Glimpsing a falcon's morning meal

It was a cool, wet morning in spring. My 7-year-old daughter and I set off as usual on the easy 12-block walk to her piano lesson. But as we passed the local park, I saw an unusual sight: a small bird rising from the grass, carrying something bigger than its own body in its claws.

I knew that a bird so small could not carry such a burden very far. It would have to land somewhere nearby.

I turned to my little girl. “Hurry!” I said. “We’re about to see something cool!”

We ran along the bird’s flight path, crossed a busy avenue, and sure enough, found it on a quiet street just a block away. The beautiful juvenile peregrine falcon had landed in the middle of the sidewalk, one proprietary foot still resting on the pigeon it had caught for breakfast. It watched us with one wary eye as it bent to grip a beak full of downy plumage and yank out a tuft.

I put my finger to my lips and held my little girl back from running toward it. Instead, we shuffled closer, inch by inch, the rain pattering softly on our umbrellas, until we could see every detail of its golden-brown body and diamond-bright eyes—all without disturbing its meal.

We watched in silent fascination as the falcon stripped its prey of feathers and began to feed. We had to leave before it could finish, or we would have been late to my daughter’s lesson.

Later, my daughter insisted on going back to the spot. By then breakfast was over, alas. All that was left was a perfect circle of pigeon feathers on the sidewalk, and a lasting memory of beauty and wildness in the heart of our very urban world.

Nature is everywhere. Wild things can be found in wild places, but they can also brush shoulders with you in one of the largest cities on the western seaboard, surrounded by millions of people.

All you have to do is keep your eyes open.

Arinn Dembo lives and writes in Vancouver, British Columbia. Twenty-five years later, when she walks her 5-year-old grandchild to the park, she still hopes to spot something wild.