May 19, 2013 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
CPF Postmaster Reports:
December 19th - 2012
A huge thank you to all that attended today and helped out with the nest box install! While we are waiting for all of the photos to come in, I can tell you that the day was a huge success! The weather was very cooperative and with everyone in fine spirits we met Tony at the Sun Life security, signed in and spent some time going over the game plan, safety protocols and procedures and assigned our designated safety officer.
We all attended the shipping docks where we unloaded all of the nest box components, bags of pea-gravel, tools and safety gear and proceeded with the four loaded cargo carts to the roof.
A huge thank you to Tony and the Bentall Kennedy staff, Tracy, Tony, Dale, Lisa, Steve, Debbie, Karen and Fraser who helped us carry up the heavy loads of pea-gravel, nest box components, tools ladders and other gear up the final stairs to the roof elevation and spent the balance of the day light hours in the cold helping us put together and set up the nest box.
A great team indeed, as everything went incredibly well
Posted on December 19, 2012 8:04 am
- All Reports
Ann Brokelman Reports:
Many thanks to Michelle for spotting a peregrine eating close to her place of work. Tonight I received a call that the peregrine was eating a pigeon at Action Car and Truck Accessories and quickly turned around to go to location with camera. It is now 4:45pm and getting dark fast.
Michelle was at the door waiting but unfortunately the peregrine had flown off. Went out the door to see the peregrine eating the bird across the street on a hydro pole.
Snapped a few shots but with little light didn’t hold much hope. I had one shot that showed the band 79 over H - enought to confirm that it is Centennial.
A couple of shots. Will hopefully get Centennial during daylight next time.
Posted on December 17, 2012 8:43 pm
December 16, 2012 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
CPF Postmaster Reports:
December 16th - 2012
Just a quickly update as we put the finishing touches on the new Sun Life nest box. Over the past two weeks, we have been putting the final touches on the Sun life nest box that will be installed on the upper roof area to accommodate Statler and Caster.
While everything has gone as planned, we have been hampered by the colder temps that has caused a delay in the stain drying time frames.
Stay tuned with updated news to follow…….
Posted on December 16, 2012 12:25 pm
December 15, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
After visiting with Freddie and Voltaire at the Ambassador Bridge, Bruce and I travelled north through town to check out the area for the new pair that arrived in Windsor this spring. They did successfully produce at least two young but have since changed their site of interest. Initially their focus was on a communications tower at the Windsor CBC and so we checked that out first. Nothing. Around we go to park on Riverside Drive for a look at their other hangouts; the Hilton, the Chrysler building and Caesars. Snake eyes… …nada. Bruce and I then started a scan of the Detroit side of the river. The crossing at this point is very narrow and we were able to easily scan the buildings and rooftops of the Detroit skyline for sitting grins. We had to keep in mind that there is a nest in Detroit on Michigan Ave at the AT&T building and so we might see active grins, but not necessarily the ones we seek. This building was readily visible from our vantage point. Funny enough, the unbanded female at AT&T Detroit is paired with a male named Bud-z. He and Freddie share the same parents ( Fury and *7/X ) and share a hatch site in Ohio but from different years; Freddie was hatched in 2001 and Bud-z in 2000. I guess Freddie’s following in his older brother’s talon steps.
After 20 min Bruce picks up a flight on the Detroit side near the Millender Apartments of a single bird that could indeed be a peregrine. This bird flew south through the city towards the four Renaissance buildings and was followed by another bird. Definately peregrines. The pair circled around the four buildings and then like a shot, powered across the Detroit River and landed on the Chrysler building sign. We repositioned and found the female on the H and the male was already off and gone. After a minute or two we relocated the male at the Hilton flying around the rooftop. He located a cache on the SW side and then flew over to the Chrysler building to eat. We were able to confirm without a doubt that the male is unbanded. The female, who sat digesting her own enormous crop, was sitting back enough on the sign to hide her legs. When she stepped forward, we were able to see that she is banded with a Black over Red recovery band and a purple USFW. As the evening light was not the best, we were unable to read the recovery band clearly. What I can tell you is that this bird has very distinct streaking on her chest up into her crop area making her readily discernible from the male. The two sat together on the Chrysler sign for quite some time during the evening. The male was napping here and there but the female was watching the Detroit side of the river very intently. Even though she was cropped up, after 30 min the female flew off and decided to harass some pigeons on the neighboring buildings and we saw some great flights from her. She returned to the Chrysler building and the two sat close together for the next while. As dusk was approaching, the female began to vocalize and both her and the male took off after something right over our heads. We later discovered a very nervous Coopers hawk that had been hunting the lakeshore which was put down in a tree by the pair. Both the male and female did not return to the Chrysler and a scan of the area did not reveal their location.
This pair loves the Chrysler and Hilton buildings as evidenced by not only their presence but by the amount of whitewash on both buildings. The pair are also caching food on the Hilton, hunting the area and defending this section of the lakeshore. I look forward to learning who this new girl in town is and seeing where they decide to nest next year.
As a side note, on the Google Earth map I added direct lines of flight and the Chrysler building is 1.8km from the Detroit AT&T nest site and 2.7km from Freddie and Volaire.
Posted on December 15, 2012 10:06 am
December 15, 2012 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
Things are back to ‘normal’ here in terms of behaviors and hang outs for the past 10 days. The obsession with the Moneris sign seems to have abated…for now at least.
