Canadian Peregrine Foundation

They can fly!!

June 28, 2011 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

I have not had a chance to get out to the mill for the last 2 days so I was  happy to be able to see the 2 young ones putting on quite an air show. The winds were very strong here all day long & when I got down to the lake they were even stronger which made great conditions for the new flyers. They took advantage by kiting around the sky hardly having to flap their wings at all. They were also tormenting the odd seagull or pigeon. In fact, as I watched Olivia through binoculars I noticed she was coming right at me and seemed to be getting rather close. I took my binocs away from my face just in time to see her stoop about 30 feet above me. All the time, Mom was watching from afar. I tried to get some pics but didn’t have any luck. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Cinnamon flying well

June 28, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre

Harry Crawford Reports:

When I arrived on site, I found that both Cinnamon and Kate had
moved from their last reported location last evening.  I couldn’t
see Cinnamon but Kate was on the upper railing of the old Bell
building.  One adult was visible.  By 8am, Cinnamon joined Kate on
the Bell building and both adults were on the north side of 130
Victoria.  Cinnamon is flying well.  Cinnamon is flying very well.
He made about five [about a block or more in length] flights,
maintaining height and landing well.  At one point, with Linda
watching from 43, he joined Sunshine for some flying.

Kate made about three flights, simply to relocate to different areas
of the Bell building.  She had no difficulty but these were not
challenging flights.  I would like to see her do some distance
flying.  Hopefully she will do so later today.

!!! Amazing Creatures

June 28, 2011 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge

Dennis Patrick Reports:

Yesterday we were there three times to check on Lady Gaga and Spitfire, both of them doing very well. Last night after the Fireworks were over we drove down to check and make sure everyone was doing good. At that point we could only see Freddie sitting on top of the nest tray, the others must have been hunkered down for the night. This morning on our way to the Shop we stopped by again, Spitfire was sitting on the West side of the abudment while Lady Gaga was sitting on the South of the abudment, Freddie brought her in a food package and she was doing really good on ripping it apart.
Thank You to Collette, Bess and Ted, without your watchful eyes we could not do this alone. If I’m missing anyone that were there yesterday please forgive me.
Gwen & Dennis Site Co-ordinators for CPF

!!! Last to fledge - Chester is off!!

June 27, 2011 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton

CPF Postmaster Reports:

Canada Square report Monday June 27th 2011
Bruce was on the beat early again today and after a reasonably uneventful morning where the two fledged juveniles flew distances *there and back* he was brought to his feet, literally, in a hurry at 1:00 p.m.
Young Chester flew today. Bruce happened to look up at 1:00 p.m. to see two birds in the air, one smaller than the other and thought *mom and juvenile*. They flew south over the cinema building and car park area and the larger one came back. Bruce checked to *make sure it was the mom* and was very surprised to discover it was a juvenile. Then the question became *who was the smaller peregrine?*
Bruce set out to check the identity. He checked the ledge from the ground and did not see Chester so he went up to the ledge and looked out only to find no bird on the ledge!!! He did all of the parking lots and areas he could get onto, without seeing the little chap.
Yep Chester had flown. I had a call a little after 1:00 p.m. to say that he had gone. I met Bruce and he set off on a search for Chester. At that point there was no sign of him and we could not see the adults anywhere. Bruce did another thorough search at 2.00 p.m. and found a youngster on the SE corner ledge of Canada Square. We did not see three juveniles between us, at the same time, any time after that.
On Bruce’s many walkabouts he sometimes saw one or both adults sitting on the Condo building, or flying over or near the Canada Square building. Later on when we saw two turkey vultures we had hoped they would bring out the adults from somewhere. However, they were quite high so perhaps not considered a threat and the adults stayed hidden from us.
For a while we had two juveniles on the antenna on top of Canada Square and as I had the scope up we could see their beautiful colours so well. We also determined for sure that who we had were Luke and Buzz. At one point when they were together we thought the one looked smaller than the other and we hoped it was Chester. They each flew off at different times from the antenna.
I returned for the second time after a trip home to find one adult and one juvenile on the ledge north of the nest. Maggie, one of our daily visitors, noticed that the female, who had brought in the food, was actually feeding the juvenile. This was the first time we had seen that! It was normal for us to see her feeding them on the nest ledge but not once they had left.
At one point we had four peregrines in the same area but no Chester. There were two juveniles on the Canada Square nest ledge and the two adults on the railing, one floor below. The female even went onto that lower balcony floor for a few minutes. The adults then flew off. Both juveniles did more flying today and one of them took off from the ledge, flew over Yonge and Eglinton, slightly north-ish and may have been heading for Baffin Island before the female flew in and turned him to fly south over the Bell building, across Eglinton where she brought him down on a white building with a number of chimney-like things on top. The juvenile hit one of those and fluttered from view. The female appeared unconcerned and continued flying back our way. A few minutes later we spotted him on the side of that building looking towards us. Later on he flew back. It was a lengthy flight, over Canada Square, over the black building just south of that and then up Duplex Ave to the apartment building at 411 where he landed on the stairwell roof. After a ten minute break he flew again and circled over the vacant TTC lot and then onto the smaller of the antennae on the Canada Square building. He really is flying well. After five minutes he flew north up Yonge street and out of sight. Shortly thereafter the second juvenile also flew up Yonge street.
We saw the female fly around the Canada Square building and just saw her land on the roof on the east side.
Later on the male flew in to the ledge on the north side of Canada Square with a food package! He was very surprised that no-one flapped and rushed him for it! He even called a number of times without any response. So he picked up the food and flew to the antenna on the TVO building where he made a meal of it.
Eventually the female flew north up Yonge and a while later the male did the same. Bruce made his last round of the area and was unable to find where Chester was bedded down for the night. So we left.
Lyn

