Let Freedom Ring!

Now that Kodak has published the official Freedom album, I thought I'd provide another look at the experience. For those who don't know, Freedom is the male from Mariah's first clutch with Kaver in 2002. Freedom and his "sister" Isis (we think now that Isis was actually a male, based on the fact that they were both nearly identical in size) were the only two chicks to hatch from the 4 eggs that Mariah laid that year. Freedom was the bold one, fledging first and flying around town early. We always hoped for great things from Freedom, so we were really glad to find out that he had been spotted.

Mark Nash of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation invited Fal-Kenn Martinez to attend the banding of some peregrine chicks at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Toronto, and Kenn asked if I'd like to go. So, along with Tom Hoehn/Cornpoppy and Lisa McKeown (who represented Genesee Valley Audubon Society), we spent a day peregrinating through southern Ontario province in Canada. I'll post more about the Toronto banding and our visit to the Canadian Peregrine Foundation separately, but for me, the highlight was getting to see Freedom and his family at close range. For that, I have to thank Tom Hoehn, who worked the phones in the days leading up to the trip in order to get the visit arranged.

We arrived late in the afternoon, at an industrial facility on the north shore of Lake Erie. The facility's managers are very enthusiatic about hosting Freedom's family, and they were only too happy to show us around the place, but for now their wish is to keep the specific location and nature of the facility confidential. We had hardly been introduced to Rolf and Doug, our guides, when Freedom put in the first of several appearances, and what an appearance it was! No sooner had he landed, than an American Kestrel began strafing him:


Freedom endured the Kestrel's taunting with admirable aplomb, but after a few passes, he'd had enough. He took off over the water and we lost him behind some buildings. In exchange, we found the rest of the family in the nearby airspace. Here's Purity, Freedom's mate, in the only flying shot of her that I was able to take. The late afternoon light, haze, and her speedy flight contributed to a difficult shot, and she spent most of our visit out hunting or perched on a far off building, so this was the best I could do, unfortunately:


After that, we went into the facility for the trip up to the nest box area. Like most industrial complexes, it was hot and dusty, and the fact that we needed to wear protective equipment including hard hats, safety glasses, and even filter masks made it the going uncomfortable at times. An elevator took us to the sixth floor, but there were 6 more to go, all on foot. Since each floor is between 10 and 20 feet high, we had a lot of climbing to do! Before we started, though, we found that Freedom had returned, perched on a fire escape just below us. Kenn and I had to shoot through a metal floor grate to see him, but the results were worthwhile:


Needless to say, I took as many pictures as I could, since it's likely I'll never get another chance to see him at such close range. I was really struck by how much he seems to have inherited a perfect blending of looks from both his parents. He has Kaver's snowy breast, dark, full hood and malar stripes, but also Mariah's characteristic white supracereal stripe (the one above her bill between her eyes). He also has Mariah's voice, and something of her personality. He wasn't at all intimidated by our presence, and though he wasn't aggressive, I imagine he might have been had his children been nearby rather than out flying.

After we took our fill of pictures we dusted ourselves off, and continued up the interior stairwell to the top floor of the facility where our guides showed us the generously sized nestbox. It was almost five feet wide, and I joked to Tom that given our recent run of large clutches at Kodak, we could use a similarly roomy one in Rochester. Clever barn-style doors at the back make it easy to remove the eyases, as well as to clean and maintain the nestbox. At the front, a sliding door can be dropped from above to close off access to the box from the outside. This makes it very safe when it comes time to remove the eyases, since the young falcons can't fall or jump out with the outer door closed, and aggressive parents are kept safely outside. It's an efficient arrangement that would be nice to have at Kodak. Here's a look out of the nestbox from the back:

In this shot you can see the metal grate that covered the entire floor. Directly below us was a variety of machinery including cranes and other lifting equipment that has been decommissioned for several years, allowing a secluded spot for the nest site, away from activity. The steel girders below the nesting site had been the place where Purity laid her eggs. Recognizing the danger in having eggs laid in the open on what amounted to a very narrow ledge, exposed to stiff lake winds, Mark Nash worked with the owners of the facility and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to get the nest box installed late last year. Purity laid four eggs out on those girders, but only 2 hatched. Mark Nash theorizes that the lack of good drainage and exposure to the elements might have been responsible for the two eggs not hatching. Had they been laid in the nestbox, perhaps the outcome would have been different. In any event, it wasn't until the eyases were several days old that Mark moved them into the nest box, from where they successfully fledged only a few weeks ago. We were all amazed to see the precarious position of the old nest site one floor below us, and we're very grateful to Mark and the people at the facility for helping to ensure the welfare of these falcons.

Freedom made another appearance while we were admiring the nestbox design, and I shot several pictures of him through the grating:

If you look closely at the background of the first shot, you'll see the faint interference pattern caused by the grate. In the second, the workers pulled back a corner of the grate and I got down on my belly to shoot through the small gap. He has a very Kaver-esque expression in that second shot, I think.

We headed outside again, where we found both of Freedom's children, Ellie and Millie, engaged in a spirited game of talon tag:


As you can see, they are both able flyers! After watching them fly, we were pleasantly amazed when they landed on the corner of a nearby rooftop! Shutters clicked madly as they perched:


During their visit, Purity remained perched on a building farther out:

I guess Mariah's not the only one who gets fluffed up in the wind!

Freedom hung around too, though he seemed almost bored by our presence:


Before we left, our hosts showed us the spit of land with hundreds of nesting gulls:

The opposite side of the waterway is where Millie got into trouble on her maiden fledging flight by stumbling into a similar group of seabirds. Seeing that, it's little wonder that poor Millie ended up in the lake! Fortunately, there were plenty of workers out watching her flight, and Rolf and Doug quickly entered the water to retrieve her. They said she was very nearly drowned, and their quick action likely averted a real tragedy. Mark Nash checked her out on 24 June, just before he arrived for Skye's transmitter fitting. He pronounced her wet, but otherwise none the worse for wear.

It was with great reluctance that we left the facility. My fellow birder (and in many ways a mentor) Siobhan recently remarked to me that reproduction is the surest measure of success. By this measure, Freedom has been successful indeed, and so have Mariah and Kaver. Seeing Freedom with his thriving family was a unique and moving experience, one I'll always treasure. I wish Freedom, Purity and all their children many years of good fortune.

I want to leave you with a special treat. While I was photographing Freedom on the fire escape, I took a moment to switch to video mode. The results exceeded my expectations, even compressed down to 1.1MB (from its original size nearly 8 times larger!)


What could be better than that?