The Pelican Opened Its Mouth. She Didn't Slow Down.

The fastest creature on earth. Today, she must be everywhere at once. A line of pelicans drifts along her cliff. They are no threat to her chicks. But this close to the nest, nothing passes. She launches at birds many times her size. But she has missed something. Again and again she stoops, driving them from the cliff. Below, a gopher snake, an expert climber. Out over the water she is still fighting. And it knows a nest of chicks is worth the climb. She strikes one so hard it tumbles from the sky. Every second she spends on the pelicans, the snake spends climbing. It is halfway up now. The chicks are alone. She hits the lead bird at full speed. Another pelican crashes into the sea. And then the snake reaches the nest. High above, someone else is watching. The chicks can do nothing but scream. She hears them. One strike tears the snake from the ledge. The fall does not kill it. The raven sees an empty nest. She drops to finish the snake. A single blow to the head. Now the raven moves. Ravens are skilled nest raiders. The chicks are defenseless. She is back in seconds. The raven is heavier. She is faster. Blow after blow she drives it off the cliff. But the raven is clever. It has drawn her away. Now it circles back. This time she is waiting. She chases it far out to sea. It will not try again today. Three intruders. One cliff. Not a single chick lost. But her chicks are hungry. On the beach below, pigeons feed along the tide line. They have no idea she is there. She folds her wings and drops at over 200 miles an hour. She misses. The flock scatters, then settles again. She climbs, turns, and comes again. This time there is no escape. She carries the meal home. The chicks have waited all day for this. Then the sky changes. A storm rolls in off the ocean and the cliff has nowhere to hide. She spreads her wings across the entrance. The same wings she fought with all day. Rain seeps into the nest. The wind tears at her, but she does not move. Every drop that reaches her chicks has to get past her first. She holds on through the worst of it. Then the sun returns. Everything she has is still here. She lives on every continent except Antarctica, and nothing that flies is safe from her. The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal ever measured. In a hunting dive, the stoop, she can pass 200 miles an hour. Bony cones in her nostrils slow the rushing air so she can breathe, and a third eyelid keeps her eyes clear as she falls. She hunts birds, and almost always in the air. She strikes with her feet bald-like fists, a blow that can kill on impact. If it does not, a notch in her beak finishes the job. She is also a third larger than her mate. Falconers call the male a terso, from the old word for a third. Peregrines build no nest, together for life, returning to the same cliff year after year. Some ledges have been used for centuries, and they defend them without fear. Ravens, eagles, even people, anything that comes too close is attacked. Last century, pesticides pushed peregrines to the edge of extinction. Today they are back, on sea cliffs and even skyscrapers.