Coyote Encounter

Last week Angie and I were on vacation.  I put my camera to use despite my 500 mm lens isn't always working properly as the image stabilizer konks out periodically making for some crappy photos.  The lens is almost 12 years old now and probably needs to be retired.  I've got some saving to do before I can get a replacement.  Poor man problems, you know...

Anyway, we saw "nature" a fair amount last week while off and it has made for some good short blogs like the one I am about to key in here if I can stop rambling.

We went for a walk in an area down the Humber River from us one morning.  There was quite a few dog walkers around which didn't make great for seeing birds and wildlife, especially when the dogs are off leash.  A couple of woman with 2 off leash dogs came up from behind us on a path, we let them pass and get well ahead of us so we could hopefully stay on a peaceful path.

At some point we ended up catching up with them and they were back tracking.  The one woman said to watch out as there was a coyote up around the bend, not moving and just watching them.  They were backing away but this obviously got our curiosity.  We don't see coyotes very often and here we are in the woods with a lot of colorful leaves on the ground.  Maybe I could get a nice photo for our next year's calendar that we make for us, as well as family and friends.  We get around the bend and the coyote is no where to be seen.  We continue along this lovely forested path and hear angry blue jays and crying squirrels.  The coyote probably came through here.

We got out of the wooded area and into a small field of tall grass.  There was a man going through the field with his dog off leash.  Then for a split second I saw the coyote come up from a spot near them and then quickly moved along and away from this human and dog duo.  It disappeared as fast as it appeared.  Angie and I stayed on the paths and headed out to the driveway before going to check out another area for wild ones.  The coyote came out on the driveway just ahead of me, had a quick look in both directions, before continuing forward to the next field.

We didn't see the animal again and hoped it had found a good place to rest for the remainder of the day and not be disturbed by people and or dogs.

I don't think the woman in the background of the photo had any idea about the coyote racing by behind her.  It wanted nothing to do with her little dog either.  Thankfully she kept it on leash while visiting the park, unlike so many others.

Too often when I hear people in the parks telling others about the sighting of a coyote, it's seldom in a positive way.  Like one of my friends said, it is like it is the big bad wolf.  This coyote really wanted nothing to do with any body, human or dog, and was just trying to stay out of sight and rest.  I'd hate to think what would have happened if someone's dog got in the coyote's face, in an aggressive manner, what could have come from that, and in the end it would be the coyote who got the blame for everything.

I always say that we live in our houses but the outdoors belongs to them.  We need to understand, accept and respect that.

Happy Day!

I had a bad sleep last night with a few wake ups throughout the night not of my own doing.  I found myself getting up around 6:40 AM which is much too early for a guy who only went to bed around 12:30 AM.  I put the coffee on and inhaled it rather quickly.  It was so early and now with the java in my system, going back to bed for some more sleep wasn't going to happen.  I decided to grab my jacket and jeans and go for a walk in a park nearby since owls are on the move now and I'd like to see my first saw-whet or long-eared owl of the season.  Just before I was about to leave, I heard a lot of ruckus coming from the backyard.  House sparrows were screaming and the blue jays were going absolutely ballistic.  I knew without a doubt that there was a predator in the yard; but what?  Or should I say "hooooooooo?"

It took little time looking before I spotted a blue jay almost face to face with an eastern screech owl in the tree near our back gate.  Immediately I asked in my head, "is that Little Al"?

A few blue jays strafed the owl as it sat in this tree.  Occasionally the owl hissed at the attackers.  As you can see, I went back for my camera and took some photos on this dark drizzly morning.  I also tried for a video which isn't easy using a 500 mm lens and no tripod (too early, too lazy are my excuses for not having it out there).

This all lasted for a number of minutes before the owl took flight and went straight into the box.  Seconds later it popped its head out and just stayed there at the edge, looking out and about the yard.  It was Little Al, that I am certain of.

He stayed like this for at least 30 minutes and eventually the other birds backed off, leaving him be, and then Little Al started to relax.  I took the pictures from the deck as I didn't want to add to his stress.  I know he knew I was there but I think he also knows that I really don't pose a threat, especially from this distance.  If you have read my past posts about Little Al, I can go about the yard when he is out there and he doesn't flush from the box or even retreat inside.  He barely looks at me.  Heck, last winter Angie made a snow angel not far from the tree while he sat up there, looking down at her.  I should add that video to YouTube for better sharing.  It was something to see.  How many can say that they made a snow angel in the presence of an owl?  Anyway...

