Ornithology

I haven't posted lately on birds because frankly I haven't been noticing birds much these days, and the ones I have seen have been, well let's just say, nothing special. Of course all God's creatures are special, it's just that to someone who is interested in looking at birds, it's the ones we don't see every day that we get all tingly about.

Today, at 3:00PM, Saturday, January 12, 2013, I saw a Perigrine Falcon, or Falco peregrinus, flying west just above Randolph Street at Michigan Avenue. These birds as you probably know are the fastest animals on earth. At level flight, perigrines fly at a good clip, about the same as pigeons, their favorite food. But they can dive at speeds of 150mph and beyond which gives them the advantage over their prey. Still our friends Columba livia have many natural defenses against the raptors and only the old and sick really need to worry. That's why we see so many more pigeons than falcons.

The bird I saw today was flying at high speed and I watched as she (I'm guessing it was a she because of her size, females of this species are bigger than males), flew above the Cultural Center, then banked left and disappeared behind the Pittsfield Building. It made my heart skip a beat, frankly I was a little jealous.

Imagine seeing this city from a Falcon's eye view. Now that would be some tour.

Ornithology

A Cooper's Hawk spotted at approximately 6:00pm Sunday, March 22 at Jarvis and Bell.

Looked just like this.

It may have been the same bird that we saw a couple of weeks ago which we thought was a Perigrine Falcon.

This guy landed in a tree maybe 15 feet right above me and gave me ample time to check him out.
I've got to get better at my identification of raptors!