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Falcon earns wings and freedom after helping to control gulls at Alta. landfill
EDMONTON — A nine-year-old peregrine falcon who has spent the last few months harassing and even killing nuisance gulls as part of a unique program at a city landfill site, was released back into the wild in a ceremony Sunday.
The bird's handler, Steve Schwartze, who owns Falcon Ecosystem Solutions, based in Lethbridge, Alta., said he realized the time had come for the bird to really spread her wings when she began leaving the landfill site and flying to areas east and south of Edmonton.
He thought the falcon, named Val, was perhaps ripe to establish her own territory and eventually even find a mate to help replenish the endangered species.
Schwartze, 25, a native of the Toronto area, hoped that Val would adapt easily to life back in the wild, now that she's experienced at hunting and killing gulls.
"The only difference when she kills a gull or a pigeon, is that there won't be a guy in a hard hat to pick her up and take her home at the end of the day," he said.
The falcon first came into captivity about eight years ago when she struck a power line in southern Saskatchewan and broke her wing.
Jim Kroshus, a hobbyist falconer in Moose Jaw, Sask., worked with the rehabilitated falcon for several years, setting her on prey such as partridge and other game birds.
But he felt she wasn't living up to her full potential because of strict provincial regulations that prevented her from hunting the quicker and stronger gulls.
Last December, in a chat with Schwartze who is licensed to perform nuisance bird control at the Edmonton Waste Management Ltd., site, Kroshus made the decision to put her to work in Alberta.
It was a steep learning curve for a bird who had spent most of her life in school classrooms educating children about peregrine falcons, or diving over quiet fields in rural Saskatchewan, said Schwartze.
"A bird that's gone eight years flying around the stubble fields of southern Saskatchewan hunting partridges, you take them into a landfill where there's heavy machinery and buildings and new elements, they immediately want to fly away," he said.
Val and Schwartze's stable of over a dozen falcons and hawks ply their services at landfill sites, golf courses, airports and private property around Alberta - one of only a handful of such companies in Canada.
Similar methods are used by firms in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia, Schwartze said.
Schwartze is already training Val's replacement, four-month-old Jenna, who is among the first to be raised at an Alberta landfill site, which will hopefully get her used to the noise and flying near buildings.
He said she's already "dog fighting" gulls in mid-air, honing her hunting skills.
"While I'd love to kill no gulls, it's important that they're constantly re-educated on what a falcon's presence may mean to them," he said.
The Edmonton landfill site, owned by the Houston-based company, uses devices similar to firecrackers to scare the gulls. But two years ago, realizing they couldn't bury the garbage fast enough to deter an increasing number of gulls, company spokesman Cam Hantiuk said they decided to reintroduce a falcon program.
"We felt simply, as a good neighbour with the rest of our neighbours in the area, that we would start to more aggressively manage the gulls again," he said.
It's not a new approach to such problems, Hantiuk said, and has been used at other landfill sites in Canada.
"We've been very, very pleased with the results," Hantiuk said.
Peregrine falcon populations began declining in the 1950s, mainly due to the widespread use of DDT used to kill mosquitoes and other pests.
By the 1970s, when several countries had banned the pesticide, the Canadian Wildlife Service in Wainwright, Alta., began repopulating the species in Canada.
The Canadian Peregrine Foundation said that effort has paid off with nesting pairs now in several communities, including Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary and Edmonton.
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greetings Aafke
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at night? Some where on the TS building? Just wondering ???
funny 
[/url]Archer in nest, Beauty on edge.<a href="
[/url]Archer leaves and Beauty in nest.<a href="
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The smiley window is bigger and better, I like it. 
Thanx!
rolling around in the hay. Sooo cute.
