> I ride the bus to work now. I have always wanted to do the "green" = thing and now that I work in Richfield, I do and I love it. I wait at = Marquette and 6th until the express 576 takes me south to begin my day. = It just so happens that Marquette and 6th is the prime vantage point to = see Peregrines on the Multifoods tower. I have watched them every week = since May. Last Tuesday, July 8th, an adult put on a flying clinic, = soaring up into a stall about 100 feet above the top of the tower on = the north side, using the strong winds to climb straight up , then he = would veer sharply to the right, tuck into a half stoop, wings forming a = narrow "W", and bomb past an immature bird sitting near the nest box on = the east side. He would then open his wings in a full soar, veer left = and up and float back to its original position above the north side. If = the bird was a sky writer, there would have been an elongated ellipse = scribed in the air. I saw this move repeated twice, and decided to = time it on my stopwatch. In the middle of what appeared to be a third = such move, the bird leaned right and continued out of sight behind the = tower. It emerged a few seconds later and soared up to its holding = point hovering on the heavy gusts above the north side. From the time = it stooped until it was back up in position soaring it took 6.2 seconds. = I estimate the Multifoods tower to be 150 feet long on each side. I = estimate the path of the falcon was about 50 feet beyond the building on = average in its flight. The perimeter of a circle with a radius of 125 = feet is 785 feet. The bird appeared to travel 150 feet vertical down to = the perched juvenile and then back up to soar again, so the total = distance traveled was about 1000 feet in 6.2 seconds. If my conversions = are right, this amounts to an average speed of 110 mph. It was a = breathtakingly awesome display of flight. It seemed to me the adult was = "showing off" to entice or train the juvenile. The birds have not been = present the past two days, so I assume they are off flying somewhere. I = miss them.=20 >=20 > Mark Alt > Brooklyn Center, MN > [email protected] >=20 > "Birds and their songs are important to me, they add to my enjoyment = of life"=20 >=20