!!! Kenya and Sukura in the direct Area

June 27, 2011 - Toronto - King Street

Linda Woods Reports:

After closing the Sheraton Watch this evening, walking past the King Edward Hotel, I could hear two juvies screaming. I looked up and could clearly see the silhouette of the birds on a nearby roof edge.

Peregrine Follies Begin!!

June 27, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre

Linda Woods Reports:

!!! Finally, Cinnamon and Kate Fledge!! AM report.

June 27, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre

CPF Postmaster Reports:

Monday June 27th - 2011 AM report:
The morning started with a flurry of calls, incoming e-mail and photo snap-shots regarding the Toronto Sheraton nest site. Shortly after 10am this morning, both Kate and little Cinnamon left the ledge and took their first flight, sort of.

While Cinnamon had earlier tried his flight skills earlier with disastrous results leaving him downed on the sidewalk at just feet of busy traffic at York and Richmond streets in downtown Toronto, Kate has yet to take her maiden flight and test her wings.

Had it not been for the heroic and dedicated efforts of the caring staff at the Keg Restaurant protecting Cinnamon with a box and literally standing on guard duty until CPF fledge watch volunteers arrived to complete the rescue, it is very likely that he would have been trampled or run over in the swarm of down town traffic.

While the two fledglings remain together on the roof top of 120 Adelaide - (a favourite first landing spot of many of the Sheraton juveniles over the years), this roof top is much lower in elevation compared to the 43 story nest ledge elevation at the Toronto Sheraton.

One of many photos sent in today - (this one from Eileen in New York state) shows both resident adults on the nest ledge checking out the situation just after the two fledged this morning.

!!! Flying, YAHOO!!!!!

June 27, 2011 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge

Dennis Patrick Reports:

I know it has been a few days since we posted anything but when you have two kids to look after well need I say more? It has been a busy and sometimes very stressful past three days. We had to rescue Lady Gaga twice and put her up on to the roof across the street and then she just flew without any problems at all. Spitfire came down on the ground and walked up the steps across the street and decided that’s where he was going to stay until he could see Lady Gaga and then he thought I want to be up there as well. He didn’t quite make it so he came down on the ground and then by late evening we put him on the roof as well. That lasted about 10 minutes or so and he flew back towards the nest but landed on the abudment of the Bridge. Where he spent the night. Thank You to Susan & John, Bess, Collette, Ted, Mark and Marilyn for being such good Watchers this weekend. Also, the Bridge Company if it were’t for all of you Lady Gaga and Spitfire would not be such good flyers right now. Kim came with the lift truck three times, twice for Lady Gaga and once for Spitfire. Dennis and I cannot Thank all of you enough.
Gwen & Dennis
Site Co-ordinators for CPF

!!! Striker is flying OK but Jet and Rhiannon are still ledge potatoes!

June 26, 2011 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages

Mark Nash Reports:

For the most parts, today was quite uneventful, with the exception of the last 2 hours of the day - from 7pm to 9:30pm. Arrived early in the morning around 7am to find both Jet and Striker on the same upper concrete ledge on the west side of the building that I left them on last evening.

At approx. 10:30 am, Rhiannon finally took her first flight, out and back only to land on a lower ledge on an upper elevation on the south west of the building, several floors lower than the nest ledge itself. She remained there until shortly after 3pm when she finally took a second short flight down to her brothers ledge and never flew again for the balance of the day. She appeared quite content to be with her two brothers. Striker on the other hand made several good flights from ledge and gained altitude on several occasions, finally with one of his last flights that put him back on the same ledge that he started from joining his two siblings.

