raptors were on the move in the area..but the tension was under control most of the time,considering the density of nesting raptors that shared territory..I saw an incredibly spectacular aerial combat, well passed breeding season ,one snowy Christmas day (rare in Oregon)between a Red tail Hawk and a Peregrine ..Both birds were residents but that day i really thought someone was going to get hurt....