WINDSOR, Ont. -- Leslie Papia was sure that a peregrine falcon was hanging around her backyard in LaSalle. George Conway thought the falcon was visiting his Amherstburg home. Another LaSalle resident, who didn’t want to be named, said that she shooed the falcon off her fence after it attacked other birds in the area.
Nancy Phillips, the president of Wings Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, said she received around 10 calls by early Tuesday afternoon from residents who thought they found the male falcon that went missing from the rehabilitation centre Friday.
“We’ve called most people back; we’ve had extensive conversations. A lot of them are just birds of prey, probably red-tailed hawks,” said Phillips. “I don’t think people know what they’re looking for.”
Papia said the bird that had been flying around in her backyard appeared to be acting strangely and looked large enough to be a falcon.
“It hasn’t left these two yards, which is kind of odd,” she said, adding it had been there for around two weeks. She said the bird is “huge” and had a hard time sitting up.
A nest and three birds were found near her house, meaning the bird she saw was most likely not the falcon.
Conway, who lives closer to the rehabilitation centre, noticed a large bird around his house on Sunday.
“This morning, we heard this bird calling. I would say it was a falcon, it looked very much like a falcon,” he said. “His behaviour is not normal, they don’t usually sit travelling distance of a human being.”
Phillips said Conway’s bird is probably not the peregrine falcon because of its flying habits.
“This bird is definitely flying, it’s definitely not him,” she said, adding that falcons are very distinctive.
“These guys are black and white, they’re very vivid in colour. They would be the size from your wrist to your elbow,” she said.
The falcon would also be sluggish and wouldn’t be flying as often as a healthy bird.
The young bird was one of two chicks that hatched in May on the Windsor side of the Ambassador Bridge, where they nested. The second bird, a female, didn’t survive, but the male was taken in by Wings after it broke its wing in late June.
A hole was found in the falcon’s outdoor cage on Friday.
After examining the area, police said the hole was not made by an animal.
“There were no hole marks and the hole wasn’t there the night before, when the animal was last fed,” said Joan Lovell, a senior constable with the Amherstburg police. “It doesn’t make sense … the bird would not have exited.”
While Lovell wouldn’t confirm theft this early in the investigation, Phillips thinks that is likely what happened.
“We were really hoping it had been a rodent. Now I’ve been told today it’s definitely not that. I’ve been doing this 30 years,” she said. “To not have an ending is really maddening.”
Still, Phillips is hopeful.
“I’m hoping that if he did escape, someone will find him and we can identity him by his X-rays. I’m hoping that will come to light in the next few days.”
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