The Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Wednesday June 30
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  Sad news - this morning Artemis was found dead below the nest building.  She was spotted from a window of the United Church ofices on the second floor of the East Tower.   Mark Nash went to investigate, and found that the dead bird on the roof was indeed Artemis.  Her condition and appearance were such that it is almost certain she hit the window at high speed and was killed instantly.  It was also evident that she must have been dead for quite some time, i.e. she had probably been there since she flew during the night/early morning of Tuesday.  As Mark said, her body lying there, with wings partly outstreched and tail bent did not look at all like a peregrine.  This might explain why we did not recognize her when we looked down on this roof from above.   This one small roof above the United Church bookstore was the one roof we did not actually climb up to during our search yesterday, sine it had been viewed from the side below , as well as from above, but we feel that in all likelihood Artemis was there, and we simply did not recognize her in her condition - from our perspecitve, she would have looked more like a discarded pigeon carcass than a peregrine.

The many people who have become attached to Artemis during her brief life were of course very saddened by the news, and we were both very disappointed, given the amount of time and effort we have spent with this bird.  It was a tragic end to this year's Fledgling Watch.  We would like to thank all of the local residents and office workers who have shown their interest and concern for Artemis' safety over the past weeks, and extend special thanks to all of our volunteers who spent many hours in the streets helping us try to look out for her safety (and that of her brothers too), and to the security staff at both the Mutual Group Centre and the Kingsway-on-the-Park, who went out of their way to help us access the various roofs in the area to search for and rescue Artemis over the past week.

The two males of course continue to do well, and their skill at handling the gusty strong winds yesterday left us convinced that these two will not encounter any problems.  We have now wrapped up the Fledgling Watch for 1999, and are already looking forward to the 2000 nesting season (as we suspect are Toby and Alberta, given the amount of time they are spending scraping in the nest box).  The Falcon Watch Centre will not be open daily from now on, but we will continue to visit periodically to check on the birds, and update the information posted there.  We will post new hours on this page soon.

Tom Moreau writes:  "An Epitaph for a Fallen Peregrine"  We were saddened today by the news that our little friend - Artemis - had passed away.   Artemis was a charmer.  She captured our hearts and obviously those of her siblings.  "The Boys", as we now know them, would try to help as much as they could - a difficult task for beings without hands.  They supported her during her few flights and stayed close by to give her encouragement.  Little did they know that their "extended family" consisted of so many featherless well-wishers on the ground below.

Artemis had more human contact than her siblings, even her older brother Windwhistler.  She was like him - a weak flyer, a complainer, a favourite of us all.  She was given several "second" chances at learning to fly.  Now she flies where none of us can in a place where she feels no pain or anxiety.  Our roles of Protector and Protected are reversed and we feel empty.   Why a man would weep over such a thing escapes me but that is what I am doing as I write this.  I may forget many things as I grow old but I shall never forget that little bird.

She died free, a privilege fewer and fewer humans seems to enjoy as we approach a new millenium.  Fly free and forever, little Artemis, on gossamer wings.

Tuesday June 29
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  Last night we stayed in Etobicoke until 10 pm (well after dusk), and as we left, we were able to still see Artemis perched on the south corner of the Centre Tower, illuminated by the street lights below.  However, this morning she had disappeared before 5:30 am.   At first we suspected that she had simply retreated from the edge as she had several times in the previous two days, but when we still had seen no sign of her by 8 am, we decided to check the roof.  While there were carcasses scattered all around where Artemis had been, there was no doubt that she was no longer on the roof.

We immediately launched a thorough search of the area, with volunteers scouring the streets, sidewalks, and gardens around the Mutual Group Centre, Kingsway-on-the-Park, and the neighbourhoods to the south.  Meanwhile, we systematically checked the upper and lower roofs of all three Mutual Group Centre towers, as well as both of the Kingsway-on-the-Park condominium towers.  By early afternoon we had checked out all of these sites, but without any success. 

While all of this was going on, the other four birds were in sight much of the time.  In sharp contrast to recent days, Barclay and Explorer were on the nest together for several hours.  Around 11 am, Alberta led them to the nest, carrying a whole pigeon.  She spent at least 10 minutes plucking it, then carried it to Explorer, who immediately mantled over it, and ate alone for a quarter of an hour if not more.  Eventually he moved aside, but Barclay had lost interest during this time.  Over the course of the afternoon, we saw some interesting interactions between the two brothers, with a lot of beak-kissing and neck-wrestling - it was hard to tell whether they were play-fighting or being affectionate.

One of our strategies for finding Artemis was to observe the behaviour of the other peregrines - both the adults and the two young males had adjusted their habits over the previous week to keep an eye on her, regardless of where she was.  For much of today, they were on the south or east face of the nest building, so we believed that she might be off in that direction.  In addition, there had been a rather severe storm moving through from the northwest during the night and early morning, which we suspected might have blown her off her perch, and off to the southeast.

