March 08, 2012 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Thursday, March 8, 2012 — (12:25 p.m.) It’s a full house this afternoon. Diana and Connor are perched near the 2nd and 4th pillars of the SE corner of the Delta Ottawa City Centre hotel. They are looking towards the east of the city. When I drop by again at 1:15 p.m. they were no longer on the hotel rooftop.
Take care,
N. McKenna
Posted on March 13, 2012 1:20 am
March 02, 2012 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Friday, March 2, 2012 — (4:30 p.m.) An adult is perched near the 2nd pillar of the SE corner of the Delta Ottawa City Centre hotel. It is looking towards Kent Street and beyond.
N. McKenna
Posted on March 13, 2012 1:17 am
March 11, 2012 - Mississauga - Holcim
Tracy Simpson Reports:
A beautiful day in southern Ontario so Frank and I decided to get out and about to visit some local peregrines. We headed down to visit the pair at Holcim that have still eluded us in identifying them with the hope that we might get lucky today. As we arrived, the female flew in and landed low on the Avonhead Road side of the plant and we were able to get great looks at her, but she kept her band well hidden from us as we snapped pictures and observed her from the road. The male flew in from out of nowhere and got straight to the business at hand of mating. He left and landed on another low roof further away with his back to us, keeping HIS band well hidden also. Frank and I stayed for over an hour and watched as the two preened and roosted the evening away and after one more mating, the male took of on a serious hunt for food as the female sat and roosted. It was wonderful to see the activity of this pair and get good looks at them as they are a very handsome couple. One thing we can confirm without a doubt is that the male is a local Canadian with a solid black recovery band on his left leg and the female is wearing a black over green recovery band on her left. After looking through our pictures until the wee hours of the morning, we did get a shot of her band but it is not clearly legible. Drat! We will be back to Holcim as soon as we can to visit once again before the pair begins the process of laying eggs. Looks like Holcim is set for another successful year!! Congratulations to the folks at Holcim!!
Posted on March 12, 2012 10:32 am
February 26, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Sorry for the delay in posting this sighting from Feb 26 as we have been exceptionally busy here at CPF With the Sportsmans Show upon us this week, we look forward to seeing many familiar faces and meet some new friends at the Convention Centre this year.
I received this email sighting from Arvo Poolar who spotted Centennial still hanging around in the east end of Toronto.
While watching and Photographing ducks and geese in the lagoons of the Scarborough Bluffs noted the falcon sitting and watching. When a fisherman passed underneath the bird and he she did not fly away I and 2 others who had also noted the birds presence moved to the other side of the lagoon and were able to get some quality photographs and get the information off of the leg tags which have since been atttributed to “Centennial” Black 79 over red H
Thank you Arvo for sharing this sighting with us. Its nice to know that Centennial is still doing well here in Ontario and we will be watching to see where she ends up this spring. It would seem that she is following the example set by our own juveniles as Courtney still hangs around the Brampton Courthouse and now Chester has been spotted hanging out with Quest.
Posted on March 12, 2012 9:51 am
March 12, 2012 - CPF Events
Frank Butson Reports:
Everyone is invited to come to the Toronto Sportsmens Show and The Canadian Peregrine Foundation’s birds of prey exhibit. Its your chance to meet our feathered educators and learn about them from CPF’s staff and volunteers. Remember your camera, you’ll want photos of your up close and personal encounter with Solo our Bald Eagle, Alexandra The Great Horned Owl, Kyla the American Kestrel, Oscar, Cheyenne or Nova our Peregrine Falcons and more of the educational team. You can even adopt your favorite! We hope to see you and your family there!
Posted on March 12, 2012 7:40 am
March 11, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Ground braking news!!
Sunday March 11th - 2012
Today we have some very interesting news and happenings at the Don Mills nest site!
With thanks to Bruce Massey who was doing the rounds trying to get on top of the peregrine activity around town, he stopped in at the Don Mills nest site to check up on Quest. Throughout the early morning, it appears that the 220 Don Mills building is doing some elevator repairs and replacement of some very heavy equipment and they had to lift up onto the roof top on the west side of the building with a large crane. Both Quest and a new male was present to supervise the lifting and didn’t seem to be very concerned at all with all of the rooftop activity. Quest did a couple of fly overs, and a couple of touch and go’s on the nest ledge, but didn’t seem very interested in any of the roof top activity at all.
At one point, she was flying around with food in her clutches, (likely removing it from one of her food caches on the roof top) in an effort to protect it from the human visitors involved in the equipment lifting process.
A NEW MALE was very clearly visible on site,(and its NOT Kendal)!! Quest seemed to be very tolerant of his presence, with some vocalizing going on between the two peregrines!
This was not aggressive behaviour at all. Both birds were observed roosting and preening throughout the entire process, and seemed far more interested in one another than any interest in the equipment lifting process throughout the morning.
Bruce was able to get a leg band identification number of the new male on site, and he was clearly able to record a solid black leg band, 95 over Y, with green marker tape on its USFW band.
After confirming with our banding database records, we can now confirm that this male is named CHESTER,, having been produced at the Canada Square nest site in 2011, - (Uptown nest site, located at Yonge & Eglinton , here in Toronto!
The question remains as to what has happened to Kendal, the resident adult male from last year??
Stay tuned, as I’m sure that there are some interesting things to come as the nesting season unfolds!!
Posted on March 11, 2012 1:38 pm
March 06, 2012 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Jan Chudy Reports:
I was VERY happy to be able to catch both adults on the ledge as I checked in on the web cam from Daglan, France. When I first checked in, only one was there, but as the screen refreshed, the second had arrived.
I can hardly wait for future developments…
Posted on March 6, 2012 4:16 pm
February 22, 2012 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
Frank Butson Reports:
In late February, CPF’s Marion Nash,Bruce,Kathy and I all went to the Ottawa Sportsmens Show with some of our educational birds of prey. Feb 22nd after doing set-up,we went around to a few spots in Ottawa that Peregrine’s had been reported lately. Our first and only successful stop was at the Delta Centre Hotel. Marion and I briefly saw a Peregrine Falcon circling and flying high above the downtown highrises. We saw its direction of flight, but were unable to relocate it. It was definetly on the hunt.
We checked a few other locations,the Coates building and Tunney’s Pasture but no luck. Its great to know there is alot of Peregrine activity in Ottawa.
Posted on March 6, 2012 4:27 am
March 05, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
Ann Brokelman Reports:
Ann Brokelman was over at Duncan Mills Rd today and sent along these fantastic photos of Quest. Thanks Ann. Ann tells me that Quest called for at least 5 minutes. Kendal was not seen during Ann’s cold shortened visit.
Posted on March 5, 2012 9:44 pm
March 05, 2012 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
Tonight as I was leaving the office, I saw or I should say I heard Angel before I saw her. She was sitting on her usual perch and let out a few very lazy kacks. In contrast to when an intruder comes into the territory, these were not the short, rapid fire kack-kack-kack sounds the falcons will make.
The tone of this sounded more nasal and the kack’s were drawn out, like kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack, kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack, and then followed by excited, squeeky chup, chup, chup. Of course Jack was coming into the territory so she flew out to greet him.
From the ground it looked like she went out and hit him, but what happened very fast was she flew out towards him and he turned over very quickly and they touched talons and he righted himself and they both flew back to the nestbox together. Then more chupping and bowing ensued.
It’s easy to see or hear why sometimes we misinterpret interactions between a pair during this time of year as they can look and sound quite aggressive but it’s all part of the courtship ritual. So keep your eyes and ‘ears’ opened, it may not be what you think!
Posted on March 5, 2012 6:08 pm
