Sad News of One of Our Falcons

I am saddened to report that one of this year's Etobicoke Peregrine Falcon kids is no longer with us.

Bliss, who is daughter to Lucky and Darcy, and sister to Avro, Aries and Griffon (r.i.p.).

Here she is flying with Avro (blue tape) and Aries (yellow tape).

Bliss was doing great all this time. She was the only one of the kids who stayed high above the streets and never needed rescuing during fledge watch, and the weeks beyond. I only had views of Bliss in my binoculars high atop the buildings.

This past Saturday, late in the day I might add, a message was sent to the Canadian Peregrine Foundation's Facebook page. They told of a Falcon on the ground in the Distillery District, which is over on the east side of Toronto. They shared some disturbing photos showing a bad injury to the bird's face, a major fracture to it's beak. They sent the banding information which was Z 29. From that we knew it was Bliss.

A couple watchers dropped everything and immediately headed out to the area she was seen with the last light of Saturday evening. No sign of her. First light on Sunday the search continued. Again, no sign.

We learned late Sunday evening she was found along the railway tracks north of the reported sight by some workers. They called Toronto Animal Services who came and got her. They then took her to the Toronto Wildlife Centre.

Indeed Bliss' beak was badly fractured. It had been for a few days. I'm not sure if there were any other injuries but there may have been. Obviously Bliss collided with something like a car or structure to have her beak break. She was probably hunting. Perhaps very hungry and did a desperate dive at something. I choose not to use the word "careless" because she was only 4 months old.

We learned that her blood protein level was 0.2. I was told that this is the lowest ever recorded for any wild animal to have come into Toronto Wildlife. Bliss was starving. She was emaciated. Her body was feeding off itself to stay alive. Her organs were slowly shutting down. To sum it up, Bliss was suffering. She was euthanized, there was no other option. She is at peace now.

We, those who have watched over her and her siblings, are very sad about this. We know this happens a lot with the young Falcons. It happens a lot with all the animal species out there as the young go out on their own and try to survive. We know that aside from the actual fledge watch that there is nothing in our control with any of these birds. We can still love them in a unique way, being their silent baby sitters for many days during those first flights and even in the weeks after. We can be sad at the loss of one. We will always hold out hope for the others still out there.

Rest in peace Bliss. or as some say "Fly free". Your struggle is over.

The photos were taken by friends and fellow watchers Lucie and Roger, used with permission. I never took one of Bliss as anytime I saw her she was on the same perch atop the condo just east of the nest site.

Lucie and I worked shifts at the site during the watch. She saw a food transfer between Bliss and dad Lucky. You can see how much larger a female bird of prey can be compared to the male, even at this young age.

Baby Bliss. Awwwww!

There is some good news to come from this, Lucie positively ID'd Avro on site Sunday. We hope Aries is still out there too. But let's just keep this about Bliss.

Here's a couple other recent Peregrine blogs of mine if you missed them. One blog. Two blog.

Garden Surprise

We had a surprise in our garden over the August long weekend. While I was out back filling bird baths and basins, watering the plants, I happened to spot a Monarch caterpillar. A first for us here at home!

Here it is, just a little wet from the watering. Sorry lil dude.

Angie was in the shower and I ran to the bathroom window to inform her of the discovery. She was as excited as me.

A better photo of a drier caterpillar.

It was on August 4th when I found him. He was about an inch and a half in length and has grown a fair amount in the last 3 days. I believe he's in this stage for roughly 2 weeks. He's an eating machine right now. Yes, that's his feces on the leaf. How many days are left before he goes into the crysalis stage?

As everyone knows our backyard is full of birds and critters. Who might want to chow down on this caterpillar? Nothing really stands out, but in the wild world it seems everything eats everything in order to survive. There are times I see the Squirrels just bite into stuff, like they are taste testing, and if they don't like it, such as my unripe raspberries, then they just leave them on the ground. So even having some creature take a bite into this caterpillar to see if it is edible, would be such a loss.

Mother Raccoon in the garden, very near the caterpillar that first evening. You can see the swamp milkweed to the right in the photo; look for the pink blooms.

I've since decided to try and protect this creature. A number of people raise them indoors but Angie and I agreed to not do that. Time is of the essence here so I asked a few co-workers that do gardening for any sort of netting that they may have left over from protecting their vegetable gardens. My pal Mark had a roll of gutter screening laying around and I think it will do for the time being.

