Like past years, I once again volunteered at the peregrine falcon fledge watch just down the road from us in Etobicoke at the Islington and Bloor nest site. If memory serves me correct, I've been helping out since 2011.
It was an interesting year as we had a new set of parents. I'm not sure if I mentioned about D'Arcy earlier in the year or not; but she was found on the ground a few kms away from the site and died on route to the wildlife centre. Then the male, Lucky, was pushed out by a younger male named Romeo who was born just up in Rexdale at William Osler hospital, or Etobicoke General as I still refer to it as. Oh, also, in between these two events, a new female arrived on scene. She is not banded so we don't know where she came from and obviously she was never given a name. One of the guys down at the site who has been amazing with getting photographs of the birds and helping us track them named her Ann (after his wife).
Romeo and Ann had a late start to the whole nesting thing and fledge watch started about a month later than usual. They had 3 young. Andre, Casey and Angel. Two boys and one girl.
Andre was first to fly and did amazing from day one off the ledge. He has stayed high off the streets, not needing any help from us at all. Casey was next and he too was much like his brother, not needing any assistance. Then there was Angel, which is what this blog is about.
Angel's first flight was great. She made it over to the next office tower rooftop. Angie was with me at the watch this particular morning and we both saw her go. What an exciting moment, especially seeing her have a successful first flight. When you see birds take their first flights and bounce off windows, come to ground soon after, or worse, take that first flight and hit a window hard, and die on impact; that sticks with you forever after, with every other bird and their first flight from the ledge. It's not something you get over, and for Angie, she hasn't helped at the watch in 10 years, ever since she saw a bird named Regatta slam into the reflective glass, and she had to retrieve the body from an upper mezzanine. Heart breaking stuff!
The afternoon and evening watchers said Angel didn't fly too much until later in the day. It was near close time (dark) when she did take a flight and they lost sight of her. They said it looked like she lost some altitude and they could not relocate her. With that last report, I made the effort to get down to the site even earlier than usual because past experiences have had me find these missing birds in peculiar places the next morning. The fledge watch makes for a long day because of my work hours. Being on site by 6 AM for 4 hours, and then at work from 2 to 10 PM, I don't make it to bed until at least midnight. But since it's only for a few days, I deal with the lack of sleep, because it is worth it to me to try and help monitor these young birds. Anyway, back to the story...
I get down to the site around 5:45 AM. I spot two juveniles on the rooftops almost immediately. I cannot tell who they are from ground level, so it's all about doing a head check. I need to find the third bird. I start my spot check route that I have in my head, looking in all the tight spots, crevices, etc where I have found young peregrines past years. I am not spotting a bird along the stretch of Bloor St. Then, as I near the corner at Islington, I see a young peregrine sitting on a bench out front of the Sobey's. I can see the tape color on the leg and can confirm it is Angel.
There was a woman sitting on the steps further over. She sees me looking at the bird and says "I'm terrified of birds so I let it keep the bench". Thank goodness for that because if she shoo'd Angel away from here, who knows where she could have run off to. She's right at the corner of a busy intersection, you can see the stop light in the reflection behind her.
As I approach Angel, she's getting into defensive mode. Is it going to be fight or flight with her? As I near her with my towel in hand, she decides it is better to try and get away from me. First she tries to get around me but then quickly backs off, then trying to run away. There is this glass partition behind her so her escape route is blocked. She tries to jump over it and that is futile. I have her wrapped up in my towel without too much of a struggle. Wings pressed to the body and her head is covered, so she pretty much submits. I'm relieved with this fairly easy "rescue" but my adrenaline is still pumping. I don't know how these things are going to play out. I try to handle them as quickly as possible. In the moment though, it is still a rush.
I was told that there were 2 animal carriers at the security desk. My carrier was misplaced last year, as in someone borrowed it from the site and never returned it. I usually have a smaller carrier with me, which is fine for the male falcons who are smaller, but not always so for the larger females... only this time it was with a neighbour who had borrowed it to help a little kitten the day before. I'm jumping around a bit here, sorry. You'll understand why in a moment. As I get to security, I see no carriers. It turned out that someone had moved them elsewhere and no one knew where. Argh! So no carriers with security and no carrier in my car. What do I do with this falcon under my arm at 6:15 in the morning? There's no businesses open where I could hopefully get a cardboard box big enough to contain Angel. My brain says "go home, you have carriers at home!"
