Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/21/video-peregrine-falcons-can-f.html
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Nate Romanowski anyone? Guilty pleasures…
Is that laden or unladen?
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Obligatory XKCD:
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A few months ago, I was running my usual lunchtime route near work, which includes a section of ~100m through a close tree tunnel. Ahead of me about 20 m, something crashed through the leaves and thumped to the ground, sending up what looked like a cloud of dust. About the same time, something fast buzzed just over my head and dropped onto the object that fell through the trees.
As I approached, I could see it was a falcon and its prey. The “cloud” had been feathers. The falcon flew off with it’s lunch to a nearby branch. I stopped for a minute to watch it alternately grip the unfortunate bird with it’s talons before starting in on consuming it.
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Who pays their speeding tickets?
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They just drop a dead pigeon on the mailbox at City Hall every month.
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There was a pair of peregrine falcons that took up residence in the tall eucalyptus trees outside my office window and I used to watch them dive-bomb pigeons in the parking lot below. Boom! Cloud of feathers!
Not so fun for the hapless pigeons but pretty exciting to watch. And there were so many pigeons down there that it was like a 24-hour all-you-can-eat falcon buffet.
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That covers most infractions…
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Ospreys pay in salmon.
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Pigeons and salmon, both delicious.
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Pigeon and salmon burrito is a San Diego speciality.
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As long as it’s salmon and not trout 
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Some summers here in the PNW, by the time the osprey flies it to city hall, it’s smoked salmon. 
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They can fly twice the speed of sound if put them in a fighter jet.
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OMG, Deep Look is doing one on Peregrine Falcons?!? Awe-Some! My boy and I love Deep Look, and my boy has always loved Peregrine Falcons (he insisted on dressing up as one for Halloween in kindergarten). Can’t wait to show him the newest DL episode!
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I was wondering about the effect of pressure on its face in a dive, but what about its eyes? Does it go all squinty?
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True, but a jet fighter couldn’t really take out a pigeon.
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They have a translucent eyelid (nictitating membrane) that they can use to both protect their eyes and also to keep their eyes from drying out:
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Peregrines may have all the tools they need to hunt, but learning to put it all together and figure out how to hunt is a steep learning curve; this is why first-year mortality for them is 60%:
https://www.utoledo.edu/nsm/envsciences/peregrine/faqs.html
I heard a talk last year by the guy who helped first restore peregrines to Boston, and among the interesting information he had was that peregrines are now more numerous in Mass. than in the early 1900s, before DDT. Also that they seem adaptable these days to nesting on structures smaller than skyscrapers. And that though nonnative species like pigeons and starlings may be a nuisance, they do take some of the pressure of peregrine predation off of native species.
He also had an interesting story about how territorial raptors are; a female peregrine had picked a nest site, only to have a red tailed hawk come along and check it out. On the second day of midair skirmishing the peregrine was able to drop into a stoop and hit the red tail midair, and the hawk was apparently dead before it hit the ground.
As far as observing them, they are literally all over the world, in almost all habitats. You can see their particular silhouette and flying pattern a bit from the video; the soaring, then quick flapping, then soaring, etc. They’re also easy to spot when you see loose flocks of starlings coming together into tighter formations; if you look close, you can often see a peregrine or merlin close in around the flock, trying to grab a meal (I watched this happening one morning while waiting for a train).
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