Soon after he disappeared inside.  This is the view now from our kitchen window.  No owl to be seen and no birds screaming at the box.  One would never guess that there's one in there.

Here's to the start of a third year with him visiting during the fall and winter season!  

I should add that he shows up sometime in the fall and hangs out here throughout the winter and into March or April.  He's not here everyday, and last year it seemed to be only on the coldest or crappiest of days.  We could have him for two weeks solid and then he's gone for a week or so.  Then he's back.  He sure keeps us guessing.  We were already talking about him a few weeks ago, hoping to see him again this season and he's granted that wish to us.

I know Angie cannot wait to get home from work and hopefully see him later in the day.

Groundhog Hill

A while ago I discovered an online comic panel called Groundhog Hill on Instagram.  I was searching for raccoon comics, or anything with opossums and skunks, since these are our three fairly regular nocturnal visitors that I admire.

I'm not sure which actual comic first caught my eye but from then I looked further into this and was delighted to find more containing these animals.  They are great single panel comics with one sentence and often bring a smile to my face.  Who wouldn't want that every now and then?

Here are a few samples from Groundhog Hill...

Look, all 3 of the mammal crew in one panel!  LOVE!

My heaven most certainly would have a cute little opossum hanging out with me.

Then there's this one.  Unfortunately some don't see the humor in this as they despise raccoons so much.  Sad.

This one really tugged on my heart for a few reasons.

I do my best to promote Groundhog Hill on Facebook as I have a comic album where I share such things every now and then.

Not all the comics are animal related.

Sometimes you have to look for the animal.  Somehow I missed the raccoon the first time I saw the panel.

And sometimes the animals aren't wildlife.  Fur family members make for great topics.  Our cats do this once the chill sets in the air.  We recently turned on the furnace and both Merry and Molly found vents to lay themselves on.  HAHA!  My mom's cat often laid out like the one shown here.

I highly recommend checking out Groundhog Hill on Instagram.  They are on Facebook as well.  As an added story, if you are still reading this...

The artist of Groundhog Hill had an exhibit in Dundas, Ontario early in the fall.  They live in the area and Groundhog Hill is actually a place nearby.  It is part of their inspiration.  Making a long story short, Angie and I talked about the exhibit and checking it out while we were on vacation during my "birthday week".  Not that I celebrate my birthday all week but we normally take a week off around it as the weather is nice, finally breaking out of the hot humid summer.

Leading up to our vacation, Angie contacted Rose (the artist) and they got talking about us coming to the show.  Rose was delighted to hear this and made sure to be present on the day we were going.  She wanted to meet us as much as we to her.  She's been grateful of my support of her work.  So when we did meet that afternoon, it was wonderful to be face to face, and not "chatting" through social media.

Here we are, and me holding Rose's book that she gave to me as a token of appreciation/birthday gift.  Yay!  I can "visit" Groundhog Hill through the pages whenever I want instead of looking at my phone.  

Rose had an amazing run with her exhibit and it was almost a complete sell out.  We picked up this original, that apparently came to be through some inspiration because of my pigeon posts.  It says "I could do that!".  Hilarious!!!

Angie was wondering if Rose did commissions.  A quick browse of her website and we learned that she does.  Angie had an idea for one and funny as so did I.  Mine was a bench with a raccoon, skunk and an opossum sitting on it.  There was a sign nearby that said "Mueller Sanctuary".  I haven't come up with any one liners and maybe I don't need to.  Angie thought that was a cute idea but liked her's better which is a back view of me and some of our backyard critters.  You know, a pigeon in my hand, a raccoon near my feet and a few other species scattered about.  It would say "Rob and the Animals" at the bottom.  Wow!  I really like that idea.  

Skipping ahead... the commission is complete.  Angie has seen pics of it and teased me over the Thanksgiving weekend by flashing her phone screen past me rather quickly.  I could see well enough that it was the commission but couldn't take in any of what actually was there.  OH MAN!!!  We are planning to meet Rose at the end of the month when we are on vacation again.  So as I key this, we are still a few weeks away from the moment where I get to see it with my own eyes and not just this visual that I have drawn up in my head.  I'm sure I will love it  

Skipping ahead a little more... okay, here we are after the meeting which actually happened a week before vacation due to busy schedules, the commission is at home with us and I LOVE IT!!!!!  What do you think?  Raccoon, skunk, opossum family which I dream of seeing instead individuals (although we did have a mom here the summer of 2022 and the cam caught her with one baby), pigeon in my hand, squirrel in the tree and there's a little owl further up.  Then there's me with my TWC volunteer hoodie and my backyard crocs.  Perfect!

