Arrived around 1430 Hrs and found the Juvenile Female up on the Nest Ledge with her Brother. It was still fairly warm, but finallythe two Juveniles had a good long flight and the Female landed up on the Roof. Other than that, the night was fairly unenventful.
Mark Nash received a phone call from our wonderful supporters at MEC security that a banded juvenile had been recovered on their rounds outside one of the buldings. The unfortunate juvenile has been identified as 18 over Y better known as Joe. There was no visible trauma that would indicate what had happened to him yet it was most likely an impact with a window of one of the MEC buildings.
For the juvenile peregrines that have successfully fledged and are now learning the fine art of flight, the dangers can be much greater than when they were floppy first timers. The juveniles now have a much greater degree of confidence and navigate through their environment at much faster speeds. This makes collisions with buildings and other objects dangerous and even deadly, as was the case for young Joe.
While I was at the site, the other 3 remaining juveniles were flying around well and landing on MEC 2 and 3 like pros. We wish them well in their learning and hope that they do well in their travels south this fall.
Since July 26 Bill and I have been following the goings on of a couple of adults peregrines who have been hanging out on the hydro towers at Brant and Ghent Streets in downtown Burlington, ON. Yesterday I was finally able to see a band number, black band 29 over Y. Mark Nash has advised that this is none other than McKenzie who was banded May 26, 2009 at the Etobicoke Sun Life Centre at Bloor and Islington. The female is unbanded.
I wonder if we are going to have a new nesting pair in Burlington, Ont???
Since July 26 Bill and I have been following the goings on of a couple of adults peregrines who have been hanging out on the hydro towers at Brant and Ghent Streets in downtown Burlington, ON. Yesterday I was finally able to see a band number, black band 29 over Y. Mark Nash has advised that this is none other than McKenzie who was banded May 26, 2009 at the Etobicoke Sun Life Centre at Bloor and Islington. The female is unbanded.
I wonder if we are going to have a new nesting pair in Burlington, Ont???
With a big thank you to Ava St.Onge for her kind words and photos, we’ed like to share some of the conversation with our peregrine supporters. Photos of the little fledgling female on her maiden flight, and one of her first “rest stops”. Funny that this little baby ends up landing on the 4th floor, maternity ward window! Hmmmmm, as fate would have it.
Hello Peregrine Foundation,
I just finished speaking with a lovely gentleman in the parking lot of the William Osler Etobicoke Hospital who explained his purpose for standing near our truck with binoculars. He was watching the activity of a baby falcon who was perched on a building nearby to where we were standing. I explained to him that not even an hour earlier, the same falcon had landed on my sister’s room window ledge (4th floor, maternity ward) and I had taken some pictures; he gave me the web address to send them to you.
I just wanted to say that my husband and I really enjoyed our impromptu conversation with your team member (we didn’t get his name), and learned a lot in 20 minutes! I hope you enjoy the pictures I took, though only a few. (She looks like she posed in one of them!) Keep up the great work of helping (endangered) birds in need… Always a worthwhile cause!
Warmest regards,
Ava St.Onge
Fledge Day 8
Thursday August 5th:
Arrived @ 1530 Hrs. Still pretty hot, so was quiet for an hour or so, until adult Female (Gray & White, Split Tail (Missing Feather) brought in food & juvinile male popped up & began to eat. After another 1/2 hour of not seeing his sister, I got concerned & started a wide circle search around the property. I worked my way around to the SW side and finally found the juvenile female. She had indeed Fledged and was now on the south side of the Hospital 4 stories up.
All remained quiet and she stayed in that area until her brother buzzed her about 1710 HRS.
Then, one of the adult buzzed her 5-6 times and this got her going! She took off and made one circular flight & gained a few feet, then a 2nd flight that put her out of my sight. By the time I got around to the E side of the Hospital, I saw her glide over to the roof of the Medical Centre. Sure enough both her & her brother spent a 1/2 hour or so together on that roof, and at one point got buzzed a couple times by a Kestrel (Looked to be a Juvenile). Finally little brother got tired of waiting and flew off.
The young female finally got up enough nerve and flew off trying to get back up to the Nest Ledge. She got up 7-8 Floors, did a face plant on the building face, lost altitude and headed back to the Medical Centre. (A good lesson learned). By this time, Dad flew down & joined her and encouraged her back up to 7th Floor Window Ledge were she settled Down for the night. All in all, a good day for both juveniles, especially for the young female, as she learned some important lessons today.
Its been a very busy couple of days and I can only recap and high light the events.
the young juvenile Female has gained allot of strength & lost most of her fluffy white down. She continues to be very aggressive with her now flighted brother and robs him of food when ever she can. he has learned to take the food from his parents and fly off to a safe spot from his yet to fledge sister where he can eat it without having her steel it from him. He is flying great, with good landings and starting to chase his parents around with incredible skill!
His younger unfledged sister is now doing laps all around the ledge of the building, and although un-flighted, she had been a handfull to find her. The nest ledge level runs completely around the entire building and although she is not flighted as yet, she has learned that she can keep everyone in view by moving around the entire building on the ledge.
Osler Fledge Day 3:
Saturday July 31st
At approximately 0630 Hrs the young juvenile male fledged @ Osler. I say approximately, because the little *#”!! waited till I went for Coffee & a 10-100 @ 0625 Hrs. He and his Sister were sharing some food & I thought it would be safe to step away for 5-10 minutes.
When I came back, the female eyeses was on ledge, but the young male was no were to be seen ! OK, quick check around, 1 Adult was @ the SE corner Roof Level & the other Adult was on the antennas on the NE corner, Both were looking inward. Just as I walked S to check that side, The young juvenile popped up and chased that Adult off that SE Corner.
Considering the little juvenile male has fledged and he actually gained altitude,, (this a good thing), and his parents knew where he was and was being fed, I felt comfortable taking a brake around 0930 Hrs and return back in the PM.
Return around 1600 Hrs and much to my surprise I found him back on the nest ledge with his Sister. Now typically once the Juvenile has fledged and demonstrates the ability to return to the nest then it deemed able to Fly & doesn’t require the Fledge Watch any more. Yee Ha!! This means I get to rest for the next 5-6 days till the young juvenile female is ready to take her first flights, Right?,,, NOT!
This little male fledgling is the first one I can remember in a long time that has accomplished this milestone in one day,, (It couldn’t be that both the CPF director & myself assured everybody that there was no problem in missing banding him, as we’ll get him during the fledge, as most of them all sooner or later come to the ground after fledging. (Of course we should know better than to make those kinds of Statements)! Given this little guys strong flights and advanced level of skill in the air, it is very unlikely that he will come to the ground at this stage.
By the end of the day, this little juvenile male is flying all over the place and you would never know that he has just taken his first flights!! His sister remains on the ledge with a couple of days to go before she takes her first flights.
Osler Friday July 30th:
Day 2 was pretty well the same as Day 1, but a longer day. More preening, more flapping, and lots of vocalizing from the two youngsters. There also was more stealing of food by the juvenile female from the juvenile male. Three to fou times throughout this watch I observed the young juvenile male receive food from the adults, watched him take a few bites and then had his sister come down the ledge and steal it from him. It got to a point were the adult parents were beak feeding the juvenile male on other parts of the nest ledge out of sight of the juvenile female. By the end of the day, both juveniles had been feed several times, with the little female having got (or should I say stolen) the lions share of the food that the parents brought in to the hatchlings.