Nothing amazing to report today. The three youngsters ALL ended up on the crane and just sat there for the best part of an hour. So I left. Saw Haven and Stormin too.
Cheers
Lyn
At 6:30 this evening, I had two juveniles and one adult in view. One juvie was seen on the far east side of One Toronto, first time this year season I have seen them sitting there. Another juvie was on the King Edward Hotel with one adult sitting very near watching over it. Very good night for flying.
With Bruce heading back to work and myself at the William Osler hospital fledge watch, the care of Ashley was handed over to the amazing watchers that have assisted us throughout the watch so far. Margaret, Katherine, Shannon and Winston now held the reins firmly in their hands and between the four of them were able to cover off and watch Ashley today. Catherine started the watch at 6:30 in the morning and found the adults on the Desjardins building and one on the nest building. Ashley was nowhere in sight. She stayed out of sight for the entire morning but Katherine suspected that she was down in the window well just beneath the Desjardins sign. She left Ashley napping underneath the Desjardins symbol as Margaret took over the watch.Margaret position yourself it’s rebuilding and watched the parents staying very close to their daughter Ashley. For the entire time that Margaret was there Ashley was quite inactive spending most of her time preening and napping in the window well underneath the Desjardin sign. This was interspersed with periods of flapping and stretching but still no flight from Miss Ashley. At 6:30 PM Katherine returned and Ashley was still in her same position under the Desjardins sign. It looks like she was going to spend the entire evening there sleeping and preening the evening away but she did finally emerge from the window well with a squawk. She screamed and how that her parents for food but it didn’t seem to bring them any closer and it didn’t get her any closer to her dinner. The winds were incredibly strong and were pushing her around as she stood on the edge of that windowsill. Believing caution to be the better choice to make today, Ashley stayed put on her ledge underneath the Desjardins sign and went to sleep for the night. Maybe tomorrow will be the first flight out but who knows with our little ledge potato. A huge thank you to Margaret, Katherine, Shannon and Winston for taking up this watch and making sure that Miss Ashley is safe and sound. This couldn’t be done without you and I can’t thank you enough.
On June 30,
Karen observed: “… 3 of the peregrines - we couldn’t tell who was who for sure. There was one time that we did see an interaction between one of the adults and Miss Fran. Miss Fran did leave the hospital tower and took after a robin perched on a lower edge of the building. We think she was unsuccessful but she certainly did try.
Saturday June 29th - 2013
Once again, I can’t tell you how much 48 hours can make a huge difference some time. that is certainly the case out here at the Scarborough Yellow pages nest site. I arrived this morning to find the little fledgling - (named Neira) roosting on the upper ledge of the kitchen building as we have nick-named it, - (its actually the Investors Group building), with her brother (named Loki) above her yet again on the upper most elevation.
Both juveniles were roosting quite comfortably and preening as if the this roost was one that they had been using all their lives! Linn, (their mother) was on the opposite side of this elevation clearly on guard. Ruben was located on the upper most point of the nest building looking over his territory with all of his family in full view.
Throughout the morning and early afternoon, the young fledglings made several incredible flights back and forth between the two buildings and never lost a single foot of altitude in any error and although they both have some learning to do with regards to skilled landings, both fledglings landed on their intended targets.
Loki on the other hand, is now chasing both his parents around in the air, circling-up to gain altitude like a “big-boy” and looking like an adult!!
By 1pm, it was quite apparent to me that neither of the fledglings are at much risk of coming to the ground because they can’t hold their altitude. For the most parts, our job is done her at ground level and the rest is now up to Linn and Ruben to teach their fledglings the ropes and the necessary like skills that they will need to help them survive from here on in.
I have officially terminated the full time fledge watch, but we will be doing spot checks at each nest site for the next few weeks to check up on the fledglings progress.
It is this time (over the next four weeks that the GREAT PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES EXIST, as the parents are going to teach the young flacons what to hunt, how to hunt it, and the their is some incredible aerial display going to happen. The Yellow Pages nest site is one of those unique sites in that the building is surrounded by lots of unobstructed open air and the photo opportunities to catch some of this incredible things that are about to take place once the fledglings are fully flighted.
Stay tuned…………,,, - (some photos to follow this observation report).
Hope to see you all out there with your cameras!
Saturday June 29th- 2013Hi Guys
And we’re off!! AM-E figured out she could fly and boy can she ever! I arrived to see NO birds–but before long Mom flew in to her usual roost and then Dad came in with some food–over to the DeBeers building–no one showed, so over to ICICI-where a juvie quickly screamed, grabbed the food from Dad, who took off. I quickly ID Superman, who ate, preened and lay down. Then a fly in–AM-E!! From DeBeers roof!! Roof to roof–awesome!!
After a rest, off she flew, with Superman in pursuit and then Mom–around DeBeers, lost sight for a sec and two returned. I checked on closest-it was Superman–he had found one of Dad’s stash lol!! Mom had dropped AME off on the ICICI roof–great flying by our girl!! It was a great morning.
PM Watch:
I returned this evening to check on our girl, and found her on her favorite corner on ICICI–doing the turtle walk and just enjoying the sights. I watched until dark–didn’t want any fireworks scaring her off tonight!
Cathy
Spent two hours waiting for and then watching the peregrines.
One of the femasles flew onto the crane down Duplex Ave so they are starting to spread out farther.
Haven did an in-air transfer of a pigeon (???) to Imagine. I did not get band colour and I am going only by size. Imagine is a very large female! Imagine flew to the Canada Square roof, south end and barely made it but did not let go of the food parcel !!
