June 08, 2009 - Toronto - King Street
CPF Postmaster Reports:
The hatchlings were hanging out behind the pillar in the shade for a better part of the morning. Then before you know it, one of the hatchlings (couldn’t tell which one it was) rushed over towards the camera on a mission since lunch was being served. This was around 11:45am today. It’s almost 2:00pm and they’re camped out at the far end so you can now see them on the camera.
Ranka van Voorst
Posted on June 16, 2009 1:19 am
June 09, 2009 - Toronto - King Street
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Many thanks to Ranka van Voorst for the family photos captured of the King Street family.
Looks like the family is having dinner. This was around 8:15pm (June 9, 2009). The hatchlings are growing fast. Spec still stands out.
Ranka van Voorst
Posted on June 16, 2009 1:14 am
June 14, 2009 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
As I arrived downtown shortly before 9 this morning, Danielle greeted me, very excited to share her news. No, no flights yet. But she had her first look at Diana feeding our boldest chicklet right out on the ledge! It is very moving to see such a fierce predator being so gentle with her chicklets. After feeding the first one, she leaned over and fed the other one.
Our next bit of excitement was shortly after noon when a 2nd face appeared while we saw the first one further along! I had gone up to the 21st floor with someone who works up there and looked in vain for a glimpse of the 2nd one. Nap time! Once we had seen it, we only got glimpses of wings flapping later on, but at least we know that it is ok now. A big relief……..
Brian had a heart-stopping moment this afternoon. Everyone has one here. Our bold little falcon was out on the ledge when it decided to do some vigorous wing-flapping. That’s ok. But it was only holding on with a couple of talons, right out on the edge with its tail hanging out! Everything was fine in the end, still no flying.
We spent the rest of the evening looking upwards, wondering if this would be the moment. Chris and Marie were ready to run, I hope they still are tomorrow and the next day, and the next……. Our bold one is ready any time. He just needs to let go.
We cannot be sure of gender without having a closer look, having both side by side eachother or a parent. But we can make educated guesses based on behaviour and things we see and don’t see. Therefore we think we have a male and a female. Perhaps we’ll confirm this if they ever need rescuing. At any rate, we have given them gender-neutral names.
Our male is now known as Tailer since we have spent a long time today seeing much of his tail, both when he hangs it out over the ledge and when he flops down to sleep on the ledge leaving it sticking it out.
Our female will be known as Nihei ( pronounced ni-hay), to honour Kathy Nihei who started the Wild Bird Care Centre and who gave us support and assistance with our Peregrines when needed.
Posted on June 16, 2009 12:52 am
June 15, 2009 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Hello;
I met one of your Sheraton Centre birds today. It almost landed on top of me around noon today as it fell to the ground on York St. just north of Adelaide. I believe it had hit the eastern face of the building at 150 York.
I’m speculating about that, as I didn’t actually see the bird until it came whizzing past me and struck the pavement at my feet. It was stunned, but still moving a bit, so I gently picked it up (it was in the street in the middle of traffic) and took it to the tiny parkette beside the loading dock for the Hilton Hotel. I left it there (it didn’t want to let go of my glove initially) and went inside to make a delivery.
As I approached it flew a short distance and seemed to crash-land on top of another delivery truck, where it sat for about five minutes. It then took flight again, rather unsteadily, and flew to the overhang of the Hilton Hotel’s driveway. I didn’t see it after that.
I hope the bird is all right, and was merely stunned by its adventure, but if you see one of the juveniles with a tricky left wing, you’ll know why.
Best,
Lawrence
Posted on June 16, 2009 12:47 am
June 15, 2009 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Volunteer Reports:
Today was apparently not to be the first day of flying for Tailer. He was active at times and seems ready to fly, but the final push hasn’t come.
Breakfast was served around 7:30. There was some activity at the north end by Tailer, but wing-flapping didn’t equal flying. A good part of the day was quiet. If anyone was exercising inside the ledge, we didn’t see it.
Just after 2 we saw both chicklets on the ledge, together! Little beaks touched together, tails were together when Nihei turned around to face out while Tailer faced in. However neither were sitting full bodies side by side so I have yet to confirm gender. That will still come.
Around 5, Connor suddenly flew in to the middle of the ledge. We were surprised to find that he started to feed both chicklets! Tailer was up on the ledge so we could see such a fierce predator gently passing bits of meat to his offspring. Nihei was on the inside so all we saw was Connor leaning in to feed her. Awhile later we saw wing-flapping at the north end, so Jennifer was sent to watch from Queen St. She was joined by Chris. They could see Tailer but we couldn’t. What we did see was near 8pm. Diana, who had been on the Carlysle Antenna was at Tower A in a second, screaming and circling overhead, joined by Connor, also screaming and circling. I suspect the intruder on the roof was Security doing their regular checks.
Once the intruder was gone, Tailer headed towards the southern end of the ledge, to join Nihei , hopefully to settle down for the night.
Where will our volunteers find him in the morning?
Eve Ticknor
Posted on June 16, 2009 12:27 am
June 15, 2009 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:
It was a long day at the Lift Bridge today. Bill and I arrived around 9:00 am. We were greeted by Reiner who said that a small food package had just been dropped into the box. Cirrus watched the results from the front of the Hamilton Tower. Today, we noticed that the “Mohawk” dos are pretty much gone. At 9:30am, Berl took to the front edge of the box with a “Whole Lot of Flapping Going On”. At 10:00am, Truss took a turn on the front edge. Maple seems to be a few days behind. She’s not spending too much time at the front of the box. She still prefers the back corner. At 12:15pm, our hearts were pounding as the bridge went up and Berl and Truss stood on the edge checking out “Canadian Leader” as it went through the canal. It’s always a relief when we do a head count and see 3 heads when the bridge goes back down again. At 3:00pm Cirrus dropped off a half prepared pigeon and she watched again from the face of the Hamilton Tower. It was pretty obvious from our view that the kids weren’t really too sure what to do with it. They continued to pick at it for the remainder of the day. Unless they were fed before we got there at 9:00am, it would appear that they didn’t get too much to eat today. We departed around 9:00pm, leaving all under the watchful eye of Mark Nash.