In the mid-afternoon, volunteers fanned out for another round of intensive searching, looking far and wide.  Unfortunately, the efforts were again unsuccessful.  In the late afternoon we again accessed the roofs of the Centre and West Towers to scan from a bird's eye view the roofs, trees, poles, and streets below.   From the corner where Artemis had last perched, we tried to speculate on her possible flight path.  We guessed that in the wind and rain, she might have tried to head back to the nest building for shelter, but was unable to gain the necessary altitude due to her lack of experience, and the adverse weather conditions.  Increasingly, we felt that she could have ended up in the residential neighbourhood south of Bloor.

Knowing that a peregrine on the ground stays still and quiet to avoid drawing the attention of predators, we knew that we would have a hard time spotting her by just walking the streets.  As a last-ditch effort, we prepared a tape of peregrine falcon calls, put it into a portable cassette player, and headed out to the streets.  We walked up and down the roads, playing the call at regular intervals, then listening for a response.  Although we attracted the attention of several robins and starlings (and probably also some of the human residents...), we never got the reply we wanted.

While on our tour of the nieghbourhood, we found two large carcasses just south of the nest building - one on the sidewalk north of Bloor, and the other in the middle of the road.  Both turned out to be woodcocks, and although not overly fresh, must have been caught fairly recently (they would not have remained in such condition since spring migration).  Earlier we had seen these two carcasses while we were on the Centre Tower roof.  They had been on the southwest ledge of the East Tower, but were just barely too far away to recognize with certainty.  The wind was so strong and gusty all day today that this ledge, as well as many of the others were cleaned off quite well.  Of note, we also found a grackle head under the perch where Artemis had been staying - this may have been one of the meals brought in to her since Saturday night.

After finding the woodcocks, we continued our clockwise loop around the Mutual Group Centre buildings.  As we walked up Lomond, we saw the two males flying north and then east over to the hydro corridor.  Thinking that their flight path might possbily have some significance (with respect to Artemis), we followed them as best we could.  We found ourselves in a grassy area east of Mimico Creek, up by the railway lines, when we looked up to see one of the males flying in pursuit of a kingbird.  Very quickly the tables turned, and the kingbird attacked the peregrine.   Although the kingbird turned back as soon as the peregrine had left its territory, the peregrine flew all the way back to the nest tower, perched on the northeast ledge, and screamed its complaint loud enough that we could hear it from all this distance away.

We searched the ground under the hydro towers in case Artemis had collided with them, and we continued to play our tape, but still with no success.  We rounded out our search on the east side of the condominium towers, then returned to the Falcon Watch Centre as it became too dark to see anymore.  We have asked local residents and property managers to look out for Artemis and report any possible sightings to us.  Other than that, we don't know what more to do at this point - we have spent 16 hours today searching the area as thoroughly as possible, and are really puzzled as to where she has ended up.

Monday June 28
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  Today was again a rather quiet day in Etobicoke.  For a second consecutive day, Artemis remained on the Centre Tower all day long without attempting to take flight.   On the positive side, she was quite active at times, flapping and running along the edge of the roof.  She was again fed by the adults in the morning, and her brothers seemed to be keeping an eye on her from the upper roof, as well as from the adjacent buildings.  Around 3:30, Artemis decided she would try to be a huntress after all, and ran along the ledge in pursuit of a pigeon.  Of course the pigeon won the race, since peregrines aren't known for their running skills.  Nonetheless, it was wonderful to see Artemis take such an interest in pursuing her own prey.

Sunday June 27
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  It rained for much of the day in Etobicoke, and the peregrines were very lethargic as a result.  Artemis again went an entire day without flying.  However, on the positive side she was quite active at times, and was visited by parents and brothers alike over the course of the day.  Toby brought her breakfast (what appeared to be a starling) in mid-morning, and Alberta flew to Artemis from a cache early in the afternoon, although if she was bringing her food, it must have been only a very small piece, as we did not see anything dangling from her talons in flight.

The heaviest rain came between 10:30 and 11:00 am.   Interestingly, this coincided with Artemis' highest level of activity.  She ran back and forth along the southeast edge of the Centre Tower roof with wings extended, and it looked like a gust of wind could come along and blow her off at any moment.   However, her hesitancy about flying prevailed, and she clung to the concrete, even when lightning struck nearby and there was a deafening crash of thunder, which sent one of ther brothers into the air.  We had hoped that the desire to seek shelter from the rain would motivate Artemis to fly back to the ledges of the nest building, but it appears the temptation just wasn't great enough, and so she stayed put, fully exposed to the rain.

In the midst of the storm, Explorer took a flight around the nest building, and ended up perched on the sloped glass just below the nest.   While other peregrines in the past couple of years have landed there and seemed uncomfortable or nervous, Explorer clearly was relaxed - he remained there for three full hours, sleeping or preening for most of this time.  The two males are still spending quite a bit of their time together, but over the past couple of days Barclay in particular has been near Artmis frequently.  We noted with interest that none of the peregrines were spotted on either of the Kingsway-on-the-Park condominiums today, in sharp contrast to the past several days, when those two towers were their primary hangout.  It makes us wonder whether the family has been more aware of Artemis that we first thought.

