It’d be great if that peregrine falcon I photo’d in September decided to
hang around and thin this flock a bit! These guys (and even more of their
friends who didn’t make it into the frame) moved on in and took over two
abandoned buildings in town, the racing stand at the fairgrounds and what
used to be a home-improvement supply warehouse. I shudder to think what the
fairgrounds will be like if we have an easy summer and these fat buggers get
to double-clutch! Peregrines are pretty close to being other-bird-only
specialists, and are perfectly happy with invasive sky-rats like these on
the menu. Like house sparrows and common starlings, rock doves are invasive
in this country and still more than capable of ruining an ecosystem for (and
driving out) natives like mourning doves, though unlike house sparrows
they’re not all that likely to kill native birds for their nesting sites.
House sparrows are why Montana has almost no bluebirds left below the range
of the mountain bluebird (which likes to stay over 6,000 feet) and as an
added bonus they tend to carry parasitic diseases, just like urban pigeons
often do. Seeing this flock swirl and swoop is cute, but all in all I’d
rather the challenge of being prepared for a mourning dove to zip by at what
looks like about Mach 3!
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