June 18, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Harry Crawford Reports:
According to Linda and Zoe, William fledged late yesterday
afternoon. I arrived on site at 7:20am to find an adult and
juvenile on the north west corner of 120 Adelaide. Earlier in the
morning, three juveniles were visible on the nest ledge via the
webcam. When I viewed the building from the 43rd floor of the
hotel, nothing was visible. The adult had disappeared. I waited
around for some time and the juvenile appeared from under the north
east corner. It was hidden from view. I couldn’t see if it was
William because the white tape was not visible with the double
window panes. I eventually relocated to the south east corner of
the City Hall square. From time to time, I could see the juvenile
on 120 Adelaide. It made a few attempts to run along the ledge,
flapping all the time. It could well have been William. Normal
adult activity was seen as well.
Zoe arrived and took up the courtyard at 120 Adelaide. The juvenile
did not appear again. Hopefully the afternoon crew can establish
the identity of the juvenile on 120 Adelaide.
Posted on June 18, 2011 4:08 pm
June 18, 2011 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Frank Butson Reports:
I apologize for the delay in posting but the past few days have been so packed with adventure that time has passed me by. What follows is my notes from yesterday, June 16th and today, June 17th.
Thursday June 16th
Jupiter took her first flight today and it was a pleasure to watch her as she flew several times in tandem with Angel. Her flights were strong and coordinated for a first timer. Hera was also flying well as he made forays between the towers around his nest ledge. Skye also took his first flight but was not as well organized as his sister Jupiter and landed on a window ledge on the 22nd floor of Kingsway on the Park. He then flew again and landed on the mezzanine level of the Sun Life Building and spent a great deal of time running the ledge from Bloor St. to Aberfoyle. Skye then took off as Kathy had just exited the building and watched as the young bird flew low across Bloor Street and actually brushed his wing along a passing car before coming to rest on the low roof of a store on the south side. Skye stayed there for the next 5 hours until he was motived to move once more and ended up on a wire next to the Pizza Pizza where the juvenile then spent the night.
Friday June 17th
This morning Skye left the wire after spending the entire night at that elevation and made an attempt to reach the roof of the Bell building at Eagle Rd and Bloor St. The attempt was aborted and the juvenile finally settled on top of The Longest Yard. After several hours of napping and considering his options, Skye left his perch and made a good flight to the top of the Bell building on Eagle Rd. I took a brief break only to find on my return that Hera had descended to the roof of the Bell building where Skye was now perched and took a good long nap there. Skye finally took one good flight off of the Bell building, flew out around the residential area to the south and back around the Sun Life tower at an elevation above the roof!! Skye then headed towards the Kingsway on the Park and with Angel’s encouragement he made it to the roof. Jupiter was on the same rooftop and Angel flew by trying to tease them into the air again. Hera then surprised us all by flying directly from the roof of the Bell building to the ledge to the left of the nest ledge!! This was an elevation gain, in one flight, of about 200 feet!! By 8:23pm, the entire family was gathered on the Sun Life Building at rooftop level where they settled in for the night.
Posted on June 18, 2011 11:44 am
June 17, 2011 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I dropped Frank off at William Osler today to man the watch while I travelled downtown. For the better part of the morning, all was quiet and the three juveniles opted to stay out of the sun by hiding behind the eastern “H”. At 12:30pm, I returned to retrieve Frank and take him down to Etobicoke Sun Life to relieve Kathy and Baylie, two incredible ladies that have been instrumental in making the Sun Life fledge watch such a success, and promptly turned around to get back here. As I was turning onto the road leading to the Health Centre, I received a call from Bruce Massey who had just arrived to find the male chick, Storm, running around on the rooftop ledge!! He had obviously made it out of the nest and back to the rooftop in the 45 minutes I was gone!! ( I swear he waited for just that moment! ) The two female young, Rain and Wind, remained on the ledge and looked very disinterested in the whole flight thing. Moments later things got busy.
Storm left the rooftop and attempted to land on the south side of the building on the ledge. He aborted his landing and instead went for the roof. After falling short of the top by a few feet, he hung on and did his best bat impression on the wall for a minute, then let go and tried for the nest ledge again. Another abort, this time taking him around to the east side where O’Connor, the resident female, joined him and guided him over towards the hydro tower. He flew through the first section of gridwork to the second leg of the tower where he attempted a landing and failed. He slipped off of the girder and dropped a foot or two to the next rung below. The slip and fall continued all the way down to the grass berm where he ended up a confused and defeated looking little boy. We rush over to rescue him and all the while O’Connor is above me alarm calling. I looked up to see her making her way down through the girders, rung by rung, on her way to deal with the person that just rescued her chick, me!! I can’t remember ever moving so fast towards Bruce and the rescue carrier and I never looked back! With Storm now in the carrier and in the security office of the hospital, I ventured outside to check on the other chicks and the adults. It would appear that O’Connor, the resident female, now knows the make, model and licence plate of the vehicle I drive, my home address and social insurance number and she plans to look me up!! She patrolled the air space around the hospital and when she found me, came down low to let me know that she wants her baby back!! She will be pleased to know that when darkness falls, after a quick health check, he will be released to the rooftop to give it another try. A big thank you to security and hospital staff for helping us to make a successful rescue today!
