[Birdtalk] close encounters of the fowl kind

[Linda Butler]

Yesterday's birding encounter was a bit too close.
I was driving my daughter home from a dance class shortly after 6 p.m. and we were about three blocks from home (the bench area of Pleasant Grove) when two birds flew straight at our car.
WHAM!
A large dark bird hit the antenna then the windshield, knocking our little Mickey Mouse antenna decoration off, and fell on the sidewalk. It was a big gray pigeon. Suddenly, what I think was a peregrine falcon, snatched up the pigeon and tried to fly away with it. My daughter was quite upset that we hit a bird and was crying "It's alive, it's still alive." 
I couldn't believe that it could be anything but dead, we were going about 25 mph and the bird was flying fast straight into the windshield.
I made a quick U-turn, we retrieved Mickey, and watched the falcon struggle to fly with the weight of the pigeon. Finally it dropped the pigeon and sure enough, the pigeon was alive, and it fluttered off to some bushes behind a house.
My daughter calmed down, quite releived that we hadn't killed anything. We drove home, and discovered that the top 6" of the antenna is now at a nearly 45 degree angle where the pigeon hit it! 
Linda Butler
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