All is well here at Bloor and Islington! O’Connor is being a wonderfully, devoted mom and dad is doing a great job as ‘food delivery’ bird…!
Grabbed this photo of Jack making a food delivery a few minutes ago.
It’s been a challenge trying to count heads here due to the location the falcons chose, good protection for them but hard for us to see.
Our good friend Kitty at Rfalcon managed to capture this endearing photo of mom feeding 3 little ones. Dad was also in the photo however due to the site cutting off the edges I had to crop him out so you could see the three little heads!
Thank you Kitty and to all those who watch this site so faithfully!
Kitty over at Rfalcon, the Rochester Falcon forum, captured this screen shot of a feeding and you can see 3 heads up for the meal and one little one laying down to the side. I put little pen marks there to point them out.
In another day or so they’ll all be bigger and stronger and we should be able to get sharper photos of them!
A great deal happened and lots was learned yesterday at the MEC site and so I will try and be as concise as possible here so I don’t miss anything.
I started the watch yesterday at 5:30am with Mason on the roof retaining wall of MEC 1 eating a large meal that took about 25 minutes to finish. Rogue was sitting on the top of the windows on the southeast corner and the adult male was on MEC 2. After a few minutes the male flew over and mated with Rogue and flew over to MEC 3. We had noted this unusual behavior a few days ago, rebonding between the male and female while a dependent juvenile remained in the territory, first witnessed by Bruce and then by myself and others. I therefore decided to pay as much attention as I could to the adults behavior.
Mason finished his meal and began running the length of the retaining wall on the east side of the nest building. There was a lot of flapping and running with a few moments of lift and this looked really good; muscle building and practicing coordination. At 8:00am food came to Mason again but this time by the male and in a most unusual way. The male landed on the southeast corner about 50 feet away from the fledgling. He tentatively took 5 steps or so towards Mason and then stopped. Another 5 or 6 steps and then he stopped again. This continued until he reached a piece of food that Mason had abandoned which the male now grabbed up and ran / hopped down the ledge to the young one. He stood several feet away and stretched his neck out as far as he could offering the food to Mason. The fledgling didn’t move right away towards the male to take it but tentatively inched closer until he was able to reach it. Rogue then flew in and landed behind the male looking concerned about what he was doing with her offspring and stayed to watch the exchange. All went well between Mason and the male and so Rogue left for MEC 3 so “the boys” could have their moment.
Watching this, combined with all of our observations of strange adult behavior, I believe now that my theory regarding an adult changeover involving the adult male is most definitely the case at MEC. This theory is quite difficult to prove given that Sante, the resident male we began the season with, was unbanded and the “renegade” that now controls the airspace at MEC is also unbanded. Even so, I am as positive as I can be.
Mason spent the rest of the morning exercising and building his strength in between naps and preening and was looking great. The next feeding arrived at 2pm and this time it was all the renegade male’s idea. He took off on a hunt to the northwest and came back 10 minutes later with food to MEC 2. He sat and prepped it while Rogue watched from the top of the windows at the nest building. The male flew up to the roof of MEC 1, circled once, and then landed about 10 feet away from Mason and waited. This time he let Mason come to him and the exchange was made. The male didn’t leave immediately but instead sat for almost 20 minutes and watched as Mason ate his meal. After Mason was finished, the male sought out Rogue, mated with her, and then entered the nest box vocalizing to her to join him. I caught some screen captures of him excavating the nest crater that he’s been working on and he is definitely unbanded.
At 5pm another feeding of Mason instigated by the male. This was great news as he really hasn’t been paying any attention at all to the fledgling nor feeding him up to this point. What made this so significant was that he beak fed Mason during this feeding for the first time and it was really bizarre. He would tear off a piece and dangle it allowing Mason to make the move forward to take it from him. At no time did this new male make any gesture forward with the food, he instead remained absolutely still. About 6 pieces into the feeding, he took the food and flew over to MEC 3 where he stashed it.
Mark arrived at around 7pm and witnessed with me yet another feeding of Mason! Rogue took off of her perch on MEC 2 on a hunt over to Square One and the adult male followed. He returned first without prey and flew directly over to MEC 4 and disappeared into a window well. He came out with a cache and headed straight for Mason, no hesitation this time, and began to beak feed him. Moments later Rogue returned with prey and landed on the ledge behind the male waiting for her turn to feed the fledgling. They were literally lined up with food for the little man and he was taking it all in. The male stopped with his feeding and took the food over to MEC 3 and cached it. Rogue stepped forward and began her feeding of Mason until he literally walked away from the food as he was too full for another bite. Mark closed down the watch and witnessed feeding number 7 by Rogue after which she encouraged Mason down onto the roof of MEC 1 at the northeast corner and moments later, only she emerged. She had tucked him in for the night.
I realize this is a lot to take in but it is so incredibly important to note. I have no doubt that there has been a male changeover. While I can’t prove this 100% due to absence of bands on the males both past and present, the behavior clearly indicates the change. There were multiple copulations throughout the day that was not re-bonding. The intent, for lack of a better word, of such frequent mating is egg production, not bonding. This male has created a huge scrape in the box which Sante would not have done with a young one to attend to; that would have occurred in the fall after his duties to his offspring were done. Tentative interactions with Mason, guarding by Rogue and lack of territorial defense in my mind proves the theory.
