Warm weather again has the juveniles seeking the shade. Three juveniles confirmed in view later in the afternoon sitting on adjacent buildings of the Sheraton Hotel. We have not seen the entire family at the same time. This is a little concerning but not unusual. The heat keeps the birds down in the shade and with the wild weather may have kept the older bird independent from the others. Observations continue on a daily basis.
As the juveniles continue to advance their flying skills and the instinct to hunt ,will take the young birds a little further away from the nest during the day. Advancing flying skills can also have the birds end up in strange places, and sometimes into areas where they need human intervention. As they did a couple years ago going down chimneys, airshafts and even into buildings. They still can brush, bumped, collide with windows and be pushed to the ground. Sometimes injured.
It is at this time that the local community is a great help by reporting to us, peregrines that have come to ground, hit windows, or into areas that wildlife should not be normally. The tall buildings of the downtown cities make it impossible for the volunteers to see what is occurring on the flats of the roofs, or at every corner. Here we rely on the maintenace staff, security and office staff who have wonderful views to call when seeing peregrines in distress, whether it be on a tall roof top or on a busy sidewalk.
Volunteers are always at the ready to come and assist when ever possible. We also encourage the community, with our direction to assist us when possible or however possible. Every little bit helps and CPF appreciates every little bit.
As with any charitable organization, we are always looking for volunteers to come out and participate in any way that you can.
Many thanks for all those who continue to send in reports, and observations. This helps us tremendously keep track of the fledglings.
Please send downtown sightings or concerns to the Canadian Peregrine Foundation head office.
Well, it seems like a repeat, Speck remains at home, unfledged. He was spoon fed this morning around 9:30 probably because the heavy thunderstorm soon to move into the area. Flapping and a little running of the ledge were seen again today. Two others are flying well and keeping to the immediate area and taking to the air with the adults.
One juvenile that had fledged on Saturday was reported to CPF through email to be sitting on a window ledge on Wellington St. East. Many thanks to Doris from Royal & Sun Alliance for contacting us with this information. It is greatly appreciated. Sometimes these birds get into tight little places that can go unseen by ground volunteers.
Alpin was identified by Doris was sitting on her window ledge apparently from the last evening. This afternoon after the thunderstorm, and a little damp, Alpin took flight and headed east along Wellington Street and came to rest on a three story building at the corner of Wellington and Leader Lane. He sat there for a while mingling with some of the local pigeons, a single sparrow, and a tenasous gull. Uncomfortable with the reception he moved north along this roof line and back and finanlly settled on the north side vent. I wasn’t comfortable with the bird being on these old roofs because of the local raccoons. Alpin took a little leap and headed to the window sills on the other side of the alley, a little lower but in a safer place for the night.
This is the time now, that the juveniles will get themselves into trouble. Advancing flying skills and the instinct to chase prey have them ending up in all sorts of strange places and low lying window ledges of the downtown core. Flying lessons with the adults, airshows in the evening will take the juveniles a little further away from the nest during the day, but they tend to return to the nesting area for the night.
As for Speck, maybe he missed that class on Estimated Time of Departure. Generally, males will take first flight at 36 - 40 days of age. Speck will be 42 days of age on Friday. ( an estimate )
May 27, 2009 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:
Some bad news from Detroit Mic. USA regarding Miriam and her new family.
Karianne reports: - We have had an unfortunate turn of events at one of our nest sites here in Detroit (yes Miriams nest - banded (blk 89/H)). I went to check on the three chicks yesterday and the nest was empty, the chicks were healthy/strong and approximately 10 days old (all three disappeared at the same time). Miriam and Allegro have been successfull nesters for 5 years now, never once loosing a chick. We fear that possibly they were taken!
April 26, 2009 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:
With many thanks to Kariann from Michigan USA, we have received an update on Miriam - banded (blk 89/H) that has been sucessfully nesting and producing for the past five years in Detroit Mich. USA. is still holding the territory at the Whittier Hotel here in Detroit , same male and same nesting balcony. She is as tough as ever, defending her nesting balcony throughout the entire winter (my volunteer and I joke and say as we approach the 14th floor of the building that Miriam already knows we are here and is ready to fight). She has 4 eggs this year, one looks a bit dented however. Her male, Allegro from Ohio , has been sharing the duties of incubation so we expect to see young mid May. She had only one chick last year, so we are hoping for a better season at her site. We discovered that one of her 2006 chicks, 30/C, is now nesting at our Mt. Clemens County Building site (he must have out competed the original male over the winter). It is funny to see the ‘tough’ gene shine through Miriam’s young - because this site is prevalent with turkey vultures and every time one gets even close to his building he attacks (the previous male Horus really didn’t bother with them).
