June 12, 2009 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Linda Woods Reports:
I arrived on site early this morning to find the oldest female (Sandy-Links ) had taken flight and was found on the south facing window ledges of the Sheraton Hotel. Osler was on the north west corner of 120 Adelaide. Liberty was still in the nest and seemed to be very content to be there by herself.
I walked around the circuit and could not find Stormin and returned to my position to keep an eye on “window bird” During my morning shift, Jan called to tell me that Osler had taken off from 120 Adelaide and made his way over to a building east of the hotel. His flight was strong and controlled.
I left the watch with Jan, and Zoe. Lily and Bruce came on shift later.
I returned around dinner time to find out that Stormin had been located by Lily. He was discovered sitting on the Lombard building on Adelaide St. Good spotting! I call this building the party hat, for it’s unique roof top architecture.
This evening,
Osler continued to make strong controlled flights within the area of the Sheraton Block. Maintaining his height while flying over to 390 Bay St, Hilton Hotel and 130 Adelaide. Street.
Not a lot of activity from Liberty, the youngest female. She didn’t seemed to be too concerned about her siblings being away. Around 8p.m. I checked on her, due to the lack of activity. I found her lying down on the nest ledge with her chin on the metal frame. The remainder of the evening we saw little change in her activity level, she appeared at the nest ledge a few times. Bruce reported Food was delivered to her.
Stormin was fed at this location and later took flight off Lombard Place building around 8:00p.m.and headed west as reported by Bruce and Lily. He came to rest on the south west corner of York and Adelaide Sts., east facing ledge. He maintained his height as he came off his previous perch. This is where he will overnight.
Sandy - Links, is the Sheraton named female. She will over night on the window ledges, checking out the guest rooms.
Posted on June 12, 2009 11:02 pm
June 12, 2009 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Baylie Kastner Reports:
Just before 11 am Mackenzie and brother Perry were having a flight and Mackenzie lost altitude. He landed on a window ledge on the 15th floor of the East Condo building. He stayed there for about a half hour and flew again, this time losing more altitude and landing on the Bell Building.
He is still there at 3.30 pm and it is quite amusing to see the pigeons stopping by to visit him.
Posted on June 12, 2009 3:30 pm
June 12, 2009 - Hamilton - Sheraton Hotel
Sarah Washington Reports:
Well there is no flying at the moment. However, the size of the chicks is amazing. The 3 girls are very large and the male is quite small. You can see a noticeable size difference.
They are losing more down and flapping more. They are so loud and have lots to tell us, I have to wonder what they are thinking.
Madame X and Surge and doing a great job of keeping them well fed. Madame X still enjoys feeding them, where as Surge will just drop it into the nest and allow them to fend for themselves. We have seen siblings stealing from each other already and have to admit they are a funny group of peregrines.
Posted on June 12, 2009 11:17 am
June 11, 2009 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Jan Chudy Reports:
Second Fledge - Osler’s First Flight, and second, and third!
Having checked in with Linda and Lily at 9:40 to determine the whereabouts of Stormin (ledge on south side of Canada Life Building) I returned to my office to keep tabs on Osler and one of his ststers. At 11:30, Osler made his leap of faith and landed on the roof of the “other” hotel. One of his parents supervised his landing from a small superstructure on the roof. After a few flaps, Osler promptly jumped up on to ledge. Stormin was being monitored by Zoe and Lily but I am sorry to say I was so engrossed in watching Osler that Idid not note the time when Stormin took off from Canada Life and landed on roof of the building which is at the south west corner of Richmond and York I did note that he was fed by both adults at 1 p.m.(as advised by Lily) and this may have been his first meal since Monday. An adult buzzed Osler a couple of times but he stayed put. His sister on the ledge seemed intially to be disquieted by his departure and ran up and down and flared her wings but then settled down. An adult went to the ledge and immediately, left trying to entice the next juvie off, but she would have nothing of it. At 2:05 Osler made his next leap and flew a nice line to the west side of 120 Alelaide, where he made a good landing - no mean feat since it is such a small ledge! He was barely there two minutes when he decided to aim for the nest ledge! What a courageous flight - all uphill - and he almost made it!! He was within 4/5 levels of the nest ledge when his “lift” gave out. He “batted” on to the concrete and clung on. One of his parents, who had been sitting on the first “e” of ‘Centre”, flew down to offer support - flying back and forth. The little guy hung on valiantly - the longest I have seen, but finally had to let go. Zoe spotted him heading back to the other hotel, and sure enough - there he was - back on the NE corner! From this time until 5 p.m., nothing remarkable to report (from my perspective). Linda was back on site and I checked out for the day.
Posted on June 12, 2009 11:16 am
June 10, 2009 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
What we believe to be our male chick is very anxious and jumping from one side of the ledge to the other flapping it’s wings very hard for longer and longer periods of time each time. The female is much larger and darker she is flapping too but she is obviously on a different time line than the male chick.
Males usually as a rule fledge or fly first and this would support our call on the male and female. Jerry you are the best you’re killin me with all these great shots!!!
A very special thanks to all of our volunteers. we need all the help we can get. Please anyone else if you are in this area come down and talk to the friendly volunteers, they’ll tell you how you can help.
IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO GET INVOLVED!!
You guys that are on watch are the best. It is an honor to work with such a great caring staff of volunteers. We are close to lift off.
Dennis and Gwenster and our falcon crazy crew!!!!
Special note look at their crop or food pouch just bellow their throats. Every shot they are very well fed indeed!!!
Posted on June 12, 2009 9:33 am
June 10, 2009 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
A couple of shots that focus on our dedicated mother Voltaire! What a great job she ran off a rogue female that threatened our family tranquility.
She is working very hard. The adults are now trying to help the young gain independence by making them rip apart their own food flying in the nest with food and then back out to entice the young to look outside there ledge world. D&G Chick shots to follow.
