One more detail. The other reason she's ruling out juvenile Peregrine
is the extremely high contrast tween the dark armpits and the rest of
the very light (white-looking in contrast) wing and body and tail.

Andy Reago
St. Louis MO
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On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 9:09 AM, Andrew Reago wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I know this is near impossible, but my wife, Chrissy McClarren, saw
> what she thinks is a Prairie Falcon fly over Tower Grove Park at
> around 11:30AM yesterday. eBird reviewers have encouraged her to post
> this sighting in case others might see it. It's a day later, but
> someone might see it. This is how she initially described it.
>
> "Flyover. Low. Too big to be a Merlin or Kestrel. Had the moustache.
> Long slender wings, dark armpits very visible, brown and white bird"
>
> The lighting was good, but she has never seen a Prairie Falcon before.
> She is ruling out juvenile Peregrine Falcon since the axillaries
> (armpits) were definitely dark and on each wing the dark part made a
> long rather uneven (blotchy) but triangular shape tapering as it came
> from the armpit toward almost the the tip of the wings on both sides.
> On a juvenile Peregrine, this dark area is not pronounced or as large
> as this. She studied them in case the event occurred, of course not
> expecting it to occur alone. But she is open to any suggestions or
> advice on this or if it might have been another bird.
>
> The only birders in the park at the time of her sighting were few at
> 11:30AM...Larry and Linda Beeson and Steve Sylvester (Steve was in
> Gaddy) and she couldn't get Larry on it soon enough before it flew
> behind trees and out of sight.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Andy Reago
> St. Louis MO
> [log in to unmask]
>
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