- Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Frank Butson Reports:
After a hectic day with 2 rescues,today was a great day. On arrival all 3 boys were visible on the roof of the nest building. During the day both DotCa and Blackberry had many great flights. They were going from the first tower of the Sunlife Centre to the nest tower and even sticking their landings. I saw one of them land ontop of a small pipe on the first tower,quite a controlled landing! Another flight saw one of them sit down right beside his brother,also a very nicely executed landing. Blackberry is the only one who has so far returned to the nestledge,which we use as a benchmark. Mercedes was catching his breath today,after yesterdays adventure. He made a few short flights from point to point on the nest building. Later about 730pm he joined his brothers flying onto the 1st Tower. DotCa and Blackberry flew with their mother a few times. Angel flew with food in her talons to bait the boys into flight. They were fed several times today..rewards for their good flying! I left all 3 boys sitting together on the first tower of the Sunlife Centre. Lets hope for more great flying tomorrow.
Posted on June 21, 2010 11:37 pm
June 21, 2010 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
I hooked up with Bruce this afternoon at MEC and got the updates. Two of the boys (Joe and Craig on the nest ledges running a flapping, sleeping and screaming as per the norm), and of course Wade cooling off in the air conditioning. Xuan (Soon) still on the upper nest roof ledges screaming most of the day for mom to come and feed her, but know avail. A very quiet afternoon indeed (with the exception of Soon screaming all afternoon), up until 6:20 pm when mom finally flew into the nest box and spoon fed each of the two boys beak to beak in a delightfully entertaining 20 minutes as I watched her feed each juvenile. Unlike most of the feedings these days when mom simply flies in and has the food aggressively snatched from her by one fo the juveniles, this was a really tender family moment.
Finally at around 8:40 pm, Xuan finally made the leap into space and flew south of the nest building roof where she had been all night and all day today, hooked around flapping for all she was worth and made a very bad landing,, BUT she did land on the nest box landing platform never the less. She screamed the entire way out and around as she collided with the upper lip of the nest box. She hit the landing platform so hard, I could here the “thunk” from my street level position, and almost bowled over one of her brothers right off the nest box landing platform.
By dark, all three of the juveniles had retired back into the nest box and disappeared from my view.
Back to examine little Wade just before releasing him. Feisty and very alert with lots of attitude, we proceeded to the upper nest building roof top to release Wade. He was released without innocent and I was finally able to depart for home at around 10PM.
We’re almost there!!! A couple of more days to go…
Stay tuned…….
Posted on June 21, 2010 9:32 pm
June 21, 2010 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
admin Reports:
Hello All
Unfortunately Ottawa’s Falcon Watch will not be taking place this year. Diana’s 2nd attempt at hatching her 3 eggs seems to have failed, and a 3rd attempt is unlikely.
We are keeping an eye on her, but are now looking forward to the 2011 season.
Thank you for your support for our falcon family, and for our volunteers’ efforts.
Eve
Posted on June 21, 2010 9:08 pm
June 21, 2010 - Toronto - King Street
Mark Nash Reports:
While the “kids” maybe away from the house (or the nest ledge) at the moment, its only for a short time. The resident adults still have the hardest part of their job still to come. Protection, feeding and training the “teenagers” to fend for themselves. For the next 30 to 90 days, the juveniles will be utilizing the nest ledge and still sleeping there most nights. The adults will have to teach them all of the life skills that the juveniles will have to learn to survive to adulthood, or should I say, just survive another day)!! Remember that by mid September, thousands of years of hard wired instincts will have the young juveniles head south on a migration and with upwards of an 80% mortality and many perils and risks, the youngsters will need all of the help that they can just to survive their first year. The adult parents have their job cut out for them trying to teach the juveniles how, what and where to hunt food, and how to recognize and escape from all of the “bad guys” out there.
Stay tuned, and look to the skies, as the best viewing is yet to come!!
Posted on June 21, 2010 5:04 pm
June 21, 2010 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
Hi Dennis, yes, I did make it Saturday for a few hours, but never took any photos that excited me. Sunday morning I went from 6:30 am until 8am. No keeper photos, but I was impressed at the youngsters , as they appeared to be hunting on their own. They were aggressively chasing pigeons and starlings. It was quite a sight. Then about 7:30 they seemed to disappear. There was only one adult and one juvenile in the area when I left.
I will send you any photos I get.
I appreciate the link and Carol Ann has already linked the foundation to our site. Thanks again
Randy Holland
www.randysnaturephotography.com
Special Thanks to Randy Holland for coming to the Bridge with his camera gear and we appreciate Randy’s candid input on the progress of the youngsters as he observed them.
Dennis Patrick
WPW
Posted on June 21, 2010 4:53 pm
- All Reports
Sarah Washington Reports:
Well Peter has been doing very well with his flying. His brother decided to join him on Saturday.
