I live south of Mountain Home in an area formally know as Falcon Flats. This area was farmed sometime in the distant past. There are still foundations and cisterns and old irrigation ditches here. One neighbor told me that he found an apple tree stump here. I have seen falcons here in the past but this year is the first year I have seen a pair roosting here and carrying building material. A Peregrine Falcon is one of the largest falcons with a wind span of up to four feet. They have been timed diving at 240 mph. Their chests are barred rock which makes them look almost majestic. The horse Shoshone called them Duck Hawks because they mostly prey on other birds. A duck hawk can take a bat out of the air and eat it while in flight. I raise English Roller Pigeons and one year Red and I were sitting in lawn chairs out on the yard on a Sunday when a pigeon flew right over the top of us headed north. He got about as far as the fence line when a flacon hit him in a burst of feathers. They went to the ground and the flacon ate the pigeon right in front of us. For a while we had an owl that lived in the fir tree right outside my bedroom window. There were owl pellets all under that tree. An owl has such good hearing that he can hear a mouse under three inches of snow. This owl called for a mate so loud that another owl must have been able to hear him from ten miles away. A lot of cultures see the owl as a bad omen. I am not so sure. When I was growing up it was important to my mother that I went to church every Sunday. She told me years later that I would always dropped off to sleep as soon as I got comfortable in the pew. She said she had trouble not laughing because I would always tip my head to one side and sleep with my mouth open. She believed that if you love someone you let them sleep, and she practiced that. I actually did gain interest in Church for a while. One Sunday a woman that was much like Sheila Carter came to church. She was dressed in the style of the 50s, including the little hat. She had stopped to get a drink of water from the water fountain in the vestibule. Both the ends of her breasts were wet from the water fountain. She walked to the front of the church and sat in the front pew, in front of the priest, God and everyone else. No one seemed to notice but me. The next Sunday I was waiting for her in the vestibule. There is always a crowd in the vestibule of people greeting each other and shaking hands. I wasn't there to shake anyone's hand. I was on a mission. I came to watch Sheila wet her breasts and she never let me down, Sunday after Sunday. She had breasts like a 1954 Buick bumper. To this day when I see a 1954 Buick it makes me anxious. Life is good.
Peregrine Falcons are the largest falcon over most of the continent, with long, pointed wings and a long tail. Be sure to look at shape as well as size—long primary feathers give the Peregrine a long-winged shape. They often sit on high perches, waiting for the right opportunity to make their aerial assault.
