The Canadian Peregrine Foundation
|
ETOBICOKE HOME PAGE ARCHIVES May - June 2003 |
Monday June 30, 2003
Mark Nash reports:
After a few days of observation, Baylie has been released back at the nest site for
the second time. She was released atop the west Condo (upper roof) this evening, and
seemed very happy to back. She was joined by one of her siblings almost immediately
upon release, and flew over to the nest building, landing on the ledge next to the nest
ledge. She was very vocal, and let her parents know that she was back!
I spent several hours watching to make sure that she was going to stay "up", and she seemed very content to be back at the homestead. Her other two siblings were observed demonstrating very strong flights, and it appears that the "your it" tag games have started. I watched both her siblings play tag with each other under the watchful eye of Marco. He seemed to to be "it" most of the time! Click here for photos.
Saturday June 28, 2003
Mark Nash reports:
It was decided that Baylie should be held over one additional night for observations,
and released in the morning if she continued to improve.
Friday June 27, 2003
Mark Nash reports:
It has been a very busy last couple of days to say the least. I have just returned
from the Brockville banding and got back to the CPF Educational centre around 6 pm to
feed Solo and clean out his 'bog'. At approx. 9 pm the cell phone started ringing,
from concerned members of the Etobicoke community with reports of a peregrine being
sighted on the front porch of a house across from the Etobicoke nest site. Moments
later, the Toronto Humane society called to advise me that a juvenile peregrine falcon
was picked up in down town Toronto, with an injured wing, and was being held for us.
I jumped in the car, and rushed off to Etobicoke, arriving after dark to meet with the Etobicoke callers. After consulting with them, and several back yard searches, we finally located a grounded juvenile peregrine falcon, identified by its band number as Baylie. MNR was consulted, and we were advised to hold over to properly evaluate her condition before going any further.
The Toronto Humane society was also called, to learn that the juvenile peregrine that they had was Juno, from the Toronto Downtown nest site. Arrangements were made to pick the bird up the next morning.
Wednesday June 25, 2003
Baylie Kastner reports:
Stepped out on the patio around 7 am and for a second saw all five peregrines. They have been
EXTREMELY vocal this morning - serenaded me constantly while I read the paper and had my coffee.
Sunday June 22, 2003
Linda Woods reports:
10:00a.m - Very quiet this morning, little activity from any of the falcons. Wellington remains
in the nest ledge sitting still as he has in the past. The siblings are not in view.
10:40 am - Wellington is now seen in the camera area and is sitting in front of the camera on the ledge. This is somewhat new for him, he usually sits beside the camera. He is looking towards the north-east, I assume one of his nest mates is sitting on the west condo roof area.
10:50 am - Wellington drops one of his wings over the edge of the nest ledge. This is somewhat new for him, no flapping, but moving his feet. Wellington takes off without any indication of impending departure from the ledge. This surprises me, usually there is a lot of flapping and vocalizing. He did not gain any altitude but floated between the condo tower and the office tower with an adult behind him. I lost sight of him as he banked towards the north. Bruce is on the north side of the buildings and did not see him come out the other side. The tennis players seem to think he went further north. Bruce and I search the tennis court areas around the grounds and trees in the park. The north condos were checked as well as the terrace area of the west condo tower with no luck.
12:00 - Bruce checked the mezzanine area of the office complex and that is where little Wellington was found dead. Another causality of building impact. On initial observation, he still has some down on him as well as evidence of the impact itself. He appeared to be small, even for a male peregrine. I don't think the wee guy was meant for the skies. We were all rooting for this little one, being the youngest and last one to leave the nest. His siblings continue to do well, entertaining us with their evening "air show" We are confident that Baylie, Oxford and Rufus are flying well at this point and are no longer in need of constant supervision. Periodic checks will be made to monitor their progression.
Saturday June 21, 2003
Harry Crawford reports:
When I approached the nest building around 6:25am, two peregrines were in the air, circling the condo,
just east of the nest building. Just then another one was seen chasing a gull to the north west.
This peregrine appeared to come off the roof of the nest building. At 6:33am an adult tried to draw
the chicks off with food. She was successful with two of them and they circled south of the nest
building -- the adult with food in its talons and two chicks following, screaming their heads off.
The adult was probably Angel and she eventually left the food in the nest area. By 8:00am all the
birds had settled down for the morning. Up to this time, two adults and three chicks had been
accounted for. Wellington still hasn't fledged and could be easily seen in the nest ledge.
Around 9:40am Angel flew over to the east condo and briefly visited Baylie.
At 10:00am Marco flew in and replaced Angel on the nest building roof. She returned shortly and both adults could be seen together. Baylie flew over to the nest ledge from the condo ten minutes later. She missed her landing. It wasn't exactly a face-plant but is sure wasn't particularly elegant either. She took her wounded pride back to the condo roof. At 11:12am a pigeon with a death wish landed on the nest ledge. One of the adults came off the roof and drove it away. Angel brought food to the nest for Wellington at 11:30am after trying to draw him out unsuccessfully for his first flight. She left the food and disappeared.
Thursday June 19, 2003
Mark Nash and Linda Woods report:
The parents spent the day teasing 2 siblings sitting on the roof of the West Condo Tower with food.
There was lots of activity with Roofus and Oxford practising their flying skills. One of them visited
Bailey who remained on the East Condo roof. At sunset, Bailey was still on the East Condo roof, one
chick was hanging out on an upper balcony of the same building, one chick was in the nest and one was
on the West Condo roof.
