Meet Layton the Falcon

Well lookit this, I might actually key out another blog this week... two in two days! Lets hope for no interruptions and get this one going now.

Most of you are aware of our Falcon watching adventures through June, mostly at the Etobicoke Sunlife buildings at Islington and Bloor. I kinda got lost in the summer and some Falcon events, back and forth with some work hours going from a morning shift to an afternoon shift, which has really messed things up. But I got to finish the tales of the watch, from my point of view sooner than later (it's already a blurry bunch of bits now).

I want to tell you about the first bird to fledge from the nest this year, her name is Layton, and she is named after Jack Layton. Seems famous Canadians was the theme at some of the sites. If you have been following my blog, you might remember her from the last and probably only blog I did of the Sunlife Falcon Fledge Watch of 2013. If you missed it, here it is.

Like that blog tells, I spent about 5.5 hours face to face with Layton the day she took her first flight. She was rescued that one time and has been a star flier ever since. I recon she never wants to touch ground, be handled by humans or put in a cat carrier ever again. What has amazed me with her, is that from the day after her rescue and release, she suddenly was learning really fast on what it takes to be a great Falcon. She flew fast, hard and was agile in no time... and vocal too! In mere days we'd be seeing her out and about more so than on the nest ledge.

The first real notice of how quickly she was learning was when I showed up after work early the next week to help with the watch and heard her screaming above me. Why was she screaming? She was playing with her father, Jack! Jack is an amazing dad and an amazing Falcon. I will tell stories about Jack one of these days. I was in awe to watch Layton right on Jack's tail high above us. She was having a blast and keeping up with him. They flew about the buildings for a couple minutes and then Jack lead Layton right to the nest ledge. He landed. She landed right in behind him. Jack took one look at her and then flew off, and Layton stayed there on the ledge. It was almost like Jack knows Layton is young bird and she needs to build her strength and endurance over time, so him leading her home, was like he said "okay kid, time for a rest". Layton chilled out for a few hours after that. I was so happy I got to see this occur between dad and daughter.

Jack being chased by Layton, notice how the much larger the young female is over her dad?

Jack on his way out after dropping Layton off.

Dinner time for the 3 other chicks as Layton was layed out after the big flight with dad.

A few days later I was rewarded in seeing Layton and Jack having another go at it in the sky. The show was longer this time and they were lower at some points, higher at others, and disappeared behind the Sunlife building too. It was spectacular!

Seeing Layton's progression was thrilling. But we always have concerns about a young bird growing up so fast and perhaps getting a little too over confident in their ways. Fortunately for us at ESL, we never had an issue with Layton getting into trouble again.

We were more focused on her 3 siblings now but it was always a blast to see what Layton would show us next. And a couple days after her last play time that I saw with Jack, she showed me something new, something I have heard about with Falcons but never witnessed... food transfers! Basically an adult comes in with dinner and gets the young Falcon to fly up to the parent, upon which they release the meal, and the younger bird catches it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. But we watched Layton do two food transfers over 3 hours and both were successful. I missed taking pics of the first one because I was too blown away and wanted to see it all with my own eyes and not through the camera. Of course after the fact I was kinda wishing I got something to share with others and keep for a memory. So how great it was for a second transfer to happen mere hours later! We heard the screaming, saw mom O'Conner come flying in with a kill and thought she'd be bringing it to the ledge for her siblings. As she neared, we heard Layton and saw her race after mom. And the transfer happened. Angie, Bruce and myself were cheering her on from the street below. Here's some of that action that I am delighted to share with you all.

Layton coming up under O'Conner.

Great release by mom and catch by daughter!

Layton races off with her prize.

Here's mom O'Conner after the second food transfer. What a Falcon she is! We have many stories about her.

As fellow watcher Bruce put it, "we just had our reward for all the hours we've put in with these birds".

