Several winters ago they had all attended the funeral
of their Cousin Willima. She had been living a rustic secluded life further North. She had migrated there after having been
mistaken for a Merlin and that was after having survived the childhood taunts of being called a 'duckhawk'. She was a Peregrine
for Christsake. The nerve. The de Falco family included Willima's rusticolus side.
Willima carried the destinctive beauty of the 'de Falco' line
to her grave. She possessed the same similar features as that of Eduardo, Albert and Francois but decide that marrying
Gryeham of Rusticolus would secure for her a quiet less fast paced existence. The family: Falco peregrinus tundrius
are quite fashionably known for their black to dark- grey crowns, nape and chick strip(moustache) below the eye. Their
dark feathers resemble a hood with chinstraps appearance. Their underparts range from white-salmon-orange. Willima always
carried a sunbrella for fear of freckling. A condition hereditary to the de Falco. Dark flecks were known to be seen from
the base of their throats to their chests. Unfortunately, some,had a tendency towards bucktoothedness. They were known for
having small toothlike projections behind the hooked tip of their upper bill.
Willima
being 1/3 larger than her cousins, swooned at the attention Gryeham showed her. His courtship to Willima has been remembered
by family memebers as one of the grandest exhibitions by an order has ever given. Gryeham flew the intricate quadruple
celtic turn knot round upon round-alyope(al-lee-oup) to the right allioope to the left, somersault,dive gracefully lift float
flutter dip dip triple somba tango salsa curl spin snap flamenco turn spin spin float gracefully breathless wind ascendrapidimant
flutter float dive just skim land swoop touch touch touch bow wing gracefully extended. In mid- May of that same year
Willima layed four beautiful eggs. According to Willima
Gryeham was such a dear helping her to incubate the eggs(nurture).
In mid-June, Gryeham and Willima were proud parents. By the age of 35-45 days respectively their younguns were flying.
Gryeham started right away with the training of his young family. Statistically-- Due to the poor training and deliquency
of some parents 60 % of young falcons die due to inexperienc in hunting and flying. they usually never make it to their
next spring. Most only live up to 13 yrs old.
Death, death was all around them now. Even with
being the swiftest birds in the world, they were dying out. Their family members were disappearing, dying out in Canada
and parts of the U.S.. Endangered, yes, they were in danger now. Soon, their food supply would deplete as well. Thats why
Francois had decided this year his family would make the journey to Mexico and visit Eduardo. He knew that Eduardo was
looking forward to their small family reunion ,as well.
So ends the tale of :The Falcon that ate a Fish- by
Lois C. Johnson in trust for Hunter Ewan D'Pierre
Make sure to check out Eduardo, Albert, Francois, and Willima's
other relatives the Red-Shouldered Hawk(Francois almost married her mistaking her for red-tail, but that was alll before he
found out that they were related) and the Red-Tailed Hawk at Yahooligans.
