July 22, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I apologize for the earlier posting but I didn’t want to leave things with Ashley out of the core of the territory. By July 1st Ashley had returned home and life with the MEC family was moving forward. Katherine and Shannon who both work in MEC 3, Margaret who lives locally and the many incredible folks we met and befriended at MEC 3 have been keeping an eye on the family. From July 2nd leading up to this most recent awful heat wave lasting 6 days, Ashley has been flying well with Cass and Sante and her training has been progressing rapidly. Not only has she been back to the nest box and all over the MEC complex, she has also made flights back to Morguard, Accenture, CIBC and beyond to the west side of Square One.
Last week during the heat, Cass was found deceased in the parking lot behind the CIBC building. She was found on Tuesday July 16th and security was alerted at CIBC. During the time we spent watching Ashley on this building, we spoke regularly with security there and we educated them about the family and the species. While they did not have our numbers to contact, on Tuesday they clearly recognized what bird now lay in their parking lot and called Mississauga Animal Services. They came and retrieved Cass and took her back to their nearby location for holding. They contacted our head office and I was dispatched yesterday to pick her up.
Given that she was fatally wounded prior to the violent winds this past Friday, I was surely going to examine her to try and determine what had happened. There were wounds on the top of her feet and neck that might be consistent with a battle of some sort. Although no such fight was witnessed, she was clearly wounded. When I returned to the center and was able to look her over more closely, I checked her wings for damage and her humerus of the right wing was broken. This is an impact fracture. I believe that Cass had somehow become involved in territorial defense or was distracted during a hunt. She then lost control and made a very hard sharp contact with something that then broke her right wing. On the ground in the parking lot, she could have collided with a light pole or been accidentally hit by a car. Given that she was found away from the building, a window strike is less likely.
After picking her up I went straight to MEC to look for Sante and Ashley. I had attended on Sunday, after the storm, and located Ashley on the Morguard building. I searched for both adults and was frustrated in that I couldn’t find either of them. I believed that they couldn’t be far and intended to return to account for them as this past storm wreaked havoc and has injured another two peregrines elsewhere. When I arrived at MEC 3 yesterday evening, I found an unbanded adult male in the bottom of the S of Dejardins. He was on edge. There was no sign of Ashley as of yet but I believed that this could be Sante. To be sure, I waited to see him interact with Ashley which would assure me that this was her father. He flew to MEC 2 to the cache site that he always uses and then flew over to MEC 4 under the Jevco sign. Ashley came flying in from the Square One area and met him on the ledge. He gave her the cache which she promptly dropped in her enthusiasm off the edge of the ledge. She remained on MEC 4 screaming at Sante for more while he sat watching out to the west. He left on another hunt shortly thereafter while Ashley remained on MEC 4.
I can tell you this. This is another sad loss for MEC and one that Sante is not unfamiliar with. Last year he defended, fed and trained his last remaining offspring, Janet, alone without a supportive female. He did an outstanding job and was able to take her right through to the fall. While this is not an easy task ahead of him, he will do it again. He will give Ashley all his attention and dedication and he is a remarkable male in his ability to succeed in this. He has our unwavering support as we will continue to check in and watch these two as fall migration slowly approaches.
Posted on July 23, 2013 11:01 am
July 01, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Bruce Massey Reports:
Thank you for your continued patience as we try to catch up on the stories of the families at various nest sites. Dawn to dusk at the sites leaves little time for anything else and so our posting went by the wayside. Still, with that said, it is important to finish telling the tale.
Ashley was resighted this morning, Day 20 of the watch, by Margaret and Katherine on the west side of the Morguard building. She hung around that building off and on throughout the day and finally took the long flight back home. She flew straight over to MEC 3 and landed like a pro. She was home. The rest of the day was spent back and forth between the MEC complex buildings exploring her world at home and chasing the parents for food.
Why so long? Why so hard? We’ve talked about this amongst ourselves and we believe that a key factor in the length of her “getting it together” was the loss of her sister Catherine. Ashley has no competition for food and attention from her parents. Ashley has no other siblings to prompt her to fly and train. Her training could now be in her time and at her pace as there is no other juveniles to urge her on or compete with her. We have seen this scenario play out at several other single chick nest sites and it is very consistent. While it was not as long a watch in all cases, it certainly extended the training period well beyond the norm.