Cheers
Lyn
The morning started out relatively calm for a falcon family with all four kids on the nest building just hanging out and attacking each other for fun and exercise. The bouncy crew made their way around the nest ledge until finally I had one on every corner of the building. I positioned myself as best I could and waited for food to be brought in. When Hurricane arrived with breakfast he drew three off their corners running and screaming and little blue took to the air. He chased Hurricane as best as he could but their is no catching this master of the air. Blue finally gave up and landed on the nest ledge with his screaming siblings knocking two of them over in the process. After a spirited battle over breakfast blue, red and white trundled off to the southwest corner for a nap and yellow opted for the northeast corner for himself. All was quiet until suddenly the threesome were bolted awake and in the air. Now only two of these kids are flighted and so I had to figure out which one was white and where was she going. I walked around the hospital twice and found her on the low roof of the medical center looking furious that she was now here instead of home. She bounced, ran and wailed for the next hour and a half in the heat but it didn’t bring the building any closer. Finally she decided to go for it, determined as she was, and she flew around to the south side of the hospital landing on the low mechanical roof. She didn’t stay long and her next flight went out and around the parking lot, a swoop back up to the south side and she grabbed the nest ledge with two talons. Flapping like mad she managed to haul herself up onto the ledge just as little blue came bombing in. He knocked her off of the ledge and she was airborne again. This time she made for the tower and landed very neatly in the back section. Triumph!! This was a perfect time for me to now get out of the heat for a brief moment and inside I went for a cool down. When I returned, I began to count heads again and could only find three. Grrrrr. I could hear this wee voice calling from the tower but could only see white, mom and dad. Wait… …at the very top!! Here stood little yellow and boy was he proud of himself!! Just then Hurricane flew in and the whole place erupted. Blue was in the air heading towards Hurricane, red came off the ledge and cirlced the roof while white stayed in her place in the tower and wailed. Hurricane headed for a landing next to yellow and in his excitement, yellow slipped off and began to fly north off of the property. Once again, demonstrating that this is very purposeful, Hurricane went above yellow and steered him down before he could leave the property and thus leave Dad’s protection. I ran over and found yellow sitting on the roof of a house in the residential neighborhood behind the hospital. Lovely. He ran screaming and jumping along the rooftop for the next hour before flying over to the next house. Now he was pretty tuckered out and when all else fails, take a nap in an eavestrough! Oh yes, with his butt squiggled down into the eavestrough of the house, he laid down on the roof and went to sleep. Good timing as white was quite determined to get home. She had been ramping up for the last half an hour and then without so much as a peep she was off. She headed straight for the nest ledge and like a pro, landed on the ledge with a splash and skid. I’m surprised any of these kids have tail feathers left with these sandpaper butt skid landing techniques but its working to get them home and that’s all that matters to them right now. Yellow was now awake and running the new rooftop that he found himself on. He decided to try another hopscotch to the roof next door and missed the edge. He was now sitting on a shed looking quite miffed. I raced over and met the homeowner in his driveway and we were off into the yard to see if we could help little man. He tried for the rooftop of the house from his position on the shed and narrowly missed an open, flaming and very hot BBQ. Phew. He ran between the house and the shed and forced me to make a very ungraceful and squishy rescue. Yellow was going home. After a cool down we took him upstairs for the release. When I took him out for his exam he was quite nasty for such a cute little thing and after trying to grab my face several times we got through the exam and all was well. He was unceremoniously released to the roof and chased me back a few steps before I was gone. You are Hurricane’s son for sure little one!!
Pictures will follow at the end of tledge watch as I haven’t the opportunity to process them yet. Time is tight but I will post highlight pictures soon.
Bruce and I started out the morning at William Osler when only robins dare to be awake. Bruce arrived just before I did and found little miss red tape in the same tree that we left her last night. She took a flight back towards to hospital and almost made it to the medical centre roof but fell short and came to the ground. Bruce moved in for the rescue but she ducked the towel and deeked around him coming to rest on the low mechanical roof of the hospital. There she remained for much of the morning flapping and running the roof. When she finally took that next flight she hooked around over the parking lot and landed on the east tower with her mother. She wailed away telling the world of her accomplishment. Landing in the tower is such a huge confidence booster for the young at WIlliam Osler and it looked as though she was well on her way to being a coordinated juvenile. While all of this was going on, little boy blue was testing out his new found freedom in the air. He would make short flights out from the nest ledge and back. Then it was time for swoop ups to the roof and back to the nest ledge. Boy, he was really getting the hang of this. His two siblings, white and yellow, were still on the nest ledge but were exploring it to its full extent. They were running the circumference of the hospital chasing one another as well as any inanimate object they could find. Around the supper hour, Cass came whipping in with a pigeon in her talons and the family of four erupted in celebration. This drew little miss red off of the tower to the nest ledge in an awesome flight that mimicked her brother blue’s landing. Not pretty but a successful slide along the ledge using the louvers as a backstop. Her sister white immediately joined her for some beak tapping and mutual preening and the two girls were inseparable for the rest of the night. Two flighted and two left to go. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
Just a quick update, yesterday afternoon we were at Nick’s Garage near the Bridge and we could hear the Peregrine Family being very noisy so we drove into the parking lot but couldn’t see any of them. Patiently waited then Gwenis fly in and landed on a tree, to the right of her was a small bird and that one was very noisy. She ignored it and later just took a beautiful flight. We drove around but couldn’t see her after that. With the rain pouring down I’m sure they were all lying low and staying dry.