Falco peregrinus

Reading about peregrine falcons. The name comes from the Latin for wanderer; the same root is in our “peripatetic.” In the western hemisphere, peregrines can migrate across the breadth of both North and South America. Imagine that for a moment. A pound or so of bird making a trip of that distance, sometimes flying a couple of hundred miles a day. Born near the Arctic circle, then flying south along a route not known to it, unless the route is imprinted genetically. And then, the following spring, returning to the place it was born to reproduce. Not all go as far. Some of the Eastern subspecies, reintroduced after DDT extirpated the locals, tend to enjoy the rich supply of pigeons found in cities. They return from the south to aeries in the buildings and bridges of NYC, among other places. Niches in the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge are popular (you can see the whitewash of old mutes, or droppings, if you look carefully). For several years a pair have raised young in a scrape at 55 Water St., under the eye of a webcam. Not this year, though.

We nearly exterminated them, and the other raptors, through the use of persistent deadly chemicals, still present in the environment even though banned, and still concentrating up the foodchain. At the top of that chain stands the giant killer ape H. sapiens sapiens: the poisons in us are our own doing. We’re all steadily accumulating PCBs, DDT, dioxin, other organochlorines, flame retardants, uranium, mercury… the list goes on. The Arctic is being devoured by the need for gas and oil, while the permafrost melts due to the burning of all those hydrocarbons. In the south, the pampas have been converted to cash crops and cattle, the same things that vanquished our great prairies; the jungle between is being burned down; herbicides are sprayed wantonly in the “drug war.” These are crimes against ourselves, of course, but they are also a betrayal of the planet. We, because we have the ability, should be stewards the planet, but we’re the destroyers instead.