In February 1993 Mamoru Nakamura photographed a female peregrine 100 km southwest of Tokyo. She didn’t look like one of two peregrine subspecies normally found in Japan and she had bands that no one recognized — an all-black band on her left leg 5/V* and a silver band on her right.
Her photograph made its way to Japanese raptor expert Teruaki Morioka, co-author of Birds of Japan in Photographs and author of Birds of Prey in Japan.
Believing this peregrine to be a Western Hemisphere anatum subspecies he sent a letter and photo to raptor expert William S. Clark, author of the Peterson Field Guide to Hawks of North America.
Bill sent the photo to the National Park Service who confirmed her identity. She was banded as a nestling at Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona in June 1991 and photographed in Japan in February 1993.
How did she get there?
The Rocky Mountain News article (snapshot above) called her “Wrong Way Peregrine” because she apparently flew west, not south as expected — but she may have been wandering as peregrines are wont to do. Mike Britten of the National Park Service speculated that she hitched a ride on a ship crossing the Pacific and disembarked (without passport!) when she reached Japan. We will never know.
In any case she went far — very far!
I heard about this bird from Bill Clark himself while on the Valley Raptors outing he led at last month’s Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. As we gazed at a peregrine perched on a water tower, Bill described this 1993 world traveler and later sent me a scan of the news article.
Thank you, Bill, for a great outing and such a wealth of raptor information! I saw 13 Life Birds and my first ever aplomado falcon, white-tailed hawks and zone-tailed hawk on the Valley Raptors outing.
Check out Bill’s bio and publications here at The Peregrine Fund.
(photo of July 16, 1993 article by Gary Gerhardt in the Rocky Mountain News)
I feel I should send you a response — so many of your interesting recent tales have gone unresponded to — I have to think people are just too busy this time of year. Do you feel badly that your tale bring a zero response?
This story, about a wandering peregrine, is really cool. Great that the detective work finally pinpointed her. P.S. How’s your husband dong?
Thanks for your comment, Libby. Yes I do like comments! For news of my husband see yesterday’s blog.
What would have happened to her? Could she interbreed with the native species there? Seems like it would have been a lonely life for her if not.
Mary Ann, she could have interbred. The peregrines that were breed to restore the eastern North America population were a blend of subspecies because anatum was extinct in the east.
A cool story about a peregrine from my new neck-of-the-woods! Thanks for sharing her story. I wonder if she eventually made it back to North America?
Great story.