Have seen the three falcons many times together over the past couple of weeks.
Right this second they are on the roof of 2180 Yonge street snacking on a pigeon
Sandra
I was out for a couple of hours today and only saw one juvie who I believe to be Imagine. I took a number of photographs and THINK I saw a blue band.
I also had a fleeting glimpse of Haven as she flew over Canada Square then south on Yonge behind 2180 Yonge before returning up Duplex with a pigeon well ahead of her and flying for its life. Haven cut across the bus bays and disappeared on the east side of Rio-Can
We are finally getting caught up as the watches are winding down to spot checks. Here come the updates!!
June 28th
I wasn’t able to spend a great deal of time at the site today as I was needed for a “Peregrine 911” at the Mississauga Executive Centre but made a point of stopping in for a head count. When I arrived it was late in the afternoon and I literally had enough time to count and go. I circled the hospital a few times before I could get eyes on all of the youngsters with certainty as Blue and Red are now leaving the property and following the parents on their forays. As important as this is for them to learn the fine art of hunting, I`m sure it created some challenges for the adults as the kids followed them screaming as they went. No chance of a stealthy approach there! I found Hurricane in his favourite spot in the tower, front and centre looking the proud father while Chessie was somewhere out of view. Two of the young ones were on the northeast corner of the nest ledge napping away while one female was on a rooftop antenna and one male on the retaining wall of the roof at the west end. All was calm and quite during my brief visit and I will be back to check on the family tomorrow.
This morning when Katherine arrived, she did her morning check on Ashley before going into work and found her on the south ledge of building three. All seemed to be calm and well in Ashley’s world as was typical for this young girl these days. All that changed by 9 AM when our head office received a “Downed Bird 911″ phone call from MEC security at building four that Ashley was down and on the sidewalk. I was called and dispatched to the site and on route I contacted Katherine and Shannon to see if anyone was available to go out and take look. In the interim security had gone and retrieved the rescue carrier from building one and made their way back to where Ashley sat on the sidewalk. The minute she laid eyes on that carrier she ran. She was not intending to go in that thing yet again. She took flight low over the building four parking lot to the east and landed on a residential roof four stories above the ground. Katherine and I met over at building four and spoke with security about Ashley’s whereabouts. From his desk in the lobby looking out the window he could clearly see her sitting on the residential roof and pointed her out to us. She was high and certainly dry, for now. She sat up on that roof, a little confused about how she got there but none the worse for wear. She spent the rest of the day running, flapping and preening on top of the residential housing to the east of building four. I stayed for the better part of the day and monitored her from the upper elevation parking lot behind building four until about 4 o’clock. It was at this point that I needed to leave the site for about an hour and Katherine came out to assist. When I returned to relieve Katherine, Ashley was still in the same position and had enjoyed several rain showers throughout the day. She was currently tidying up after her most recent shower and stretching the evening away when I was joined by Shannon and Adam later on to help continue the watch on Ashley until she made her next flight. But alas she did nothing. Stayed right where she was and so the evening hours for the most part were uneventful. It was at this that Shannon and Adam took their leave. They hadn’t been gone long. I knew it was coming. Ashley took that flight that was intended to get her home. If close counted in a juvenile peregrines flight then Ashley did an awesome job. She made it within feet of the nest building. Unfortunately she was about 20 stories below her intended target. I found her sitting comfortably in an evergreen tree right outside of the front entrance of the nest building. There she sat trying to figure out what her next move was going to be. She looked up at the buildings and you can see the look on her face,” Boy, that looks so high from here “. She didn’t move for a long time and it was almost dusk. I thought for sure she might stay in that tree for the night but oh no Ashley had other plans. She took flight from the tree, flew low over my head and across the street towards building two. She continued to fly low towards the back parking lot of building two and then banked right. My heart stopped. She was now out over Hurontario Street somewhere and she was low. I raced to the back of two with security following me and we scanned the horizon looking for her and to my surprise she was sitting on the rooftop of the Accenture building. She made it, good girl. There she stayed for the night and I quickly texted off her last known location to all of our watchers. My grateful thanks go out to the fast acting Garda security staff who were amazing at identifying Ashley and contacting us right away about her situation. Many thanks also go out to Katherine and Shannon for reacting quickly to Ashley’s situation, making sure that she was okay and helping me to monitor through the day. Excellent job everyone, but it’s not over yet.
