Living With Endangered Species

No, KC and I are fine.

The view from my office is likely one of the best in the entire City. There's always something to see, but I can usually shut out the distractions -- except for cool clouds and weather events, and watching endangered species.

This week, everyone in my office has been entertained by the antics of four Peregrine Falcons. I had seen one occasionally for the last few months, as they live in the downtown core. The fun started Wednesday morning; at 8 AM, one was sitting on the roof of the PetroCanada building across the street from us eating a bird for breakfast. A second was flying around, and since the eating bird wasn't too protective, it looked like the mate. The one eating was large and therefore most likely the female (males are smaller). The pair flew around a bit the rest of the day. The pattern was simple: thermal up to about the 50th floor in the sky, circle over the river, dive for birds to eat.

Today has been a blast. It started with a juvenile sitting on the roof of the Sun Life building directly across from and level with my office eating breakfast at 7:30 AM. Brekkie was a pigeon (actually, a rock dove, but they're all pigeons to us). Again, a second -- likely mom -- was hanging around. Eating took 30 minutes, then the kid sat for +/- 20 more minutes digesting.

Later this morning, suddenly four showed up for flying & attack lessons. It was like watching F-16's in a dogfight. First mom or dad would attack one of the kids, then vice versa. There were races, and attack strategies around the buildings. All of this was taking place in a triangle bounded by PetroCan, Telus and Sun Life.

This afternoon, it was nap and eating time. One of the kids took up residence on the Telus sign on the side of the building and laid down for a nap. Then two others showed up on the "T" in Telus, one kid with a kill (most likely a Franklin gull, given the white feathers everywhere) and Mom watching out. Dad took up a perch at the bottom of the "S" in the Telus sign, and had a snack of his own (another rock dove).

Peregrines are endangered; my understanding is that there are only 23 nesting pairs in Alberta. It's very fun to see these guys each day. I'm bringing in my camera in the hopes of geting some photos of these fascinating guys.