Posted on June 17, 2011 9:50 pm
June 17, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:
Paul Reynolds reported this morning:
Sorry I missed the entertainment last night. This morning at the bridge two Falcons were on the cables, the one closest to the nest box was a junior, who while I was there took flight across to the Hamilton tower and missed the landing, turning back to the nest box and missed again, turning around and gaining height this time she made the nest box. I then had to leave. As this is where we left Lady Lamont and Mom last night, I guess it would be safe to assume that they had spent the night on the cables.
When Bill and I arrived around 8am Lady Lamont and Mom were out on one of the picnic tables close to the nest box. Mom had food and Lady Lamont was not to happy about having to wait for her to prepare it. We took a quick look around for Lady Nelson, and we assumed she was MIA. All of a sudden out of nowhere Lady Nelson flew between the towers and landed well on a cross beam on the Burlington Tower. She knew there was food about and took off almost immediately and joined Mom and Lady Lamont on the picnic. The meal was ready and Lady Nelson grabbed it and left Lady Lamont screaming her objection.
The rest of the day the juveniles made several really good flights. The landings are still a little shaky, but things are definitely improving. When we left this evening at 8pm, Lady Lamont was tucked into a corner of the Burlington Tower and Lady Nelson was sitting tall on a picnic table.
Photos to follow.
Posted on June 17, 2011 9:16 pm
June 17, 2011 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill
Doug Garbutt Reports:
This morning when I arrived at work at 6:50 am there was only 1 young one in the box. Olivia at 43 days of age decided to take the big jump. She may have left late yesterday or early this morning. During my lunch break I took the opportunity to try and locate her. I was able to do so. Camera in hand, I managed to get a few photos of the new “free of the nest box” falcon. She appears to be able to get around pretty good as she 1st landed on the roof then flew up to a higher dust filter then around to the other side of our facility landing on a beam high up at the 10th floor level of our grain elevator. These are baby steps but she did very well on her maiden flight. We always worry about them ending up in the Welland Canal. I should mention that when she was on the roof that (like at the Burlington site), Rocky racoon was spotted. Perhaps that is what inspired Olivia to move to the other side of the building. Her brother Max is still stuck in the box. He looks ready to go and we think tomorrow will be his turn. Mom & Dad are not feeding him much.
Posted on June 17, 2011 5:37 pm
June 17, 2011 - Toronto - Don Mills
CPF Postmaster Reports:
This is just a quick notice to let everyone know that has been following and watching Quest and Kendals nest site that on Friday morning, and throughout the day, the window washers will be on site to set up the swing stage and other equipment necessary to facilitate access to the nest ledge on Tuesday for the banding.
While you might see ropes hanging in front of the nest ledge, they will not casse any harm to the birds. The ropes will be nothng more than a temporary distraction from their duties.. Quest and Kendal will settle back into thier regular routines as soon as the window washers stage is set up and the human activity is off the roof area.
It is necessary to set most of this equipment up well in advacence to ensure that everything is working fine prior to the day of the banding. Any unknown equipment challenges on Tuesday would cause un-necessary delays and/or cancellation of the banding altogether.
Posted on June 17, 2011 5:01 pm
June 17, 2011 - Toronto - King Street
Harry Crawford Reports:
I made a brief visit to the site at 7:20am. Both chicks were
visible on the nest ledge. They then began flapping. Mom flew down
from the roof of the King Edward with food and began to feed them.
I didn’t think anything was going to happen now so I went over to
the Sheraton.
Posted on June 17, 2011 2:36 pm
June 17, 2011 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
Dennis and I just stopped by the Bridge a few minutes ago. Lady Gaga and Spitfire were busy eating on their own and flapping like crazy. It’s amazing how much they have grown since we saw them on Wednesday afternoon. Freddie was sitting on the pipe and Voltaire flew in while we there as well.
Gwen & Dennis
Site Co-Ordinators for CPF
Posted on June 17, 2011 11:11 am
June 15, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Mark Nash Reports:
The morning started off with Lady Lamont in sight for the most parts of the day,,, but at some time from first light to 8am, Lady Nelson had taken her first flight and was no where to be found! Our worst fears given the two big bodies of water and the two busy roadways. After hours of searching both sides of the pier on the lake side them on the bay side, pure frustration led to defeat as we all retired to the base camp to do the only thing that was left,, sit and wait and watch the parents to give you a clue as to her location. Hours passed and absolutely noting!! Mom and dad were scarce at best, and when the were visible, they showed absolutely no concern on interest for their missing daughter!!!
