>While walking along the Seattle Waterfront on Sunday, the fourth, I
>watched a peregrine falcon snatch a meal out of the sky next to the
>Edgewater Inn. (About 1604 hrs). It immediately landed on the second-closest
>corner of the roof from the street with the intended in it's claws, a
>distance of only 20 feet or so from where it grabbed it's victim. The sun
>was directly behind the birds from where I stood; as I looked up, I saw
>roofline, a couple of inches of sun, the outline of the victim, and then
>profile of the falcon with the glint of light from it's back.
>
>The falcon had landed on a pair of "spikes" set into the roofline, impaling
>the intended. While I waited for the next move, listening to a rather
>plaintive call from the intended, I studied the roofline of the Inn.
>
>About every 6 feet is a spike about 6 inches high at the edge of the entire
>roofline of the building. Strung between these spikes is a thin wire. One
>guess is that this is lightening rod of some sorts. Another is that this
>prevts
>gulls and rock doves from perching on the building. The wire is very thin,
>certainly not enough to suppport a window washer.
>
>Once the plaintive calls stopped (about 15 minutes), the falcon took off
>S towards Harbor Island.
>
>I have two questions:
>
>1. Does thhis represent "tool usage" by the peregrine? A subquestion
>might be is this type of apparatus common on downtown buildings right now?
>
>2. Does anyone remember the pop song ofthe sixties that referred to
>fishing from the windows of the Edgewater Inn?
>
>Marty Casidy
>cassidym at delphi.com
>Seattle, WA

I can't answer any of your questions, Marty, although I would say only if
the peregrine impaled its prey "purposefully" would it qualify as
tool-using. The development of tool-using almost surely came about
accidentally in some species, and may be a learned behavior rather than an
evolved behavior, so a falcon that found a way to hold prey secure while
eating it might try the same method again. Relative to your second
question, at a place like the Edgewater, I wouldn't be surprised if they
would put up something to keep (especially) gulls off the roof. Too bad, as
I enjoy the Rorschach designs made on walls by artistic gull cloacas.

But I have my own questions: (1) did the peregrine leave its prey on the
spike? (2) Did it do anything at all with the prey during the 15 minutes?
(3) Are you sure it was the prey that was making the plaintive calls? (4)
Was it an adult falcon (gray back, barred underparts) or an immature (brown
back, striped underparts)? Its behavior sure doesn't sound very productive
to me, and it seems odd that it would just leave its prey (or did something
disturb it and it couldn't carry the prey away because it was impaled?).
Beyond this, purely out of curiosity, any idea about the species of prey?
Thanks.

Dennis Paulson