Peregrine Falcons

15-09-23 00 / episode: 243

Script

"Peregrine falcons.

Do you know these animals? Of course, they're birds.

Falcons are birds of prey.

They're hunter birds.

They're very, very swift.

In fact, they are the fastest animal on earth.

I think they can reach speeds exceeding 300 kilometers an hour when they go into a hunting dive.

Now, that's the way that they like to prey on animals and, and birds, they fly up very, very high in the sky.

The peregrine falcons have excellent eyes so they can see extremely far away and extremely small things much better than humans.

And when they find their prey, they lock their wings into a tight fold beside their bodies and they dive straight down towards their prey, they can catch prey that's flying in the air and they can pick up animals that are on the ground, small animals, mice and other rodents, and they're very effective.

Of course, if something comes sailing in towards you at 300 kilometers an hour, you probably don't know it.

And then it's game over for you.

Peregrine falcons are beautiful.

I remember I was in Canada rock climbing one time.

I was probably up about 250 or 300 m, uh, up to climb.

And I looked out to my right and there soaring in the air right behind me.

About 3 m away was a Peregrine Falcon.

He didn't flap his wings.

He had his wings stretched out and he was just using the wind currents to push him up higher and higher.

He glided silently up past me and I thought, wow, that's really cool.

Peregrine Falcons are beautiful.

Some people use them for hunting.

You can get them to go and catch the animals that you want.

Of course, I don't know of any, uh, the things that the Peregrine falcons hunt, I don't really want to eat, but I think it's kind of like a hunting sport and, well, that's ok too.

I, I suppose anyway, go out, check up on Peregrine falcons if you're interested."