All three of the fledglings spent most of the balance of the day together with various spirts of playing with each other, with allot of sleeping and laying down to relax beside one another. Some intimate family moments wee observed with allot of beak touching and huddling up to one another on many occasions.
Reuben (the resident adult male) was absent for most of the day again today, disappearing once again to the south west with only the occasional short visits to the nest building only to fly off again and out of sight disappearing for hours.

Linn on the other hand, was never out of sight of the fledglings with the exception of a few very short hunting forays all within my eyesight that yielded a few small kills, which she did bring in into the building throughout the day, but only offered two of the tiny kills to the kids. She did allot of teasing trying to coax them into flying, but no-one was budging. It is worth noting that neither of the resident adults made any pigeon kills at all, as all of the kills have been much smaller birds. As a matter of fact, there has been a noticeable absence of pigeons everywhere in and around of the Yellow Pages facilities!!

Unlike the last four days of this fledge watch, when all of the young falcons have for the most parts been completely in-active and down for the evening by 8 pm, this was not to be the case this evening. The “falcon follies” only just started by 7:30pm with all of them very active screaming to their parents for food, running back and forth flapping on the ledge. A lot of threatening to fly, but it was only Striker that did some short flights from ledge to ledge in an attempt to pursue mom as she moved her observation position around the on the north and west site of the building,, always just slightly out of reach.

By 9pm, everyone was once again laying down and retired for the evening and all activity seemed to stop. We stayed until 9:30pm when we were convinced that nothing was going to happen and close the watch down for the evening.

Stay tuned……

!!! So far so good.

June 26, 2011 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton

CPF Postmaster Reports:

Canada Square report, Sunday June 26th 2011

Bruce was again on duty early this morning. There was some activity at and after his arrival. He found one of the adults hunting up near 520 Duplex Ave. He also saw one of the juveniles make a *long haul flight* over the Canada Square building south to the antenna atop the TVO building. He did not stay there long before flying back.
One of the juveniles flies very well and maintains height. The other one still is not flying too often, nor as far.
When I arrived all three youngsters were on the Canada Square building; one juvie was on the roof, one juvie on the ledge below nest level on the north end and Chester was on the nest ledge.
There was no activity for a long time after my arrival until the female flew to the top of the SE corner of Rio-Can with a pigeon.
The juveniles knew they had to climb to reach food and when the first one took off he flew past the SW corner of Rio-Can to the top of the apartment building. Once he had *rested* he flew around Rio-Can eastwards and turned and came west to the top where the food was. It was a long journey but he gained the height he needed. Number two flew to the top of the apartment building and sat there for a while. He then flew to the top of the SW corner of Rio-Can and sat there for a long time. The female *buzzed* him to try and get him to the SE ledge. Fifteen minutes later he made the flight.
The adult male chased a small bird down Duplex Ave and over the cinema building where he was joined by the female. They both missed the little bird which simply dived down next to the TVO building.
A number of times the female flew up the side of the nest, over the nest or down the side of the nest to try and get Chester to fly. He refused! He did spend a good deal of the late afternoon squawking for food. Bruce said he did not think he had been fed in the morning and he certainly had not been after I arrived.
The two juveniles had a couple of flights where they played follow-me or tag but they were short flights!
On several occasions we did not have the juveniles in sight but the adults were not concerned so we were sure they were close. This proved to be the case as Bruce found them on a number of his walkabouts.
One of the juveniles flew gently into a window on the south face of Rio-Can, flew around the east side, flew back and did the same thing but this time flew around the west side of the building and was gone from view. He lost very little height on both occasions.
Both the adult male and female did a number of sorties out and about and also over the juveniles to try and get them to fly. Each time an adult flew over Canada Square, Chester squawked. It is amazing how loud a hungry peregrine can be. We heard him over all the traffic at the Yonge-Eglinton/Duplex-Eglinton intersections.
Finally he had his way and the female brought in some food. My word there was silence after that. All I could see was feathers flying in wild abandon on that nest ledge. The female stayed with him for a while whilst the adult male devoured a bird, elsewhere, without sharing. The female flew off the ledge did a short trip up Duplex and back on to the ledge.
Bruce went for his *round up walkabout* and came back as pleased as punch! One of the juveniles was sitting on the top of the vertical slabs at the windows on the Heart and Stroke building and the other juvenile was on the same building roof. It took only 4 days for one of them to master the intricate landing on one of those window slabs. We left mother and child, at about 9:00 p.m., on the nest ledge on Canada Square and the two juveniles on the Heart and Stroke building. I came back to look at the nest ledge and watched the mother clean up leftovers for fifteen minutes. Chester was perched on the edge, nestled up to the concrete wall and the female was perched, finally, mid-way along the same ledge when I left at 9:30.
Lyn