Our little monkey is still up on Tower 1, looking very much like a gargoyle at times….
This morning she was at the southwest corner and in a bit headed for the northeast corner, seemingly her favourite. Tailer was on the northwest corner of Tower 2. Soon he flew around, ending up on the Carlisle antenna, and went to sleep way up there.
Diana was seen on the same antenna while Connor was on the ledge of the hotel. Eventually Tailer joins Nihei on Tower 1. She was out of sight often and was thought to have taken her first flight. However that was soon found to be untrue as she was seen on “her” corner. It had been Tailer who had been flying around.
Since she was out of sight at times, there is no confirmation of any food drops today, until a very small one for Nihei. There is no record of food for Tailer, but he could have followed an adult and eaten elsewere.
Once again, she seems to be doing little activities other than beetling along the edges. Her parents are still doing incentive flying, past her, over her, near her, sometimes landing on the edge near her, then taking off. They are certainly working hard at parenting!
Tailer is very adept at landing on the antenna on Tower C, this time landing on the very point of a vertical tube rather than a radial arm. Then he flew over to the antenna on the Carlisle.
Tonight Nancy and Anouk stayed later. She perked up around 9:30, when they were leaving, flapping her wings and going back to her corner.
We have noticed one primary wing feather missing. This was not from today as we saw it that way a while ago. This, coupled with heat and humidity, as well as weight may be the reason she is taking longer to get going. Don’t give up! It will happen.
You might ask “why is Nick’s Auto Clinic in our post”?
Nick’s place is in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge and he is an avid supporter of the Ambassador Bridge Peregrine Falcons and our volunteers.
When we were pulling 16 hour days during the fledge watch and needed a rest or a rest room, Nick was a God send and I felt we should say thank you. He was also on stand by if we needed a cool place to keep a fallen chick.
He also rescued a couple of chicks!! He gave Caroline a jump start when her and Gwen were sitting in the car in the pouring rain and drained the battery. Thank YOU!
He is right where Sandwich Street turns into Riverside Drive and University Ave. Right at the “Y”
The youngster dropped a hand off of food this morning almost had it but chased it to the ground and mantled and then flew up onto the top ledge of the abutment. I didn’t think he would fetch grounded food, I was wrong. We checked on the family before the fire works and then after and they didn’t seem to be bothered.
The youngsters flights are showing more and more control and he is chasing the adults for food which will lead him to make his own lunch! They are making him pluck some of the food packages as well.
I swear as soon as I posted the previous update, I look over onto the condos from my office window and there are all 3 juveniles hanging out on the rooftop right in front of me as if to mock me!! I suspect was Mac was trying to hide from me! No doubt he remembers me on his two previous visits to the ground and has decided he’s had enough of me spying on him!
Everything is going well here at Etobicoke, the family is doing well and can be seen and heard daily…usually crying for food from mom and dad! Early mornings and late afternoons are usually when you can see them flying around or gliding in the air. I think they mostly stay on the rooftop in the shade during this heat.
I did see one of the boys chasing some pigeons yesterday afternoon and he came down awfully low in hot pursuit of one but he had no problem soaring back up to the top of the building. The pigeons don’t seem to know what to make of so many peregrine falcons now instead of just 2 chasing them!
The day before yesterday Angel was escorting a gull out of the vicinity and Elena decided to help her! It was quite amusing to see her imitating mom, she even has the cacking down! It’s not hard to miss her these days as, like her mother, she is very loud and aggressive. The boys are a little more elusive and I really have to look for them. I’ve not seen three of them together at once for a week now but I’m hopeful that’s just due to the heat and not because one is MIA.
I will keep my eyes to the sky in hopes of catching all three together!
After the successful fostering of the chicks a few weeks ago, the activity at MEC slowed down - or so I thought. Since CPF setup the live cam prior to the banding, it’s had a cache of the last 18hrs of activity on the computer. I started checking this cache this week, and I’m not sure what to make of it. Looks like a Peregrine has been spending time coming in and out of the box. This morning, it seems there was 30 minutes of rooting around in the box. This afternoon, there was about 3hrs of sitting right next to the camera.
I’m not skilled enough to tell if they were the same bird or not, but I’m uploading some of the morning and afternoon activity to youtube. I’ll post again when it’s up and ready to view.
Until then, check out the webcam in the morning around 9am, or the afternoon around 4pm. Seems to be busy those times of day?