Posted on June 12, 2009 8:42 am
June 11, 2009 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Zoe Berger Reports:
When I got to the site Lilly and Linda were watching the finally found Stormin on the Canada Life Building on the west side of University just north of Queen. We split up to spread out the watch area and Jan suddenly announced the second fledge. It was Osler who left the nest and flew to the top of the Hilton - keeping excellent height. Linda had to leave and I moved to a better position to keep an eye on Osler and Lilly suddenly announced that Stormin had finally taken off - she ran and kept up with him and located him on a low building just east of the Hilton which was quite a distance for Lilly! So with the two siblings on very close buildings at very different heights, the parents took turns circling trying to get the kids to move. Probably about 4 hours later Osler took off - and flew east to 120 Adelaide, keeping his height very well. Jan saw the landing which allowed us to keep track of him. Shortly after his landing he took off for the nest site and couldn’t quite make it - and ended up doing the dreaded bat thing with parent in encouraging pursuit. He couldn’t recover and left the building and made a perfect round trip right back to the same NE corner of the Hilton. When I left around 4 pm he was still there and Lilly was still watching Stormin on the chimney on the low building where he spent the day. Linda took over the street watch of Osler and Jan was still waiting for Liberty to fledge. They will update you on the rest!
Posted on June 12, 2009 7:16 am
June 11, 2009 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
By 8:50 PM it was quite dark and overcast and still raining off and on. The three juveniles were all bedded down and very quiet so by 9:00 pm I decided to call it a night. Perry was laying down on the nest building on a south facing ledge where dad usually hides out and McKenzie was still on the nest ledge bedded down beside the nest tray. Alena was still on the upper roof area soaking wet and really annoyed with life. She flapped constantly through the entire time that it rained, but with no intention to go anywhere, it was just to shake off all of the water. Mom was on the camera housing and it seemed that no one was going anywhere. Lets hope that Alena can get back to the nest ledge on her own. It is at this point that we can actually say that she has been able to keep and actually hold her altitude. It is also a huge confidence builder for the fledglings when they get back to their nest ledge. Tomorrow, Stay tuned…………..
Posted on June 11, 2009 11:40 pm
June 11, 2009 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Linda Woods Reports:
Stormin was discovered this morning on the Canada Life building around 9:00a.m. Lily and I took up our positions and Jan dropped by to get an update. Three chicks remained on the ledge . Not much happened until I was about to sign out for the midday. Osler took flight at 11:35 a.m and Flew towards and landed on the south west side roof edge of the Hilton Hotel.
He remained pretty much in that area the remainder of the day. He was fed by the adult and was content to stay there for the time being.
Shortly after Stormin took flight and flew towards the Performing Arts Centre and disappeared from view. He was discovered on the chimney of the Mediterranean Restaurant on the corner of Richmond St. and York St.
Liberty and Sandy-Links were doing a lot flapping and becoming very excited when they were seeing their brother flying by. Food went into the ledge this evening. Again I think Rhea Mae sensed the rain approaching and bedded them down for the night.
Lily the volunteer kept a close eye on Stormin and tracked his every move intently. She could hear him screaming for food even while he was being fed. I guess Rhea sensed the rain approaching.
Osler took a couple more good steady flights attempting to get back to the Sheraton, but it didn’t appear he wanted back to the ledge, but to the signage where the adults sit. First attempt he tried to the roof of 130 Adelaide where the adult was sitting, missed and headed for the Sheraton. He bailed and circled back and ended up on the upper strapping of 120 Adelaide St. His landing was excellent for such a small landing pad . I held my breath when he landed, fearing he would slip down between the strapping and the wall of the building. He held on pretty good. Second attempt to get to the Sheraton again failed, circled back and ended up on the lower level North West corner of 120 Adelaide, where he will have his first over night and experience with the rain.
At 9:10p.m. Osler was still in view on 120 Adelaide St. and Stormin moved out of sight. When we changed our positions to get a better line on him, he was not in view. Lily and I attempted a look from 43rd floor but with the rain and late evening light it was not possible to see much, so we decided to call it a night.
Posted on June 11, 2009 11:31 pm
June 11, 2009 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
Slow is an understatement!! Very little activity with everyone spending more time catching up on their beauty sleep - than flying around,, - (Except me of course). All of the beauty sleep in the world is not going to change me.
McKenzie is a little shell shocked and has not shown ANY interest at all in leaving the safety of his nest ledge. He has refused to leave for a second flight today since his ordeal in the tree experience being harassed by Blue jays, crows and a very aggressive squirrel. Both mom and dad spent some time with him on the ledge throughout the day in some very tender family moments with each other. Nice!! Perry on the other hand thinks he is an F-18 jet fighter, and he is a terror!! Lets hope that he stays away from the building windows, as he is building up speed by the minute and getting very cocky!! Speed kills!!! Its true!!
Elena on the other hand, has been holding strong on the upper roof elevation on the retaining wall that surrounds the nest building roof. Lots of running around the ledge, (all around the building) chasing both her parents screaming for food. Finally mom gave in and fed her this afternoon a with huge pigeon. Perry left the company of his sibling on the nest ledge and tried once again to “relieve Elena” of this big prize, but she was having nothing of it and let him it. After she had stuffed her crop, - (hardly able to stand up), she did let him finish the meal.
6 to 7 PM and lots of rain. Elena on the roof getting soaked is not amused, screaming and flapping to shake off the rain. She is really annoyed ! Perry, McKenzie and mom on the nest ledge high and dry!! Dad up on the roof with Elena soaked and not looking very happy at all. Very dark, overcast and cooler with the rain and clouds.
Stay tuned…….
Posted on June 11, 2009 7:17 pm