Both O’Connor and Jack were home yesterday enjoying the warm sunshine. O’Connor on her web cam perch and Jack on ledge 3. Almost daily now Miss O can be found either on the web cam dozing in the sun or over one ledge having brunch and Jack..well he comes and goes as usual!
I will say though that this is the most I’ve seen Jack around the nest site at this time of year compared to past years.
Posted on December 15, 2012 8:53 am
December 13, 2012 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Bruce Massey and I went on a quest on Wednesday that took us to the Windsor area for a few days. While there, we made sure to stop by the Ambassador Bridge and check in on Freddie and Voltaire on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. When we pulled up to the nest site, we initially didn’t have any birds in view and after scanning the church, we located Voltaire on a favored spire digesting a huge crop. Freddie was on the peak of the church roosting in the afternoon sun. All of a sudden, a Kestrel came bombing in and went right for the spire where Voltaire was roosting. This action took her off of her perch in a chase around the steeple of the Kess until all of a sudden, the Kestrel swooped up and into a louvered window on the side of the main spire! Looks like Windsor may have another little falcon pair at the bridge!! Freddie had taken off out of view until we spotted a group of pigeons swirling around to the north and right in the middle of the fray was Freddie. He continued to give chase and attempted to split the flock but the pigeons stayed close together. After a few minutes, Freddie gave up the chase and returned to the church landing on a spire right beside Voltaire. There the two sat for quite some time enjoying the afternoon together. It was so nice to see the pair together and to introduce Bruce to the Windsor nest site as he had never had that opportunity before.
Posted on December 15, 2012 8:44 am
December 14, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Frank Butson Reports:
Thanks to Vicki and Rodger for this report and photo.
Diamante and Gleig(hatched at the Hamilton Sheraton Hotel) perched high above the clock on Central Terminal! So sweet to see them together up there. One flew in to the other as we were driving in, I think it was him.
In the spring, they were constantly courting, flying together, and a bit slow getting down to the real work of laying eggs and making a family, but once they started, they were very good!
I’m glad to see them both still on site! Gleig’s main perch is at her nestbox.
Central Terminal is now “selling” roof tiles @ $150.US each for the upcoming re-roofing job. I have no idea when that will start but I hope not til late summer/early fall!
Posted on December 14, 2012 10:32 pm
December 14, 2012 - Stoney Creek
Sue McCreadie Reports:
Bill and I just returned from a visit to Stoney Creek. When we arrived, one Peregrine was sitting on the very top arm of the tower. As we got out of the car, it took off in a hurry towards the lake and right out of sight. We drove around the area to see if we could find it anywhere, but no luck. There was only one bird visible while we were there today.
Posted on December 14, 2012 3:12 pm
December 14, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Frank Butson Reports:
While my late spring is full of Peregrine Falcon bandings and summer is filled with fledge watches, my fall is occupied from August until the end of November every year with raptor watching. Counting migrating birds of prey from Rosetta McClain Gardens in Scarborough to be more accurate. This season we set many day, month and species records. One that meant a great deal to me was that we counted 102 Peregrine Falcons!! That is almost unbelievable. Many of the birds were tundrius Peregrines, but a few were photographed well enough for us to see band numbers and identify the individuals. Those sightings were reported at the time on their individual pages. Again this season CPF did a release of a Peregrine Falcon who had been checked out for injury at Toronto Wildlife Centre. That was a real thrill for all those gathered. Below please find the final species totals for the season and records that were set. I was glad so many of my fellow Canadian Peregrine Foundation fledge watchers joined us this year, Bruce, Ann, Donna, Murray, Bill, Rob and Angie, Toivo, Harry, Paul, Zoey and dear departed Annie. Thanks to all of you for your support and friendships.
Turkey Vulture - 2223 (best year)
Osprey - 115 (3rd best year)
Bald Eagle - 65 (3rd best year)
Northern Harrier - 266 (4th best year)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2208 (4th best year)
Cooper’s Hawk - 110 (2nd best year)
Northern Goshawk - 23 (2nd best year)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 76 (best year)
Broad-winged Hawk - 347 (2nd best year)
Red-tailed Hawk - 1002 (best year)
Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (7th best year)
Golden Eagle - 20 (best year)
American Kestrel - 604 (4th best year)
Merlin - 101 (2nd best year)
Peregrine Falcon - 102 (best year)
Total - 7267 (best year)
Here are the new records (14 new, 1 tied)…
Turkey Vulture - Day record of 1750 birds on October 12th, Month record of 2051 birds in October, Year record of 2223 birds.
Red-shouldered Hawk - Day record of 19 on October 26th, Month record of 41 birds in October, Year record of 76 birds.
Red-tailed Hawk - Month record of 601 birds in November, Year record of 1002 birds.
Golden Eagle - Month record of 15 birds in November, Year record of 20 birds.
Merlin - (tied) Day record of 17 birds on October 21st.
Peregrine Falcon - Month record of 51 birds in September, Year record of 102 birds.
All Species - Day record of 2066 birds on October 12th, Year record of 7267 birds.
I hope as many of you as possible will join us next fall! You can check out the watch blog at http://raptorwatch.blogspot.com Enjoy.
Posted on December 14, 2012 3:31 am
December 11, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
CPF Postmaster Reports:
December 11th - 2012
Updated news and some great web can shots taken of Quest at 2:50pm this afternoon backakakak at her nest box kakking to bead the band as they say.
Nice to have a few close-ups of Quest,, looking good!
Thanks Nona and Donna for the updated news!!
Posted on December 12, 2012 4:05 am