We are really pleased that Ashley has now returned home and is staying high. It is our hope then that the watch can offcially be scaled back as of this day, July 1st, to site checks and monitoring. The dawn to dusk at MEC can now slow down. Thank goodness as we are all exhausted and with other sites still requiring our attention, we can now breathe a sigh of relief. Congratulations Ashley, you’re a big girl now!!
Posted on July 23, 2013 10:29 am
July 07, 2013 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Not having seen the offspring here at the hospital for a few days now I’m eager to check in and see how they were doing. Before I even turned the corner onto Humber College Boulevard I could see them in the air. All three juveniles were flying above the hospital in lazy circles playing tag with one another. Pulled in and checked in with security and let them know that I was here and eager to get some pictures of the amazing flight and I was no witnessing outside. I position myself to watch the kids from the best angle and waited. It didn’t take long before all three were soaring in lazy circles above my head. They would each in turn approach one another and lock talons for a brief moment before releasing and continuing on in their soar. These three are so skilled and it’s not surprising knowing who their father is. The best was still yet to come as Hurricane, sitting in the tower watching his children playing, was finally enticed to join them. If there is such a thing as aerial poetry, this was it. Hurricane came off of the tower and flew west along the south face of the hospital with three kids in tow. They had no chance whatsoever of keeping up to this windmaster but boy did they ever try. He took them further west past the hospital out over the ravine where he took them low over the treetops and showed them were all the food was. The children circled back without their father and it was only a minute when he returned and flew 15 feet above my head back towards his kids. These are the days that I wait for, just like every watcher at every other site, where the kids are flying so well there’s very little to no chance they’re coming to ground in need of our help. These are the days that we watch in awe of these amazing creatures and their ability to fly so well as to make it look easy. Hurricane and his three offspring were flying together and putting on a show like none other. It got even better.
Chessie decided that she could no longer resist as well. This was the opportunity to fly with her kids and her mate enjoy the afternoon at the hospital. A falcons life is a serious one with not a lot of opportunity for things such as play. This was one such rare afternoon where the family could indulge and enjoy each others company. I now had the entire family in the air. Two girls were playing with mom while dad and his son were chasing one another around the hospital as fast as little boy blue could go. The next few weeks of training, food drops and chases are going to be spectacular to watch and I truly feel honored to have been a part of this. Congratulations William Osler on another season well done.
Posted on July 23, 2013 9:53 am
July 01, 2013 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I thank you for your patience as I am continuing to catch up on all of the past stories at the William Osler Hospital watch. On the holiday Monday July 1st, I arrived at the hospital and found Apollo 3 in the same spot that Bruce had left him the night before at close of watch. He was on the low roof of the Medical Center and spent the bulk of the morning running the edge, jumping back out of sight and then coming to the edge again. He wanted to fly but was holding back. His three siblings, Maverick, Aura and Blizzard, each took turns flying down to visit and encourage him which incurred a reprimand by Chessie. She didn’t want her kids on that low rooftop but was allowing it so long as Apollo 3 had yet to fly. By the afternoon he finally took a flight that took him around low over the emergency entrance and over the mechanical area on the south side. I did not see where he landed but I could tell that it was low and down at the southwest corner. I circled the hospital several times to no avail and waited for the parents to give me some kind of a clue. Both Hurricane and Chessie were paying great attention to the southwest corner and so I returned to check it out. There was a chance that the male could have ended up on the mechanical roof on the south side and so I contacted security for assistance. They were amazing in helping me by checking out areas on their rounds that were blind spots to me on the ground. We were able to locate Apollo 3 and seeing him closely now it was clear that the left wing was drooping seriously. I rescued him from the southwest corner of the hospital and contacted Mark Nash regarding setting up a vet visit for him. Mark Heaton of the OMNR was notified and we were off to the raptor centre for the night. The other three siblings were flying very well. As I was leaving, Hurricane was sitting above Apollo 3’s last known location with Blizzard and Maverick nearby. Aura was in the tower with Chessie watching from afar. Many thanks to the folks in security that helped make this rescue possible. Were it not for their assistance I might not have found him so readily. Also, a big thank you to Winston who joined me for the evening watch and was instrumental in helping to find and rescue Apollo 3. We will keep you updated as to his condition and the results of his vet visit.
