August 25, 2012 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Frank Butson Reports:
A recent article about the new nest in Kitchener/Waterloo. Several CPF members spearheaded the watch, teaching all those mentioned in the article about fledge watching and promoting local stewardship. As someone who was part of the team, it was a pleasure meeting so many interested people who were very keen to learn and help their birds.
From the Guelph Mercury:A story by Dale Ingray:
WATERLOO — Forget the mountain bluebird and the great grey owl, the most exciting birding event in our area this year has been the news that peregrine falcons have nested successfully atop the 20-storey Sun Life Financial building at King and Union streets in the heart of Kitchener and Waterloo.
I was one of about two dozen volunteers eagerly charting the occasion, keeping a close watch on the inexperienced parents and on the breathtaking attempts of Junior (he has yet to be named) to take to the air.
Responding to an emailed request for volunteers to help with the Sun Life Falcon Watch, I had turned up on July 9, the second day of the project. Several volunteers came from the Kitchener-Waterloo Field Naturalists (I’m a member) and the Ontario Hawking Club. There were also interested local birders and several Sun Life employees.
Roughly one month earlier the Waterloo peregrines had managed to hatch just one chick atop the Sun Life building. It was banded by Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources officials on June 21 when it was about 17 days old.
The chick was a male. Its mother was identified as Statler, a two-year-old born in Buffalo. And the father, a tiercel as male peregrines are called, would later be identified as Caster, born in Cleveland, also two years old. It’s believed the two parents settled on the roof of Sun Life late in April or very early in May.
The young age and the inexperience of the two adults probably explains why they managed to produce just one chick. I gathered all of this information from Mark and Marion Nash, directors and founders of the Toronto-based Canadian Peregrine Foundation, over the course of the first few days of our “Fledge Watch” in Waterloo.
With the other volunteers I paid careful attention as Mark Nash displayed a black towel at the site and issued instructions on how to use it in the event the juvenile came to the ground on his first few flights. If necessary, we were told, we should move the towel from side to side to distract the bird before using it to cover the bird and scoop it up to ensure its safety.
Of course, I secretly hoped I wouldn’t have to rescue the bird in the middle of King Street — although I was prepared to don my orange-green vest and stop traffic if necessary.
Our first week of watching was relatively uneventful, except for observing the forays the two adults made in search of prey to feed Junior, who spent most of his time in what we called “the playpen,” an area near the parapet of the Sun Life building, facing the intersection of King and Union streets.
We volunteers were armed with two-way radios, traffic vests, black towels, scope, binoculars and cameras. A portable gazebo erected outside the Sun Life building near King and Union streets afforded us views of two sides of the tower. The other vantage points were from parking lots off Park and John streets.
It’s amazing to watch these consummate hunters of the skies as they head out in search of food. They can reach speeds of up to 320 kilometres per hour in a stoop or dive and it’s not often they return to the nest empty-handed — or perhaps empty-taloned would be the more appropriate term.
Peregrines are more than a match for turkey vultures, as we witnessed on a couple of occasions when vultures ventured too close to the nest and received a pounding from those talons in mid-air.
Sun Life watchers, who were positioned strategically inside the building, say that the adults were feeding Junior six or seven times a day.
But on the second week of our watch, Statler, the female, cut down the feeding times to twice a day in an effort to get Junior into flying form.
Caster, who had no experience with this parenting business, kept trying to feed Junior more often and was rebuked and prevented from doing so by Statler, who seemed to know instinctively what to do.
Female peregrines are approximately one-third larger than the males and are quite used to having their way with their mates or with other males who intrude upon their territory.
On Monday, July 16, I was prepared for another slow evening when I showed up at the Park Street parking lot, but discovered that Junior was now perched on a Sun Life Financial sign, about five metres below the edge of the roof.
He was stretching and flapping his wings and continued to do so for about 20 minutes.
“I think he’s ready to fly,” I said to my fellow volunteer watchers, Debbie Leung and Jon Walgate.
We switched on our two-way radios. Debbie and Jon donned their vests and grabbed their black towels.
And then it happened. Junior took off!
At first he flew toward us, but then he circled in a counter-clockwise direction around to Union Street and went up and over the roof. As we lost sight of him, we announced his departure on the radio and received a reply that he had been spotted flying over the roof and had now landed on the Sun Life Financial sign on the building’s King Street side.