Another fews hours passed, and more scanning with the bins and scope and still nothing. Finally, at approx. 2:45 pm, we asked the guys in the bridge if they could escort us to the roof area of the Hamilton tower roof, (now safe as we once again had lady Lamont in sight on the other tower).
Now at roof level, and by 3pm I was scanning the world. Just as I was ready to call it quits, a tiny little brown figure appeared in the massive undercarriage amongst the steel girder superstructure frame of the Burlington skyway bridge on the leading edge of a huge horizontal steel beam.
Guess WHO?? Yes, it was Lady Nelson standing several huge concrete support columns down from on the Burlington side of the canal way up in the steel I-beams!!! I radioed to the group and base camp to a more than overjoyed and very relieved crowd down at ground level.
For the next few hours we watched Lady Nelson make some very short flights (and terrible landing) through the spider web of steel superstructure undercarriage of the Skyway bridge as she made her way back closer to the lift bridge towers.
As she flew to a beam directly behind us. Dad finally appeared in our view, seemingly flying out into our view from thin air to join his daughter. Hmmmm, did he have his eye on her the entire time???
The evening had Lady Nelson finally flying over to the Hamilton tower of the lift bridge, holding up on a steel beam way up on a beam of the Hamilton tower overlooking the canal As darkness fell, and with both fledglings and both adults in sight,, (Lady Lamont back in the nest box and Lady Nelson safely on a steel beam), and both settled in for the evening, we all agreed the it was safe to pack up and go home for the evening.
It was NOT TO BE! Minutes after 9pm, both parents were again airborne alarm calling as they stoped and dove around the upper tower area above and the rear of where Lady Nelson was roosting. After more than 15 minutes of scanning the darkened beams, Sue finally spotted “Rocky the Raccoon” with her binoculars high up on the tower moving around in the shadows.
Both parents were frantic as they continued to alarm call and flew around in the darkness around the rear corner of the upper levels of the back side of the tower.
Finally, we all got a sight line on this huge raccoon slowly descending face down one of the vertical steel ladders. We all watched in horror knowing only tooo well that if “Rocky the Raccoon“ spotted Lady Nelson, it would have been likely a very bad close to the day!
Thank goodness that McKenzie and Cirrus continued their pursuit of Rocky as I`m sure that it was their encouragement that kept Rocky both distracted and on the move down the tower and
past Lady Nelson.
By 10pm, Rocky had finally made its way to the lover bridge road way area and disappeared into the darkness.
We all crossed our fingers that Rocky had enough of McKenzie and Cirrus and officially closed down the fledge watch for the evening.
Stay tuned……
Posted on June 17, 2011 2:55 am
June 16, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:
First off let me say, stay tuned for Mark Nash’s report from yesterday about Rocky Raccoon. It is quite a story.
It was another trying day at the Lift Bridge. I don’t know how we would have handled any more than 2 juveniles. 3 sets of eyes are just not enough to keep up with them. I couldn’t begin to write a whole report for the day so this is just a recap.
When Bill and I arrived at the Bridge this morning at 8am, Lady Nelson was nowhere to be found and the search began. No luck!! Several hours later, Mark just happened to look up at the Control Tower (on the Hamilton Bay side) and lo and behold, Missy had worked her way over to the edge and there she sat in full view. She spent the next couple of hours making her way around the Control Tower, ending up just over the walkway and the road. She was sitting right above a “Danger Sign” and she was most definitely in danger. A decision was made to rescue her before the next lift of the bridge. Well that didn’t work out too well. She took off out over the canal and tried to land on the Burlington Tower, missed, came around and tried to land on the Burlington Hydro Tower, missed and landed in the trees somewhere???
The search was on. Over the bridge, search the ground, search the trees, search the towers. If it wasn’t for the Red Wing Blackbirds and Baltimore Orioles dive bombing her we would never have found her.
At around 4:30pm Bill and I decided to take a break and go home for a bite to eat. When we got back around 6:30pm, Lady Nelson was no longer in the tree and was MIA. By this time, some backup had arrived and the search was on once again, over the bridge, etc. etc. etc.
An hour or so later, she was finally spotted by Robert Williams on the upper beam on the bay side of the Bridge. When we left at 9pm, that’s where she was. I don’t think that she had been fed all day. She must be one very hungry and tired bird.
While all this was going on with Lady Nelson, Lady Lamont was no angel either. She is flying well and holding her altitude, but the landings are still not very good. When we left this evening, she was sitting out in the open on one of the cable wires.
Even while all this searching was going on Mom and Dad continued to entertain us with their hunting skills. I have never seen anything like it. In all my years of falcon watching I have never seen a pigeon plucked out of the air. Well today I finally saw it. Mom and Dad working together, it’s quite a sight.
Keeping our fingers crossed that all will be well when we arrive in the morning. Photos to follow.
Posted on June 16, 2011 10:14 pm
