The State : Endangered Falcon Killed

A rare peregrine falcon was shot to death in Sebastopol by a racing pigeon fancier who thought the powerful bird killed one of his collection, officials said. “I think he felt real bad,” Capt. Mike Wade of the state Fish and Game Department said of Martin MacDonell, 32. Wade said he will ask the district attorney to charge MacDonell with killing a bird belonging to an endangered species. The peregrine falcon nearly became extinct in the United States in the 1960s and ‘70s when ingested residue of the now-banned insecticide DDT caused the bird to lay eggs with shells so thin that few produced chicks. There are now about 75 pairs of peregrine falcons in California, according to officials.