LonelyStreets.com

The Bully Peregrine

So, a Peregrine Falcon has apparently taken to hunting in my backyard and the yards of my immediate neighbors. I first saw this ridiculously large bird in my backyard on day last month. I stepped out back, not noticing her and making lots of noise, before looking up to find myself with a very large and threatening looking bird standing over a lump of feathers and staring very directly at me. Being the lover of wildlife that I am, I very slowly marched back inside to get away from the horrible thing. I told my wife, who made the odd suggestion that perhaps it was a wild turkey, and that I should venture back into the yard to get a photo. I insisted that turkeys don’t eat pigeons, and that there was no way I was risking my life to get a photo of it. After a little Googling we discovered that the bird in our backyard (which had by then gone back to enjoying it’s meal) was in fact a Peregrine Falcon. I eventually did poke my head just far enough outside the door to snap the following shot before zipping back inside where the bird could not ‘go all Hitchcock on my ass.’ Thus I present you with the following shot:

Later that day I returned home to find nothing more than a (rather largely spread out) bed of pigeon feathers in the snow of the backyard, and assumed that was the end of it. Until yesterday, that is.

Again, I rather obliviously marched into my backyard and plopped down in a chair only to look up and find myself staring into the face of the Peregrine Falcon again (I should point out that it was at least 5 feet closer to me than the first time, bringing the distance between me and it to no more than 25 yards - distinctly within my ‘personal-bird-of-prey-space-boundary’). I got up, moving carefully, and began to move back towards the door, when suddenly the BANG BANG BANG of nearby construction erupted, sending me into a haze of paranoid pheromones which the falcon immediately picked up on, and responded by launching itself into the air, small mammal gripped in its murderous talons (probably going for my throat or eyes). By the grace of God, however, I made it back into my kitchen unscathed and proceeded to peek out the blinds of my back window, only to see that the Falcon had now perched in a relatively low tree limb over my backyard. The bird was alternating between ripping the flesh of its dinner and looking up directly at my kitchen window - death (my death) clearly in its all-too-intelligent-and-malevolent eyes. As seen here:

I stayed inside and wore a hat when I stepped out (the front door), and figured that I should be free of the bird’s ill-will for at least another 3 weeks. Until this afternoon. Stepping into the backyard once again, I was surprised to hear the sound of terrified sparrows flying like bats-outta-hell only to see my nemesis the falcon again swooping around over the backyards of my neighbors and I. Needless to say I went back inside with no little haste. I’ve looked it up, and these things have a hunting radius of more than 10 miles - so I think I can say that I need no further proof that this falcon is out to kill me. As far as I can tell it must live on the Cathedral of Learning as detailed here, and yet it is now paying daily visits to my home. Perhaps if I wear Kevlar body-armor I may yet survive…

January 22nd, 2008
Posted by Paul in Pittsburgh, Photography, Humor | 1 Comment »  

Lonely Streets

Got some neat shots of Pittsburgh’s Lonely Streets last night on the way home, and thought I’d share:

October 2nd, 2007
Posted by Paul in Pittsburgh, Photography | No Comments »  

Week 1 in Pittsburgh

So, Ive completed my first week of classes at CMU! So far everything is going swimmingly. I have many wonderful classmates, who I will no doubt come to be good friends with, I’m already learning worlds of knowledge I hadn’t previously imagined, and best of all, I’m not in Des Moines!

In total, there are twelve of us taking the summer course in Design Fundamentals (and the attached ’software boot-camp’ sessions), and I must congratulate CMU on assembling an incredibly diverse range of people who bring a wonderful selection of skills and experiences to the group. Among my classmates are professional web designers, graphic designers, typography experts, non-profiteers, artists, musicians, and techies, as well as a few more I can’t remember.

I came here planning to blog my class notes and such, but have sadly been procrastinating. Meanwhile, one of my classmates Kyle (www.kylevice.com) is already beating out a great blog of our daily activities, that I can’t hope to beat (particularly because he’s an experienced designer and his blog is simply nicer than mine). However, I’m still hoping to try and will follow this post with a few more cataloging what we’ve done each day.

Pittsburgh itself is great. The weather’s been spectacular, the city feels safe and friendly, and there are buses to catch all over the place. My new apartment is also awesome (though I miss my wife very much - she’ll be joining me in 3 more weeks), and it was a joy to hang out with my two friends Gary and Matt for a week after the move. I’ll post some photo’s of the new pad soon, but am getting a bit behind with my camera work, focusing more on homework at this point.

In conclusion, life is good, and when Emily joins me things just might near perfect!

July 6th, 2007
Posted by Paul in CMU, Pittsburgh | No Comments »