June 14, 2011 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Was up at the Bridge to see Voltaire, Freddie, Lady Gaga and Spitfire. Freddie and Voltaire were sitting on side of Bridge together… Lady Gaga and Spitfire were in and out of nest box being very vocal and flapping the wings.. Freddie went into nest area than was going bar to bar under the bridge being very vocal… Boy Lady Gaga and Spitfire are growing real fast…
Collette Denkers
Posted on June 15, 2011 2:40 am
June 14, 2011 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Good afternoon everyone,
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 — 12:10 p.m. — It is a breezy and humid afternoon in Ottawa. Connor is perched just above the 4th window from the SW corner of the Delta City Ottawa Centre hotel. He is looking towards the nest area and the eastern part of the city.
Take care and keep smiling!
Ciao,
N. McKenna
Posted on June 15, 2011 2:26 am
June 14, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Mark Nash Reports:
PM watch report -Tuesday June 14th - 2011
It was a crazy day in Burlington today full of activity on and off all day. There was so much happening throughout the day that my head is spinning.
The highlights this evening had Lady Lamont completing several good strong short flights from tower to tower roofs, them to the hydro tower for the first time as she tried to get closer to mom.
With several not so good landings and just as many aborted landings unable to get the altitude that she wanted, she was forced to fly around back where she came from only to land on a different part of the tower roofs. Finally she was able to make it back to the nest box where she was greeted with a very excited sister (Lady Nelson). The two siblings touched beaks for several minutes that could only be described as a true sign of affection between the two. A very heart warming moment indeed!
Throughout the later afternoon and evening, the resident adult male McKenzie was in “warp-drive” hunting mode with more energy that I have ever seen in my 17 plus years on the watch!
In addition to the incredible energy that this little guy demonstrated throughout most of the afternoon and evening, he has an affection for the local pigeon population!! He made several pigeon kills that were some of most outstanding stoops and pursuits, catching all that he went after with a determination and agility that I have never seen before. He never ran out of gas!!
If that were not enough to take your breath away - (and it did), we were all caught up in running across the parking lot on one of his successful pigeon hunts screaming “Go Daddy GO”,, as he struggled to hold his altitude making carrying the huge pigeon, while completed circle after circle and several figure-eights while trying to hold on and carrying these huge squirming live pigeons that he had in his clutches while trying to fly in dead air!!
On one occasion he was chased and mobbed by gulls that were in hot pursuit trying to take the pigeon away from him and was almost grounded in the water as he tried to gain some altitude as he flew up the canal past our watch position towards the Hamilton harbour!
Unlike the past weeks where the pair have been hunting in tandem on every other hunt, McKenzie hunted solo all day long today with his mate showing little to no interest at all in hunting.
Another unusual and very strange happening this year, is that both adults seemed to have absolutely no interests in the actual fledgling of their young. When Lady Lamont took her flights today, neither of the adults even looked sideways at her during the flights, let alone accompanied her in any of her flights. Very strange indeed!!!!! The resident adult female didn’t bring a single scrap of food to the young and she spent most of the day roosting on the hydro tower showing very little interest at all to all the happenings going on. And there were allot of happenings throughout the day!!!
McKenzie on the other hand, was in hyper-drive all day long right up until darkness when we closed down the watch for the evening.
By darkness, both of the girls had retired to the back of the nest box, with McKenzie roosting on one of the cables only several feet from the nest box. Mom was on the hydro tower, once again with her back to the nest box which has been her posture and behaviour for the most parts throughout the entire day!.
As I write this observation report, I can’t help but chuckle, as it would have almost appeared that the two adults must have had wicked knock out argument at some point during our absence over the evening and were they have been ignoring each other all day still not speaking to one another! They didn’t interact with each other at all today!
Hmmmmmm??????
Stay tuned…….