As you can see in the photo, I've staked around the plant, well enough away to not harm the roots, with a couple shovels and a stainless steel post. I've attached the gutter screening using some zip ties. It should work, giving this being a better chance on making it to the final stage, emerging as a Monarch Butterfly. They really are stunning creatures. I know I took them for granted, seeing so many all my life. Then a few years back their numbers dropped drastically. It was over a year before I saw another one. Now while they are quite common once again, I still take a moment to watch them.

It's funny because we've had lots of milkweed over the years, mostly the common milkweed. A social media friend gave me swamp milkweed a couple years ago. We've never had a caterpillar as far as we knew. Then this year none of the milkweed returned for whatever reason. Back in May I was at a garden centre and I saw they had a couple swamp milkweed plants. I figured why not buy one for our slowly developing pollinator garden. I am so glad I did!

If you saw my last blog , you can see some of the plants in this garden. Here's a couple other shots though.

Salvias, both annuals and perennials.

A couple cone flowers. Not sure what the yellow flower is at the moment, other than nice to look at. We've also got Columbine, Phlox, 3 varieties of Bee Balm, a few Lilies, black raspberries, etc. With more plants to come!

Stay tuned for an update in another week or so.

Scratch that, update now...

I was about ready to publish this blog when I decided to go see what's happened in the last 45 minutes. Well, to my dismay, I found the caterpillar on the gutter screening, having climbed off the plant and heading up. That's no place for him to be. *sigh*

Thankfully my job to protect him wasn't a lot of time and effort, which is maybe why it didn't work. Whatever. I decided to remove it all and get him back on the plant. The tear down took about 20 seconds and he was back "home" and working his way around.

So maybe it's best to just let nature happen here. We've at least provided him a place to grow. The nearby bird bath is empty and I will temporarily move it from this spot to draw less activity.

Hey, at least I am trying here.

If you have any suggestions that do not include cutting up the plant and bringing the caterpillar inside, you have my attention.

No Place Like Home

Summer sure is flying by. It's already the August long weekend. We like to spend most of the summer here at home in the backyard so that's what this blog is about. There really is no place like home. I'm sure anyone with their own backyard and into nature will agree.

No shortage of Raccoons as we have 2 families roaming the 'hood plus a couple males.

The fountain is a popular spot on the hot nights. The kids monkey around and knock the river rocks out of the tiers and one of them detached the hose from the pump. Little s**ts! But I love 'em.

What a face!

Shy boy.

Big daddy. The young ones flee when he makes an appearance. The males have nothing to do with the mom nor the kids.

Whisky Wednesday is a little more entertaining at this time of year.

One of the kids has something wrong with it's back left leg. He holds it upright much of the time. Angie noticed it on Sunday night. I happened to see him on Tuesday with my own eyes. Craziest thing was while walking out back, and focusing on him, I neglected to notice a smallish Skunk in the garden. I passed it by with about 6 ft between us. The Skunk immediately hissed and stomped his feet. That's a warning if you did not know. Next thing it did shocked the hell out of me though. He chased me! I've never encountered that before. I never did stop moving when I first realized he was there but my pace certainly quickened with this pursuit. He stopped after 10 ft or so and then disappeared in our tall flowers along the fence line. GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! For added adventure my head lamp was fading out. I'm down by the shed, some 100+ ft from the house. I watched the Raccoon for a brief bit, making mental notes. No visible signs of a wound to his leg but definitely holding it up to his body when moving about. He could climb the trees as well as his siblings so that's good. I planned on speaking with a wildlife rehabilitator in the morning about him. The mosquitoes were happy that I was out and buzzing around me, trying to suck my blood. Time to go back inside.

I'm creeping my way back to the house. I don't know where that Skunk is and am doing my best to let him know I am coming through. I am jingling my keys in one hand. I have my claw rake in the other, which I am using to stomp on the ground for further noise (no I am not going to use it on him). I'm near our picnic table where everything opens up more. I'm in the clear. Who comes out now but that Skunk. He again gives chase to me. WTF?!?! Four long strides and I am up on our deck. Home free now. Still puzzled by this one's behaviour. My best guess is the young Raccoons had already agitated him. They don't know what Skunks are until they get sprayed so in the meantime they can follow a Skunk around as it digs for grubs and whatever else, then try to steal the food from them. Maybe?