When Katherine arrived this morning, Ashley had returned to the roof of MEC 3 once again undetected. With a happy “Drat, I missed it again“ Katherine headed up to work, but little did she know what her first break of the day was going to hold! Margaret arrived shortly after 9am and set up at MEC 3 to await the main event. ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz. Great, Ashley was asleep again! The hope was that now that she has found her wings and her courage meaning that her first witnessed flight was imminent. At around 10:30am, with a packed audience outside MEC 3 on break, it happened!! The watchers were alerted by the sound of Ashley screaming at her parents and then suddenly she was in the air. She flapped and screamed all the way across the street towards MEC 4 as her admirers on the ground held their breaths. She flapped, squawked, flapped… …and she made it!! Right onto the roof of MEC 4. Celebrations, cheers, hugs and a few tears were shared by the witnesses of the great event. Ashley has flown! And she let us watch it!!!!! From that point on the flights came regularly with her flying from MEC 4 to the nest building roof. Then she left the nest building and headed back to MEC 3. From MEC 3 she scooted over to MEC 4 again. The complex was now her playground and she was staying high. After several great flights by Ashley today with control, purpose and altitude it was decided that after 16 days of dawn to dusk watching and 4 rescues, that it was time to scale the watch back to spot checks. The team and I will be checking on her every day for the next while just to ensure that she is progressing well and I cannot thank enough the MEC team. First and foremost I must thank Garda Security and Colliers for their unwavering support throughout this Fledge Watch. It is because of their care and concern for their peregrines that Ashley`s rescues and releases were made possible. I must thank Katherine for her support without fail, Margaret who dedicated so much without question, Shannon who was always willing to drop everything to be there and Winston without whom I would have struggled to make it through. I also must thank Bruce for being my eyes when I needed him most and Adam for joining Shannon when Ashley was in greatest need. Congratulations everyone. We made it!!
We have just had torrential rain in Toronto, causing flooding along the DVP, subway stoppage and power outages. Incredible amount of rain.
I took a look out my window to check if there were any peregrines in view from the King St. nest site. I just happen to see one of the young girls take off heading east. It attempted a landing on the St. James Cathedral spire and aborted it flew around and continued east and out of my view. Five minutes later it flew back into my view, a second attempt to land on the spire and missed the landing. It then continued west towards the King St nest building. Attempted to land on the roof to the King Edward Hotel and aborted that landing, perhaps too fast. It continued east and landed on the upper roof level of a building just east of the King Edward Hotel. Huge flight. I’m happy it landed before another huge rainfall approaching the downtown core.
The amount of rain is unbelievable. It just doesn’t rain It POURS and heavy, heavy rain. I hope all the fledglings are keeping safe.
July 4th - 2013
Sorry for the late postings, but we are only now just starting to get caught up with the several hundred back-logged observation reports. Its been the most aggressive year we have had to deal with inn 17 years!!
Received a call from Mark Heaton from the OMNR that a young female fledgling was rescued at Toronto Person Airport by Falcon Environmental (the folks that do the wildlife control at the airport) and turned over to Mark today. The young female fledgling checked out to be in good health, (obviously just winded and out of steam as many fledglings get on their maiden flights, and ended up on the ground). Hmmm, sound familiar?
With more than 30 successful rescues of downed & grounded young fledglings so far this year from our southern Ontario urban nest sites,,, the CPF fledge watch teams have really been working overtime this season)!!
Each year, over the past few years, there is always one nest that seems to escapes us and get missed. This year is certainly no exception as in this case, although this event comes to us with a real twist!
Sooner or later, these late undiscovered nests get brought to our attention and we’re on it, BUT this one still remains a mystery! Where has this young fledgling come from??
Knowing that it was found grounded at the Airport (close to Hwy 427 / Dixon road) and the close proximity to a potential nest site that we were monitoring in the hotel airport strip earlier this spring where a pair of peregrines were attempting to set up house, we could only guess that the pair we have been watching during the early spring had finally found a suitable location in the neighbourhood and were successful in producing at least one young.
Sadly, we had to abandon our efforts trying to find the territorial pair in the airport hotel strip when the aggressive banding started, and with overlapping fledge watches, we simply didn’t have enough manpower and resources to stay on this territory to continue to follow the adult peregrines. This is a vast expanse of many hotels covering many square kilometres and requires a coordinated effort of mobile units to stay on the adults as they moved around from hotel to hotel rooftops!
In any case, the young female fledgling was banded Black Y over 95 and successfully released to one of the hotel roof tops in the immediate area where we last had the territorial adults.
Again shedding the importance of banding the young hatchlings, as when they start flying, they can end up miles away from their parents and nest sites, (blown off course with the winds or panicked in longer flights during their maiden flights), and without identifying leg bands to help us identify which nest site they have been produced at, (and get them back to their rightful parents), it would be impossible to know which nest site they are from. Releasing a fledgling back to the WRONG nest site to the WRONG parents usually ends up in the fledglings mortality as they are quickly driven off or killed by the resident adults looking to protect their own fledglings.
Fingers crossed that this little fledgling is reunited with her parents!!
We’ll be back to the area as soon as we can organize the mobile manpower and the funds to feed our gas tanks!
Photos by Mark Heaton - OMNR
Stay tuned…………..
Monday, July 8,
one was sighted swooping around the 14th floor from the inside of the Sun Life building. I also have seen them the week before taking off from the building. On July 9th, I saw 3 at least - there could have been a fourth as there was a bit of mayhem at the time. That was between 12:45 and1:00. They were swooping around the building. I left that day at 5:30 and saw one take off west towards Belmont St. and flew quite low so could have been an adult hunting. There were at least 2 on the east facing parapet at this time as well - side by side.
July 7th - 2013
I dropped in at Harlequin and the Duncan Mills nest site tonight on my way to the ICICI Don Mills nest site. Found Quest hiding out in the nest box lol. Kendal was at the back of the Harlequin building before he flew back to his usual spot at 240. No sign of the girls but Mom & Dad had eyes on I am sure, (hence the hiding in the nest box).
Cathy
