A Close Encounter

Well, we had quite the excitement on Thursday. It all began as Jeremy, Matthew, and I were playing a game quite peacefully (aside from the backstabbing, threats, and crows of victory) when Florence appeared to let us know that there were two pigeons in the house and she thought we might like to take part in the ensuring hubbub. Of course we did, so we hurried back to the other apartment and sure enough, there they were:

The pigeons hiding quietly among our board games would have already been plenty excitement for the day, but soon it would get even more dramatic as Florence looked out of the (open) window and saw...

A peregrine falcon. Aha! That's why the pigeons had decided to stop by! After a moment of awe, we suddenly remembered... we have a rabbit that often goes onto the balcony... where the falcon was perched...

Fortunately, she was safely in her litter box inside. We threw here (and the guinea pig, for good measure) rather unceremoniously into the other apartment for safekeeping, then rushed back to see what would happen next.

To be honest, some of the details are a bit muddy, but from what I understand a third pigeon made a dive for safety and landed on Jeremy's record player, and the falcon came in after. At this point, Ashley walked in, cheerfully oblivious with her music playing, until we yanked out her earbuds and caught her up: "Hey, welcome back, we've got three pigeons and a falcon in the house. So, yeah."

Now this is where it gets really interesting. Two pigeons made a run for it, and only one was successful. I didn't see the catch, but after lots of flap flap squawk I ran back outside and saw this:

(Warning, it may be a little hard to watch. Also, I don't know how to rotate the video.)

Dang. Nature is crazy.

Next the falcon plucked the feathers:

And enjoyed his meal:

Finally, he finished up with the foot for dessert, and started planning his retreat. However, there was a problem: falcons like wide, open spaces to fly in. And our balcony is neither wide nor open. After half an hour of poking around, trying to get up the courage to make a go of it, he finally managed to not-too-gracefully clamber up to the flowerpot on the balcony railing.

Now, the second problem was that he had just eaten quite a large meal and wasn't really ready to fly anyway. But since we were there and making him anxious, he gave it a try anyway... and crash-landed in a corner of the courtyard! From there, he made his way up, one step at a time, to our neighbor's front door:

He actually ended up spending the night in the courtyard, and the next day our neighbors called the nearby nature reserve to help him out. Unfortunately, I missed the scene, but I hear it was quite entertaining; the police also got involved (because for some reason this fell under their jurisdiction?) and the poor falcon was carted off unceremoniously in a cardboard box to be released.

And our porch? James got the lucky task of cleaning the offal.

Take a look at the pigeon's stomach contents!

All in all, quite the event!