Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Urban Wild: the Peregrine Falcons of Hamline-Midway

One fine day I came home from a jog with dog. As I was swinging from Hamline onto Englewood, I noticed a few feathers floating in the air. I looked up and noticed a bird of prey sitting on top of the highrise. I finished my run, picked up my binoculars and walked back. I easily identified a peregrine falcon snacking on the pigeon it had just caught.

That was a couple of years ago; I am glad to see that they are still around. James, my youngest told me a couple of weeks ago that he came across a bird of prey eating a pigeon at the intersection of Hamline and Seminary. From his description (large, black back and wings, white and speckled underside) it had to be a peregrine. I also found a couple of pigeon skelletons on our block and noticed one injured pigeon that (one that got away?). I did a google to see if anyone else did notice and came across a posting by Kirk and Mona of the Twin Cities Naturalist Podcast on a peregrine falcon traffic incident, with video from KARE11. It can be accessed here.

Of course there are other birds that prey on pigeons. I eleminated most of them because of size, behavior and range.

Cooper's hawk, sharp shinned hawk: hunt in thickets rather than in the open.
Goshawk, gyrfalkon: range and habitat
American kestrel, merlin: rather too small

Here are the loctions of my other sightings and observations:


View Peregrine Falcons in Midway, St. Paul, MN in a larger map

No comments:

Post a Comment