While on a stroll the other day, I came upon one of nature's crime scenes that one glimpses every once in a while. It was absolute carnage with the only visible signs of what the prey originally was, were by its ragged and forlorn wings and a single, severed leg. I knew instantly that I'd come across several carcasses of feral pigeons* which were strewn and shredded all over the grass near where I work. While I was examining the carcasses, a guy in a pickup pulled up and shouted, "Boy! Someone was hungry!"
*I don't called them "Rock Pigeons" because they have become mutts after
interbreeding with domestic birds and don't carry the traditional colors
of their species any more. The only "true" ones of their kind can be
found in the more wild areas of the world where their stock hasn't been
corrupted by the influence of other breeds
"Yeah, I guess so." I was a bit startled and hadn't noticed the truck pull up. "It was probably a Red-tail.", the guy remarked. "Nature's great." He smiled, got back into his truck and drove off. It didn't occur to me until later that he worked for the town of Norwalk and probably had something to do with Parks and Recreation.
I looked again at the carcasses. They seemed to be too strung out and ripped clean to have been perpetrated by a Red-tailed Hawk (
Buteo jamaicensis). I did however have a hunch as to who the killer might have been. During some down time I had this week, I kept an eye out for a regular visitor to the pigeon flocks and buildings surrounding the area where I work. A pair of Peregrine Falcons (
Falco peregrinus) use a nearby pylon as a roosting/nesting site and due to its great size, it must offer them a huge range with which to see around them.
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| Sitting on the perch, watching for a victim that flies too far out of the flock below. |
What drew me initially to the pigeon carcasses was this immature Herring Gull (
Larus argentatus) feeding what bits it could glean off of the well picked rib cages and ligaments that remained attached to the wings and solitary leg of the pigeon victims. There was further proof, at least for me, that the perpetrators were Peregrines and not a Red-tail. While surveying the area yesterday, I looked up to see one of the rufous-tailed buteos flying to the northeastern corner of the park being harassed and pursued by the two irate owners of the territory nearby. After a good haranguing, the hawk beat to a hasty retreat. No one wants competition on good hunting grounds, but to see this many wings attached to carcasses (there were three in all) pointed to the fighter jets of the raptor world and not the lazy bomber we see sitting on lamp posts and snags by the sides of a highway.
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