Saturday June 26
Marcel Gahbauer, Natalie Helferty and Sandra Metzger report:  We are pleased to be able to report some positive developments in the Artemis saga today.  Throughout the morning and afternoon, Artemis remained on the east side of the roof at the west Kingsway-on-the-Park condominium, where she has spent the past 2-1/2 days.  We checked on her at dawn, in the early afternoon, and again in the early evening, and noted that she was noticeably more alert and active than the previous days.  In fact, in the evening she ran away as soon as she saw us, and even tried to escape by crawling under a low fence.  More significantly, she made several attempts to fly off the roof, but was unsuccessful because she kept trying to go through (rather than over) the glass panels lining the roof.

Seeing that she had regained an interest in flight, but seemed to be stumped by the glass walls, we decided to elevate Artemis to the upper roof to give her easy clearance.  We trapped Artemis in a corner, then brought her up to the next level for release.  As soon as she was let go, Artemis ran to the southwest corner of the upper roof, and began shrieking non-stop.  Alberta was perched on the enxt box in full view of Artemis, and she responded with lots of vocal encouragement.   After about 10 minutes, Aetemis got up the nerve to leave, but only made it as far as the southwest corner of the lower roof immediately below.  It was another 20 minutes before she actually left the building.

Clearly Artemis wanted to return to the nest ledge, but she misjudged her landing and ended up clinging to the concrete wall just below the nest box (only about one foot down).  It looked like Artemis tried to climb up, but she slipped down instead, then slid down the sloped glass, and fell about halfway down the face of the building.  Barclay dove down toward Artemis from the roof, made contact with her in mid-air, and then guided her up to the southeast roof of the Centre Tower, where Artemis seemed to make a good landing.  While Barclay left again a bit later to attempt a stoop at a pigeon to the south (unsuccessfully), Artemis stayed put for the rest of the evening.  She continued vocalizing off and on until dark, and Toby visited her at one point, but didn't seem to bring her any food.

For the first time one of the males also caused us some concern today.  Explorer landed on the ledge around 11 am, and limped to the nest box, held his left foot in the air.  He them ran back toward the camera, again strongly favouring his right leg.  We were uncertain what the injury way - perhaps a slight puncture or scratch.  However, we later saw both males standing on both feet for an extended period, so it was likely a minor problem.

The highlight of the day for us was the aerial show we witnessed from the roof early in the evening just before we rescued Artemis.  At one point, all four peregrines were in flight, just hanging in the wind, almost level with us.   Being so close to them, we were able to see the subtle tail movements Barclay and Explorer used to control their flight path.  Toby broke away from the group heading northeast, and it was soon evident that he had singled out a pigeon.  The pigeon tried various evasive manoeuvres, both in level flight and in steep dives, but Toby kept getting closer and closer.  Finally Toby launced a full stoop on the pigeon which took both birds to within ~10 metres of the ground, but this time the pigeon narrowly escaped.  Toby then turned around and with a few powerful wingbeats climbed back up to the level of Alberta and the two young males.  In all the time we have spent watching the peregrines, this was one of the most spectacular series of events we have witnessed.

Friday June 25
Marcel Gahbauer and Sandra Metzger report:  Artemis has kept us in suspense for another day.  We kept an eye on the rooftop from dawn to dusk, but she never even flew up to the railing around the roof, let alone off the building.  By the end of the day, Artemis had not flown in over 36 hours, and to the best of our knowledge had not been fed by the adults during that time.  All of this evidence of course gives us concern about Artemis' condition.  On the other hand, there were postivie developments as well.  When we went up to the roof to check on her today, we noticed that she was much more alert and active than yesterday, was no longer drooping her left wing, and appeared to be quite plump.

Both Toby and Alberta were at the nest box a lot today.   Interestingly they were only there together once, yet they both performed the same routeine of scraping the gravel and then lying in the box as low and flat as possible, with wings extended to the side.  it seems that every day, the adults are spending more and more time back at the nest, while the fledglings are now seen there only infrequently.

Thursday June 24
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  This morning Artemis gave us some encouraging signs, but her inactivity later in the day left us remaining uncertain about her condition.  Fortunately her two brothers continue to grow more experienced and more confident by the day.

As dawn broke, Artemis was again out of sight from street level.  However, we were confident that she was still on the West Condo roof, and kept an eye on it from both the south and the north.  A little after 7 am, Artemis appeared on top of a fence ~1 metre high near the southwest corner of the roof.   Meanwhile Toby was plucking a kill on the Centre Tower.  He then flew over and delivered it to the railing nearest Artemis, but one of her brothers swooped in to claim it first.

Surprisingly Artemis took flight just a minute later, and landed on the southeast corner of the east condominium.  She remained there for an hour and twenty minutes, then lifted off and headed west.  Toby acocompanied her on a couple of loops around the nest building, then Artemis droppped down and landed back on the roof of the west condominium.  She seemed to have no trouble in the air and her first landing was good (the second we can't judge because none of us saw it).   However, during both flights she did more soaring than flapping, so it wasn't a rigorous test of her wing muscles. 

Given her sucess with these two flights, we expected her to try again later in the day, but she never did.  She spent most of the afternoon on the lower roof below the railing, like the day before.  It was only after 8 pm that she became a bit active, moving back up to the parapet around the roof, as if ready to take off.  However, she thought the better of it and dropped back down before dark.

