Providence Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski
Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien and DEM officer Mark Saunders, release an 8-week-old peregrine falcon from the roof of Pawtucket City Hall Saturday.
PAWTUCKET, RI -- The minute the door opened, the peregrine falcon tried to bolt out, forgetting for a second that a perch stood between him and freedom.A hop and a flap of the wings and he was gone, first down toward Roosevelt Avenue, where a bus approached prompting worried "Ohs" from the gathered crowd below, and then down the street to the Visitor's Center, where he stood flapping its wings before trying a second flight.
The fledgling peregrine, and his sister, had not made a successful first flights. They were found on the ground in early June near City Hall, where his parents have been nesting since construction on the Pawtucket Bridge on Route 95 displaced them.
A medical examination, however, found no injuries.
The two moved into a 40-foot flight cage on a sprawling 4-acre nature center next to Westerly's Grills Preserve. There, they practiced their flight and fed on quail, a common replacement for the pigeons and starlings urban peregrines would feed on in the wild.
She will have to stay another week or so before being released.
There are six established peregrin nests in Rhode Island, where the birds remain a "species of special concern."
Peregrines are considered the fastest-flying birds in the world, reaching speeds of 200 mph in a plunging dive or stoop.
When hunting, peregrines hit a prey with a half-closed foot and retrieve the stunned or dead bird in mid-air or on the ground.