The world can be pretty dark and grim at times; escaping to Groundhog Hill sure is nice when possible.  I think we are going to visit the real place one of these days.

Invasion

As we move through autumn and enjoy what fall migration can bring to our yard, something that is standing out this year is the invasion of common grackles.  We do experience this every year but only a day here, another day there; not like this year where it has been over a week of daily visitors by the hundreds.  Hundreds?  Yes, easily 200 plus I have counted every morning.

It's been loud, crazy and fun.  The only thing is how quickly they decimate my peanut feeders and the food isn't cheap.  What hasn't gone up by ridiculous amounts, eh?

We don't keep many feeders out these days.  I can think back to some years ago where there was at least 7 different feeders scattered throughout our yard.  Right now, there's a peanut ring for whole peanuts, a small metal feeder for shelled peanuts, a small feeder for black oil sunflower and there's a pure suet cake hanging in our lilac for the woodpeckers.

With the mass amounts of grackles, I'm only putting out a couple handfuls of peanuts.  I know they're loading up for their trip south soon, and I don't mind helping to some degree.  There's three other nearby backyards with bird feeders so this also helps them out, and I don't feel so bad about my decision to cut back on the food.

Here's a video from this morning after they all arrived.  I'm trying something new below so you don't need to click on that link.  Hopefully this worked.  I'm not tech savvy.

Yesterday afternoon the grackles showed up again after I put some peanuts out for the blue jays.  I noticed one unique looking grackle in the flock.

It was hard to stay on this bird since there was so many grackles out there and they all flushed in a flash fairly regularly for whatever reason.  It would be many minutes before they all started coming back one by one and eventually this bird would appear.  I've been keeping watch this morning for him to reappear but so far he hasn't.  He's cool and funky looking!  I thought about that quote... 

"They laugh at me because I look different.  I laugh at them because they all look the same."

His appearance made me enjoy the invasion a little more.

I know with the mass numbers of these birds here, that they've pushed other species away.  I've seen white-throated sparrows who normally stick around in the fall for a few days if not months but all have left soon after being seen.  Dark-eyed juncos are usually here in small numbers by now and staying.  Again, just one offs for a very brief bit and then gone.  Both ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets made shorter than usual appearances.  I was happy when a white-breasted nuthatch showed up the other morning but he too didn't stick around once these guys showed up.

I don't hate these birds by any means but after over a week of steady appearances in such numbers, I won't be sad to see them move along on their journey south soon.  Unless I win the lottery this week.  HAHA!

Missing Gulliver

I haven't seen my pigeon friend Gulliver since the Labor Day long weekend.  I miss her.  I have made a lot of pigeon friends in the last 11 years but some really touch me more than others, where we have a unique bond, and our encounters aren't all about just me being the guy with the food in his hand.  Gulliver was one of them.

She tolerated me and all my selfies over the last 2 years.

All I ever had to do with her most days is hold out my hand and she would come right to me.

The last number of months I always looked out for her.  More so than usual.  I didn't really think as to why but I am now aware that she effected me emotionally.  They all do, but she did more so.  Seeing her and having those moments every day made me a little happier.  I didn't realize that until her disappearance.  If that makes sense.  And add that every time she showed up in the yard on a weekend and I wasn't near the window to spot her, Angie would let me know that Gulliver was outside.  Quite often my breakfast or dinner got a little cold as I went out to see her before I ate.

The first days of her disappearance, I held out hope every morning that she would return.  After 10 days or so, I silently mourned the loss of my friend.  She's still in my thoughts quite often while I am outside.

I have reminded myself how Pierre disappeared for 60+ days a few times during the winter months.  Charlie goes away for even longer spells, up to 5 months.  She's been away all summer but has recently started showing up again.  Maybe this is Gulliver's turn to pull a disappearing act?  It just wouldn't be like her to do so after over two years of visiting; but then again it wasn't the other birds thing to do until they did it.

I have learned to take in the good moments with our wild friends because you never really know when may be the last time that you see them.  So many pigeons before her have left one day and didn't return.