Again today, we did not observe Artemis receiving food from either adult (although Toby at least made an effort in the morning).  Despite this, Artemis had left the quail provided the night before untouched all day long.   It was only this evening that she finally began to feed on it.  it could be that earlier on she was feeding on other scrpas left on the roof from earlier - partially eaten carcasses up there included cowbird, pigeon, blue jay, and even meadowlark.

We really don't know what to make of Artemis.  She seems to be capable of flying well, but just doesn't want to move.  While she did not break any bones in her wings during her collisions, it is possible that she bruised herself quite badly, and soreness in her wings may be making flight unappealing to her.   If this is the case, we will just have to be patient until she feels comfortable flying again.  Of course, this is not the only possible explanation - she could have a vision problem, or may have suffered a head injury in one of her collisions.  We still believe that she will recover on her own, given enough rest, but only time will tell...

While Toby continues to show quite an interest in Artemis, Alberta has not made any attempt to interact with her in the past couple of days - perhaps this is the 'tough love' approach.  On the other hand, Alberta has been busy teaching skills to Barclay and Explorer.  Around 7:15 am, one of the males chased Alberta off her east condominium lightning rod perch.  She then led him on a flight to far west of Islington, where she landed on the corner of one of the Mabelle apartments.  Again the male knocked her off, and together they headed bakc east.   In the process, the young male made a couple of partial stoops at pigeons - it appears the hunting instincts are beginning to kick in.  Later in the day the two males also successfully completed mid-air food transfers from Alberta, and performed some more aerial dogfighting manoeuvres with each other, including locking talons briefly.  

The adults were also busy today.  Just after 9 am, Alberta attacked a low-flying osprey south of Bloor (and it appeared she was accompanied by one of the young males).  This is the third year in a row that we have had an osprey sighting during the Fledgling Watch.  Where these ospreys come from remains a mystery, and why Alberta attacks them with such zeal is also still unexplained.  Just three hours after the osprey was dispatched, Alberta had new intruders to deal with - two turkey vultures drifting in from the southwest.  This time Toby joined in for the initial attack, but then returned to stand guard above the nest while Alberta escorted them to the northeast until they were well beyond Mimico Creek.

Wednesday June 23
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  We did not have to conduct any rescues today, but we were kept in suspense by Artemis all day long.  We had kept her inside the Falcon Watch Centre overnight to give her some rest, and released her around 8:30 this morning.  She hopped around the roof a bit, then stood still near the northeast corner of the roof, and we left her there.

Because she was on the roof itself, rather than the 3-foot high parapet surrounding it, we could not see her from the street level, and so we spent many hours staring at the building waiting for her to appear.  In the meantime, her brothers made a number of good flights.  They seem to be quite confident in the air, adapting readily to wind gusts, and landing gracefully on a wide variety of perches on the five buildings.

Late in the afternoon, we saw a fledgling make a short flight from the West Condo roof to the northeast side of the nest building.  We couldn't see the bird well from the ground, so we accessed the roof of the west condominium to confirm the identification.  When we emerged, Natalies studied the bird on the opposite building through the scope, while Marcel explored the rest of the roof to confirm that Artemis had left.  There was no sign of her out there, so he turned back to return to the exit, only to find Artemis standing in the path staring at him.  She had been there the whole time of course, but was hidden from view on the way out by the swing stage near the edge of the roof.  Not wanting to disturb Artemis by walking toward her, Marcel decided to wait on the roof for her next move.  The volunteers down below in the streets seemed to take great pleasure out of the fact that he had been trapped on the roof by a peregrine.  For an hour Artemis stood absolutely still, not even turning her head.  It became apparent that Artemis might not move all night, so Marcel decided to risk an escape.  Artemis did not react at all as he walked past, but Toby saw me and came in to circle and threaten me, but I made it to the door before he launched a real attack.

In the evening, Alberta led the two young males on quite a flight, and attempted to pass food off to them by dropping it while in flight.   They made some good attempts, but didn't quite have the hang of it yet, so Alberta had to repeatedly dive down to retrieve the prey herself.  On the other hand, neither adult brought any food to Artemis (probably because she remained silent and didn't attract any attention to herself).  At 9 pm, we delivered a quail to the roof, so that she would at least have food if she was hungry.  Perhaps with another night's rest behind her she will have the strength and confidence to test her wings again.

Tuesday June 22
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  It seems that with every passing day of this Fledgling Watch, our lives out here are becoming increasingly active.  Artemis seemed determined to give us some exercise, as we both spent the bulk of the day following her as she came increasingly close to landing on the ground.

Panic set in first thing in the morning.  At 4:55 am the first bit of morning light appeared, and it was evident that Artemis was no longer on her perch.  Obviously she must have flown during the night, unusual for a peregrine, but then we are quickly learning that Artemis is not typical of her species.   Over the next 2-1/2 hours we conducted a frantic search of the roadsides, as well as the low rooftops around the buildings, but could find no trace of her.

Suddenly at 7:20 am, Artemis came into view south of Bloor, heading toward the nest building at a low altitude.  She collided with the south wall of windows, and dropped to the second-story roof over the United Church bookstore.  She appeared uninjured and was alert and active, exploring the roof.   When she flew again, she just barely cleared the wall along Bloor, crossed the street, headed east, and made an awkward tumbling landing on the roof of the Bell building - a poor choice of location, as there were four crows on the roof which proceeded to harass her.  However, she ignored them, and after about ten minutes they seemed to grow bored and flew off.

