experiments with video and photography from a city in free fall
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
An amazing sight (by KS)
KS saw this amazing bird on the grounds across the street from the Detroit Institute of Art. I'm posting the pictures for her and she'll add comments later. (Warning: Not for pigeon lovers.)
The bird was incredible. I pulled up to park at work, and saw the bird sitting between a tree and a very dense hedge on campus, but in full view of the sidewalk. t was clearly some kind of falcon or hawk, and it was less than 10y ards from my car. It was vigorously eating a pigeon.
Amazingly, a student I knew walked out of the nearby building, and she had a camera with her, so we got within 6 feet of the bird for these pictures. Nothing seemed to disturb it.
I must have gone a little crazy: I called up the people at my immediate appointment, and told them I'd be doing bio science for a while, watching this bird, and then i'd come to the meeting.
For the next 20 minutes, I corralled everyone who walked by or parked in front of the building, to show them the bird. The best was a family from out of town, who likely thought I was crazy for asking them if they wanted their child to see the bird. Dad and mom simultaneously said "Yes!"(dad) and "No" (Mom), but the kid opened the car down and practically ran over the bird. The dad came over also, and began to jump up and down, he was so excited!
I'm not certain of the breed. The bird is a little smaller than it appears in the picture, and my first thought is that it was one of the offspring of the 3 or 4 nesting pairs of peregrines that we have in Detroit. One of those pairs lives at a tall building not far from where this bird sat. Although peregrines as adults are more gray/bluish rather than brown, at least two of the last batch of chicks were quite brown with brown speckles when they fledged. However, the bird resembles a Cooper's hawk quite a lot. I could not see the wing length clearly ( a telling difference between Cooper's and Peregrines), although the wings were longer than they appear in the side view. They seemed to be caught underneath the tail feathers as well as the pile of pigeon feathers which got higher and higher as we watched.
Most unusual were the thick leg coverings, which I associate with rough-legged or ferruginous hawks, but this bird didn't resemble those hawks in other respects. It's a puzzle.
The bird was incredible. I pulled up to park at work, and saw the bird sitting between a tree and a very dense hedge on campus, but in full view of the sidewalk. t was clearly some kind of falcon or hawk, and it was less than 10y ards from my car. It was vigorously eating a pigeon.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, a student I knew walked out of the nearby building, and she had a camera with her, so we got within 6 feet of the bird for these pictures. Nothing seemed to disturb it.
I must have gone a little crazy: I called up the people at my immediate appointment, and told them I'd be doing bio science for a while, watching this bird, and then i'd come to the meeting.
For the next 20 minutes, I corralled everyone who walked by or parked in front of the building, to show them the bird. The best was a family from out of town, who likely thought I was crazy for asking them if they wanted their child to see the bird. Dad and mom simultaneously said "Yes!"(dad) and "No" (Mom), but the kid opened the car down and practically ran over the bird. The dad came over also, and began to jump up and down, he was so excited!
I'm not certain of the breed. The bird is a little smaller than it appears in the picture, and my first thought is that it was one of the offspring of the 3 or 4 nesting pairs of peregrines that we have in Detroit. One of those pairs lives at a tall building not far from where this bird sat. Although peregrines as adults are more gray/bluish rather than brown, at least two of the last batch of chicks were quite brown with brown speckles when they fledged. However, the bird resembles a Cooper's hawk quite a lot. I could not see the wing length clearly ( a telling difference between Cooper's and Peregrines), although the wings were longer than they appear in the side view. They seemed to be caught underneath the tail feathers as well as the pile of pigeon feathers which got higher and higher as we watched.
Most unusual were the thick leg coverings, which I associate with rough-legged or ferruginous hawks, but this bird didn't resemble those hawks in other respects. It's a puzzle.
Very cool! Amazing creatures.
ReplyDelete