Another day or so later, I'm down at the watch. It's pretty quiet until these old guys from the condo to the east of the nest building decide to come up to the roof top and enjoy some sun. Well, O'Conner was not having any of this and immediately flew in on these guys, screaming her disapproval at them and swooping down over their heads. The guys were waving their arms up in the air at mom, and one guy jumped a few times trying to hit her with his hand. A stupid move on this guy's part and mom's talons sure could do some damage to him. But mom didn't let up. I wanted to yell and scream at these guys but I'm in the alley behind The Longest Yard, so I am across Bloor Street from them and 20 some odd stories below (no way they could hear me). And there I am without my camera! Argh! So I could do nothing more than watch. Moments after mom flew in on the defense, I heard a familiar scream and soon had my visual of young Layton joining the fray with O'Conner. I could tell she really wasn't sure what to do but she just followed mom and repeated everything she did. So now these guys had two Falcons strafing them and neither were giving up. Like mother, like daughter I guess. The guys were now high tailing it for the door to get inside again. But just before they did, there were more Falcon screams, and Layton's smaller sister Shania was now off the nest ledge and coming to help. I was mind blown by this! I won't forget this but am sorry I have no images, crappy and cropped as most are that I get from this watch, but something to share. Oh well. I'm sure you all can paint a better visual in your head than what my shots could have shown you.

Ya, that was pretty awesome and the fact that Shania, who fledged a few days after Layton, was out and on the attack too. The other 2 siblings were slower to get motivated and fledge but they have their own stories I hope to share before the fall.

And as we waited for Lil Big Frank and Lizzie to take flight, we enjoyed Layton and Shania's playing in the sky above us.

Here is Shania on Layton's tail. They were having a lot of fun up there.

And they took turns on who was chasing who. As you can see here, Layton is now on "the attack" after Shania. I forgot to mention that Layton has a green tape band, Shania has a red one. It makes for easier and quicker identifying during the fledge watch.

We are now about 6.5 weeks since I took those last shots. And though the watch has ended, I still visit the site, even momentarily every couple weeks. I see the young birds high above us and it's hard to tell who is who most times due to the height and angles. I've discovered a favorite roost of Layton's, or so I think, since I've found her there a number of times in the recent times. It warms my heart to see her doing so well (so are her siblings but this blog is about Layton).

I tell people that I know without any doubt Layton will be a recognized nesting mother in the next couple years, somewhere in North America. I only hope it's somewhere not too far off that we can go and visit our girl.

Please wish Layton all the best when she leaves home come fall migration!

Layton and Shania, first to fledge

I can't believe almost 3 weeks has gone by since we started the Peregrine Falcon fledge watch at Etobicoke Sunlife.  And so much has happened throughout.

I had no idea what this watch was going to be like, how it would feel with Big Frank gone.  But with a mutual friend named Bruce stepping into Frank's big shoes, he sure made it a lot easier than what I had been envisioning.  Bruce put in 14-16 hr days for nearly 2 weeks!  I racked up over 40 hours in 10 days myself and Angie also put in more hours than ever before.  The Falcons had even more support from others as they have for a number of years with Kathy and Bailie in the area a lot throughout the days.  Others deserving mention include Sandra and Rene, plus our friends Dave and Andi made a couple stop ins, and Cori all the way from Scarborough another day,  to see how things were going.

It's been a difficult watch at times, very exciting at others, and a lot of the time just boring as all get out waiting for something to happen.  The company was great, the weather was perfect, so that certainly helped.  But after hours and hours of nothing some days, it's just exhausting.  And then when the stress hits when the young birds start bouncing around...  hoo boy!  I had a few moments where I was gasping watching them.

I wish I took notes throughout this as so much is crammed in my memory now and with this sudden heat wave, I'm just plain exhausted, but really need to get some of this out of me and to whoever cares to give this a read.

The first chick to fledge (take flight from the nest) was Layton.  A female, the heaviest of the bunch, and named after Jack Layton.  It was agreed with those involved to name these birds after some famous Canadians.  I was at work when Layton took flight, actually I was just getting ready to pack it in for the weekend, as it was about 1:55pm on Friday June 14th when she flew.  It was no surprise that she ended up in need of rescue from the watchers later that evening.  Females are the heavier of the two sexes and almost always need help the first flights out, it's just the way it is.