When Jospeh took off, Peter went after him to play.
Henderson and Chedoke are still in the nest ledge. Although, Henderson looks like she may fly at anytime.
The parents will not feed the nest chicks as often to try and entice them to the air. When their siblings are rewarded with food…we hope that they are getting the picture “If I fly I get grub”…
We shall see what happens…
Posted on June 21, 2010 2:23 pm
June 21, 2010 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
I received a call early this morning from Bruce from the MEC watch with good news, in that he was alerted by the alarms calls from the local group of crows that live in the neighbourhood. Further inspection (combined with the fact that he explains that he was missing two juveniles from his view upon his arrival this morning), Bruce was able to locate one of the absent juveniles.
Identified as Wade by his band number, Wade was low hanging on in the tress behind MEC #4 being harassed by the large family of crows who were not happy about their new neighbor. (It’s tough being a young raptor, and there are many lessons to learn,, the hard way). This mornings lesson: - Crows are not very friendly at all, and they are very noisy!! Second lession of the morning: Mom and dad will not always be there to help!!
Wade was finally driven out from the cover of the tree branches by the crows and forced to fly again. Losing altitude yet again, and pursued by the crows, Wade was forced into the office tower windows several stories up and collided with the building and floated down to the ground to the concrete.
Bruce was on hand to both witness the entire event and rescue Wade from the ground moments after the crash. After a quick inspection to insure that there was no immediate evidence and obvious signs of serious trauma, Wade was placed in the rescue carrier for a hold over allowing him to cool out and settle down for a later more detailed examination of any delayed serious trauma.
As with all of the other downed birds, especially where there is hard collisions involved, they are kept in a cool darkened quiet stress free room on site where that has been provided to us by the building management. Wade will be examined after the cool down period again for further signs of trauma and the appropriate action will be taken.
Way to go Bruce!! Stay tuned……
Posted on June 21, 2010 11:49 am
June 21, 2010 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
Michael has been coming over to the site helping spot and hoping for a great picture. Michael is a student at the University. Here are his words.
“Here is the picture of the falcon and its shadow. Look at the shadow in the place where the eye should be, I only noticed it last night”.
Lancer the name sake of the University is the peregrine that was in the right place at the right time.
Michael Dufour (student at the University of Windsor)
The young fly off the ledges to pursue the adults and try and take the food package from them. This is lancer leaving the ledge in HOT pursuit!!
Ken spotted a risky flight by one of the young and we were all nervous but when all three were FINALLY accounted for cheers were heard all round.
The great flying hunting lessons are continuing.
Posted on June 21, 2010 7:45 am
June 20, 2010 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Frank Butson Reports:
Here is a short video http://tinypic.com/r/vfcxug/6
Posted on June 21, 2010 4:17 am
June 20, 2010 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
I can’t even begin to describe the entire days events, and will have to summerize, as it now after midnight and Marion and I have just arrived home after completing a very long 14 hours in the streets on the watch today and three downed fledglings being released back to the rooftops at two different locations. Still have to file my observations and do the postings. With many thanks to Kathy, Marion and Tracy who came to my rescue today at the MEC watch in an effort to help me locate all of the missing juveniles, and for Tracy for doing the rescue of Xuan - (pronounced Soon) late this evening, we finished off the watch with all FOUR juveniles and both resident adults accounted for!
After turning Mississauga upside down throughout most of the day looking for the four missing juveniles, they all suddenly just appeared at the same time on the nest ledge! One minute they were not, and the very next minute they were all there!!! Unbelievable!! All four juveniles were sleeping down in the nest ledge below the nest box and for the most part of the day remained hidden from all of our searching. Obviously both Joe and Craig has at some point before I arrived for the morning watch, been successful in leaving the upper roof area and getting back to the nest ledge.
Throughout the balance of the day, we watched all three of the juvenile males make many short flights back and forth from MEC 1 to MEC 3 rooftops while mon teased them with fly buys with food.
At approx. 8:35 pm, the young juvenile female (Xuan) finally couldn’t stand all of the teasing and the fact that her three brothers were getting all of the food and she took her first flight.
While not a bad short flight, she was unable to coordinate her landing and after a few brushes with the windows, she eventually ran out of steam, losing altitude and came to the ground. She was spotted by MEC security in a flower pot outside of the MEC 1 and Tracy was dispatched and completed the rescue. Xuan was placed in the rescue carrier and examined for any injuries and other trauma before being released back to the nest building rooftop just after dark.
Again, with thanks to the MEC security staff for all of their assistance and support in helping us locate the juvenile and for helping us get them back to the roof.
Stay tuned, the watch continues tomorrow………….
Posted on June 21, 2010 3:22 am