Where Sante is we do not know. He was a much heralded male for his single handed raising of broods over the past two years while at the same time dealing with warring females. Over his years at MEC he has been paired with at least 5 different females as they changed so frequently at this site. Because this is such an ideal location, changes here happen frequently and Sante has been the one constant here for the past 6 or more years. He was incredible.
I have so many pictures to share and they will be coming as I process them.
At 3:30 this afternoon I got a call from Mr Brian Maltman who has an office at 10 Milner Business Court. across from the Yellow Pages nest Brian said he had some bad news for me and that a Peregrine Falcon hit his 7th floor office window very hard and that although he had gone down to see if the bird was alive and might need help he found the bird had died likely on impact.
Well fearing that it was Lyn or Ruben I asked Brian to pick up the poor bird and hold him/her until I can get someone to come out to retrieve it and he said no problem he would do that for us.
I called Kathy Smith to go out to pick up the bird and she went out right away. She brought the bird to me and we knew right away that not only was it a Canadian produced bird but it was a yearling or sub-adult.
I took a look at the banding records from last year and found that it was Hurricane Hazel who was hatched at the Mississauga Holcim Cement Plant last year.
The poor bird came home from his winter migration to eventually find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid for his mistake.
It’s always sad when we loose one and I can’t absolutely confirm that Lyn & Ruben had anything to do with it but if I was a gambler I would put my money on that for sure.
This is nature and we have to except the good and bad this is why it’s called wild life just think of all those who have survived with the help of their human friends and calibrate in the knowledge that there are Peregrine Falcons at all!
Keep watching as the 2014 hatchlings will if all goes well be here soon and the banding of the chicks at Holcim and Milner is coming up.
A big thank you to Brian for keeping an eye on the falcons and for calling us so quickly.
Marion
At 3:30 this afternoon I got a call from Mr Brian Maltman who has an office at 10 Milner Business Court. Brian said he had some bad news for me and that a Peregrine Falcon hit his 7th floor office window very hard and that although he had gone down to see if the bird was alive and might need help he found the bird had died likely on impact.
Well fearing that it was Lyn or Ruben I asked Brian to pick up the poor bird and hold him/her until I can get someone to come out to retrieve it and he said no problem he would do that for us.
I called Kathy Smith to go out to pick up the bird and she went out right away. She brought the bird to me and we knew right away that not only was it a Canadian produced bird but it was a yearling or sub-adult.
I took a look at the banding records from last year and found that it was Hurricane Hazel who was hatched at the Mississauga Holcim Cement Plant last year.
The poor bird came home from his winter migration to eventually find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid for his mistake.
It’s always sad when we loose one and I can’t absolutely confirm that Lyn & Ruben had anything to do with it but if I was a gambler I would put my money on that for sure.
This is nature and we have to except the good and bad this is why it’s called wild life just think of all those who have survived with the help of their human friends and calibrate in the knowledge that there are Peregrine Falcons at all!
Keep watching as the 2014 hatchlings will if all goes well be here soon and the banding of the chicks at Holcim and Milner is coming up.
A big thank you to Brian for keeping an eye on the falcons and for calling us so quickly.
Marion
I arrived at 12:20 to find Stormin on the scrape. He was dozing and seemed quite unaware of things. I think this was proved when ten minutes later I noticed Haven on top of the north wall. I had not seen her arrive; she may have been there all along! She preened her feathers and cleaned her talons and Stormin dozed on!
After twenty minutes of this activity Stormin was woken from his daydreams when Haven hopped to the middle of the top of that wall and disappeared from sight. He chupped. She ignored him. A minute later she was gone from my sight. I think she had taken flight.
At almost 1:00pm Stormin called again several times but there was no response. Then he began to move the pebbles from in front of him! He dug his beak in and pushed them aside, picked up some and dropped them in another spot and dragged a few to his chest.
Periodically he chupped his annoyance or something. Still no response so he did a 180 degree turn and that was when the trouble started. He just could not get those four eggs to stay underneath him. First one egg popped out then another. He’d get those two under him but another one popped out from somewhere else. He really was busy !
He did another 180 degree turn back to the original position and attempted to sit on the eggs. No go! So he got up and pushed one egg under but another popped out elsewhere. I could feel his frustration. He moved over to cover that escaped egg and one on the other side appeared.
Eventually, still chupping periodically, he arranged three eggs in row sort of the length of his body, did another 180 degree turn and sat down. But that fourth egg just would not fit. I have no idea why not because when I arrived all four eggs were hidden. Anyway the fourth egg was up around his left shoulder and then he REALLY called.
Two minutes later Haven appeared on the ledge in front of him. He chupped some more, struggled to get up off the eggs and then was gone!
Haven just stood there and it was all I could do not to laugh.
She had four eggs at odd angles and not at all close to one another, there were little scrapes around the big scrape and she had to re-organise this *mess*.
No problem for Haven she simply sat down and pulled the eggs under her, shuffled herself a bit and nudged an egg under with her beak. Done!
Lyn
Several of us are thinking we may have had a fourth hatch here but it’s hard to confirm at this point. Soon as you think you see a fourth head, another one falls in for the block! If anyone can get a clear screen capture, send it on in to us!
All four eggs intact, we expect a hatch soon. Adults taking a few minutes break while the sun is on the ledge.
Just received word that they had their first hatch yesterday afternoon! So they were 6 days apart from his other site this year!