Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!helios!tamuts!e343gv
From: e343gv@tamuts.tamu.edu (Gary Varner)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Peregrine over Route 1 in New Brunswick, NJ???
Summary: And peregrines don't chase birds low for a long time
Message-ID: <10509@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 29 Nov 90 22:03:16 GMT
References: <tjo.659898158@spitfire>
Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU
Distribution: rec.birds,usa
Organization: Texas A&M University
Lines: 28

Oh yes, and also, peregrines' hunting styles do not fit the description
very well.  Peregrines either "stoop" meaning dive down on their prey
from on high, or exhaust their prey by "ringing up" (as I think it's 
called) meaning forcing their prey to try to stay above them (so as
to avoid being nailed in a stoop) thus exhausting them eventually.
Another remarkable fact about peregrines is that although they have
been clocked as achieving the highest velocities of any living creature, 
in straight and level flight a peregrine's top speed is about the same
as a pigeon (e.g. carrier pigeon), about 65 MPH.

In a famous incident, a WWI or WWII aviator was diving at a flock of 
pigeons for something like target practice (presumably he wasn't 
going to _hit_ them -- that would likely have damaged his airplane
 -- but he was using them as a moving target) and he was passed by 
a peregrine in a stoop.  Subsequently, areodynamic studies have shown
that the maximum achieveable velocity of a peregrine in a stoop would
be about 250 MPH, and actual clockings (I guess with radar guns?) have
verified flight speeds of around 180 or 200.

So the fact that the raptor was chasing the pigeon back and forth just
doesn't sound right for a peregrine, or at least not characteristic.

Finally, there are lots of things bigger than a peregrine, although 
I can't (without a bird guide) think of what is bigger _and_ more
like an accipiter or falcon than a hawk as far as its flight 
profile goes.

Your humble birder -- Gary Varner, Texas A&M, Dept. of Philosophy


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