Thinking back to the last day with Gulliver, the air show at the CNE was ramping up for the long weekend.  The Blue Angels were flying very low over our neighbourhood every afternoon.  They were so loud too!  Their fly overs would spook the birds.  I took this photo from the park right by our home.  I had full zoom on the 500 mm lens but the image is not cropped.

On top of the loud scary jets, there was one or two cooper's hawks in the neighbourhood because it is their migration time, and they were chasing all the birds here.  I found a few piles of pigeon feathers in the yard.  Thankfully none matched Gulliver's.  Of course I feel sorry for the ones that ended up becoming lunch to a hawk but I also accept that this is their wild way of life.

Do I think that a hawk got her?  I'd like to think that was not the case.  Gulliver's mate is missing as well along with some of the others in that flock.  A couple of the others that we have named, are also missing now.  After that "scary" long weekend for them, a bird we call Gandalf went from daily appearances to one or two visits a week and is now MIA for a few weeks.  Another named Buzz, similar to Gandalf.

Anyone remember the pair that I called the Jerseys?  Them, along with Mrs Pierre, and a bunch of others all flew away one fall day and never came back.  I believe that they had enough of the cooper's hawk attacks and went to a safer feeding place.  The last week they were here, they were on edge, and their visits were no more than 2 or 3 minutes before being spooked away.  Pigeons are much smarter than what many people believe.

Fingers crossed that she surprises me one day with her return.  

Here's a handful of pictures of her if you care to see a little more of her and our times together.

Fun at Halloween.  I know I have some Santa hat Christmas shots somewhere that I could also share.

Playing in the fall colours.

Enjoying one of the first really nice days of spring.

Cold winter days with some snow made for fun photo opps.

I swear she got jealous when I wasn't "focusing" on her.  HA HA!

She really is a beautiful bird to behold and obviously stood out from the flock.

Our message to the pigeon haters of the world...

Have you ever befriended one of your backyard visitors?  Please share in the comments if yes.  I'd love to read about them.

My 750th Bird Release

 

Friday September 01, 2023 was a very special day for me as I released my 750th bird for the Toronto Wildlife Centre.  The majority of these birds were FLAP rescues during spring and fall migration while others came from "unique situtations" like cat attacks, string-toed pigeons, oil spills and the list goes on.

I'm glad that I decided to keep track of all my drives in and out of TWC ever since I officially became a volunteer driver back in 2014.  Occasionally I will skim through the pages after entering something because some of the short notes take me back to one of these drives.  A stand out moment with a bird and sometimes a stand out moment with a person who found the animal.

I had booked the day off to go see W.A.S.P. with Angie along with some of my long time pals from high school days.  The lead singer Blackie Lawless has been struggling with some back issues and tried to finish this 40th anniversary tour but the pain and discomfort finally got the best of him.  He hopes to get back on the road sometime in 2024.  With this cancellation, I had the day to myself.  Angie and my concert buds were all working.  I decided to let some people at the wildlife centre know that I was available to help them with anything if need be.  They thanked me and said that they would get back to me by the end of Thursday if they knew of anything by then.  Great plan as if there's nothing, it gave me time to think of something else to do with my Friday off.  Then as you can guess, come later Thursday they asked if I could drive a couple birds down to the lake west of Toronto for release.  You know what my answer was.

I was pretty excited about this upcoming release opportunity as I knew one of these little birds was going to be my 750th release.  I asked what the species were, which normally I don't because it doesn't matter what they are, I will drive them (no picking and choosing, all birds matter); but I wanted to know for this milestone.  It is still summer and there's lots of leaves on the trees.  More often than not, during this time of year, the birds fly out of the paper bag and quickly disappear into the trees.  It's all over in a flash and I don't see much of them, let alone identify them especially fall warblers which are already a challenge as some really change their plumage between breeding season (spring) and autumn.  Then if it is a female or juvenile, that can make it even more difficult.  I was told there was a bay-breasted warbler and a Nashville warbler.  Here are the two species as immature or possibly females, there would be slight differences if they were males but nothing significant like if it was a cardinal and a blue jay.  I borrowed these images from the All About Birds website.  Bay-breasted is the top bird and Nashville is the bottom.  Looking at the images, you can see some differences; but if you have a split second while the tiny bird is in flight before it disappears into the foliage, you probably wouldn't pick up wing bars on the bay-breasted as one example.

I was doing this release solo (Angie joins me when possible) and wanted to somehow document it.  I always hope for a photo to share but with the challenges I expected, what else could I do?  Video?  Yes.  But how?  I had lots of time to think about this before the release moment.  

