Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993 TAG: 9308270225
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The peregrine falcon.
The falcon, after all, fit all the descriptions.
It's known to be in the area because half a dozen of them were released last summer from a Roanoke building top.
It's big.
And it eats other birds.
Brenda Darnell, who lives east of Rocky Mount, saw one of the serial killings with her own eyes. There was more than one killer.
"They made this terrible screeching noise. It wasn't a red-tailed hawk, it was much larger. It had funny-looking eyes, too," said Darnell.
The bird descended on the defenseless bantam, snipped off its head and started to munch.
The guinea hens, who were scratching nearby, have been in hiding ever since.
Darnell's son, Chad, has locked up his chickens, and the birds of prey haven't been seen in the two days since the pantry doors closed.
In the past year, peregrines have been blamed for eating squirrels and chickens and for divebombing goats.
They've been found caught in nets and dead in alleys.
David McCutcheon, the designated peregrine tracker for the Mill Mountain Zoo, says he's investigated 15 suspected peregrine deaths in the past year.
"Thirteen pigeons, one kestrel and a Cooper's hawk," he says. He's got them memorized. No peregrines.
Which is not to say they're not around - McCutcheon's heard of five reported sightings in the past few days alone. He gets calls at work and at home from citizens and from emergency dispatchers.
The peregrine falcon has become a local, feathered Elvis; our airborne Jimmy Hoffa. Peregrines are sighted everywhere, but few of the fleeting images can be confirmed.
That's life at 200 mph.
Many of the spottings can never be proved or disproved. Others provide birding sleuths with enough clues to discount or confirm the peregrines.
The Darnells' serial bantam killer likely isn't a peregrine. The falcons are smaller than red-tailed hawks. They take their prey in the air, not on the ground. That's why pigeons, songbirds and small waterfowl are their favorite meals. Chickens and squirrels and goats spend most of their time on the ground and aren't likely targets.
Something's killing Chad Darnell's bantam chickens and terrorizing the guinea hens that once scratched about in the yard; it probably isn't a peregrine falcon, just as it probably wasn't a peregrine that ate the squirrels or a peregrine that buzzed the goats.
But the fact that the Darnells and so many others had peregrines on their minds is proof of the far-reaching success of last year's falcon release.
The six chicks released last year from Roanoke, and paid for in part by Downtown Roanoke Inc., may or may not ever come back. They may or may not even be here now, for all we can tell.
But they've obviously got people thinking about the natural goings-on around them. Dead chickens or no dead chickens, that's a positive side effect of falcons in our midst.
by CNB