May 28, 2011 - Toronto - Don Mills
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Bruce Massey attended the 220 Duncan Mill Road nest site today to check in on Quest and Kendal, our resident pair, and the single egg that they are caring for. Incubation was still underway and Bruce witnessed the stashing of much food by the pair in preparation should this egg hatch. If we do have a hatch at the site, this will be the fattest chick on record given all of the food that is ready and waiting!! We will be checking in on them each day and reporting on the progress of the nest site as a hatch is due any day now.
Posted on May 28, 2011 9:23 pm
May 28, 2011 - CPF Events
Tracy Simpson Reports:
This afternoon I had the pleasure of attending the Whitevale Spring Festival in Pickering with Oscar and Alexandra, two of the stars of our educational bird team. Oscar, our ten year old male Peregrine falcon, spent the first half an hour with me telling the story of the decline and recovery of his species to a packed house of families and friends and Alexandra, our Great Horned owl, finished off our time at the festival enlightening folks about the incredible adaptations that owls such as her possess. A hearty thank you to the Ontario Power Generation for sponsoring our visit to the Whitevale Spring Festival!!! What a great afternoon!!
Posted on May 28, 2011 9:19 pm
May 28, 2011 - Toronto - King Street
Linda Woods Reports:
Back for another visit. The day started foggy, so no point going early. I arrived around 1:30p.m. and once again, the two chicks were out of view. One adult is seen in the camera view. I waited close to 1/2 without seeing even so much as a flicker of white fluff in the monitor. Around 2p.m. the adult flew off, I was hoping she would return with food, but she did not. Nor did the chicks make a move for me to see them. The adult took off again and returned about 10 minutes later, still no food, but the activity did peak the chicks interest and they finally came out from the corner of the ledge and moved into camera view. It appears we may have at least one female ( big feet ). The two look out into the sky, but the adult female did not return with a meal and the two chicks then piled on top of each other and snuggled for a nap. Around 3p.m. and back to street level, one adult on the King Edward Hotel and the other adult was on 1 Toronto Street.
Posted on May 28, 2011 6:54 pm
May 27, 2011 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
May 27th - 2011
To days visit yielded some very good news indeed! For a few seconds at first glance my heart sunk as there were no eggs visible and an empty bowl on the ledge, and neither of the resident adults were seen. Moments later from under the overhang a white flash appeared, and then a second flash. Changing angles to the other side of the ledge and it seemed that all three hatchlings appeared to just spill out of nowhere!
Both of the resident adults were absent and no where to be seen. Several minutes after our arrival, both resident adults seem to came out of thin air and it was quite obvious that we were not welcomed. Surprisingly, the adult male was far more aggressive during this visit than the last. A few photos during our retreat and our visit was over.
It is worth noting that unlike most of the other nest sites we have been monitoring over the years, this female is really untidy, as she constantly has food on the nest ledge itself. While this is typical as the hatchlings become older and more independent, this is not typical of when the female is incubating or brooding young hatchlings. Keeping any food on the same nest ledge this close to the incubation and or young hatchlings attracts other scavengers and most always we see the resident female take the garbage and uneaten food away. This is one of the reasons that most of the resident females don’t eat on the nest ledge or eat close to the nest itself when there is eggs or young hatchlings.
As with our previous visits at this nest site, Lynn seems to allow both fresh and older un-eaten and old partially eaten carcases and other food scraps scattered around the actual nest ledge very close to the !
Upon entering and exiting the roof, we also noticed three more dead Woodcock carcases, - (two very old and one very fresh uneaten carcases). *See attached photos.
Woodcock seems to be in abundance and a preferred food by the pair at this site, as we have recorded many such Woodcock in the previous years at this nest site.
Posted on May 28, 2011 12:03 am
May 25, 2011 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Tracy Simpson Reports:
We received a call at the CPF head office on Saturday May 21st from a gentleman in the Eglinton and Mount Pleasant area that he had witnessed a peregrine falcon, in a stoop, make contact with a wire and then fall to the ground dying instantaneously. The gentleman noticed that the bird was banded, preserved it in his freezer and contacted the CPF. We unfortunately were not able to get the call that day as we were attneding the Port Colbourne nest site and almost a dozen other nest sites over the long weekend. We responded to the call on Tuesday and found that the bird had been retrieved by Toronto Animal Services. We placed a call to them immediately as we had a sinking feeling that this bird was the resident male at the Canada Square nest site. They had indeed picked the bird up from the gentleman and they were awaiting my arrival to retrieve the bird from them for identification. My time spent at the Canada Square site to date had only given me partial glances of a band number on the male, but enough information to confirm that this was in fact the resident male from the Canada Square nest site. The CPF then simultaneously launched an investigation into the state of the nest site at the Canada Square building and confirming the identity of the deceased bird.
The bird was a 2007 hatch from the Uptown Theatre in Chicago, Illinois and his name was Irving. He was easily visually identified at the Canada Square nest site last year by a noticeable kink in his wing that would not allow him to fully extend it in a soar. Looking at the records for the Uptown Theatre in Chicago during 2007, it was noted that the fledgling Black over Green B/44 was grounded after 4 weeks of post fledge experience and was taken to rehab with a broken wing. He was later released and has gone on to produce young in 2010 and 2011 in Uptown Toronto at the Canada Square nest site. We are happy to see that through the monitoring of fledgling peregrine falcons in streets of Chicago, as the CPF does here in southern Ontario, that Irving was found and given a second chance through rehabilitation. We are pleased that he chose Toronto to nest in and he will be missed.