When the time came, I set up my phone close to where I was releasing the birds, propping it up against something and I hit record.  Here is the release and you can see how quickly it happens, how tiny that bird is, and that it disappears in the trees in mere seconds.  Knowing the bird was either of the two mentioned species made it much easier to look for the field marks in those seconds especially if I did lose it in the trees afterwards.

https://youtu.be/1kkRghTwCmE?si=i2V3yZIMuFY_0ZJ4

Luck was on my side and I was able to get two record shots of the bird as well.

The Nashville flew higher up in the same tree and I did not see it again.

It's funny thinking about the time building up to the release moment.  Then the actual release and how quickly that ended.  After the fact, I hung on to this throughout the weekend, having my own little toasts here and there.  Maybe some think this is silly but man that's a lot of birds!  I'm never bragging.  This is something I help with in my spare time, often before work.  The majority of the fall releases happen in the same area.  It is a 12 km drive from home to the centre, and usually takes me 30 minutes to get there because of city traffic.  Thirty minutes is good time nowadays.  Then from the centre to the release area is 29 km.  Again, another 30 minutes (it's mostly highway).  So I've got at least one hour of driving and just over 40 km of distance to release a bird, sometimes, two, maybe four or five the odd day.  Who knows until the day of pick up.  The actual time spent releasing can be mere seconds to maybe five minutes.  The birds don't go to our backyard or one of my favourite local birding spots like someone once suggested.  Weird how some people think and the drama they try to create.  

I've been asked how many animals have I brought in to the centre, followed by how many got back out to the wild again.  I know the intake is near 100 but I have no idea how many got back out.  It's a very busy place with thousands of animals coming in over the year and difficult to follow up on them individually.  I do try at times with some of the more unique situations, especially if they've come from our neighbourhood.  The people at the centre do their best for all of the creatures.

I tried to make a bird list of what I have driven.  Here it is although I may be missing a couple still.  The animal list is easier to keep track of and I can run it without much thought...  squirrel, skunk, raccoon, opossum and a couple bats.

White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, House Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Indigo Bunting

Downy Woodpecker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker

Cedar Waxwing

Brown Creeper

Barn Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Least Flycatcher

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

Yellow Warbler
Ovenbird
Blackburnian
Common Yellowthroat
Black-throated Green
Black-throated Blue
Tennesse
Orange-crowned
Northern Parula
Blackpoll
Nashville
Wilson's
Black & White
Bay-breasted
Mourning
Magnolia
Pine
Canada
Redstart
Northern Waterthrush
Chestnut-sided

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Gray Catbird

Red-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk

Peregrine Falcon

Great Horned Owl
Eastern Screech Owl

Mallard Duck
Wood Duck

Long-tailed Duck

Ring-billed Gull

Canada Goose

Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Swainson's
Veery

Robin

Brown Headed Cowbird

Woodcock

Common Nighthawk

Goldfinch
House Finch

Black-capped Chickadee

Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Brown Thrasher
Scarlet Tanager

Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove

European Starling

Black-billed Cuckoo
Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Yellow Rail
Virginia Rail

Sora

There are roughly 300 bird species that nest in Ontario.  Just over 80 species here is a good chunk of them; and I am not aiming to get through them all.  It's just been fun to keep track of the species as I go along.  Odd to think that I have only released one white-crowned sparrow yet I have released at least five scarlet tanagers.  I see dozens of these sparrows throughout a calendar year whereas I am lucky if I see more than one or two tanagers.  That's just my Virgo brain overthinking things.  HA!

Okay, time to start my day.  The extra long "long weekend" is over.

Thanks for stopping in and giving this a read.

Have a great week!

Peregrine Post 2023

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!

Longer Than I Thought...

Hello.  Is anyone still out there?  Thanks to Eva for the "poke" of sorts in way of a comment on an older blog, checking in.  Seeing when I last blogged, I have been gone long than I thought.

Life got pretty busy.  We went through a kitchen reno that took almost a month; and we still don't have a kitchen table to finish the room off.  I found myself being unwell a lot through the first half of the year as well.  I got pretty sick over Christmas and it went on for over 3 weeks.  Then in March I got sick again.  Then in May.  I thought I was finally better but then BOOM, sick again in June.  Knocking on wood that things are better for me health wise.  Plus, just not blogging for a while, I fell out of the want or need to blog.  One other reason, my 500 mm lens is acting up.  I had it in for the auto-focus and then not long after I got it back, the image stabilizer started acting up.  It's temper mental and frustrates me.  I've debated on sending it back in for service.  Angie is pushing me to get a new lens.  But, the thought of dropping over $3,000 for a new lens weirds me out.  That's a lot of money!

