Some strange doings at the Engebretson “bunker in Bucktown” have occurred in the past year. Our house has two decks, one off the kitchen door and a smaller one connected to the master bedroom above. Last fall we started to see some truly bizarre events. Dead pigeons, split down the middle with all of the breast meat removed, were appearing on the railing of the upper deck.
That’s right, on the railing and not on the floor of the deck. When two or three of them were lined up it looked like some kind of Quentin Tarantino movie’s pigeon buffet line. When my wife would point out the carcasses I would do the manly thing and dispose of the deceased. The real question was why was this happening? Soon after I had cleaned up a few of the victims, my wife informed me that another pigeon was on the railing. This time I took a very careful look around my backyard through the window, and to my surprise, saw a very large peregrine falcon perched on a pine tree bough about five feet from the killed bird. I opened the door to the upper deck and the falcon turned his head to give me a Robert DeNiro Taxi Driver “You lookin’ at me?” glance, and then he (or she) went back to guarding his meal. After a bit of studying we found out that our backyard guest is one of the biggest and baddest birds of prey in North America.