Posted on June 15, 2011 2:10 am
June 14, 2011 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
As told by Big Frank;
Kathy saw the fledge at 7:00am this morning of Hera and the flight was actually quite strong. This initial flight took the bird over to the center tower where he spent the better part of the day. Back on the ledge, there was a great deal of pre-flight exercise with lots of wing flapping and a feeding at 12:00pm by Jack. An hour later, Jack went over to the center tower to buzz the young Hera in the hopes of instigating another flight but only resulted in a great deal of screaming by the juvenile and an appearance on the retaining wall. A few minutes later Angel flew by with food trying to tease Hera into the air and when that didn’ t have the desired effect, she took the food to the nest ledge and fed Jupiter and Skye. The rest of the day was spent napping and flapping until at 8:23pm Jack entered the ledge with a small food package that Jupiter took off with and self fed. Hera flew a few minutes later from the center tower to the Kingsway on the Park tower and landed on a window ledge. He was unable to settle there and took another flight that had him clinging onto a window frame of the nest tower that was equally uncomfortable. After a short loop over Bloor street Hera finally ended up on the canopy over the entrance to 3250 Bloor street where he spent the rest of the night running the ledge to the west. Tracy arrived on site as the sun was setting and wee Hera was sitting on the far western corner of the lower elevation looking for some direction as to “what now”?! He looked as though he might stay and nap there for the night when he was awakened by activity below him on the street. The initial inspection came from a police cruiser that stopped to see what Tracy was up to with that set of binoculars and followed quickly by an ambulance rushing by with sirens blaring. On this lower elevation it is a little to close for Hera’s comfort and we thought that he was going to take off but instead settled down for a nap. The best solution for Tracy and I was to also settle down for dinner on the patio across the street and hope that the fledge didn’t happen in the middle of bite! At 11:16pm, Hera is still at the western corner of the low wall and we are still on the patio sharing stories of peregrines with the constituents. Cheers!
Posted on June 14, 2011 11:40 pm
June 14, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Linda Woods Reports:
Sunshine returns to the nest ledge. What a Flyer! She fooled me. I thought it was an adult taking food to the ledge. She spent most of the day on the higher elevation of 120 Adelaide. At dinner time I did a check, she was still there on the east side of this roof top. After not seeing much activity, I did another check, she was gone. What I thought was food going into the ledge was actually Sunshine returning. Good flyer. I hope she keeps it up. She stayed there for the remainder of the evening and we closed the watch for the night at 9:00p.m. They appeared to be down for the night. All was quiet This image sent to us from the Rochester Crew viewing the webcam
Posted on June 14, 2011 10:12 pm
June 14, 2011 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
After checking in at Etobicoke Sun Life, I made my way up to the site to settle in for the afternoon and arrived to find all three juveniles on the nest ledge and no parents in sight. It was a good half an hour before Hurricane, the resident male, arrived and landed on the hydro tower directly east of the nest ledge. There was a great deal of vocalizations from the young at his arrival but it wasn’t until 1:27pm that Hurricane made his way over to the east facing “H” sign to prep lunch. Hurricane then called for O’Connor, almost as if to ask permission to feed, and when he got no reply he stashed the food and went back to the hydro tower to wait. O’Connor, the resident female, arrived at 2:30pm and Hurricane quickly went to get the food and proceeded with his assigned duties. The three chicks cornered him between the pillar and the wall and refused to allow him to leave until they were full. He was chased by the young so relentlessly that he lost control of the feeding twice and had to regain the food from Wind, one of the young females, to continue on.
Back at the tower with feeding all done, the two adults enjoyed a quiet moment while keeping close watch. O’Connor flew over to the ledge and retrieved some food and Storm, the male chick, sat about 4 feet away screaming but dared not touch it or rush her for a feeding. Seconds later Hurricane landed further down the nest ledge and he was once again rushed by the chicks and mobbed until they were satisfied. It is clearly evident that the chicks don’t mess with Mom at all!!
By 5:00pm, the young had once again eaten ( stolen from Dad ) and O’Connor was perched on the east “H” relaxing. Bruce and I watched as she took off without a sound and made a focussed and determined power flight due east. It took us a moment to realize what she was after. A local Red tailed hawk was approximately a kilometre away and she went right for it. This huge female hawk had no idea what hit her. O’Connor was stooping her and attempting to grab the RTH by the back. Hurricane joined the effort and over the next 10 minutes, Bruce and I sat in awe watching the ejection of this bird from the territory. O’Connor, the resident female, would grab the hawk by the back in mid air which caused it to flip over and present its talons. O’Connor would then grab the bird by the talons and spiral down with it for a good 3 to 5 seconds, all the while biting at the bird. When the two released their grip on each other, Hurricane would clobber it with a full stoop attack. This series of grab, flip, lock, release and smack continued on for at least 5 kilometres until Bruce and I could no longer see them. O’Connor easily made half a dozen lock on grabs of the bird and spiralled down with it for several seconds each time. I must admit I have never seen an attack like this in all my years doing this!!!
