Soaring over the towers

Two Peregrine falcons and one Shaheen falcon sojourn at House of Hiranandani Upscale in Egattur. Their presence keeps the pigeon population in check. In gratitude, the residents have named them in a manner that includes them in the community

They rip through the air like greased lightning. They stun their prey with the dizzying speed with which they hit them. They carry their prey to a tall perch, on a towering mountain usually, tear it apart and have their fill.

Enter the other actor in this unrehearsed play on Nature’s grand stage. They are noisy and gregarious and at home in crevices of hills and mountains.

And these two species come together on another stage, at an unlikely place, but with their respective instincts and behaviours intact.

E. Arun Kumar gets to watch this play on this new stage, one erected more by man than Nature.

The dramatis personae are the Peregrine falcon and the Blue rock pigeon with the afore-mentioned life stories. And the stage is House of Hiranandani Upscale with its sky-touching towers, in Egattur, Old Mahabalipuram Road.

Arun, an avid birder who captures his avian sightings in pixels and a resident of Upscale, notes that the gated community has been playing host to two Peregrine falcons, a male and a female, during winter. Just ahead of the winter, it entertains a Shaheen falcon, which is a sub-species of the Peregrine falcon. While the Peregrine falcon is a winter visitor, the Shaheen falcon is a resident raptor given to local movements.

The two Peregrine falcons and the Shaheen falcon gravitated towards the gated community for the feral Blue rock pigeons.