An injured peregrine falcon, nursed back to health at a Napanee wildlife centre, was set free into the skies over Kingston again yesterday amid fears one of its main sources of food is being poisoned.
Sue Meech, director of the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre, brought the female raptor back to the city to release it near where it was injured in late March in a confrontation with an Ontario Street apartment building.
She warned the bird's future health could depend on stopping whoever has been putting out the chemical Avitrol to rid the downtown of one of the falcon's favourite meals -- pigeons.
Meech said two pigeons suffering from the effects of the chemical have been brought to her centre.
"If people have only brought in two that are still alive there are probably a hundred out there that have been killed," she said.
She explained Avitrol is not designed to kill pigeons but to confuse them so they will fly around in circles emitting distress calls.
"It's supposed to scare all the other pigeons away," she said, "(but) if it's not mixed properly or if a pigeon eats too much then the pigeon dies.
"It's a horrible death."
She said the danger to the falcon would come from eating pigeons contaminated with the chemical. "They die," she said.
Meech's fear for the falcon's future was tempered by the pleasure of watching it fly away on two healthy wings yesterday.
The bird was brought to the waterfront next to the Pump House Steam Museum in a cardboard box covered by a small blanket. Once the covering was removed, the falcon swept low over the grass and soared up into the sky.
Another of those watching was Carolyn Teeple, who first saw the falcon coming towards her building at 135 Ontario St. in late March and thought it was landing on her 15th floor balcony.
When she went to check on it, it appeared to want to take off again but couldn't.
"After a while I went out with two oven mitts and a big towel to see if it was injured but it just went down into the crevice between the deck and the glass railing."
"So I started phoning. I was a little bit annoyed because I went through the phone book and phoned everybody I could find."
She said a half hour later what appeared to be the bird's mate came along, sat for a few minutes, and then flew off again.
The bird remained trapped and obviously injured for about two hours, she said.
Connie Black, a Kingston volunteer for the wildlife centre, was called to rescue the falcon after the wildlife centre learned of the situation from the Kingston Humane Society.
"We suspect it was chasing another bird and it probably struck the building and landed on (Teeple's) balcony," said Black.
"It managed to get itself stuck between the concrete and the glass. Luckily I managed to pull it out of the gap."
She said the bird had struggled for at least two hours to free itself.
"It looked worse than it really was. The whole one wing was scraped so there was a lot of blood and there was bruising on the body as well."
Black, who is licensed to care for migratory birds, took the falcon home and then transported it to the wildlife centre the following morning.
"I just made it comfortable and let it rest because she was exhausted. This was the first peregrine I ever handled and I hear they are supposed to be quite feisty but she had been fighting so long she wasn't feisty any more at all."
Meech said the bird had been beating her wings on the stone to try to free herself and badly scraped the leading edge of one wing. The wound was cleaned and the bird was eventually introduced to the wildlife centre's aviary where she soon took flight again.
One exciting aspect to the temporary confinement came when the falcon laid an egg.
"She probably has laid several before she came in and hopefully she will be laying some more now," Meech said. "Then she will be raising some young ones in the city."
But only if she doesn't come in contact with Avitrol, she said.
"As long as people don't put that poison down and the bird doesn't eat a poisoned pigeon then we should be okay."
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