After about two hours of pacing back and forth on the edge of the roof, Artemis flew again.  She did not gain any altitude, and this time she eneded up on the canopy above the East Tower's Aberfoyle exit (right beside the Falcon Watch Centre).  After a brief visit to the low roof east of the nest building.   Artemis again flew west along Bloor.  She attempted to land on a lamp post but missed, and ended up on the roof just above the King's Mill health club between the West and Centre Towers (again, only ~2 storeys above street level).  Here she remained for the entire afternoon, quite relaxed most of the time, but looking alert and ready to fly at others.

At around 6:15 pm, she headed back east, brushed off the glass face of the nesting building again, and landed awkwardly outside the base of a sixth floor balcony on the west side of the first condominium tower.  After a couple of minutes trying to find her balance, she took off again, hitting four windows on her way west, one of which she clung to briefly.  At the end of this ordeal she dropped back down to the roof above the health club.

This time she seemed rather stunned by the impacts, and we decided to attempt to capture her, fearful that on a subsequent flight she would hurt herself even more, or lose the last bit of altitude she had and end up in the street.   We went up to the roof, and began to slowly approach Artemis from both sides.   Although she was certainly aware of us, she tolerated our approach quite well - probably because she was tired, weak, and a bit dazed.  Unfortunately she lulled us into a false sense of complacency - just as we were seconds from grabbed her, she sprang to life and slipped out through the little gap between us.

Artemis flew east along Bloor, and seemed to be gaining altitude surprisingly well.  However, she again misjudged her landing, hit the wall of the west Kingsway-on-the-Park tower, and tumbled down to the terrace between the two towers.  By 7:20 pm we were out on this low (second storey) roof, just metres away from Artemis, who was precariously perched on the wall overlooking Bloor.  While we were to the north distracting Artemis, Sandra Metzger crawled along the wall until she got to Artemis, then reached up and quickly grabbed her before she knew what happened.

A physical exam showed that again there were no injuries - it would seem that Artemis' difficulties with flight are in her head only.  Since she hadn't eaten in so long, we gave her a quail.  Although initially quite hesitant, she did eventually eat the whole thing.  After giving her some water for rehydration, we put her back in the box, and left her to sleep in the darkness overnight.

Monday June 21
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  A second consecutive day of excitement - but unfortunately this time it was the predicaments of one of the fledglings which kept us busy.

The morning began as usual, with the two males waking up at firts light and taking off soon thereafter - this morning they flew off together at 5:02 am.  Artemis had spent the night away from home, on the southwest ledge of the nest building, and she was slower to become active.  Her first flight of the day came around 6:15 am, and was a short excursion to the West Tower and back.  Soon after returning, she was lying down again.

For more than three hours Artemis did not move again, despite the fact the adults and her brothers were quite active.  We were beginning to wonder why she was so quiet, when she took off at 10 am and made a strong flight as far east as the east condominium tower, and then returned for a good landing just beside the nest box.  However, when she flew again just a couple of minutes later, she brushed against the windows of the nest building.  This was only a very light impact, and her next few flights were good, so we did not have any reason to worry.

Shortly after noon, all three fledglings were in flight.   Artemis landed on the west roof of the nest building, but then dropped to the lower roof and out of sight.  The next time we saw her was just before 3 pm, when she appeared sliding down the glass on the south face of the nest building.  She clung to the concrete pillar between the glass panels, then dropped down quite a bit when she let go.  Artemis flew west around the West Tower, not gaining any height, then disappeared behind it.

We assumed she had dropped down to one of the lower roofs and started a systematic search of them.  Along the way, security and maintenance staff at the Mutual Group Centre were alerted to Artemis' disappearance.   About an hour and a half after we lost sight of her, an engineer came across Artemis in the cooling tower of the nest building.  Security quickly took Sandra Metzger up there, and she caught Artemis without much trouble.  How Artemis got there remains a mystery, as the cooling tower is on the eighteenth floor (sunken into the centre of the roof) and it had seemed that she was not gaining any altitude.

Once safely in the Falcon Watch Centre, Sandra inspected Artemis, and found that there were no broken bones, and she was in surpringly good body condition given that we have not seen her being fed in more than 24 hours.  Mark Heaton from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources arrived around 6 pm to evaluate Artemis' condition.  She was alert and healthy, so we accessed the Kingsway-on-the-Park roof to release her.  Mark let her go near the southwest corner of the roof of the west tower.  She flew around the north side, perched briefly on a north side window ledge on the east condominium, then flew to the balcony railing of a high suite on the south side of the west condominium.  Observers watched until it was completely dark shortly before 10 pm, but Artemis did not move at all.  We hope that she will rest well overnight, and will have better success in flight tomorrow.

Sunday June 20
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  We finally have all three chicks flying in Etobicoke! We are thrilled that for the first time in the three years that Alberta and Toby have nested here, all the chicks have made strong first flights without getting into any trouble.

