Monday August 2, 1999
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  For the past few days, the boys have only been eating two quail per day.  This may be a sign that one or more have started to hunt on their own, and are rarely if at all returning to the hack box for food.   However, it is just as likely that they are simply eating less at the moment.   We have seen in the past that they have a reduced appetite when it is very hot, perhaps because they are less active on such days and burn less energy.  The heat and humidity this weekend may well have made the boys a bit sluggish.

Yesterday afternoon I saw Rouge and one of the others at the box when I came out on to the roof.  Rouge had just started feeding on one of the quail, and was quite indignant that I had disturbed him.  He flew just to the edge of the roof and watched me for a minute before taking off toward the convention centre to join his brother on the north roof.  Today one of them was perched on the "S" of the Sheraton, but I couldn't make out who it was.

Wednesday August 11, 1999
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  Over the past week, Natalie Helferty, Mark Nash, and I have taken turns providing food for the Richmond Hill chicks.   On some days we have seen one or more of the juveniles, but they are not as easy to find as they once were.  Natalie did find Rouge at the hack box last Thursday when bringing new food out, and all three juveniles have been seen over this period.

On Monday evening, I spotted either Eco or Nate stooping on a pigeon on the southwest of the Royal Bank building, and he nearly got it.  A few minutes later, Natalie and I spotted either him or the other unharnessed bird on the roof of the Royal Bank building, eating something.  Of course there was no way to tell from our position whether this was quail that it had carried over, or a kill of his own.   Certainly by now they should be hunting on their own at least some of the time; however, most days they still eat three quail between them, indicating that they are still largely dependent on our food source.

Thursday August 12, 1999
Alan Kirschbaum reports:  The boys were out of sight until about 7 this morning.  Rouge flew in from the east and landed on the Richmond Hill Town Hall on the south side by the "L".  He spent a few minutes having a bath and then flew off to the west side of the building.  I went around the building and saw him scaring off a group of birds. He then moved out of sight, away from the edge of the roof.  Things got interesting when Nate and Eco then flew in to the north west side of the Sheraton Hotel.   They played mid air tag  before landing.   One landed on an antenna, while the other flew around another antenna, showing off his flying skills.  Peregrines just seem to have a precision about their flying that separates them from other birds.   Just as he landed I saw the other peregrine take off in pursuit of one of the local kestrels.  They were in a dog fight, until the kestrel retreated to the west.  Its retreat did not appear to satisfy the peregrine chasing it, or his brothers who also joined in on the pursuit. The peregrines broke off their pursuit and settled somewhere to the west.

Something that may be of interest, is a chat I had with one of the grounds keepers in the area.  He told me that he keeps on  finding bird legs around the buildings.   I asked what they looked like, to see if they were from different types of birds.   He told me that they looked the same and were red in colour (probably pigeons, suggesting that the peregrines may be hunting now).

Over the past few days, we have been quite busy in Richmond Hill again.   While we had not planned on putting satellite transmitters on peregrines from at least three different locations across southern Ontario this year, that proved to be impossible.  Instead, we decided to go back to Richmond Hill, and put the remaining two transmitters (in addition to the one already on Rouge here, and the one on Lincoln in Guelph) on Eco and Nate.  Both of them were trapped in the hack box without any difficulty, and yesterday the transmitters were applied.

Eco and Nate were released at 1:20 pm, and both flew out of the hack box almost as soon as the front door was opened up.  One of them flew to the northwest corner of the Sheraton Convention Centre, while the other swooped up to perch on the east side of the Sheraton Hotel.  Neither seemed to have any trouble with flight or balance - it was as if they were entirely oblivious to the little backpacks they were now wearing.  We observed a couple of more flights by each bird, and left convinced that they were doing well.  Within the next couple of weeks, we will begin to plot their location on maps on our Project Track-'em page.

Wednesday September 15, 1999
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  An update on the Richmond Hill birds is long overdue - my apologies for the delay.  Rouge gave us a good scare on Friday September 3, when we heard that he had been found on the ground near the Sheraton Convention Centre.  Fortunately AAA Wildlife Control was there to pick him up, and they brought Rouge directly to Wildcare in Woodbridge.  Mark Nash, Sandra Metzger, and I then went there to assess his condition and decide what to do next.

Fortunately Rouge was feisty and full of energy.  An examination of his wings revealed no fractures, but we decided to bring him to an avian vet all the same, especially since we found so much blood in his mouth.  Dr. Markus Luckwaldt at the Amherst Veterinary Hospital in Scarborough confirmed that Rouge had sustained no fractures, and that the only injury was a laceration on the roof of his mouth.  What caused this is unclear, but we suspect it may have been something as innocent as the claw of a pigeon or a quail - we know from experience that those can be sharp!

Rouge was taken to the Wild Bird Clinic in Guelph to convalesce, and then transferred to the Mountsberg Wildlife Centre last Friday to give him some exercise in a large flight cage.  He will be released back in Richmond Hill shortly.

Eco and Nate remain around Richmond Hill, but are being seen less frequently.  We have continued to provide food for them throughout the summer, but increasingly they are leaving it untouched, indicating that they are now hunting on their own at least part of the time.  Now that they are able to fend for themselves, it will just be a matter of time until they head off on their own.

Wednesday September 22, 1999
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  Good news - Rouge was released back to Richmond Hill on Monday afternoon.  He had spent the past 2 weeks recovering from his injuries at first the Wild Bird Clinic in Guelph, and then at the Mountsberg Wildlife Centre.  On Monday afternoon the satellite transmitter was reattached to Rouge, and he was returned to the hack box on the roof of the Richmond Hill Town Hall to be set free around 5 pm.

Nate happened to be present when Mark Nash and I came out on to the roof with Rouge.  Presumably Nate had been feeding at or near the hack box when we emerged.  After circling over us a couple of times, Nate flew over to the Sheraton Convention Centre and perched on one of the aerials on the northeast part of the roof.   As soon as we released Rouge, he flew toward his brother.  It looked like Rouge tried to displace Nate from his perch, but Nate wasn't interested in playing that game, so Rouge continued to fly, gradually heading west.  The wind was actually quite strong and gusty, but Rouge had no problems at all.  A few minutes later, just as we were putting fresh food out in the box for Nate and Rouge, Rouge flew back over us and circled around as if to encourage us to get off the roof as quickly as possible so that he could have dinner!

There is also exciting news concerning Eco - he is on the move!  Last Friday (Sept 17) Jul Wojnowski reported a peregrine wearing a backpack transmitter flying over the Breakwater migration monitoring station at Long Point on the north shore of Lake Erie.  Fortunately he was also able to read enough of the band to identify the bird as Eco.  Watch our Project Track-'em page for updates on the travels of Eco, Nate, Rouge, and Lincoln.

Wednesday November 10, 1999
Marcel Gahbauer reports:  While Eco left Richmond Hill in mid-September and Nate followed at the beginning of October, Rouge is still hanging around.  Updates on all three birds will continue to be posted on the Project Track-'em pages - Eco, Rouge, and Nate each have their own page, and the Track-'em home page has an overview of the progress of all three of them, plus Guelph's Lincoln.