!!! Screech: Lost and Found
June 14, 2008 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
CPF Volunteer Reports:
Another hot and humid day! Today we were blessed with several early morning volunteers,Diana was joined by Bayley, Kathy, Sandra and Renee(sorry if I left anyone out). They arrived to find Screech still in place on the Bell Canada building on Eagle Rd. Spurred on by her father, she took flight with him and the pair went south, disappearing from the view of the observers. The adult returned but no Screech was to be found. Immediately all volunteers went into search mode walking the neighborhood hoping to see or hear Screech in a frontyard tree or on a roof but no luck. I arrived about 10am and was updated.
Shortly after Kathy and I did a once around the block but no luck locating her. We listened for alarm calling birds or calls of a juvenile Peregrine, but nothing. Concerned and a little and very disheartened we returned to Eagle Rd. Over the course of the day we watched where the adults flew, hoping to locate the young one based on where the adults paid the most attention.
Mark Nash arrived and after updating Mark,he suggested that parents likely knew the whereabouts to just wait at this stage.
Mark, acommpanied by Hugh Forbes, a local resident got ready to release Sunny and Perry. Mark put coloured tape over the USFW band for easier ID while Hugh held the falcon(after a quick lesson from Mark). Hugh got his purple Peregrine Heart for the tallon prick he received during this process.(Perry has red tape, Sunny has Yellow) The 2 then went through the procedure of releasing Perry and Sunny to the roof of the Sun Life Centre. Almost immediately Sunny flew to the roof of the 2nd condo. She made a good confident flight..the first of many today. She ended up at the end of the day,back on the nest building roof. Perry decided he needed a rest and by sticking to the nest building roof, he was fed at least 2 times by the parents. Sunny eventually made her way back to the nest building. Suddenly a bird flew from the direction of the first condo. Low and behold via scope, Mark confirmed that it was Screech. We now had all 3 newly flighted falcons back on the roof of the Sun Life Centre. We saw several feedings and just before we left, all chicks were fed again, settling in for the night. Special thanks to the kind gentleman who brought Mark and I sandwiches, blueberries and strawberries for our dinner. We really enjoyed that! Throughout the course of the day we spoke to several passersby, local residents and Longest Yard patrons. We enjoyed passing on information amd sharing telescope views with each of you and thank you all for your interest. Screech’s return was the best news of the day, she must have made wonderful flights to get back home atop the nest building. Sunny flew confidently several times as well. Marion and I enjoyed a rather uneventful evening. With much thanks to the Paragon staff for the over night falcon sitting and all the volunteers for another terrific day!
Reported by Frank Butson.
Photos by Mark Nash.
Fatal error: Call to undefined function post_gallery_get_images() in /var/www/html/w/wp-content/themes/cpf200903/index.php on line 29