There are falcons nesting under the roofs of Paris.

The story is that, as we – I am now speaking of Parisians – have invaded their space, having built our big buildings on the dunes and marshland and in the woods and valleys that were their natural habitat, they have had no choice but to find somewhere else to live, to become city dwellers. Or might it not just be that, once we’d become acquainted, they’d become accustomed to our faces and felt lonely and lost without us and the noises we made – cell (mobile) phones ringing, vehicle engines revving up, TV blaring away even at night, and not to mention the noise that we call music these days – and had come running, or rather flying, after us?

Paris’ falcons are kestrels – falco tinnunculus. They are birds of prey, of course. I therefore presume that they are giving Paris’ rodent inhabitants a very hard life.

There is an ornithological center – CORIF – that’s monitoring Paris’ kestrels. It had started to do so in 1986 and in the 1990s noticed that the city’s kestrel community had suddenly started to increase in numbers. In 2005 it was monitoring 29 kestrel couples. Apparently kestrels form life-long opposite-sex relationships and remain faithful. This is more than can be said of France’s politicians, sadly.

CORIF says that there are now about 50 breeding kestrel couples in Paris. Where are they? With patience and a good camera you will be able to snap them nesting on the Arc de Triomphe monument, under the armpits or in the boots of its statues; between the columns and pillars of the Château de Vincennes, and on the Notre Dame Cathedral. And if you are in Paris on the weekend of 18/19 June, you will be able to watch the nesting falcons through telescopes CORIF will be setting up at the Arc de Triomphe, Vincennes Castle and behind Notre Dame Cathedral on Jean XXIII Square where there will also be an information stand.
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