After years of watching peregrines soaring around and occasionally hunting I
finally saw a successful strike yesterday when I was staring out of my
office window in the middle of Sydney. Peregrines are regulars around here
and most days a pair seem to spend some time soaring around although before
yesterday I hadn't actually seen them hunting here. Yesterday afternoon as
I was staring aimlessly out the window two birds went flying past my window.
They came from out of view and disappeared out of view quickly but I saw
enough of them to tell that one was a peregrine and one was a pigeon and
that the peregrine had made an unsuccessful attempt to catch itself some
lunch. I assumed that the pigeon had survived after a lucky escape.
Shortly afterwards as I was still staring out the window the birds came back
into view from above. This time there were two peregrines and the pigeon.
The pigeon was out in the open, 30 floors up with nowhere to hide. It
looked like the easiest of catches for the peregrine, the pigeon was flying
down and one of the peregrines just flew down and landed on the pigeon's
back then carried the pigeon off, still flapping, to the top of a nearby
building where it soon stopped flapping. And all of this happened within 50
metres of where I was standing. Unfortunately I missed most of the chase
but the catch was still pretty amazing to see at such close range.
Ian Lundy
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(02) 9251 1591 (w)
(02) 9361 6252 (h)
0419 844 502 (m)
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