[nysbirds-l] Rvsd Church Peregrine

[Barry or Rita Freed]

Rita and I haven't been to the neighborhood of the Riverside Church (Riverside Drive & 120th St., Manhattan)
in quite a while but we were brought there this afternoon by a "Music Before 1800" concert at 121st St. &
Broadway (medieval French, in this case). Having the luck to find a parking space right away, we had time to
walk around the Church and gaze up at its ornate tower, hoping to see at least one of the resident peregrines.
As the time of the concert drew near, we had to move on, without success. As we were leaving the scene at
about 3:30, we heard a very familiar sound: a "cacking" peregrine. The loudness of this sound belied the fact
that it was coming from hundreds of feet overhead. What seemed to be a female was drifting in the wind (with
only the very occasional wing beat) toward the Church and then toward the Hudson, yelling all the way. "What's
bothering her"? we wondered. "Looking for her mate? Upset by a red-tail intrusion?" But we saw no other raptor
in the air. A mystery.

(B.F.)