Canadian Peregrine Foundation

No Eggs?

May 17, 2014 - Toronto - Mount Sinai Hospital

Linda Woods Reports:

Saturday May 17th - 2014
I spent some time at Mount Sinai. I arrived just before 10:00am.

On my arrival I had the female flying south on University Ave heading towards the Zurich building, she then turned east and out of sight. The male appeared and landed on the cubby holes on the south side of Mount Sinai.

I waited, thinking they were in the hunting mode. The female reappeared and landed on the south east corner of the hospital, the male then fly up to her and copulation was seen. He flew off, and she joined him in flight. They flew circles over University Ave at Gerrard St. gaining height and drifting eastward towards Yonge St. They were so high I needed binoculars to track them as they drifted to the southeast, and out of my sight.

At no time did either of the adults pay any attention to the 2nd ledge, (or any of the ledges for all that matter). I left the area an hour later, with only the male in view. He had returned and was on the 6th ledge.

This may be an indication that either there were never any eggs, or the eggs have failed. We will never know, since we are not able to visibly see that particular area of the east side.

Observations will continue.

!!! A NEW resident male named “Malik”- Black 12 over Y has replaced Stormin!

May 16, 2014 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton

Marion Nash Reports:

It was very windy in the corner where Haven was covering her babies and eggs. Still two babies and two eggs. She had difficulty keeping the babies underneath her. They kept *tumbling out* and Haven would wriggle and tuck them under again.

Eventually dad appeared on the ledge, no food, but he literally begged her to let him sit on the eggs. First he made his usual chupping and when Haven did not respond to that his call, it changed to something softer and finally he whined!! A tiny little *weeeeeet* sound !

Haven finally left, and I could clearly see the two eggs and the babies. I know why Haven was reluctant to let him sit. Not only because there were still 2 eggs but because after all he is a new mate!!!! Yes a new mate with the band number 12 over Y and that is not Stormin. After checking the banding data base, it turns out to be Malik , a peregrine hatched in 2010 at the 18 King St. nest,,, a son of Windwistler and Erin.

We’re not sure when Stormin was displaced and though we will miss him, Malik comes from strong stock from one of Canada’s most prolific male peregrines, Windwhistler, who has over 100 offspring (that we know about) to his credit and is now a great, great grandfather.

Malik looked at the little white fluff balls with wide open mouths, thought about them and decided that he KNEW he had to sit on the eggs. I don’t think he was too sure of what to do with the babies and he didn’t actually cover them. They were pressed right against his chest. He is just a little too small to cover both the eggs and babies. About seven minutes later Haven returned, rolled the eggs into place, got comfortable on them and then proceeded to nudge the babies under her.

Lyn

Feeding at King Street

May 17, 2014 - Toronto - King Street

Tracy Simpson Reports:

This morning I captured a few images of Erin feeding the first hatchling at King Street as it sat among what looks like three eggs still intact.  Another hatch should be coming at any moment so keep your eyes on the camera!

Breakfast at the Sheraton

May 17, 2014 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre

Tracy Simpson Reports:

This morning the four chicks at the Toronto Sheraton Hotel were enjoying a bit of breakfast on camera.  Three of the chicks, the oldest, are getting much bigger and the last hatch is just so cute and catching up fast.  All four were fed a hearty meal before being tucked back in under Rhea Mae.

Jack and His Family

May 17, 2014 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre

Tracy Simpson Reports:

Yesterday morning as I sat at the MEC watch I checked the cameras and found Jack attempting a feeding of his family that was both adorable and pretty smart.  O’Connor was brooding the four chicks when Jack arrived with food.  She absolutely refused to move and covered them from view.  Jack positioned himself so he could get access to at least two of the four chicks and started to pull off small pieces.  First piece went to O’Connor, the biggest “chick” of the bunch.  While she was eating that piece, Jack then managed to sneak one in to the chick closest to him!  He fed for about a minute or two before he left and the camera screen captures I took were adorable.  Looks like as long as Jack treats O’Connor as a “fifth huge chick” he’ll get some feeding time in after all!

!!! Still not hatch, but its getting very close!

May 16, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages

Mark Nash Reports:

Friday May 16th - 2014
I finally got a chance to get back to the Scarborough nest site today on Milner to check up on Rueben and Linn’s progress and the status on their four eggs. Upon our arrival, Rueben was observed on the nest ledge flashing and Linn was nowhere to found, (at least when we first arrived)! I was able to see three eggs on the nest ledge. After a few quick photos of Rueben to confirm his identity via his leg band numbers, we made our way down the isle way to the exit door, and we then met Linn.

