[Purple]

By BERNETTE PEARSON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jonathon Barrero was walking his pit bull Cece at Bayside Park at about 12:30 p.m. yesterday when his dog began barking at a brown and white, 3-foot creature that the Jersey City resident figured was a stray dog.

But it was not a dog. It was a brown and white falcon, said Emanuel Machado of Jersey City's Animal Control.

Barrero, 17, who lives across the street at 585 Garfield Ave., yelled to the superintendent of his building, Julia Szubak, who called Animal Control Services.

"I said, 'Wait a minute that's a big bird!'" Szubak said.

In her eight years living at Garfield Avenue, she's never seen a falcon in the area. "You don't see something like this every day," she said.

Richard Lorenzi, another Animal Control officer, said the bird appeared to be injured, possibly on his ankle or wing. The falcon attempted to fly, but it only got a few feet and was walking slowly.

Machado said falcons and hawks can be spotted Downtown, near the waterfront. "They usually make their nests on high rises," he said.

In his eight years of working with Animal Control, it was his first time seeing a falcon in that part of the city.

Animal Control plans to take the injured bird to a veterinarian and then to the Raptor Trust, a rehabilitation center for birds in Millington.

"I like reading about birds," Szubak said, who called The Jersey Journal when the falcon was found. "I'm tired of reading about all the rapists and criminals."

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/inde...480.xml&coll=3

[jonathonboehm]

cool story