Peregrines over Center City

Spent a Sunday on the corner of Broad and Market staring up at the clock tower. There’s a peregrine pair that’s nested on City Hall for years now and a local birder had told me where to stand. It’s a funny thing — tourists taking photos of City Hall, me taking photos of what’s sitting on top of it.

They were active. The female left the tower twice in the morning and came back both times with pigeons. The male perched on the eastern ledge for most of an hour and I mostly practiced panning.

For anyone trying to do this: 600mm on a full-frame equivalent sensor is just barely enough for City Hall’s top ledge. Sunday traffic kept the intersection quieter than usual and I could brace against a newspaper box for the longer shots.

People kept asking what I was looking at. About half the time they were delighted. A man who worked across the street said “oh yeah, the falcons,” the same way a farmer would say “oh yeah, the crows.” Nice to be in a city where the falcons are common knowledge.

Light went soft around 4:30 PM and I called it. Got two frames I’m happy with and too many blurs to count.