Out of know where, Linn appeared, and I can tell you that she was not exactly happy to see us. She was quickly joined by Rueben where they roosted briefly on a small communications in front of us allowing me an opportunity and then asked us to leave. Well, Ok, they encouraged us to leave, and leave quickly we did.

In a matter of seconds, we were stopped and dived upon more that half dozen times by both adults and pretty glad that we were able to exit as soon as we did. After reviewing some of the photos later in the evening, I was able to re-confirm via her leg band numbers that Linn is still the resident adult female on site.
Finger crossed, they will have a hatch in a few days.
Stay tuned…………….

!!! Mason appears to be getting it!

May 16, 2014 - Mississauga - Executive Centre

Mark Nash Reports:

Friday May 16th - 2014
While I don’t have allot of the details, I do have some of the highlights of little Masons activities today as reported by Grace and Bruce from todays fledge watch.
While he was really not very active for the most parts of the day with Grace reporting that he spent all day on the top of MEC #3, he certainly made up for it this evening and had Bruce running around to keep his eye on him, as he made at least four separate flights that included several prolonged short flights with altitude gains and decent landings, most of which had him landing and ending up on the upper roof top retaining walls.

And the best part, no more window bonking as he did two days ago when poor Tracy reported that she watched in horror as he flew into the windows of all three buildings before finally coming to the ground and in need of rescue. It might appear the Mason might have learned about the dangers of windows. Unlike many other birds, peregrines do learn from their mistakes, and the urban produced peregrines have a slight advantage when it comes to urban living.

We actually hope that the young fledglings do some “window bonking” when they take their first flights, as they are usually still pretty slow and don’t usually collide with the windows that they run into at any great speed. If they don’t hurt or kill themselves during their first few run-ins with windows, they do in fact remember the negative experience and don’t usually fly into them again.

Sadly, if they don’t hit any windows when they are much slower in their first few flights, and end up hitting them later in their flights when they are far more confident (but still not really skilled especially with that of putting on the breaks), their air speed is much greater, and they get careless and very over confident. Collisions with windows at this stage usually ends up in serious injuries and mortality.

Think of the young teenager, just having got their driver licence and the first time with the keys to the family car,,, only this time, the family car is a Ferrari.
Speed does kill as we have seen only tooo often with the young fledgling peregrines during their first dozen flights before they develop the flight skills and other valuable experience!

While Mason is far from being out of harms way, it does appear the he had already learned some valuable lesions thus far, increasing his chances of survival.

So what has he learned so far:

- Being on/at the ground level is dangerous, foreign and a very scary place, its no wonder why I’ve never seen mom and dad go there,, in addition, they won’t come my rescue at ground level,
- Humans are at ground level and very scary indeed, they keep grabbing and man handling him - (even mom and dad doesn’t do that), and I really HATE to be man handled!!!
- Windows on the sides of buildings are very hard and cause a great deal of pain when I fly into these things, stay the heck away from these terrible things,
- ending up behind glass balconies are also impregnable, and you get trapped,,, stay away from these places.
And the lessons will continue….

!!! Banding date set!

May 16, 2014 - Burlington - Lift Bridge

CPF Postmaster Reports:

May 15th - 2014
We’re happy to announce that a banding date has been set and booked for May 23rd at 10am!
Stay tuned for further updates.

!!! Still 2 babies 2 eggs and a special treat for you. :)

May 15, 2014 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton

Marion Nash Reports:

After yesterday’s activities and the weather this morning Haven stuck to the scrape and protected the eggs and the two hatchlings. She was restless and kept on changing position, ensuring everything was kept warm and covered. Stormin appeared on the ledge and I think he was asked to fetch food. He reappeared much later and Haven grabbed the food parcel from him. She had a nibble herself and then began to feed the babies. Just amazing to watch. She turns her head to present the food to the little ones so that they can just close their mouths and swallow!
Once they were fed Haven ate the rest and settled back on the two eggs and two babies.

Here is a special treat from Lyn for our falcon friends -links to the feeding of the Canada Square babies on video

feeding time

!!! All flights delayed early this morning with a thick dense soupy fog - but when the fog finally lifted, Mason did take flight and it was very good!

