Ah, fresh meat! After pleading guilty to staging their ridiculous hoax involving their 6-year-old son Falcon and a runaway helium balloon, fame-hunters Richard and Mayumi Heene were granted permission by a Colorado judge to visit New York City. The purpose of their trip? An unspecified "employment opportunity." See? Exploiting your children and deceiving an entire nation pays! more ›

Is the media frenzy over the balloon boy stunt making you sick? You're not the only one! Parents Richard and Mayumi Heene are very busy pimping themselves out to the networks, and they're not about to let their li'l star's stomach virus stand in the way of their precious 15 minutes. This morning Falcon—the six-year-old boy who was hiding in the attic while America was voyeuristically titillated worried sick that he was in a runaway helium balloon—vomited twice on two different talk shows this morning, just like a pussified wus. Here's the Today Show spew, at 5:50 in: more ›

The pigeon gangs of Greenpoint are still at it! After one baby falcon was rescued from a bird-on-bird attack, our photographer Katie Sokoler informs us the violence is still going on. She tells us, "I came out of my apartment this morning and saw a baby falcon sitting on the railing of my stoop. It was so adorable but then suddenly a group of pigeons came down and started attacking it! I spent the whole morning kicking pigeon ass and finally captured the hurt falcon. But as I was walking back to my apartment, a woman ran up to me and told me that she saw a grown falcon down the street at McGorlick Park and it must be one of her babies. The falcon got frightened and jumped out of my hands and hid in some bushes by a church and now I can find the hurt lil' guy." Greenpoint, it's time to start a pigeon task force. more ›

Will the pigeon bullying story be a plot line in an upcoming 30 Rock? The NY Post talked to Morgan Pitts, who rescued the baby falcon from the gang of birds in Greenpoint; he's an assistant prop master at the show, and his first course of action was to bring the little one over to Silvercup Studios, where a friend's wife at the Animal Medical Center was called. The American kestrel has been named Alice Cooper for the markings around its eyes (a moniker that's bound to toughen it up), and it's sex is not yet known—one of the vets saying, "I love this bird. He or she is so cute." Agreed. more ›

That's right, bird on bird violence is happening in our own backyard: Brooklyn. WCBS reports that a man recently rescued a falcon from a troupe of pigeon bullies! While an adult peregrine falcon could have taken them all out, this one was just a baby, being chased and pecked at by the larger birds. "Morgan Pitts says the falcon was either abandoned by its mother or fell from its nest in his Greenpoint. The frightened chick is now in the care of veterinarians at The Animal Medical Center in Manhattan." One day he'll encounter those pigeons again and the tables will be turned. Until that showdown, however, check out the baby falcons that were born at three different city bridges earlier this year. more ›

We suppose that even hawks get tired of killing their prey—yesterday, D. Billy at And I Am Not Lying wrote that he had a good lunch, "Well… there was this one part where A F***ING HAWK FLEW INTO THE RESTAURANT WHERE I WAS EATING, AND LANDED ON MY FOOD." What follows is an endearing story of shock and awe:

I was sitting at a window seat next to the open door, and my food had just been brought out. I looked down to see this guy (or gal - I don’t know hawks) just standing in the doorway, looking back and forth. After surveying the place for a few seconds, it flapped its way in and up onto one of the empty tables. more ›

Time for an awwww break! Five peregrine falcon chicks were born atop the towers of MTA bridges! The MTA says that three were born at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, while the Throgs Neck and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridges each welcomed one chick. Some details about the fuzzy birds, which are 3-4 weeks old (their talons are already the size of an adult human hand!), from the MTA: more ›

Adrian Benepe may be the Parks Commissioner 364 days out of the year, but yesterday in Central Park he was The Falconer. That's him in the above photo holding a young female American kestrel, which was (illegally) taken in as a pet in Brooklyn before she was discovered by wildlife rehabilitators a few weeks ago. Moments after this photo was taken, Benepe fought off the urge to crush the raptor between his gloved hands, releasing it into the wild instead. more ›

Yojimbot at The Origin of Species has some beautiful photographs taken during the release of some kestrels back into the wild. These kestrels (which are in the falcon family) were being rehabilitated by Bobby Horvath, who gathered other bird enthusiasts in Van Cortlandt Park for the big day. Here are some photographs from Yojimbot, who also has video.
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