It hadn’t been much of a flight, but it was his first and it didn’t involve a crash or a rescue, so it was a huge success.
Over the next few days, however, Junior did have to be rescued, once when he came down to a five-storey building on the Sun Life property and was unable to achieve enough altitude to regain his starting point atop the roof.
He also survived a rescue made on a 13th-floor balcony at the nearby Bauer Lofts condominium building to the north, which interrupted a dinner party going on inside. There were also many crashes into the glass and concrete walls of the Sun Life building as he valiantly tried to regain his home on the roof.
After one particularly violent crash, Junior remained on the five-storey building for an entire day. With the building manager and two other volunteers I ventured on to the roof one night to see if he was OK.
As we peered around a corner of the tower, we could see Junior perched about 15 metres away. He seemed unharmed, but was motionless and appeared unconcerned about our presence.
Statler, however, was watching us all from the 20th floor, so we left Junior alone.
On the evening of Saturday, July 21, Junior suddenly took flight from his fifth-floor perch. He flew toward Park Street, then around to Union and King, reversing direction back to Union and then back to King again heading north.
Then he abruptly turned again and began gaining altitude. This time, he made it all the way back to the tower roof.
Success at last, after nearly a full week of trial and error.
As I write this, Statler and Caster have begun taking Junior, now known as Sunny (the name selected for him on July 30 through a Sun Life employee contest) on hunting trips and playing “catch-me-if-you-can” games with him in the sky. For the next six to 10 weeks he will be dependent on his parents for food and protection as they teach him the skills needed to survive on his own.
Sometime in late September or early October, he will likely depart to migrate south. He will be on his own for the next two or three years and then will look for a mate and his own territory to raise a family.
Statler and Caster, meanwhile, will probably stay here over the winter — as long as the food supply is plentiful — and start another family next year.
This time there will be a nest box provided for them and a webcam will be installed to increase the chicks’ survival chances. More volunteers will be needed, especially if the two falcons produce the usual four eggs in the clutch.
Let’s hope Sunny makes it to his winter home in the southern United States or Mexico. If he goes too far south, he will be in Central America where the insecticide DDT is still used. He will also have to avoid being trapped by hunters in the states bordering the Great Lakes that have been granted permission by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency to harvest a number of migratory peregrines.
Adding to that danger is a recent decision by our own Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to permit hunters to harvest raptors, including peregrines. It appears the odds are stacked against these birds.
One wonders why the ministry would agree to this harvest when private individuals who are captive breeders (who sell birds of prey for profit) destroy their unsold birds at the end of the season. Even though peregrines have been downlisted from an endangered species to one that is threatened, their current numbers are not nearly sufficient to justify a harvest of even a few birds.
There is reason for optimism, however. Peregrine numbers are continuing to grow, largely due to efforts by the dedicated staff at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation and by the many volunteers in numerous communities who support those efforts.
Dale Ingrey is a retired teacher and a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Field Naturalists.
About peregrine falcons . . .
Peregrine falcons (falco peregrinus anatum) were once found widely throughout the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin. But the population declined dramatically during the 1940s and 1950s because of the widespread use of the insecticide DDT.
Developed to combat malaria and then to control crop pests, DDT had a harmful impact that moved up the food chain from crops and insects to small rodents and then to birds.
Peregrine falcons were most vulnerable to the deadly toxin. Some adult females were unable to lay eggs. With others, their eggshells were so thin they cracked easily, which prevented chicks from ever hatching.
Once DDT had been identified as the culprit in the near extinction of peregrines, it was banned for general use in Canada and the United States.
At the same time a continent-wide peregrine recovery program began in the mid-1970s involving captive breeding programs. More than 500 peregrines were released in Ontario between 1977 and 1996, many of them through programs in cities such as Toronto, Hamilton, Guelph and Kitchener. There was a low success rate with these releases, however, probably because relatively few birds were released and the release sites were far apart from each other.
As a result, even if the peregrines did survive, they had difficulty finding a mate. The emphasis then shifted to cliff releases and mass releases (hacks) at selected sites. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources continues to monitor the northern peregrines, but relies on volunteer monitors to track information in southern Ontario. — Dale Ingrey
Posted on August 25, 2012 6:56 pm