I'm making that long walk, like 3 blocks to my car. Angel is fussing under my arm. This is going to be "fun". I get to the car, now to get my keys out of my pocket and still have a safe hold of this bird. Okay, done. Now to get in the car, start it, get my seat belt on and still have a safe hold of this bird. Not easy but done. Okay, now to drive home, still having the safe hold on this bird, and to also call Angie. I have hands free Bluetooth but it isn't voice activated. I somehow managed that and Angie answers the phone. I bet she wasn't expecting me to say "I need you to unlock the front door, then get one of the cat carriers and put it in the bathroom. I've got Angel with me." There wasn't much else said because we both know that talking adds to the bird's stress level. The drive from the nest site to the house is 5 minutes but it sure felt a lot longer. I get home, and in no time I am in the house, in the bathroom with the door closed and now containing Angel in a cat carrier. She was like the Tazmanian devil in a crate in those old Looney Tunes cartoons, thrashing around, until I got her back out in the car and stable. The carrier was toweled the whole time, but the movement was freaking her out. I got back to the nest site, parked illegally as close to the security desk as possible and got her into the storage room ASAP. Now we both can relax.
What a big day out for Angel, eh? Too bad that wasn't it for her...
She was later released (I was at work) and apparently after some time she took a flight which did not go so well, the watchers saw her lose altitude and then all sight of her. They searched high and low for her but she was no where to be found. Long story short, she came down right on Bloor St and sat there in the left turn lane to a nearby side street, amidst the afternoon rush hour traffic. A vehicle stopped in front of her, the driver honked the horn at her and she stayed put. The man got out of his vehicle and quickly scooped her up. He was not aware of the watch going on and took Angel up to the Toronto Wildlife Centre. Nobody knew anything of this until much later when I am at home and an acquaintance of mine from the centre contacts me and told me how she was observing Angel at the centre late that day. I was like "whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" I was in disbelief until she confirmed Angel's band number. OMG!!! A whirl of emotions came over me but I had to remind myself that Angel was safe and she was in the next best place to be other than with her family high above the streets. Angel was looked over that evening, ensuring nothing was broken, fractured, bleeding, etc. She was hydrated, fed and had a rest for the night, or time out as I call it. She was reassessed again the next morning. I believe at some point x-rays were done, possibly the day before. Everything looked good and they okay'd her to go home. At this point in time, it is crucial to get these young birds back to their families ASAP, so they don't miss vital time, learning to fly, bonding with their siblings at this young stage, and any training from the parents.
I got the news that she was good to go home and also that I was asked if I would like to release her. Hells to yes on that! This would be my first peregrine falcon release at our nest site that I have been helping monitor for over ten years... and my first peregrine release ever. The release happened much later in the day. Another watcher met me there and basically showed me the way to the roof and I opened up the carrier, and out came Angel after a few moments. Doing the release at dark normally ensures the bird stays put for the night, gets its bearings and tries the whole flying thing again the next morning.
Everything has gone well for Angel since that release. She's stayed high above the streets. playing with her brothers and learning how to fend for herself from her parents. A friend of mine caught this image on the cam of all three young together again at the nest ledge where they were born. How awesome!
Please wish Angel and her brothers well as they'll soon be leaving the site, if they haven't already, and going out on their own.
It is unfortunate that some people don't see the good in helping these birds during those first days of flight. I got bashed by someone saying I've interfered with the natural order of things and stole a meal away from a coyote or some other predator by helping Angel. It's one thing if you take a catch away from a predator like some people do, trying to save smaller birds and animals from the clutches of a coyote, fox, hawk, whatever; but picking one up off the street that fell from a nest or bounced off a glass window is entirely different. I try to respect the opinions of others but not when they come at me so harshly, finger pointing and saying "you did a bad thing!"
If anyone is wondering why I do these falcon watches, here is a blog I did for Bird Canada a few years ago that should explain things and has way more photos that this blog that I just did.
See you all again soon. Enjoy the last days of summer!