Okay, enough rambling...  let's catch up a little bit here.

I recall blogging about finding a dead screech owl on the main road by us.  I was sad, thinking it may have been our backyard visitor Little Al as he went MIA.  Did I ever blog that he came back sometime after me finding that dead one?  He spent less time this past winter with us as it was fairly mild and we didn't get much precipitation.  Little Al seems to visit us when it is bitter cold and especially if the weather is crappy.  I was sooooooooooooooooooo happy to see him back at the box; and yes, I was still sad about finding that other one.  Here's Little Al late this winter.  The Master of Camouflage!  He disappeared sometime in March and we hope returns again later in the fall.

More recently, we just got back from a trip to see Angie's brother and family in Okotoks, Alberta.  It was a mix of seeing family and taking in some of what Alberta has to offer in way of nature.  Angie hired us a guide for one of the days, taking us out to various spots and trying to see birds that we do not get to see in Ontario.  I ended up with over 15 life birds!  I haven't stayed on top of my life list so while we were out there, I had a feeling I was nearing my 300th bird, but not sure how close I was to it.  I ended up surpassing the 300 mark and figured things out after we got home and reviewed my list.  It turns out my 300th bird was a Swainson's hawk.  If only I knew it was my 300th when seeing it, I would have been more excited to see this bird species and I would have tried for a better photo than this one from down the road, shooting out of the car window.

One of the bigger thrills for me on that trip was seeing male mountain bluebirds.  I had seen a female here in Ontario a few years ago.  It was a terribly cold and windy day when we went to see that bird; but seeing the stunning males on a pleasant summer morning sure was better.

Another lifer was the American white pelican.  I saw these birds as a teenager down in Clearwater Beach, Florida; but didn't add it to my list until I saw one as now being a "bird nerd".  We saw about 16 at Frank Lake and another half dozen at a park called Douglasbank in Calgary.

Golden eagle was another life bird.  We saw adults flying and this juvenile still in the nest up and in a cliff.  The views were okay but not great for photos.

A few hundred feet over there was a prairie falcon.  The bird sat on top of the cliff and occasionally took flight, screeching as it circled above us.

I will spare you more crappy life bird shots.  How about one, not a lifer, but prior to this trip, I had only ever seen these birds down in Nevada.  Yellow-headed blackbirds.  A dime a dozen in Alberta but only a few small pockets here in Ontario that I know about.  Stunning birds!

A real highlight from the trip was seeing some bears.  I haven't seen a wild bear since I was 6 or 7 years old when we would be up north and stop in at a dump after dinner.  The bears were all black bears even though a few weren't black; they were cinnamon colored black bears.  Who knew?!?!  Not me, that's for sure.  We saw a "cinnamon" mother with two cubs, one of which was also cinnamon colored.

We also saw a large male black bear on our last full day in Alberta in the foothills.  He was on the other side of the road from us.  I spotted him as we were driving.  I quickly pulled over and we got out.  I slowly and quietly walked along the road, staying on the other side from him and kept going until I was pretty much directly across from the bear.  I wanted a better photo than just "bum shots".  Once I got that photo, knowing the bear was aware of my presence, I backed away, not making too much noise or fuss if you know what I mean.  I have almost no experience around wild bears, and he probably had little concern about me, but I played it extra cautious.

Here at home, Merry and Molly are doing great.  It's hard to believe we just had our 8th anniversary with them.  Where does the time go?

Frankie our rescue budgie is just fine.  We are at 9 months with him here living with us.

Sadly, our rescue leopard gecko Norbert suddenly, and unexpectedly, passed away earlier this week.  Even though he made no sound, the house seems quieter without him.  We enjoyed his company in the living room for nearly 9 years; and we had no idea how old he was when we took him in.

There's more in my head to throw in this blog but I will stop it here.  Hopefully this will entice me to get back on here soon and share something else, like our recent Etobicoke peregrine falcon fledge watch.  I do have a unique story to tell about a rescue I did; but all the rescues are unique.

Anyway, if you happen to catch this blog, please say "hello" in the comments.  It may also help me get back in the swing of blogging more regularly.  

Cheers!