What turned out to be one of our most exciting days in Etobicoke this year started out rather quietly. Again this morning the two males left the nest ledge between 5:10 and 5:15 am, and headed for the Kingsway-on-the-Park condominiums. Artemis put on a good show between 5:30 and 6:00, teetering on the edge quite a bit, and looking increasingly curious about the world beyond. However, as the morning light became brighter, she began to slow down, and for much of the morning she remained quite inactive.

Toby brought food to Artemis at 6:30 and 7:30 am, but on three occasions over the morning Alberta came in to remove scraps from the ledge. It was as if Toby was taking pity on Artemis, while Alberta was adopting a harsher stance, trying to tell her it's time to leave home.

Over the course of the day, Barclay and Explorer made a series of strong flights, often in tandem. They have started to stray a bit further from home, with one flight taking them to the roof of the west Mutual Group Centre tower for the first time, and another excursion to the northwest over Aberfoyle and Lomond. They were at times briefly accompanied by one of the adults on their flights, but rarely for long. Perhaps Toby and Alberta recognize that the little guys are already quite strong and confident in the air.

By early afternoon, the label of "Sleepy Hollow" again seemed appropriate. Artemis was sleeping beyond the nest box for well over an hour, and did not respond at all to Alberta's visits to and frequent flights past the nest ledge. Even the two males were quiet at this time.

Then, around 2:30, the birds all sprang back to life. Artemis woke up and began to do some flapping on the nest box, the two males started another series of short flights, and a kestrel was first heard, then spotted high above the nest building. It gradually came lower, and eventually built up the nerve to dive at Alberta, who was sitting on the east corner of the roof. After two such attacks, Alberta had had enough, and flew off. She and the kestrel raced after each other through the sky above the nest building - first with the kestrel in pursuit, and then with Alberta turning the tables to chase it. They came around the Bloor Street side of the building at great speed, and two observers noticed the kestrel drop to the low roof just above the entrance.

With the aid of Security at the Mutual Group Centre, the two of us along with Glenn Coady accessed the roof in question. We were uncertain whether the kestrel had been killed or merely injured, so we brought our falcon rescue box along. Unfortunately, this proved unnecessary, as we located the kestrel at the base of the window panel, dead with a broken neck. It was an adult female, and we were of course sad to find that it had not survived. However, it did serve as a reminder of what a dedicated and protective parent Alberta is.

On a happier note, Artemis finally took her first flight around 6:15 pm. She had been active for close to an hour prior to this, doing a bit of flapping and a lot of standing near the edge with wings extended. In the minutes preceding her flight, Artemis was visited by both her brothers.  Explorer in particular interacted with her quite a bit, doing some beak-tapping with Artemis as they ran down the ledge together.  Her
first flight was quite strong, like that of her brothers, and she reached the roof of the west condominium tower without any trouble. She was accompanied by Alberta on this flight.   Over the course of the evening she made a few more short flights, and seemed to be misjudging some of her landings slightly, but because she was not travelling at high speeds, the only consequence of this was that she ended up clinging to the walls at times.

Given that we had all been worrying about how Artemis would fare, we were all relieved to see her doing so well. Particularly thrilled with the opportunity to see her take flight was Liz Biss, a Fledgling Watch volunteer who had travelled from her home in North Carolina to help us out this weekend.   We have many dedicated local volunteers without whom the annual Fledgling Watch would be impossible, but knowing that we can draw volunteers from such a distance is very encouraging.

The two male fledglings again returned to the nest ledge for the night, but Artemis did not join them. She had ended up on the southwest ledge of the nest building around 9 pm, and tucked herself well back into the ledge.  Both Artemis and Alberta were doing a lot of vocalizing until after 9:30 pm (by which time it was getting quite dark), but Artemis refused to move.  It seems she had enough excitement for one day, and was ready for a good long rest. We hope to see her gain some more strength and confidence in her flights tomorrow.

Saturday June 19
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  Today has been rather a quiet day in Etobicoke - so much so that volunteers suggested we rename the site "Sleepy Hollow".  As of early evening, Artemis still has not flown, and even the males have not been too active.

The day started off promisingly enough, with the two males again taking off between 5:10 and 5:20 am.  They made a few good flights early in the morning, but then settled down on the west Kingsway-on-the-Park and east Mutual Group Centre building.  Meanwhile Artemis got us excited a few times early in the morning, but then also became more lethargic by mid-morning.  The highlight of the morning came around 9:15, when Barclay and Explorer flew in tandem west along Bloor and then looped over the residential area to the south, mock-attacking each other while in flight.  Their circuit ended on a sub-penthouse window ledge on the east Kingsway-on-the-Park tower, where they balanced awkwardly for a moment before moving on to a more comfortable perch on the roof of the west tower.

Early in the afternoon, the two males returned to the nest ledge, and by around 1 pm, all three chicks were lying flat in the nest box sleeping.   They remained inactive at the box for over two hours.  Alberta even landed on the ledge during this time without the chicks reacting in the slightest.  She eventually ran toward them and dropped off some food, finally stimulating them to wake up, but even then they did not move far.  We were a bit surprised by this lack of activity, since it was not particularly hot, and flying conditions appeared inviting.   Alberta and Toby certainly were in the air a lot - around 2 pm there was a period of approximately half an hour when both were making repeated flights around the nest building.  It seemed that they were trying to entice the chicks to join them, but to no avail.

