Sometimes you go to them…
…sometimes they come to you.
This morning, I took the bus in to work. As we rounded the MC Drive curve to the south of Soldier Field, I caught movement to the east in my peripheral. A peregrine, I’ll assume one of the museum/south loop birds, was in hot pursuit of a medium-sized bird that was flying so fast I couldn’t see anything more than a streak. They were maybe 10 feet off the ground, heading directly for the side of the bus.
I tend to be fairly expressive in unguarded moments. I remember one of my professors in graduate school consistently calling me out for what he called my variety of “I’m dubious” facial expressions, which he claimed I paired with heavy sighs. No matter how often I assured him that these were unconscious body movements not meant to convey anything at all, but resulting from a struggle to stay completely focused after one hour of sleep, I think he still took it a bit personally.
In my unguarded state this morning, I gasped loudly, stood up and said, “Holy SHIT, dude!! Pull up, PULL UP!!”
Our driver pulled to a stop as the prey bird and peregrine zoomed past the front grill of the bus. As they reached the grassy area to the left of us, the peregrine surged forward just as the prey bird dove for a bush … and escaped. Wow.
Excitement over, I suddenly realized everyone was staring at me. I gestured at the peregrine flapping casually away to the west. “Peregrine almost hit our bus.”
Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone else saw the birds. Too bad. That isn’t something you see every day!
Chicago Peregrine Falcon Blog 