Birds of Prey: the hunters become the hunted

[auld argonian]

Doing the occasional bit of wildlife rescue and rehab, I can tell you that we have sites in Chicago where the odd species of bird, migratory and otherwise, nest and it's a well kept secret shared only by the people who are in a "need to know" situation. Sawwhet owls are one of those species...they're here but where is not made public knowledge.

We have a very successful program of re-establishing peregrines in the city and a few weeks ago I was delighted to be standing on a busy corner when one of the falcons nabbed a pigeon about ten feet off of the ground in full view of roughly fifty passers-by. You never saws such a reaction! This particular clutch of falcons actually nests on the Federal Prison Building in Downtown Chicago so they're VERY safe...ain't no one climbing up after these eggs. Here's a site with a picture of this concrete cliff:

http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/ccc/index.jsp

One of the strangest things, from my perspective, is the number of raptors who get hit by trains...just seems SO unlikely but it's happened many times in these parts and some of my colleagues get called to collect and patch up some severely hurt birds.

I never cease to be amazed at the number of clowns who would even THINK of doing any harm to these birds but I guess that some people are just short on principles. I do take Jock's point about how the established institutions tend to think in the past and pre-empt anybody with a more "real world" approach...I've experienced this first hand around here.

In the end we can only do the best we can do...

Best

AA

[BoldHighlander]

We have a very successful program of re-establishing peregrines in the city and a few weeks ago I was delighted to be standing on a busy corner when one of the falcons nabbed a pigeon about ten feet off of the ground in full view of roughly fifty passers-by. You never saws such a reaction!

Ha!Ha! Cool!

One of the strangest things, from my perspective, is the number of raptors who get hit by trains...just seems SO unlikely but it's happened many times in these parts and some of my colleagues get called to collect and patch up some severely hurt birds.

That's interesting, but in some ways not surprising after what I witnessed one time on I-5 out here. I was heading home, it was very foggy out, and I could see in the opposite lanes a dead critter of some sort lying in the fast lane. Just as a semi-truck came out of the fog a bald eagle swooped down, grabbed the road kill, & swooped back up not six feet from the semi's windshield!!
After seeing the drivers expression I can't help but think he had an urgent need to change his underwear!

Makes me wonder if some of your injured raptors are going after "road kill" as a train comes through?

In the end we can only do the best we can do...

Amen!