A good place to be when this Skunk is around, eh.

Other than that, we have random sightings of a male Hummingbird, usually near dark.

We have a new family of Robins that have literally just dropped into the backyards on August 1st.

A big first day out, hopping all over the backyards. After many feeds in the evening, this one had a 30 minute nap here. I was concerned he was going to stay there and be vulnerable to the creatures of the night but come near dark he hopped further down back and joined the others. They were all out again the following morning. Entertaining stuff for nature lovers like us!

My Pigeon pal Charlie, who has been coming around for over a year and a half now, finally has a "friend". They were smooching a lot the first couple weeks...

and now just pal around together a lot.

A male Downy Woodpecker has taken to roosting in one of our bird boxes. This seems to happen every summer after the nesting season is done. The Woodpecker will use the box right through the winter as well. Then come spring, when it's time to nest again, they disappear. Rumour has it that they prefer to make their own nesting cavity. That's alright. I am happy the box is of use to them through the other part of the year. It's a safe dry place for him.

After inside, they usually like to peek out the hole for a short while until it gets darker. Now my after work backyard strolls will have to be quieter and I will stay as far away from this box as I can.

We've baby sat this young Hairy Woodpecker throughout the last few weeks. He flies in and sits on the deck, picking at seeds and nuts, then taking them to the trees to bash and eat. He was flying in with his father but it seems he is now on his own.

I've been working on the back garden since last summer. I had forgotten some of the stuff I planted. So this summer I've been paying close attention to mystery plants and waiting to see what came of them, hoping they weren't weeds. It paid off with this gorgeous bee balm I forgot about. A Black Swallowtail and a bee going for the same bloom.

Pollination in process on this lily.

A stunning colour of cone flower that I bought last year has been a popular spot too.

Thanks for stopping in. Wishing you all a great and safe long weekend. Cheers!

Peregrine Falcon Fledge Watching 2019

This really isn't a cheat but since I've been so busy with the Falcons lately, and we were due for our July Bird Canada blog, my latest one is over there. Click here to check it out. I really put my heart into this one so I hope some take a moment to view it.

Since publishing that blog, the adventure has continued with our young bird Avro.

About a week ago friend and fellow Falcon watcher Kathy reported that one of the kids hit the glass pretty hard, and people inside the office saw it then veer away from the building, flying lower and lower, then disappearing down into the nearby park. Any glass strike is a concern. At the moment, at the very least, it was good the hit did not kill him.

I got myself together and headed down to go on a hunt for Avro. Bruce who was doing some observations downtown quickly got on the subway and headed to the Etobicoke site. I texted another Falcon watcher, Lucie, who lives in the area and she also came down as soon as possible to help look for him. Kathy was also out walking the area (even though she was supposed to be working).

I should add that Avro's siblings, Bliss and Aries, were sitting atop the condo roof adjacent to the nest. That is how it was figured out who hit the glass. There's that perk of having banded birds which I touch upon in the Bird Canada blog. One of the adults was seen in the park area and we figured they were watching out for their kid. Sure enough, Avro was found on top of a hydro tower some ways down in the park. His stance was good although he was showing signs of getting quite warm as the morning quickly heated up.

I was messaged that Avro was found and was heading over to meet up with the others, and see him. During my walk I tuned into some angry Blue Jays. A sure sign that a predator may be about. Knowing Avro was found and people were watching him, I decided to follow the angry bird calls. What could be the reason for their upset? A Hawk? Maybe an Owl? To my surprise, I found Avro's mom Darcy sitting low in a tree over Mimico Creek. She was watching the ducks below. Way back in the day Peregrine Falcons were called Duck Hawks. We've seen the females, who are much larger than the male Falcons, bring home duck on occasion. I snapped a few photos and then headed over to where my friends were with Avro.

We chatted for a number of minutes before I had to leave and get myself ready for work. Kathy was quickly heading back to the office. Bruce was staying on site for a while to watch Avro, wait to see if he was going to fly, and if he could or not. Lucie was going to hang around for a bit as well but took a moment out to come with me and see Darcy since she was in a great spot for viewing.

