Falcon (25 page)

evolution does not happen overnight

The world is increasingly urbanized. Natural environments are increasingly degraded by development. And birds of prey are ever more commonly inhabiting cities, using urban or indus- trial architecture to nest upon, hunt from, roost on. From the us

Five young ‘Kodak’ peregrines in their technolo- gically augmented nestbox in June 2003.

A pair of urban peregrines in California.

to China, falcons nest on man-made structures; bridges, build- ings, electricity pylons, power plants, grain silos, even the roofs of railway stations. For a long while, such phenomena seemed ‘abnormal’ because for centuries wild nature has been consid- ered to exist in a realm utterly apart from that of human concerns and technology. But recently scientists have embraced the idea of the urban raptor, though not without criticism. While the Raptor Research Foundation was busily organizing a symposium on urban raptors – funded partly by power compa- nies keen to promote their environmental credentials – there were worried questions over the ethics of holding a conference on such a topic. Would it send the wrong message to people ‘more interested in economic matters than the environment and our wildlife heritage’?
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The conference organizers were resolute in their response. There were good conservation rea- sons for focusing on urban raptors, they explained. Urban

peregrines provide a gene pool or reservoir of birds capable of filling or refilling vacant territories in more natural environ- ments. And importantly, they allow access to falcons that ‘children and other segments of society that would otherwise never have the opportunity to see . . . in wilderness situations’. But the editors’ introduction to the book of the conference ends with an important note of warning:

In these depressing times of skyrocketing human popula- tions, massive changes to natural environments, and dwindling wildlife populations on a global scale, envi- ronmentalists desperately need a positive message. This book offers many examples of opportunistic raptors adapting to human landscapes. But they cannot do it

Hooded gyrfalcon graffiti and commuters in an underpass at London Bridge station, 2005.

An adult tiercel peregrine.

alone. [We] must ensure that attractive ecological features still exist in the environment, to help instil a tolerance in raptorial birds for our activities. Evolution does not happen overnight.
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And in June 2004 city falcons returned us once again to that ancient, robust convergence of falcons and divinity. The
New York Times
reported that peregrines were nesting on the Mormon headquarters in Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah. As the young fledged, a team of orange-vested volunteers ran around in the traffic under the nest to ensure the youngsters weren’t hit by cars. ‘If a bird flies into the street, Bob will try and catch it and I’m supposed to throw myself in front of the cars’, said June Ryburn, 75, a retired office manager. A couple from Washington visiting the temple with their seven children noticed the commotion. ‘We thought everybody was looking at the prophet’, said McKenna Holloway, aged 18, referring to Gordon B. Hinkley, the president of the Church. ‘Then we real- ized they were looking at birds.’
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Timeline of the Falcon‌

83–72 million years

Evolutionary diver- gence of Falconidae from Accipitrine hawks

1247

Appearance of Frederick II’s master- work,
De arte venandi cum avibus

7-8 million years

Evolution of most present-day species of the genus
Falco

1348

The
59
th tale in Boccacio’s
Decameron
describes the fortunes of the impecunious knight Federico, who kills and serves his esteemed falcon to his lady out of love

3,500 bc

Falcons worshipped in the Gerzean city of Nekhen, Egypt

1486

Boke of St Albans
, attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, is the first printed book on falconry in English

2000 bc

Evidence for falconry in ancient Anatolia

1495

An English Act makes it illegal for anyone other than the Crown to own an English falcon on pain of imprisonment for a year and a day, a fine and forfeiture of the falcon

200 bc

Falconry practised in China

1515

On the occasion of his succession to the throne, Khan Mohammed-Girei requests ‘three times nine gyrfalcons, and fish teeth’ (narwhal tusks) from Moscow

1860

Unconfirmed reports of peregrines nesting on St Paul’s Cathedral in London

1871

Paul Heyse contributes two controversial terms to novella theory: the ‘silhouette’ (con- centration on one crisis) and the ‘falcon’ (the representation of the ethical implications of the crisis)