Blood Gulley

One of the nests of chicks that we banded today was in Blood Gulley. This is a nest that has two parents that are leagues more aggressive than the other falcons. Most of the falcons swoop at you and then pull up if you wave your hands at them. They sometimes approach from the front, but not very close. The main risk to humans is if you don't seem them come from behind, they may smack the top of your head. With this pair, they like to attack from the front as well, and they never pull up. You can see them coming in with their talons out and ready to attack. I had to do a lot more ducking. Rich wanted us to collect prey remains from the nest, so I was down on my knees, picking up bird and rabbit parts while Shane tried to keep the pair at bay. Let's just say the birds won. I got tapped a couple times, but Shane got hit a lot. He got a number of long scratches and he has no hair, so they showed up quite well. When we got the chicks back, we sprinted out. It was pretty wild, but we survived and it makes the other nests seem much less daunting.