Posted on July 23, 2013 9:19 am
July 23, 2013 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
This is an email that we received about another nest downtown, Thank You to Marilyn who sent the email to us.
Just wanted to give you an update on the downtown pair. They have been sitting on the “H” of the Chrysler building for a few hours today. Lunch was a la pigeon. The one, which I believe may be the male as it seems slightly smaller, does not appear to have any bands on either leg. The other one has only a black band. They seem quite content just to nap up high, feast & watch the world go by.
Laurene
Posted on July 23, 2013 8:35 am
July 22, 2013 - Toronto - Don Mills
Mark Nash Reports:
July 22nd - 2013
While it took some searching and the right timing, we were finally able to get a visual on Luna this evening. After speaking to Bruce late in the afternoon, (and getting his update on Carina which he had in his sights this afternoon), it was almost dark when Luna finally appeared, literally out of no where! It is worth noting that Bruce had watched Carina fill her crop with a large meal earlier on during his observations. He left Carina with a huge bulging crop as he observed her through his scope prior to his departure. He was not able to get a visual on Luna, but had Quest in his sights throughout his observations.
We spent most of the our early efforts locating Quest, and we finally found her, hiding out on the south side of the upper mid rooftop section of the Westin hotel, clearly hiding out of sight from the entire northern hemisphere.
As the diner hour moved in, Quest finally left her roosting spot and dropped down onto yet another lower elevation of the hotel and retrieved a large food cache (clearly visible through our bins as being a large white pigeon) that she had obviously killed and stashed at this lower elevation earlier on in the day. After she plucked it, she flew off to the north with the pigeon, with Marion and I in hot pursuit.
As Quest approached the south side of the Harlequin building - (just over the south side end of the rear parking lot), a juvenile suddenly appeared in the air, in our view coming from the east and started to chase and vocalize at Quest. After several tight circles with the screaming juvenile in pursuit, Quest finally dropped the food mid air to the juvenile, who had no problem retrieving it prior to it falling to the ground. Although the juvenile struggled to gain its altitude, it eventually landed successfully on the upper roof top ledge of 240 Duncan Mill on the north side of Duncan Mill Road,, (the sister building to the 220 Duncan Mill nest building).
For almost 15 minutes, the juvenile mantled over the food prize, all along looking around behind her screaming at Quest who had landed on her usual roosting spot on the north west corner of the Harlequin building.
As the juvenile finally took flight, we were finally able to see her leg band colours and snap a few photos. It was only after reviewing the digital images on the camera that we were able to identify the juvenile as Luna, as she finally exposed the yellow tape on her USFW band.
Luna flew around the south side of 240, than over to Quest at 225 Duncan Mill Road. She landed, than disappeared down into the lower roof out of our view. Moments later, Quest flew off south, then appeared back in our view and landed on the leading edge (north side of the Harlequin building roof top) with Luna at her side. For several minutes, Quest picked and ate some of the pigeon only inches away from Luna,, (who continued to scream at her the entire time). Eventually, Quest started to beak feed Luna for several minutes.
Quest then flew off to the north out of our view, and minutes later Luna took flight and followed her. Believing that the two had flown over to the nest building at 220, we held our position in the upper parking area between 220 and 240.
Moments again passed and the both birds appeared in the air again and landed on the north east corner of the upper roof top leading ledge of the Harlequin building. By this time, it was getting too dark to get any real decent photos of the two, but I did manage to snap a few before we lost our light altogether. As darkness fell, Luna flew off to the north east out of our sight, with Quest having flown off to the south out of our sight.
Sadly, the photos are not anything to brag about, but the poor lighting and back-lit skies made it difficult to anything decent.
(OK, most of the poor quality photos clearly show my novice photographic skill sets) 
Marion and I finally packed it in shortly before 10pm and headed for home to get some diner ourselves.