I can’t say what happened to the female Red tailed hawk that our resident pair took on but I can tell you that 10 minutes after it all began, both adults were back on their hydro tower perch preening and roosting as if nothing had happened. I must say that O’Connor is one of the most brave, relentless, powerful and determined female peregrine falcons I have ever met. What a Mom!!
Posted on June 14, 2011 8:43 pm
June 14, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:
Paul Reynolds reported that at 5:10 this morning; Lady Lamont was sitting on a light on the harbor side of the Burlington Tower. Thank goodness she had survived the night and had made her way to the edge of the Tower. At 5:30am she was flapping her wings. Mom definitely knew where she was and appeared to dive bomb her at one point.
When Bill and I arrived at 7:45am she was sitting on one corner of the Burlington Tower and Mom was sitting on the other corner. At 8:00am Lady Lamont started working her way along the edge of the Tower flapping and vocalizing the whole way. Mom was sitting on the Eye Bolt and Dad was flying between the cable arm and the wires. By 8:42am Lady Lamont had made her way directly over the nest box and both sisters were looking at each other and vocalizing. For the rest of the morning Lady Lamont made her way around the Tower flapping and running and sleeping.
At around 12 noon, Bill and I left for some lunch and when we returned, Mark Nash informed us that we had just missed a pretty good flight. At 12:35pm Lady Lamont left the roof of the Burlington Tower and flew to the Hamilton Tower with an unsuccessful landing. She came around and made her way back to the Burlington Tower landing on the lake side cable arm. At 12:45pm she flew again to the Hamilton Tower again an unsuccessful landing but managed to carry on to the Hamilton Hydro Tower. Mom was sitting in the Hydro Tower and appeared to pay no attention to these flights.
At 2:30pm, Lady Lamont left the Hydro Tower and flew to the Burlington Tower. It looked like she was trying to make her way back to the nest box. Again, an unsuccessful landing with a face plant on the buffer housing. She got off and landed safely on a picnic table. Over the next little while she managed to walk to cables to the Burlington Tower lake side cable arm. When we left for a break at 3:30pm, that is where she remained.
Lady Nelson continues to flap her wings and run around the nest box. Her first flight should be soon.
Stay tuned…….
Posted on June 14, 2011 5:10 pm
June 14, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Harry Crawford Reports:
When I arrived this morning at 7:30am, Sunshine was not where she
was when Linda shut the watch down last night. The adults didn’t
seem concerned and were doing their usual hunting as well as
watching the nest ledge. Around 10am, Teri from 85 Richmond West
had joined Zoe and I briefly and then she saw Sunshine come off the
roof area just above the nest. It was a very controlled and strong
flight, disappearing above 120 Adelaide West. Zoe and I went up to
the 43rd floor of the Sheraton and there she was, playing in a
puddle on the centre top of the 120 Adelaide penthouse.
The three remaining chicks were not particularly active and there
were a couple of food drops. I left just after 11:30am. Zoe and
Annie continued the watch.
Posted on June 14, 2011 3:12 pm
June 10, 2011 - Brampton - Courthouse
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 10th - 2011
A couple of shots from today. Food was being delivered to the nest site today around 1pm. Due to the nest being out of sight, and my inability to tell the male apart from the female, all I can say for certain is that one Peregrine delivered the food to the nest site and about two minutes later, a bird left with the food in its talons. There was some vocalization coming from the nest while the food was there but with the traffic I’m sure I missed a lot.
Winston
Posted on June 14, 2011 2:25 am
June 09, 2011 - Brampton - Courthouse
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 6th - 2011
Nothing exciting to report today. The male was perched atop a corner of the courthouse just above the nest site and basically just sat there for the time I was watching. He was bombed, again, by a make AK. I am guessing he has a nest near by. However nothing really happened while I was there today but will look again tomorrow. Here’s a nice shot of him stretching.
Winston
Posted on June 14, 2011 2:23 am