Wednesday June 18, 2003
Maya Basdeo reports:
16:15 On arrival, Wellington and Oxford were in nest ledge, Bailey and her brother were on the Bell
building roof. We nicknamed her brother 'Roofus' for his roof-top antics during the day. Roofus flew
and made it back to the nest building shortly after I arrived. Oxford took a few short flights to the
roof of the nest building and adjacent ledges. Parents did a great job of showing him where to land.
18:35 Bailey, who had been sitting on the NW corner of the Bell building, took flight towards her
nest building. She was flying well, trying to gain altitude when BANG! Linda reported she saw Bailey
impact the nest building windows on the South side and drop onto the canopy over the front entrance.
Upon discovery, she was lying belly down, head down, wings outstretched and unmoving. We thought she
was dead. I went to collect Bailey from the entrance roof and as soon as I popped my head up over the
edge of the canopy I expected to see the worst. Instead, Bailey looked up at me quite alert, and
hissed! She was really cranky! She was also baffed right out, completely pooped. So much so she was
unable to move her body. I retrieved her and did not see any evidence of head trauma. She did appear
to have other serious injuries. She spent the next hour or so under observation by Mark Nash and Linda.
She seemed to have a drooping wing and was kept overnight for further observation.
Linda Woods reports: Approx. 08:50 Baily flew north off of the Condo and landed in a tree on the front lawn of a residence on Eagle Road. Young male flew from Mezzanine level and was walking down the middle of Eagle Road. He then managed a short flight onto the roof of a house. Bailey also flew from the tree to the house. Over the course of the afternoon both birds made their way to land on the roof of the Bell building on the SE corner of Eagle Rd. and Bloor St. The young male hopped from roof to roof until he made it.
Maya Basdeo reports: At 06:22 Bailey took her first flight from the nest ledge to the condo directly to the east of the nest. She landed on the roof and spent the early morning walking around the outer ledge of the penthouse suite. Oxford flew from the roof to the south facing ledge and basked in the sun. When I left at 07:45 Bailey was still on the building, Oxford was on the ledge to the left of the nest, Wellington was in the nest and the other male remained on the Mezzanine level of the Clarica Centre. All chicks had been very vocal throughout the morning.
Tuesday June 17, 2003
Maya Basdeo reports:
Approx 07:00 - the male released onto the adjacent condo (has since been named 'Oxford') made his first
flight back to the nest building. He couldn't quite make it to the nest ledge and instead landed on
the edge of the roof between the swing-stage posts. There he stayed for the day. In the late morning
Linda discovered there were only 2 chicks on the nest ledge, Bailey and Wellington. The other male was
discovered when Bruce took a peek around on the Mezzanine Level of the nest building. He stayed there
for the day.
pm - Bailey did lots of flapping and vocalizing, as did Oxford. Just before sunset approx. 08:30 Oxford flew from the roof to the ledge at the right of the nest. Then flew back up to the roof several minutes later.
Monday June 16, 2003
Maya Basdeo reports:
I arrived on the corner of Eagle Rd. and Bloor St. at 6pm. One bird had come down earlier and was
being held in the rescue box inside the Falcon watch suite. At 7:00pm I made my way to the
rooftop of the condominium on the east side of the nest building and climbed up a spindly ladder
to the second-highest terrace on the roof. Both parents and the remaining three chicks on the
ledge saw me. One of the adults took off and circled overhead while the chicks screamed at me as
I prepared to release the rescuee from the box. There were no visible signs of trauma and as I
opened the door of the box he bolted out, ran about 18" away from me and turned around glaring at
me. He was partially mantling, no doubt showing me how tough he was. I slowly backed away and
descended back down the spindly ladder. He did such a great job of scaring me off his ledge that
he built up confidence and took his first actual succesful flight around 8:00pm. He was perched
atop the nest building at 8:15pm when I left, under the watchful binoculars of Bruce Massey.
Huge thanks to the security guards at the condo for escorting me up to the roof to give our
bird a second chance!
Monday June 16, 2003
Linda Woods reports:
08:20 am - One chick spotted on the "United Church of Canada" sign near the Bloor St. entrance
of Clarica Centre. This departure was not witnessed and the adults did not react to it leaving
the ledge. No signs of injury was so ever. We later discovered it was the third male. He was
very active on his new perch. Periods of wing flapping and lots of running the length of ledge.
It stayed there most of day with exception when he jumped down on to the roof and out of
sight. With the assistance of office staff in the building I was able to get a line on him
and he eventually made his way back to the original low perch.
2:45p.m. approximately, he decided he was going to fly but his attempt failed and he slipped off the low ledge and bumped into the front door entrance coming to the sidewalk near the circular entrance. He was safely retrieved and placed into the box and kept quiet. He did not appear to have suffered any injury or feather damage on the initial "look see". He was misted and kept in the box until his uneventful release later in the day. Last report from Maya that all went well and the chick was up in the air flying with Mom and Dad and ended up back on the roof of the nest building.
Saturday June 14, 2003
Photos of the June 09 banding event in Etobicoke have now been posted in the Photo Gallery.
Thursday, May 8, 2003
Linda Woods reports:
Arriving at the watch centre around 08:45, I was informed by Joan that there was indeed a hatch yesterday
around 1.pm. and the second one hatched sometime this morning. They currently
have two chicks in the nest.
RETURN TO COMPLETE SITE INDEX
(or choose from selected popular links below)
CPF INFORMATION:
| Home | News
| Talon Tales | Search
|
| Membership | Adopt a Peregrine | Gift Shop |
| About CPF | CPF Projects |
Project Track-'em | Education Program |
BIRD INFORMATION:
| Webcams | Photo Galleries |
Sightings | Raptor Identification and Photo Gallery |
| Peregrine information | Owls
| Links |
© Canadian Peregrine Foundation