Funny thing was I told them I would most likely find a Raccoon before I found Avro since I am good like that. During the dog days of summer I envy the animals.

About an hour after I returned home, Lucie messaged me that Avro took flight and headed for home. He made it to the top of the glass towers with ease. Thank goodness! This is his first known window strike and hopefully his last.

This year at the Etobicoke Falcon site sure has been something. We are quite enamored with the young birds. The new parental pair being Lucky and Darcy have been amazing to watch. At this year's watch, when seeing the kids struggle in their first days of flight, we witnessed on numerous occasions where the adults would come out and try to help the birds get to a safe place to land. The adults would fly under and bump the young up higher, or guide them away from certain points. This is something I have heard they can do but never witnessed in 8 years, well, until now. After these moments, I had wished I had my camera and got some photos, but deep down I know I probably would not have. For one, with a struggling bird, my focus should be on the bird and where it is heading, and not a photo op, especially since I was alone. Also I know that most likely what I saw with my own eyes could never be captured in a photo.

Thanks for stopping in. Next blogs will be over at my Toronto Nest Blog in the coming days.

The Raccoon and the Apple

We've got 2 Raccoon families wandering the neighbourhood this summer. One mom has 3 kids while the other has 4. The 4 kid family have younger Raccoons than the other, I can tell by their size. Like most nights after work, I toss my apple core out back for whoever to find and finish up. In the past it's been an Opossum. Lately, it can be anything like an Opossum, a Skunk, a Raccoon and sometimes it's there in the morning and a Squirrel finds it. Last night this young Raccoon found it. I sat on a cinder block near the shed and watched him, taking a few photos.

"Hello. What are you?" Even though I'm a hairy guy and probably have dark circles around my eyes, he knows I'm not one of his kind.

"Oh, what is this?"

"It smells okay."

"Mine. Mine. Mine."

"A is Apple. B is for Belongs and it belongs to meeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Then after a couple bites, he left it on the ground. I don't think it was something he really liked all that much.

He looked at me for a moment.

Then off he went back over the fence to where the others were dumpster diving in the neighbour's bin which he forgot to secure.

I Helped Some Chickadees

This is blog worthy and not just in my Toronto Nest Blog.

Back in May I had discovered some Black-capped Chickadees took to one of my nest boxes. I was rather excited about this. A few days later I noticed a House Wren at the box. The Wren had destroyed the Chickadees developing nest. I was upset about this. I returned a day later and was pondering on setting up another box. To my surprise, the Chickadees were back in the nest box, starting over. So I left them alone. I return a couple days later to find their 2nd nest was also destroyed by this Wren. Frustrated and confused was I on top of being upset.

I decided to move the nest box as I thought it was unfair to these Chickadees that every time they start to build a nest, in comes the Wren to destroy it. I felt responsible since it was I who set up this nest box. I remember as I took the box down and pulled out the t-post, starting my walk to where I was going to this set up next and in came the pair of Chickadees. They were voicing some disapproval or "WTF?" above my head. I'm trying to help and now the birds are making me feel bad.

Long story short is that the original box was moved slightly north/east of the original location, by 150 ft or so. I also installed a PVC tube style box about 200 ft west of the original spot. It was my hopes the Chickadees would find this one and the Wren would take the original. Half my wish came true as the Chickadees did find the new box and went to work right away. I had filled it with aspen wood chips and the birds were excavating within 2 days. The Wren never took to the original box. He seems to stay across the rail tracks and my guess is the original box was in line of sight, that this was some sort of territorial thing. Really I don't know.

End result is the Chickadees had 7 eggs. All 7 eggs hatched. All 7 young successfully fledged. I am so happy about this outcome.

I know what a Wren is capable of. Last year we had a Chickadee nest in another area, also with 7 eggs. Four young not much more than a day old with 3 eggs soon to hatch when along came a House Wren who tossed all the young out of the box and he pipped the eggs. Of course that was it for the Chickadee nest. The adults left, the young perished and those eggs would never hatch. The Wren was already building a nest over top of the Chickadees' nest. You can understand a little more on all that I was feeling with this nest, this year.