Yesterday, a Cormorant made it way, by mistake into Cirrus’ No Fly Zone. As you can see from the picture, it was promptly introduced to the wrath of a falcon Mother protecting her young.
Tomorrow is Tuesday, I guess we’ll have to wait and see who wins the pool!!!!!
Posted on June 15, 2009 10:46 pm
June 15, 2009 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
Checked in on the family several times today and at all times there were 5 peregrines on the rooftop or ledge area. There was a very exciting game of chase dad around for food in the air and food transfer practice sesssion that I witnessed. I would guess it was Elena and Perry that were the 2 juvies involved as Mackenzie isn’t quite up to that level yet. One of the juvies did successfully grab the food from dad’s talons and then flew off and dropped it…dad dove down and caught it before it was lost to the ground! Amazing how fast the adults can fly…so fast your eye can’t follow it!
Then the juvie got it back and started to fly off around the building losing alititude and I lost sight of him or her - unfortunately I couldn’t tell which one it was as this all happened so fast..it was hard to focus with the binoculars so we just watched without them. Of course we thought..oh no they are heading right for the glass windows..*gulp*! One minute later all three juveniles were up on the rooftop crying for food and dad was smirking quite victoriously! No doubt he snagged the food back and the little theif made it back up with no issues!
When I left at 4 pm, all 5 were on the rooftops just hanging out. Hopefully that’s where I will find them tomorrow morning! If you are out in the vicinity, keep your eyes peeled for them!
Posted on June 15, 2009 7:00 pm
June 14, 2009 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
Sunday morning and I arrived at the site at approximately 9:20 and as I came out of the building…straight ahead was the most beautiful sight I could see! Mackenzie back on the condo tower..he must have doubled back in the dark and made it safely back there. I was greeted by two avid birders, Sandy and Bob who were at the site at the crack of dawn to make sure our little male was safe. Thank you so much to them for all their efforts and concern!
They informed me that Angel had been by earlier and tried again to get Mackenzie to follow her. This time there was no kakking, just a steely stare and determination - mom had put her foot down! We continued to watch him for about 30 minutes or so and suddenly he just lifted off into the air and flew up and down the street - was this the same Mackenzie that couldn’t gain altitude??!! He made the most spectacular flight we’ve seen him make. When he approached the nest site building - a parent immediately flew down to him, under him and then ahead and guided him around the building encouraging him to gain even more height and took him straight to the rooftop of his home! It was absolutely brilliant!
Mom gave him a nice beak to beak food as his reward and brothers and sister were reunited! Interestingly we later saw both Angel and Jack side by side on the ledge facing the wall - something you don’t see often outside of courting period. I think they were both catching up on sleep after spending the week worrying about this little male of theirs!!
Later in the day we saw Mackenzie finally get a lesson from mom in gliding and dad had him fly around a bit above the roof to work for his next meal. Elena and Perry are more advanced than Mackenzie at this point as they have spent several days with the parents being taught the ins and outs of flying. Today they treated us to a game of tag in the air and both did really well! Mackenzie decided that watching them play was enough excitement and tucked in for a good long nap!
Posted on June 15, 2009 6:48 pm
June 13, 2009 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
It’s been a few days since we’ve done an update but not for lack of trying, more from exhaustion! On Friday our little male Mackenzie came down to ground level again after an unsuccessful attempt at flying back to the ledge. That evening he was released to the rooftop and decided he didn’t enjoy his second encounter with us and decided to make a run for it at dusk right off the rooftop into the darkening skies.
On Saturday it took us several hours to locate him, he had decided to spend the day on a rooftop green space enjoying the sun while we franctically searched for him! Both mom and dad knew where he was and took turns checking in on him and flying over periodically when some gulls decided to buzz him and a red tail hawk! They were quickly shown who’s boss by Angel and no one was hurt in the process!
That evening as dusk fell, Angel came over and tried to persuade Mackenzie to come home. It was quite amazing to watch her. By this point Mackenzie had had enough of partying and bbq’s on the rooftops and ascended to the highest point of the condo building which included several metal columns that he hopped back and forth from. Angel flew up next to him, turned, kakked at him and then flew out a bit as if to say - come to here, follow me and I will take you home. She did this over and over and her positioning was so precise, I’d be willing to bet she went to the exact same spot in the air each time. But Mackenzie was hesitant to take flight at that point.
As it got dark we thought he’d decided to spend the night there and suddenly as we were about to pack it in - he decided to fly off into the night in the opposite direction that mom showed him!! He did gain some altitude but not quite enough and ended up first in a window ledge and then batting on a wall under a sign on a building. At that point he pushed off and flew off into the night in yet again the opposite direction. I don’t mind telling you that I was quite worried about him and barely slept that night wondering if he was safe..it was too dark to search for him so we had to wait until Sunday to see where our little lost bird had gone.
Posted on June 15, 2009 6:36 pm
June 15, 2009 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
Junior is flying high amongst the beams of the bridge!!!!!!!!!!!
Caroline and Bob report Junior flew off the abutment and tried to land on the pipe where Voltaire sits but missed. He flew down quite a ways and is now working his way back to mom.
BUT HE IS WAY UP IN ALTITUDE!!!!!!!!!
D&G & “The Falcon crazy Crew”
Posted on June 15, 2009 2:15 pm
