Left image: Youth Stewardship & Professional Skills participants, Falconwatch coordinators, Green Venture staff, and Jäger and his handler, stand in front of EcoHouse. 

Right image:  A program participant smiles and wears a falconer’s glove, with Jäger sitting atop. His handler pets his chest to keep him comfortable.

Left image: Youth Stewardship & Professional Skills participants, Falconwatch coordinators, Green Venture staff, and Jäger and his handler, stand in front of EcoHouse. 

Right image:  A program participant smiles and wears a falconer’s glove, with Jäger sitting atop. His handler pets his chest to keep him comfortable.

“Youth need to know the impact they have. People need to acknowledge the positive and negative impacts they have on the world” - Aaron, program participant

Being a fledgeling peregrine falcon isn’t easy in the big city. Skyscrapers change the windflow during your practice flights and create obstacles, honking cars interrupt your chirp-chats with your siblings, water sources are often contaminated with harmful pollutants, and a fall to the cement-paved ground can cause fatal injuries. 

Still, every year the downtown Hamilton peregrine chicks hatch from eggs, grow into fluffy, muppet-like creatures, shed their soft down for adult feathers, and learn to fly. Wild birds of prey, so resilient to urbanization that they can live and thrive on our bridges and buildings. 

Left image:  A peregrine falcon guards their clutch of eggs in a rocky nest atop a hotel.
Right image: Fledgeling falcons look over the edge of their ledge, many stories high from the city ground. 

“It’s important to learn about the falcons; and that there is a whole community behind them.” -  Program participant

If you’ve ever wondered who steps in if a falcon fledgling falls– that’s Falconwatch. Also referred to as the Hamilton Community Peregrine Project (HCPP), this team of dedicated volunteers and coordinators has been stewarding generation after generation of Hamilton’s peregrine falcon fledglings through chick health monitoring and mobilizing stand-by rescue teams for fledglings during flight practice. Their vital support has contributed greatly to the local growing population of peregrine falcons, once brought to near extinction by DDT, a pesticide commonly used until its total ban in 1985. 

And if you’re curious about Green Venture’s part in this story?  We had the pleasure of partnering with the one and only Falconwatch for the spring cohort of our Youth Stewardship & Professional Skills program.

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Left image: A program participant smiles and wears a falconer’s glove, with Jäger sitting atop.
Right image: Jäger and his handler stand in front of a group of staff, coordinators, and program participants. 

“I liked learning how to write professional emails, and different ways to become civically engaged. I learned how to find and email city councillors.” - Lily, program participant

Youth Stewardship & Professional Skills is Green Venture’s workforce-readying, environmentally-centred program for youths ages 14 - 25. In this program, youth meet once weekly in person or virtually for 10-12 weeks and learn valuable professional skills, discuss environmental issues, and work towards projects of their own design surrounding a central theme. Our spring theme was Falcons & Air Quality, and aimed to build bridges between students’ and the public's understanding of air quality and bird stewardship. 

On Day 1 of the program, students in this cohort met with Falconwatch to learn about the organization and how they could support them. This was a very special day, as we were also joined by Jäger, a peregrine falcon raised by a local falconer. The students were thrilled to see and touch a peregrine falcon, and had the opportunity to ask many questions about these birds and their interesting world. In the coming weeks, they would be learning everything they could about peregrine falcons and how air quality affects them, to be able to present their research to the public at Clean Air Day 2026. 

Together, the students led an informative presentation to Clean Air Day event attendees, aiming to educate them on the connection between caring for our air and falcon stewardship. They were joined by Falconwatch and Jäger at this event.

Image: Program participants present their project to an audience at Clean Air Day 2026.

“Falcons rely on the health of the ecosystem. Air pollution and chemicals have caused many problems, and cleaner air results in healthier falcons.” - Aaron and Lily, program participants

The program concluded with a final session to tie up loose ends, including finalizing a new pamphlet made for Falconwatch. In this final session, we chatted with students about their experiences in the program, what they found valuable, and the different areas of learning they experienced. We asked where they wanted to go next and what stewardship forms they might take on in the future. One student shared wanting to become a farmer, and spoke to his interest in working sustainably with land to protect the ecosystems within and adjacent to farmland. Another student shared uncertainty about her future career prospects, but wanted to be involved wherever she could in making the world friendlier to animals. 

All felt they had learned more through the program, with one student additionally sharing that exposure to Indigenous teachings (one session included planting a garden, where Brenda Jacobs from the HRIC joined us to share her nation’s creation story and a seed song) made her more aware of different perspectives in environmental stewardship.

   

Left image: Program participants in Youth Stewardship & Professional Skills and YouthQuake work together to prepare a planting space for a new garden. Right image: the young garden freshly planted with medicines, native flowers, and vegetables. 

“Lots of youth want things to change and have an idea of what they want to see. This is a helpful program to see how they can put those ideas into action” - Lily, program participant

Just as the peregrine fledglings are learning to fly, the youth of Hamilton too are growing and moving into roles of leadership, teaching, and changemaking. We are grateful to have been able to work with the youth in our program and Falconwatch. 

Thank you to our funders, who make programs like Youth Stewardship & Professional Skills possible: City Enrichment Fund, Hamilton Community Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment, and Conserver Society of Hamilton & District. 

If you are able, please consider donating to Falconwatch or volunteering your time to support the protection of our city’s peregrine falcons.