June 21, 2011 - Brampton - Courthouse
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 21st - 2011
Tuesday brought little action. Truss was seen removing food from the nest site while Milton looked on. Most of the time I spent on site today had Milton watching/guarding the nest from his usual ledge. When Truss was present, she also seemed content to perch near the nest as well. Perhaps the most interesting moment was when a Great Blue Heron was flying low on a direct path over the nest when it noticed Milton and instantaneously made a 90 degree turn Southwest. Unlike the pair at Etobicoke General Hospital, Milton and Truss have not shown the same level of aggression towards other intruders. Gulls, Pigeons and Starlings all seem to fly very close to the nest without many regrets.
Posted on June 24, 2011 2:00 am
June 08, 2011 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Hello CPF,
I was able to get a couple of shots of one of the falcons that is a regular at our building. These photos were taken yesterday around 6pm. One or both birds are usually on the building everyday at this time. I am looking to borrow a zoom lens in order to get a better quality shot.
Thanks
Donna
Posted on June 24, 2011 1:34 am
June 23, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Linda Woods Reports:
Sunshine is showing some spectacular flying skills again today. Another mid-air food exchange was witnessed directly in front of the Sheraton. Late afternoon, just before the heavy rain hit downtown Toronto, Sunshine was sitting on the”C” of the Sheraton signage. When the heavy rain hit, Sunshine was stranded and toughed it out in the pouring rain. After the rain, she recomposed herself and flew off the the centre roof of 130 Adelaide St. That was pretty much the highlight of activity for the afternoon and evening. Food is being dropped to Kate and Cinnamon and both are diving in when it arrives. A food drop was made around 8p.m. and the adult flew off and headed south, spent a little time on 130 Adelaide and then disappeared. I did another ledge check and a food package was delivered. Cinnamon and Kate paid little attention to it.They were more interested in looking outward towards the south. A last ledge check before closing the watch for the night, both Kate and Cinnamon were tucked under the camera. One bird was seen on the north signage of KPMG building, not sure if it was an adult or Sunshine, low light I couldn’t really tell.
Posted on June 23, 2011 10:57 pm
June 23, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
A big thank you to Zoe who is one of the CPF fledge watch team members at the Toronto Sheraton for snapping a quick shot of the nest ledge this afternoon.
Beyond popular belief, even after the young fledgelings have taken their first flights and been able to hold their altitude, we all must remember that they are still solely dependant on their parents for both food and protection for the next 30 to 60 days while they are learning how to fly and being trained by their parents.
The nest ledge remains the only safe place that they know, and it offers protection to the fledglings from all of the dangers that they have yet to experience and learn about. The young fledglings will be returning to the nest ledge (as soon as they can get there on their own steam) most nights. Remember,, its still the only home that they know is safe.
This photo clearly demonstrates this fact, as we see all three of the surviving fledglings back “at home” waiting for their parents to serve diner.
Posted on June 23, 2011 1:51 pm
June 23, 2011 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
As Dennis was getting ready to be interviewed by CBC Radio we got a call that Lady Gaga had fledged and was in a fenced in area just walking around. When we got there she was looking tired. Thanks to Bess who witnessed it, Collette and Smurf who kept walking around the fence outside to make sure she was safe. Around 4 P.M. Dennis went inside the fence with a pet carrier and she just walked in it. Then we put her in the shade with a towel over it and spritxed her a few times which she seemed to really enjoy. Around 9 P.M. Kim from the Bridge company came by with a lift to put Dennis and Lady Gaga on the roof of the building across the street. He checked the roof first to make sure there were no animals of any kind up there. We left the site around 10:30 P.M. At 12:30 P.M. we were anxious whether or not she was still on the roof so we drove back there again and sure enough she was on the corner looking very good. Spitfire was standing on the nest box looking around. This morning when we got there she was still on the roof, the Blue Jays were very noisy around the area. Voltaire came in with food for Lady Gaga at 7:20 A.M. Both Lady Gaga and Spitfire were fed will we were there. Last evening we had lots of rain. This morning showers at times. We will keep you updated on these beautiful Peregrines. Also, Dennis has lots of pictures he will be posting soon.
Gwen & Dennis
Site Co-ordinators for CPF
Posted on June 23, 2011 12:59 pm
June 21, 2011 - Toronto - Don Mills
Mark Nash Reports:
Banding Day!
June 21st -2011
We must apologize for the delays in posting the great news of the banding event that took place on Tuesday June 21st as we have all been busy in the streets with ongoing fledge watches and many rescues in the streets at several other nest sites. We are all putting in some very long days and late nights in the streets as some of the other fledglings just can’t stay of trouble and have found themselves at ground level in the streets needing our assistance to get back to the nest ledges.
We are still awaiting many of the photos to come in that were took during banding event and its going to take us a little more time to assemble all of the great photos and our notes to be able to do a complete posting of the days events.
This is a stressful time for us all with five different fledge watches on the go from the William Osler nest site in the north west end of Etobicoke to downtown Toronto to the extreme east end of Toronto in Scarborough, and several other watches in between. Its always very difficult to handle on-going fledge watches with overlapping bandings going on at the same time.
