!!! An unknown juvenile fledgling retrieved from the ground at the Toronto Airport, banded Black Y over 95 and released!
July 04, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:
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…………..
