From my concealed location 500-odd feet above the ground, I watch as three turkey vultures circle effortlessly and endlessly in the afternoon sky, letting the wind currents carry their immobile and outstretched wings. Earlier in the day, this same perch afforded me a view of a peregrine falcon educating one of its fledglings in the fine art of flying.

My aerie, however, is not a Laurel Highlands ridge or Eastern Pennsylvania's Hawk Mountain; rather it is a 37th floor office in One Oxford Centre, where an eye-level view provides a much different perspective on feathered Pittsburgh than can be experienced from the sidewalk.

At street level, aside from the usual urban mix of pigeons and sparrows, it may appear the only "birds" in the skies above the Golden Triangle are the ubiquitous helicopters shuttling patients to and from Mercy and Allegheny General hospitals, and UPMC's Oakland medical facilities.

What a difference a skyscraper makes. In addition to the turkey vultures and peregrine falcons, assorted other types of hawks can regularly be spotted soaring above the Monongahela River, and when autumn arrives, v-lines of Canada geese join the Downtown skyways.

With a previous employer in the same building, I had an office on the 41st floor, looking out on the 40th floor roof of one of One Oxford's conical segments. A regular visitor to the roof's metal railing was an adult peregrine falcon that would inevitably be accompanied by a younger falcon for parts of each spring and summer.

Now, from my 37th floor window -- which directly faces the beacon atop the Grant Building -- I can more fully observe the annual training regimen of the parent falcon, as it flies back and forth between the One Oxford roof and the beacon across the street, its newest offspring trailing behind and growing in confidence with each sortie. Over the weeks, the lessons will expand to include the breathtaking high-speed dives for which the species is so well known.

Similarly, mature vultures and hawks can be spied as they conduct their own flight schools.

Leave the coffee and smoke breaks to others. For me, there can be no better respite while sequestered inside an office tower than watching the free-flight avian aerobatics being performed daily over our Downtown skyline.