Please bear with us, as always, our first priority is with the young fledglings in the streets that are all at huge risks while on the ground unable to get back to their safety of their parents and the nest ledges.
In the interim, the young Don Mills hatchling of Quest and Kendal weighted in at a healthy 735 grams, banded today at 21 days old with a Black 54 over X band,, clearly identified as a female,, named Harlequin!
With several hundred people in attendance, including the Honourable Linda Jeffrey, Ontario Minister of the of Natural Resources, Donna Hayes the president and CEO of Harlequin, Harlequin staff, press and media, many CPF corporate sponsors and partners, our good friends from Rochester New York and many other invitees, along with CPF volunteers in attendance, it was an incredibly successful banding day!
Please stay tuned,, as there is much more to come with regards to the banding event!!
Posted on June 23, 2011 10:55 am
June 22, 2011 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
No action yet!
June 22nd -2011
Kathy reports today that all three hatchlings are still on the nest ledge and although there is some flapping going on with at one of the older hatchlings, they are all still hanging tight to the nest ledge with not much eagerness to take their first flights. Both Linn and Rueben (the resident adults) are still closely attending and now starting to tease the the three hatchlings more often throughout the day trying to encourage them to start taking their first flights. By watch close, (and very consistent of this nest site), all three chicks seem to turn in long before darkness and disappear put of our view into the nest ledge and are inactive until darkness. After consulting with Marion who has spent hundreds of hours out here on the fledge watches in the previous years, it appears that this nest site is most unusual compared to many of the other nest sites that we have been monitoring and doing fledge watches over the past 17 years, in that the hatchlings historically become very inactive much earlier in the evening that many of the other nest site juveniles. By 8:37pm, and once again, all three hatchlings were tucked down in on the nest ledge out of our sight and down for the night.
Stay tuned……
Posted on June 23, 2011 10:24 am
June 21, 2011 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
June 21st-2011
A visit to the Scarborough Yellow Pages nest site this afternoon after the Don Mills banding to find all three hatchlings looking very good and almost ready to take their first flights. With all three of the chicks still on the nest ledge watching both of their parents very closely as they soared around in the winds above the nest building.
Upon my arrival, I tooo witnessed the incredible ariel display by both parents that lasted some 17 plus minutes as they soared around the top of the nest building and what was so spectacular, neither of the adults flapped their wings during the entire time. Utilizing the constant breezes, the adults did more than a dozen figure-eights and oval circles as they dove and stooped the three hatchling in the nest ledge and circled the building.
While spectacular to see, (and an obvious action on behalf of the parents to show the kids just how easy flight can be), I can only hope that the three hatchlings are reading more into the demonstration! As unskilled juveniles, (and still non-flighted), lets hope that they don’t believe that flight also needs allot of flapping to stay aloft!!
At around 6:30 pm, mom made a spectacular stoop on a pigeon hitting it mid air and in the same motion retrieved it before it dropped to the ground. She flew off to a roof top of a tall hi-rise building to the west and I watched her pluck it and removed what seemed to be hundreds of feathers as they swirled around in the wind and floated all over the horizon.
She finally flew over to the nest ledge and proceeded to beak feed the three chicks on waiting patiently on the nest ledge. A very tender moment indeed, and one that lasted some 20 minutes while I snapped hundreds of photos from my ground observation.
One of the hatchlings was waiting on the upper rim of the nest ledge, while a second hatchling was observed popping up and down from the nest ledge to the upper rim returning back to the interior of the nest ledge, and the third hatchling refused to jump up to the nest ledge rim seemingly unsure of the upper nest ledge position. The resident adult female beak fed them in their standing positions and all of the hatchlings seemed to get their full share.
Just as quickly as it happen, the adult female flew off the nest ledge with a small piece landing on the ledge directly above the nest ledge and proceeded to eat the small leftover. All three hatchlings disappeared to from the nest ledge rim down into the nest ledge and was never seen again during this watch. By 9pm, and now almost dark given the heavy over cast and clouds, I closed down the watch for the day and proceeded to the downtown Toronto King Street fledge watch to help Marion and Linda with their watch close down, and do the final examination and release of the young fledgling Cinnamon back to the Toronto Sheraton hotel nest site.
Posted on June 23, 2011 10:05 am
June 23, 2011 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
I spotted all three juvies up on the rooftop this morning with mom. All are doing well and staying up high. Lots of playing tag and flying around with mom. Jack has gone back to sporadic visits, no doubt as his other offspring is due to fledge any day now at his other site. Hopefully the little one there has a safe first flight.
It’s easy to keep tabs on them now as they every time they fly they seem to scream their heads off and let everyone know they’re taking to the skies!
Posted on June 23, 2011 10:05 am
June 22, 2011 - Toronto - King Street
Marion Nash Reports:
Paul started todays watch this morning and found Kenya where we left him yesterday evening I joined him at noon and he was still there with the heavy fog and rain he stayed put all day. He was fed at least twice that we saw and then jumped down to the nest ledge early and went to bed just as the fog started to get heavier Janine and Mark helped us close the evening shift keeping an eye on him while we spot checked his sister.
Sister Sakura had a couple flights but otherwise she was on the King Edward most of the day and then went to 1 Toronto to spent the night.
Posted on June 23, 2011 9:52 am
