There’s some in Cleveland, too, nesting in the city’s most distinctive (though no longer tallest) skyscraper. What I find fascinating is the way they hunt pigeons: Apparently, pigeons actually fly faster than the falcons, so they have to outsmart them. They know the local geography better than the pigeons do, and chase them into the faces of buildings. In the time it takes the pigeon to decide which way to turn, the falcon can catch up and make the kill.
We have a couple peregrin families here in Calgary. IIRC, there’s a mating pair on the Telus Building downtown and more over on the University of Calgary campus on Craigie Hall (or maybe the library tower? I forget).
A few years back, as I was watching TV and eating my breakfast in my 4th floor apartment just north of the downtown core, a peregrine landed on the tree outside my living room window and started happily devouring a sparrow it had caught. I was able to snap a couple of blurry pics of it, but they’re hardly worth posting. Anyway, while the bird was out there, a couple crows took notice and began pestering the peregrine, presumably to make it drop its kill and go away. Instead, once the peregrine had had enough of the other birds, it just up and launched itself to somewhere else to finish its meal. Two beats of its wings and it was long gone – having never seen a peregrin in flight, I was amazed at just how fast it was able to go. Quite the thing!
I have since seen the young falcons a couple times wheeling around in the sky downtown, learning how to fly – very cool!
I see peregrines semi-regularly here in downtown Chicago. There’s a building* in Streeterville, just east of my office, where they seem to like to hang out; I’ve seen them flying around that building fairly often.
My wife has seen them a few times, hunting pigeons in the vicinity of Irving Park Road and Milwaukee Avenue.
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- just in case you’re curious, it’s the American College of Surgeons building, on St. Clair, between Erie and Ontario.
I think I saw a juvenile Peregrine only a few blocks from my house today. Of course I didn’t have my camera :smack:. It was perched on a street light on a side street so I slowed down and took a long look at it. The body and head shape were right for a falcon, it was too big for a Merlin but just right for a Peregrine. It did not have the right coloring for an adult but it looked right for a juvenile. How exciting!