But I raced down there in high excitement knowing we had a fledge that day.  I had bet the first fledge being on this day, and on Big Frank going first, since usually the males do take flight first; but whatever, we finally had one off the ledge.  By the time I got there around 3:15pm or so, Layton had got herself into a spot where she would spend the next 5 hours with me, face to face, before I left for the day.  She was just to the side of the south entrance to Sunlife, about 15 ft above the walk, and maybe 20 ft away from Bloor Street.

The funny thing through our encounter was all the passersby that wondered what the heck I was looking at, or we if Angie or Kathy were there with me.  It was Kathy who gave me the idea to stand in front of her along the way, hopefully keeping her from getting the idea of flying down into the street.  The ledge she was in was pretty tight and if you weren't looking right at it, you missed it.  So here I am with the big Sigma pointed up a few times, towel over my shoulder, and for the most part just looking right up at her.  I'd say 3 in 20 people asked me what I was so focused on.  And then they were quite thrilled at the sight.  One guy though, he was really curious but wouldn't ask.  He kept looking around the area to the right of me, and of course he was missing the bird completely.  He then leaned on the wall in front of me, totally clueless a Peregrine Falcon was over his head.  I could tell he wasn't playing with a full deck so I kept my focus on Layton, or appeared to be, just not making eye contact with this man.  Next thing I know he's leaning on the same light standard that I am, opposite side to me of course, and still out of eye line with the bird, and suddenly he starts singing "Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head"!  What the hell dude?!?!

Raindrops keep falling on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Crying's not for me
Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothing's worrying me 

I wanted to laugh out loud.  But I stayed quiet and on the bird.  Eventually the guy walked away, still turning every now and then to look in my direction.  8:30pm was coming up, both Angie and I had been up since about 4:15am, and with Bruce and Kathy still on watch, we said "goodnight" to them and of course Layton as well.

We were barely home half an hour and we get a call from Bruce that Layton came down to the sidewalk and they picked her up, with a bit of chase across Bloor, and up it too.  She was released back on the roof about 10pm that night.

We spent a lot of the weekend at Sunlife, probably 6 hours each day.  Not much happened through those days with the young birds.

But come Monday June 17th, it was Shania's turn to take flight.  She had a rougher go of it than Layton, a few more bounces and tumbles, many hours on some condo window ledges, Pigeon netting, a flight over the houses south of Bloor Street and tried to make it up to the nest ledge without success and I watched her strike the reflective glass.  My heart was in my throat as I watched her struggle to make the climb to get up there, not realize the glass is a solid structure, hit it and tumble down the side of the building, trying to grasp at the glass without any luck of course and come to the ground out of sight of us due to the mezzanine on the second level.  I knew the strike wasn't fatal and she worked hard to stay in the air, which helped break her fall.  But I still felt some panic when she disappeared.

Here is Shania hanging off someone's balcony.  

Shania around the other side of the condo, just above Bloor Street, hanging off someone's screen window.  You can see the look of "what the hell am I doing?" on her.

She spent maybe 15 minutes on this window before darting off and flying south across Bloor into the neighbourhood.

As the minutes passed, which seemed like forever, waiting for her to pop up somewhere, all sorts of crazy worrying thoughts went through my head.  You can probably nail a few of them if you think about it.  And then suddenly she popped up, almost exactly where her sister Layton did a few days earlier, just on the opposite side of the entrance way.  Go figure!  Maybe she watched her sister from above on Friday?  I'm drawing a blank on how long this went on for, I just know it wasn't nearly as long as Layton's stay up there, as it was later in the day.  In the end, the bird beat me in the staring contest, and I just had to get my butt home and to bed for the 4:30am wake up.  And just like Layton, Shania came down to the sidewalk less than half an hour after I left the nest site.

Oh Shania...  you and your siblings are giving me gray hair!

Stay tuned for more on our local Falcon family!