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Is there a falcon living/ nesting at GRF?


vilehoopster

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I know this is off topic and seems weird, but I was at that s%*# show of a game today, in left center field. 

Anyway I saw a bird, clearly a raptor of some sort, fly over our group. I would guess it was a kestrel or a falcon, and it struck me as very odd to see a bird like that in a crowded and loud place. Then later when I was in the concourse avoiding the sun for a while, I saw it twice land on the left field foul pole. It landed, flew off, then returned a minute later.

I’ve read of falcons nesting in tall city buildings, so I guess it possible. Has anyone else seen it before or know anything about it?
 

 

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Peregrine falcons tend to come around in Spring and seem to like tall buildings in absence of actual cliffs. Maybe they're nesting lower this year for some reason. I wonder if they're more prevalent this year in general, the Field Museum monitors them and their reintroduction program has been very successful. I'm a big fan of the guys that live atop University Hall at UIC. Part of me thinks it would be really cool if they're nesting at the ballpark, but I also worry about their safety if Zac Gallen ever pitches here.

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16 hours ago, oldsox said:

Falcons are unusual because they are smart enough to be trained.

There are a few falconry accounts that I see on instagram from time to time, and those guys are living a different life lol.  Those birds aren’t living in barns, they get full rooms in the house, every day is training to take out prey somehow.  Interesting but intense

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2 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

There are a few falconry accounts that I see on instagram from time to time, and those guys are living a different life lol.  Those birds aren’t living in barns, they get full rooms in the house, every day is training to take out prey somehow.  Interesting but intense

Correct.  I learned a bit about falconry by reading the C.J. Box books.  Interesting stuff.

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On 6/4/2023 at 5:58 AM, Kyyle23 said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one in the area, and I bet the Sox would leave it be so it would scare off the gulls

Very true.

As the most pro-bird at GRF fan there is, I can't help but wonder if falcons would be so necessary had they not gotten rid of the alpha goose?

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There are several webcams and other resources you can use to follow the Chicago area's more than 20 nesting pairs, which are believed to have come from a single pair introduced as part of an effort to bring the species back from near-extinction in the '80s.  https://www.fieldmuseum.org/science/special-projects/illinois-peregrines

Every time I think that life in Chicago feels drab or inconsequential, I try to remember that the world's fastest animal was brought back from the brink and now speeds over our heads while we go about our daily business, stalking their prey on thousands of years of accumulated instinct and making their homes in modern-day cliffs built by mankind.

Edited by 35thstreetswarm
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18 minutes ago, 35thstreetswarm said:

There are several webcams and other resources you can use to follow the Chicago area's more than 20 nesting pairs, which are believed to have come from a single pair introduced as part of an effort to bring the species back from near-extinction in the '80s.  https://www.fieldmuseum.org/science/special-projects/illinois-peregrines

Every time I think that life in Chicago feels drab or inconsequential, I try to remember that the world's fastest animal was brought back from the brink and now speeds over our heads while we go about our daily business, stalking their prey on thousands of years of accumulated instinct and making their homes in modern-day cliffs built by mankind.

:drink

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We actually have a nest in the big tree in our back yard this year. I'm pretty sure it is a Peregrine Falcon nest. They fly into the top of the tree and disappear....natural camouflage is tremendous. It is very cool. No sign of any baby birds yet.

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9 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Does the falcon. The whole thing feathers feet have large talons?

Probably decent sized, but primary method of killing is to fly super-fast and collide with the other bird in mid air, killing it.  Then he eats it.  All of it -- feathers, feet, head, bones, all of it.

Edited by oldsox
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