Falcon Rescue

I've been ridiculously busy. Early last week I swept through all of the nest boxes and had intended on doing a couple blogs about that. But then last Wednesday I happened to be right by the old Etobicoke General Hospital in Rexdale (now William Osler) and noticed one of the young Peregrine Falcons had fledged. So the next 3 mornings I spent some time watching that Falcon family, helping my friends at The Canadian Peregrine Foundation, to monitor the young.

This Monday I had a milestone moment with the Toronto Wildlife Centre that I will share another time.

Then from Tuesday onward, it's been helping with the fledge watch near us at what we all call ESL since the site is formerly known as the Etobicoke Sunlife Centre. Approximately 4 hours each morning so far. Tuesday and Wednesday there was a lot of screaming, jumping and wing flapping from the kids but nothing else. Then on Thursday the first one fledged at 8 am. Less than 30 minutes we had a second fledge. I had a busy stressful but also fun time watching these birds. Of course it was pouring rain for much of the time I was there.

One of the young birds who ended up being quite low to the ground and near where I parked my car. His name is Griffon.

I saw something incredible happen with Griffon. His first flight was decent but not as good as the first to go who is named Aries. Griffon had some struggles, played a bit of "Peregrine Ping Pong" off 3 of the buildings. He was exhausting himself, losing altitude and suddenly out came both of his parents, Lucky and Darcy. The adult birds were screaming and flying under Griffon, giving him a boost it would seem, and probably some guidance too as to where to go next. In 7 years of watching the Falcons, I had never seen something like this. I heard about it. This is probably one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life.

The watch got really crazy later that afternoon and it rained a lot more throughout. I got soaked during my time. The afternoon watchers got saturated.

I was updated on the status of the birds before I left work last night. I knew exactly where one was and decided to pass by on my way home, this being a couple hours after the watchers closed for the evening. The bird was still in the same low spot, getting rained on and just sitting there, dealing with it, preening throughout. Glad he stayed put. I knew I would see him in the morning.

I went home, and was in bed shortly after midnight.

Five hours later, I am out of bed. I slept horribly as my mind kept with these young Falcons. I knew they would need my help today.

I arrive on site about 5:45 am. I could see the last young Falcon still on the nest ledge. A large female, her name is Bliss. The females always go later than the males. I don't see or hear anyone else. I start a walk around the block of the towers as one was left behind the buildings on someone's balcony railing. No birds for quite a while.

I took notice to a new set of stairs that led to an upper concourse where they've put in a garden. This area wraps around the most western office tower. As I make my way around to the southern side, I spot one of the young Falcons sitting on the steps. He was halfway down the stairs from me. I thought about rushing down and just grabbing him but then feared he would dart down the stairs and out to the sidewalk, perhaps even the street. It's early but there's still traffic. I rethink things and back step to where I initially got to this area, get down to street level, walk around the building and to these steps. I figure if he tries to get away from me, at least he's going up the stairs and not out to the street. What I found funny was a woman sitting right in front of him, only separated by mere feet and a glass barrier. She was too into her phone business and enjoying her cigarette to notice this adorable young Peregrine Falcon behind her. Even as I walked up past her, she never looked. Even as I did a quick grab of the bird with a large light blue towel in my hands, the woman never flinched one bit. Even as I now walked past her with this Falcon wrapped in a towel in my hands, still nothing. Sad how shut out people are to what is going on around them.

Anyway, this bird I caught is the same one I saw late last night. His name is Avro. He's okay, just got into a silly spot and that glass barrier confused him. He was pretty pissed at me, which is always a good thing.

I tell ya, it was a loooooooong walk back to the Mazda with him. Then to get out my car keys, to open the door, and then more fun as I knew it would be better to contain him in the carrier inside the car and not on the sidewalk. He fought me every step of the way. But now he's safe and will be released later this evening.

I looooooooooooooove young Peregrine Falcons. Adorable or what, eh?

That is my first real rescue out of all the years of watching the Falcons. So much better than doing recoveries.

The morning got even more interesting with a 2nd rescue but that will be saved for another blog. Work becons very soon. It's going to be a very long day but overall a very good day.

Wish Avro all the best with new start tomorrow high above the city streets.

It's probably going to be a crazy watch weekend at this site. Anyone got nothing to do, come on down. Usually a watcher or two along Eagle Road, south of Bloor, just a couple streets east of Islington. I might be there at some point as well.