By late afternoon, there was a bit more activity.   The two males made a few more good strong flights, and even Artemis had a few good bouts of flapping on the nest ledge.  At this point however, it appears that she will wait at least one more day to finally try out her wings for real.  Perhaps tomorrow morning...

Friday June 18
Marcel Gahbauer and Natalie Helferty report:  Today the two male fledglings continued to make good flights over the course of the day, but the female remained on the nest.  Details below - but first the announcement of our chicks' new names.

This afternoon I visited the offices of the Etobicoke Life newspaper to conduct the draw for the winning names in our annual "Name the Chicks" contest.  This year we received well over 400 entries, by far our best response to date.  Thanks to all those who took the time to mail in or drop off their suggestions.  The winning names from the draw are:

Female - Artemis (submitted by Helen Corkill)
(Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt)

Male - Barclay (submitted by Joan Boardman)
(named after Barclay Terrace, a nearby condominium tower)

Male - Explorer (submitted by Frank Zimmerman)

Each winner will receive a Canadian Peregrine Foundation prize package including a CPF t-shirt, CPF hat, and an adoption certificate for their chick.

All day long yesterday, Explorer and Barclay flew between the nest building and the two condominium towers to the east.  Aside from a couple of times when they slightly misjudged their landings and briefly clung to a wall, they flew with surprising skill for males only 39 days old.  In the evening, both males came back to the nest ledge to spend the night with their sister - one climbed into the box with her, and the other laid down flat in front of the box to sleep.

This morning, all three of them were awake by 4:55 am - probably more so than I was.  At 5:17 Barclay left the ledge heading for the east Kingsway-on-the-Park tower, and Explorer followed a minute later.  The two of them again spent much of the day testing their wings with short flights between the buildings adjacent to the nest building, but also made a few slightly longer flights circling over Bloor.  Again, they flew well, and the observers are confident that these two birds are off to a good start.

Artemis, on the other hand, continued to be rather uninterested in leaving home.  Although she received only one feeding from Toby in the morning (a small piece of starling, it appeared), she was surprisingly unresponsive when the adults came to the ledge.  For a while Alberta was perched on the camera, and Artemis just stood on the nest tray ignoring her.  Also, on three separate occasions in the morning and early afternoon, Toby returned to the nest box and crouched down in it, scraping the gravel as if preparing a scrape for nesting in (although unusual to see at this time of year, we did observe Toby and Alberta doing this last year as well, after the chick had left the nest - we still don't know why they do this).  While Toby was doing this, Artemis was under the camera, and did not approach him.

In the afternoon, Artemis became a bit more active.   In fact, she seemed to wake up around the time her name was being drawn - as if she suddenly was inspired by the fact she had some standards to live up to.  Over the course of the afternoon, there were a few times when she actually flapped quite vigorously, and showed a real interest in the world beyond the ledge.  This was particularly evident when Alberta delivered fresh food to Barclay and Explorer, who were on the parapet above the nest ledge.  Artemis could see Alberta flying in with the food, and could presumably hear her brothers reacting to the arrival of lunch above her.   She squawked at great length, but to no avail.  Alberta instead made a few flights past the nest ledge, trying to entice her to leave, but she continued to resist the temptation.

By early evening, Artemis was settling down again.   Between 7 and 8 pm, both Explorer and Barclay returned to the nest ledge, and we were able to get some good closeups of all three chicks - watch for some of these to be posted in the Etobicoke Photo gallery in the future.  Barclay soon climbed into the box and laid down in the corner, while Artemis stood above him on the other edge, and Explorer balanced on the edge near the midpoint of the ledge.  All in all it was a good day for these three young peregrines, and we hope that they will continue to do well tomorrow.  We and the volunteers watching out on the street are all eager to see Artemis make a strong first flight.

Thursday June 17
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  This morning the first two males took their first flights!  The older male stepped   casually off the ledge at 5:21 am, and made a good strong first flight to the east tower of the Kingsway-on-the-Park condominiums.  The other two settled down, and we thought nothing would happen, when suddenly the second male took off at 10:04 am.   Fortunately our volunteer watchers out in the street were able to observe him, and saw that he too made a good first flight to the same building.  They have been active all day, and will likely make some more flights tonight (it's 5 pm now) - I'm heading back to help keep an eye on them, and will provide a more detailed report on today's activities as part of tomorrow's report.

Wednesday June 16
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  The 1999 Etobicoke Fledgling Watch is now underway! Yesterday night we had our annual volunteer meeting, and the chicks put on quite a show for the gathered crowd. For most of the evening I could barely get a full sentence out without it being punctuated by furious flapping or precarious teetering on the part of one or more of the chicks. Fortunately they confined themselves to flying back and forth along the ledge, but they did give us a few nervous moments. We joked that it would have been a good time for them to take flight, as we would never again have so many volunteers assembled to watch them, but all the same I was relieved that they stayed home for at least one more night.