Posted on July 22, 2013 11:58 pm
July 22, 2013 - Toronto - King Street
Linda Woods Reports:
At 4p.m. Windwhistler and one juvie ( I’m going to guess Cosmina due to light colouring ) are sitting on the east facing ledges of the nest building. Erin is sitting in her usual spot at the top of # 1 King St West.
Posted on July 22, 2013 4:21 pm
July 21, 2013 - Toronto - Don Mills
CPF Postmaster Reports:
July 21st - 2013
A huge thank you to Bill acting so quickly in seeking out help for Kendal and for sending us his story and photos.
Bill Writes:
There was a bird outside my front door the morning after the storm. There are downed trees less than a kilometer from here. It must have been injured and was sheltered in front of my garden. When I came out of the house, the door noise startled it and it jumped about 3 meters toward the road. I phoned 311. They gave the number for TWC who dispatched a guy to cage the bird. It was then taken to TWC. The one thing mentioned was that the leg band looked like one of the “Duncan Mill Road Peregrines”.
As I looked around for clues as to what happened, I found a small tuft of feathers (no flesh) and there was no sign of other feathers or fur. There was no mess on my window either. The left wing seemed injured (but I know that can be a fake). It’s eyes were wide opened and facing me when I approached. At first, it didn’t move though I got quite close as I offered it some fresh meat. It didn’t move toward or away from my offering (Sorry! I learned that feeding is contra-indicated). Later it moved a little seemingly to face the road where there was very light traffic. When captured by TWC it struggled a bit but was quickly soothed and caged and covered.
Bill
Posted on July 22, 2013 1:38 pm
July 22, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
July 22nd - 2013
It is with great sadness that we have to report that the resident adult female (named Cass - banded Black S over Green D) has been found dead. We received a telephone call form the Mississauga Animal Services that an adult female peregrine was recovered from the street today and the leg band identification has verified that the peregrine is in fact “Cass”, the resident adult female from the MEC nest site.
While we have no idea as yet what has been the cause of her death, this news comes to us on the eve of yet another two injured peregrines having been recovered this past weekend,, (Kendal, the resident adult male from the Duncan Mill nest site), and an un-banded (unidentified juvenile, believed to be a male).
As many of your know, we had a terrible storm pass through Ontario this past Friday - (July 19th) as a cold front moved in from the north west to replace the debilitating hot and humid weather that we have all been dealing with for the past week. The storm brought incredible high winds of 110 plus km hour gust winds and torrential rain off and on Friday night causing flooding and power outages, downed tress and other associated damage. Thousands of people in Toronto are still without power even as of today. We had Tornado warnings being given throughout the day and most of the evening on Friday.
It is interesting that Kendal and the other unidentified un-banded peregrine were recovered Saturday (the very next morning after the storm).
Sadly, it appears that we have yet another single parent (this time dad, the un-banded resident adult male)to deal and care for the one surviving young fledgling - (named Ashley) out at the MEC nest site!
Wow, not a good post fledge season, unlike the norm where we are usually picking up injured or deceased fledglings at this time of year, we are for the first time in a very long time, now picking up injured and deceased resident adults!
We will be retrieving her body later this afternoon and hope to have additional information.
Some history of Cass;
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich., June 22, 2009 – One of Macomb County’s new Peregrine falcons paid a visit to the 8th Floor southwest ledge of the Administration Building in Mount Clemens.
Cass, one of the two female falcons hatched this year, decided to show off her new adult feathers. The bird took after her namesake and posed for photos worthy of a governor’s oil painting portrait.
Cass was named after a Michigan’s second governor Lewis Cass by Macomb County Commissioner Frank Accavitti of Roseville.
The youngsters were hatched by their parents Nick and Hathor on a ledge on the 11th Floor of the County Building.
Posted on July 22, 2013 1:23 pm
July 19, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
CPF Postmaster Reports:
July 19th - 2013
What’s better than fresh Duck for breakfast or (maybe last night’s dinner) for young fledglings Loki & Neira.
Found at the foot of Wynn Fitness Building 10 Milner Business Court closest to the building referred to as the “Kitchen”.
Alex Mitchell
Posted on July 22, 2013 11:13 am