May 15, 2014 - Mississauga - Executive Centre

Mark Nash Reports:

Thursday May 15th - 2014 AM fledge watch report.
Thick fog was an understatement early this morning, as most of the greater Toronto and surrounding area was completely fogged in with a thick soupy fog that offered less than 30 feet of horizontal visibility and less than that in vertical visibility!! My drive from Scarborough to the Mississauga this morning took forever despite the lack of any real traffic. What traffic that was on the road this morning at 5am was going very slow because of the lack of visibility due to the heavy dense fog.

Upon my arrival at the MEC, you couldn’t see a even a quarter of the way up any of the office towers, let alone see their tops, including that of the condo’s to the south where Mason was roosting at my departure at 10pm last night.

For nearly the first three hours this morning, all I could do is wait for the fog to lift. As the hours rolled by, the darkened shadows of the buildings slowly started to materialize from within the fog. Finally by 8:00am, with help of my binoculars and with allot of squinting I could see one of adult peregrines in the nest box through the fog.

By 8:45am, I could hear Mason vocalizing somewhere to my south on the upper fogged out level of the condo but still couldn’t see the upper portion of the condos. Moments later, the adult female (mom) appeared out of the fog an landed on the upper back corner of MEC #4, fixated into the fog in the direction of the condos where Mason was vocalizing.

By 9am the fog finally thinned to the point where I could see the ledge on the condo where Mason was last seen at darkness the night earlier, but despite all my efforts to locate him, (and his vocalizing), he was no where to be found on the upper ledge. With mom clearly in view now, starring at the condo, I started to scan the upper balcony’s with my binoculars. After several minutes of searching, I was finally to locate him on a balcony trapped behind the darkish blue glass. Almost at the same time, mom located him and immediately flew over to him landing on the roof elevation just above him.

We all watched him as he thrashed and banged himself up against the blue glass balcony for more than 30 minutes trying to get through the balcony glass without success. Throughout this timeframe, I was able to contact the security, then speak with the condo property manager to arrange a face to face meeting to organize access to the condo suite to attempt a rescue should Mason be detained for a prolonged period of time, (in addition to alert the property manager and any occupants of the condo suite).

While Grace and Marg keep a close eye on him, now visible from their ground location, I attended the condos and met with the property manager to arrange access to the suite to do a rescue. During my conversations with the condo property managers and the unit owner, Grace radioed to me that mom had flown off and minutes later returned with food for Mason trying in an effort try and coax him up and out of the glass enclosed balcony and up to her overhead position. Sadly, there was no way Mason (or any peregrine for all that matter) would have ever been able to fly vertical up to her elevation, especially given the confined space and his very limited flight skills.

Almost as if she was giving him instructions, (and telling him that I was coming), he finally jumped up onto a patio chair, then jumped a little higher onto a patio table, and finally to the top of the balcony rail, (using them as stepping stones to get to the top of the balcony rail, and above his glass confinement).

Just as I was getting into the elevator to go up to the suite with the property manager, and with the fog having finally lifted above the roof top, and with mom in tow, Mason finally took flight north-ward and eventually ended up landing on the top of the upper roof retaining wall on MEC #1, the nest building!!! He’s finally returned back home, - (well almost home)!! We say that, (almost home), as he has yet to be able to return to the nest ledge itself,, which takes much more skill.

This time, Mason actually gained a little altitude, and although Marg said his landing was allot to be desired, he did manage to land (and stay) on the top of the retaining wall ledge without slipping off. Dad immediately flew in with food and fed him, almost as a reward for his efforts. Unlike when the his mom feeds him, Mason mantled aggressively and ran dragging the food some distance away from the dad to protect his prize. This single action and observation sheds yet a little more evidence that this adult male may not be his father. Throughout the entire week, we have all observed the resident male at this site digging his new nest scrape in the nest box, and he is continually trying to coax the adult female into the nest box. In addition, both adults are still copulating more than a dozen times a day, every day since we started the watch five days ago!

By my departure at around 11:30am had Mason still roosting on the upper retaining wall ledge and settled. The past 18 hours was quite an ordeal and obviously quite a stressful event for little Mason. All part of the leaning experience.

After speaking getting an update from Grace and later speaking to Tracy later this evening, Mason spent the balance of the day on the nest building roof and retaining wall ledge. Sometime between 8:30pm and 9pm, Tracy texted me to report that Mason has just taken another flight over to MEC #3 and landed successfully again on the upper elevations.