Peregrines move through the lowcountry heading south in October, and mostly seen on the coast. Two dove seasons ago, while sitting in a dove field, a Peregrine zipped through the center of the field and perched in pine on the field edge, In a minute or two it pursued a dove but couldn't catch it. Not much of a match in level flight to catch a dove, it earns its chops as the fastest living creature by striking prey in a towering stoop, accelerating to 250 mph. In the same field, 'Floyd has witnessed such stoop with a Peregrine blasting unaware doves while perched on an electric line. Apparently done for sport, it never returned to eat the dead birds. My youngest brother in law, while working on a post graduate degree from UGA in biology, lived on Cumberland Island trapping bobcats for study and while there once sat in a blind in the sand dunes with another man who was studying Peregrines. In the dunes was tethered a live pigeon with numerous mono loops attached to its body. Peregrines attacked the tethered pigeon and became entangled in the loops. The ornithologist weighed, drew a blood sample, banded and released the po'd bird afterwards. Gil