This morning I was at the Falcon Watch Suite at 5 am to start off our traditional dawn-to-dusk Fledgling Watch. For the first hour, both of the males were extremely active, running and flapping up and down the ledge, and frequently going to the edge, peering over, and bobbing their heads as if fixating on a destination. However, as the sun rose a bit further, they began to settle down. Over the course of the morning there were several small feedings, but the chicks showed only a limited interest in these, and in general became rather sluggish (even though it was not particularly warm today). The female in particular continues to be quite lazy - although at most one day younger than her brothers, she looks to be three or four days behind in development, and certainly doesn’t show the same interest as them in the great world beyond the ledge.

By 11:30, all three chicks had returned to the nest box, and were lying flat either in or beside it. They stayed like this for over an hour, and didn’t even react when Alberta came to land on the camera. This is quite unlike the behaviour of the chicks here at the same stage last year - they would have all gone running and screaming toward Alberta at the first sight of her anywhere on the ledge.

In the afternoon, Alberta put on quite a show for her chicks (and in turn for our volunteer watchers). She made several trips past the nest ledge carrying a starling in her talons, and seemed to be trying to entice the chicks to take flight and pursue her for the food. Although they showed some interest in this at first, they were too well fed to be really tempted.

The chicks began to get a bit more active again in the early evening, but Natalie Helferty reports that as of 8 pm none had left the ledge. We can’t know for sure when the first one will take flight, but the two males served notice today that they are both ready to leave at any time. We will be maintaining the Fledgling Watch from 5 am to 9 pm, seven days a week, until all the chicks have flown, and we are confident that they are capable of manoeuvring the skies safely. We are still looking for volunteers to help us with the Fledgling Watch - please call Marcel at (416) 990-3462 if you can contribute some hours between now and the end of June.

Friday June 11
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  Over the past week, the Etobicoke chicks have been growing noticeably.  They are now beginning to practice flapping their wings, and the older male in particular is already getting quite adventurous.  We expect that it will be at least another week until he takes his first flight, but within a few days we should begin to see some exciting activity along the front of the ledge, as the chicks begin to exercise their wing muscles in earnest.

We will begin our 1999 Etobicoke Fledgling Watch one week from today, on Friday June 18.  The watch will continue seven days a week, dawn to dusk until Wednesday June 30 (or later if we are not confident in the chicks' skills by that time).  Many volunteers have already offered to help out, but we still need more.  If you wold like to contribute a few hours to help watch out for the safety of the chicks, please come to our information meeting at the Falcon Watch Centre on Tuesday June 15 at 7:30 pm, or e-mail us for details.

Friday June 4
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  This morning the three Etobicoke chicks were successfully banded.  There were two males, each weighing just under 600 grams, and a female weighing almost 800 grams.  All were healthy, although one of the males had some body lice.

Again this year, we were able to make the banding a public event, thanks to the cooperation and support of the Mutual Group Centre.  By 9:30 am, a crowd was already gathering in front of the Falcon Watch Centre, and by the time the climbers went up to the roof to retrieve the chicks, there were at least 150 people in attendance, including a class of grade 6 students from Smithfield Middle School in Etobicoke.

Earlier in the week, the chicks had spend a few days on the far side of the nest box, but several days ago they were able to climb back in.   They spend a couple of days quietly back in the box, then yesterday they began to explore the nest ledge in earnest.  Like last year's chicks, these guys have quickly learned that there is shade to be found underneath the camera on sunny mornings, and that is of course where they went.  This morning, they were again at that end of the ledge as the swing stage came down the side of the building.  Two of the chicks decided to make a run for it when hand reached out to grab them.  They rushed down the ledge, toward and over the nest tray, and were eventually caught in the far corner.

A couple of minutes later, the chicks had arrived in the lobby, and were taken out of the bag one by one to be banded.  The chicks were all vocal at times, and were quite feisty, but for the most part remained calm, especially when sprayed with a bit of water to cool them (and calm them) down.  As usual, the banding was expertly carried out by Pud Hunter and Mark Heaton of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.  They weighed each chick, applied one leg band to each leg, and took feather samples for later analysis.  The chicks were then returned to a bag to be taken back to the roof.  The entire procedure was done very efficiently, and the chicks were gone from the nest for only slightly over half an hour.

After the chicks had been returned to the nest ledge, I went outside to watch for a while, and saw Toby and Alberta both flying around the area.   Toby was carrying food in his talons, and at one point he and Alberta met in mid-air, and she turned upside-down under him and took the prey away from him.  Both adults had remained alert throughout the entire procedure, but never actually attacked the men on the swing stage (although Alberta did come close at one time).  Toby instead chose to take out his frustrations on passing birds - a gull innocently passing the nest building received a hard hit from him, and tumbled 50 feet before regaining its balance.  No sooner had it resumed level flight than Toby delivered a second blow.

While the chicks were being banded in the lobby, food samples were being collected from the nest ledge.  While there were of course the usual pigeons and starlings, we were surprised to learn that the most abundant food item this time was blue jays - apparently there were close to twenty blue jay heads scattered along the ledge and on the roof above.  Obviously either Toby or Alberta has developed a taste for these birds.

We stayed around for a little while to watch Alberta return to the nest to feed the chicks, then went on our way.  The next two weeks will be a time of great change for the chicks, as they grow in their flight feathers, and lose their down feathers.  By the middle of June, they will be getting ready to fly.   We will try to update the notes here as regularly as possible. 

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