Back at the Canada Square nest site, the female was now charged with the task of taking care of not just two, but now three young chicks. The third egg hatched on Thursday May 19 as reported by Neil Armstrong and his excellent staff at Northern Realty Advisors Ltd. that manage the Canada Square building. Upon my arrival at the site, I met with Neil to discuss the news about the male and he was able to confirm that there was without a doubt two falcons on-site at that very moment. It would seem that a rival for Irving’s territory had arrived and was making all attempts at interacting with the resident female. I raced up to the observation suite to check on the young to find the three chicks on the ledge and the two adults tandem soaring over Eglinton Avenue.
I must say that where a peregrine needs us, we show up in droves!! I was in the observation suite, Bruce and Lyn were in the streets and Mark and Marion were on the way!! Bruce and I were on the phone communicating locations and vantage points of the adults and through our observations of their behavior we have determined that the resident female has accepted this new male into the territory but is not allowing him to the nest ledge just yet. The resident female showed a moment of trust by allowing the new male the opportunity to defend the site from a crow that wandered through; a job that he accomplished quite quickly and I am sure in the hopes of convincing her that he would be an appropriate mate. We have observed no aggressiveness by either the resident female or the new male in the territory towards one another and they have cooperatively participated in vanquishing a window washer from his duties. We are now and will continue to be in the streets and on-site each day at the Canada Square nest to monitor the resident pair, attempt to identify the new male and gather detailed observations on the progress of this change in the resident male adult.
I have included photos of Irving as well as the latest member of the Canada Square family of falcons. There is a noticeable difference in size and age of the last chick of this brood in comparison with the first hatched. A trend we are observing throughout southern Ontario in at least three nest sites so far.
Posted on May 27, 2011 8:08 pm
May 27, 2011 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I was on-site at the Mississauga Executive Centre today to check on the resident pair and it would appear that they are still incubating at least one egg. At the time of my arrival, I had just missed a change over so there was no hope of a really good view as the male was in the nest box and sleeping away the afternoon. The resident female made her way out from the nest box and landed on the dot on top of the “j” in the large sign on MEC building #3. I was able to see the male reposition himself and clearly there is still at least one egg. From initial observations back on March 30th, that puts us at around 57 days incubation. I will continue to check in and provide you with updates on the status of this nest.
Posted on May 27, 2011 6:51 pm
May 27, 2011 - Brampton - Courthouse
Tracy Simpson Reports:
This was another of the earlier posts that were dropped when we updated our system. I apologize for the missing post but here it is. I have bolded the date for ease of reference.
May 27th - I was on-site at the Brampton Courthouse today to look for activity at the site. The resident male, Milton, was roosting on the southwest corner of the sub-roof. Within 10 minutes he flew off and landed on the same ledge just a few metres north and disappeared. Moments later he emerged with food and took it to the southwest corner one ledge below where he was roosting. As he landed, the female popped up, took the food and left that ledge to go to the sub-roof and eat. As Truss, the resident female, took off the male jumped down into the ledge and disappeared. With only one adult being seen at a time, their behavior and the change off that I witnessed all point to the incubation of something. I will be on-site early next week to see if I can get a view of that ledge and ascertain just what the resident pair are looking after there.
Posted on May 27, 2011 6:45 pm
May 27, 2011 - Toronto - Don Mills
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Bruce Massey was on-site for a visit to the nest at 220 Duncan Mill Road and was able to see, when the female stood up, that the resident pair are still incubating their single egg. This egg is due to hatch any day now and so Bruce will be regularily visiting over the following days to look for a hatch.
Posted on May 27, 2011 6:13 pm
May 27, 2011 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
Pretty much all there is to report this week. Mom is a constant presence - usually right beside the nest box or on the web cam when we had a nice day or two. I can hear her feeding the kids but sadly can not see anything at this point from street level.
Jack has been around quite a bit so he’s doing his job well and I’ve seen him baby sitting a few times. His mate at the Residential Site reportedly only has one hatchling that they can see. I’m happy she has at least one as she’s quite an impressive falcon!
Next Friday is banding day and I”m quite excited to see them for the first time. They will be 3 weeks old this weekend and should be wandering the back of ledge soon if they haven’t started already.
I was also thrilled to read about Mackenzie, one of Jack and Angel’s offspring from 2009, nesting at the Burlington Lift Bridge.
Posted on May 27, 2011 4:32 pm
May 26, 2011 - International, National and Local News
Marion Nash Reports:
May 26-2011
In the early evening of Thursday May 26th just after the heavy rains, Mark and Marion said farewell to Statler with a successful release. Statler, (or Lucky as she was nic-named) was rescued from an air vent at the Rogers centre over the long weekend and was after a short hold over to rehydrate and feed her, was released back to the wild in Richmond Hill on west Bevercreek Rd.
Typical of what we are usually faced with, this rescue took place during a long weekend (at the worst of times) when we struggle to find anyone (other than CPF people) to help!
As Marion reports:
I tried to hide behind the towel on the carrier after opening the door but she knew I was there and peeked around the corner of the rescue carrier to see what I was up to before taking her freedom flight. It took her a few minutes to walk out of the carrier and take to the air with strong wing beats and steady flight. She made it up to yer another air vent on the top of a low rise industrial building only several meters in front of us. Both of hearts sunk as she landed on the top of a huge air intake vent,, - (OH MY GOD, NOT ANOTHER AIR VENT)!! She took several minutes to get her bearings before she finally flew off to the west, gaining good altitude and hooked around to the south and out of our view.
Good for her! I hope the next time we meet this big girl it will be at the banding of her offspring. Lets hope that she has learned something from this, as she does seem to favour hanging around on air vent,, s so lets keep our fingers crossed.
Posted on May 27, 2011 2:30 pm
