Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 12, 1993 TAG: 9311120182
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"It's definitely not a sparrow," said Brenda Cloyd, senior policy analyst with the state Department of Education, who has seen it outside her office window on the 25th floor of the 26-story Monroe Building.
"It looks like an eagle," said Barbara Andrews, an administrative assistant.
"It's definitely a big bird," observed Catherine Clark, division chief of policy and planning.
Wildlife biologists at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries - aided by powerful binoculars - say they have identified what the office workers have been seeing.
"It's a peregrine falcon," said Dana Bradshaw, one of the biologists.
Peregrine falcons are so rare that there are only a dozen or so pairs in the state. The birds can fly at speeds up to 200 mph and come equipped with a 3-foot wingspread and razor-sharp talons.
Game officials learned of the peregrine's existence from a state employee who noticed pigeon carcasses at the base of the Monroe Building.
"They are birds of prey," Bradshaw said. "They only eat birds, and they only eat birds that they catch on the wing in flight."
On average, an adult peregrine falcon will consume one adult pigeon daily, and occasionally two. Those are the kinds of numbers that have made the bird popular with cities that have pigeon problems.
Roanoke, for example, raised $8,000 to purchase six falcons in March 1992, but five of them migrated, and one named Amelia didn't adjust well to the wild and was taken to a wildlife refuge. The city now has one nesting pair - not from the little flock released last summer - and it hasn't produced any offspring.
Meanwhile, pigeons still are a problem, said Kim Kimbrough, executive director of Downtown Roanoke Inc. The falcons, he said, aren't eating enough.
by CNB