Day 35: The falcons at MGH

Sunday, October 14, 2007 - When Julia and I would visit the hospital during the first weeks of Mady’s illness, we’d almost always use the tree-lined sidewalk next to the Parkman garage near the main entrance. Sometimes we would hear the screeching of what sounded like a hungry bird… a BIG hungry bird. Startled, we’d stare up at the garage hoping to see it.

A friend in Belmont told me that falcons had been recently sighted around MGH, and she wondered if I had seen them. Because Julia and I always heard the screeching in the same location, I hypothesized that we’d been hearing a baby falcon in it’s parking garage nest. This happened many times, and I became fiercy determined to spot it.

On my own one evening, I searched the garage floor by floor. I randomly heard the bird, but it always seemed to be a level above me. When I finally got to the roof level, it seemed to be coming from the trees and not from the garage at all. I couldn’t find it, but I kept trying every visit.

Recently, Mady’s Grandma Peggy (aka my mom) visited the hospital, and we told her about the noisy falcon. Mady, Julia, Grandma and I went outside and stood staring at the garage for a long time before the bird finally made its presence known and released a barrage of ravenous squawking. Grandma focused on the side of the garage for a few seconds and then said “I’m pretty sure it’s coming from that speaker.” What!? That box is a speaker? Why? Then it hit us…

There are millions of sparrows and starlings in this area, and we often see them swarming in the sky and trees around MGH. But we've never seen them in the dense trees above this much-used sidewalk--and the ground is nearly free of bird-droppings. What keeps them from roosting in these trees and pooping on the unsuspecting pedestrians below? You’ve probably guessed it too...

The little birds fear the fierce and hungry squawking of a large bird of prey. They innately stay away from the digital-recording of a natural enemy, played at random intervals 24 hours a day. This clever idea must've been much less expensive than building a covered walkway to protect the pedestrians from unpleasant bird droppings.

Mady had heard me talk a lot about my ongoing falcon search, and she thought it was pretty funny when Grandma finally figured it out. She said the solved mystery would make a good blog entry. (Oh, and by the way, yesterday’s ANC was 38 and today’s is 38 again. Not 200, but not going down, and that's good. Sadly, you had to read this whole bird story to find out any actual information about Mady...)

Are there real falcons flying around MGH? I’m still looking!