Why they ventured so far east remains a mystery, but their repeat appearance is easier to explain, Funk said, pointing to research that indicates the species are extremely loyal to their wintering sites. The falcons keep coming back to Coles County and the stump, which was dubbed "magic" in a callout to Chicago's "Magic Hedge" birding hotspot at Montrose Beach.īarring a DNA test, the birds are presumed, but not proven, to be the same individuals returning year after year. Prairie falcons, captured on a trail cam.
"It was like a part-time job escorting people around to find this stump." "It just kind of escalated from there," Funk said.
Adding to the excitement: It became clear not one, but two prairie falcons were regularly hanging out on the stump. It was Mott who spied the falcon perched on a solitary stump, jutting out from a farm field, the only topographical feature for a mile. He mapped out a grid and began methodically driving in search of the falcon, joined in the quest by David Mott and Ron Bradley. I thought, 'This is just too crazy,'" Funk recounted during a 2021 episode of the Allerton Park Bird Club's podcast. "I bumped into a prairie falcon on a utility pole. It wasn't until November 2012 that Funk's vigilance was rewarded. Here was a species typically found soaring over the sagebrush steppes of the American West, taking a shine to central Illinois.įunk, who lives in Charleston, Ill., kept his eyes peeled for the remainder of the winter, scanning for the falcon's telltale markings - a dark triangle of “armpit” feathers on the wing's underside - but the initial glimpse appeared to be a one-off. The prospect of this sort of chance encounter is the kind of thrill that gets birders up in the pre-dawn hours. Tyler Funk had spotted a prairie falcon - a raptor rarely found east of the Mississippi River - in Coles County. And now it's the subject of a short documentary, " The Magic Stump."īack in 2010, word of an unusual sighting began circulating among Illinois birders. Some 50 miles south of Champaign-Urbana, a tree stump in the middle of otherwise tilled acreage has become the stuff of legends.
0 kommentar(er)
