Saturday, July 4, 2015

July 4th

Happy Fourth of July! I did not much celebrating today, worked a 12 hour shift moving airline crews to and from the airport. An old neighbor from the lake died last night. His daughter answered his phone today, gave me the new, and I gave her my condolences. We wish this old friend and his family God's comfort and blessings.

I noticed a week ago a pair of peregrine falcons nesting 50 feet in the air on a light post on the north side of Nicollet Avenue and 494. This afternoon, I was getting gas for the shuttle at BP by Portland Avenue about 1/2 mile east of Nicollet, and I noticed a pigeon land on a high wire. It was a very unusualy movement for a pigeon. He looked nervous gazing behind him. A few seconds later he flew up and away doing circles and zigzags until he went into a dead straight flight to the underviaduct under Portland.

I am sure he was being stalked by one of those falcons.

When blackbirds or crows are dive-bombing a red-tailed hawk, he will land to avoid their talons scraping the back of his neck. The movement of the pigeon landing on the wire was to avoid being killed. I had never seen that avoidance behavior in a pigeon before.

This day celebrates our independence from Great Britain. Long my the Stars and Stripes fly high, proud and brave, symbolizing freedom and fine living for 320 million Americans. Happy Fourth.

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