This was a crazy scene to witness.
Taken on our recent trip to southwestern Colorado. I headed out for an early morning photo drive while the rest of the crew slept in. On the way back to camp, I happened across a good-sized flock of two dozen white-faced ibis hanging out at an irrigation pond.
These cool, iridescent birds are normally seen where I live during immigration and I missed them coming through this year so I was pretty excited.
I spent a while photographing them as they ate and preened when suddenly, for no apparent reason, the ibis took flight and seemed quite panicked. They circled a couple of times and instead of returning to the shore, landed in a bush in the middle of the pond.
As I looked around, I found the cause of their concern – a peregrine falcon. The falcon had apparently buzzed the flock and afterwards was hanging out on the ground nearby. The flock and the falcon were at a standoff and I gave up waiting for one to make a move after about a half hour. Pretty fun to see.
In going back and looking at my pictures, I unknowingly captured the falcon buzzing the ibis in one of the images. You can see it in the widest view shot with the house, right side, middle.
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