Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Windsor Sunday Update

June 22, 2014 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge

Marilyn Weller Reports:

Hi Everyone,
It was a fairly quiet day at the site today. Several feedings throughout the day, lots of flapping and hopping about, but no one took their first launch yet.

Shibikesi was out in plain sight this evening and had a nice meal from Voltaire. She has been staying low and out of sight most of the time so it was good to see her today.

I want to welcome Kerri to the watch team. She was at the banding and has stopped by in her spare time. She will be around when she can so be sure to welcome her.

We’ll be saying a brief good-bye to Paul who leaves for the way north on Tuesday. He will be away for 10 days so we’ll miss his ever-ready ability to pop in, watch, tend to grounded fledglings, carry stop signs and other supplies, and to come to the rescue with rather innovative solutions to falcon dilemmas (i.e., “the falcon ladder). We wish Paul and Karen safe travels!

We have coverage for much of our week but do have some gaps in the afternoon schedule. If you find yourself with some free time, please come by and sit a spell!

Thanks everyone. Keep looking up!
Marilyn

Update

June 21, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages

Marion Nash Reports:

I spent a little over 2 hours at the Yellow Pages building today and saw both adults one was on the ledge were the nest is most of the time. The other one Spent time on the peak of the building and made several trips over to the “kitchen” and the building south of it although I did not see a hunt or any bringing of food to the nest ledge. I did not see any of the chicks while I was there but everything looks to be fine.

Watch should start mid to end next week.

Dave

!!! Young fledgling takes up some new hobbies :-)

June 21, 2014 - Toronto - Don Mills

Mark Nash Reports:

June 21st - 2014
Thank goodness its the weekend and the rally race they we usually see going on out on Duncan Mills road has ceased for at least a few days! A very slow say - (well at least for a while) when all kayos brakes loose! It was one of those days and started with Ann arriving in the morning and not finding anyone. Then after much searching, one by one of the peregrines were located, except for one,, Rain-bow Dash!! After an extended period of a frustrating long search around all of the buildings, parking lots and rooftop leading edges, she returns to the 225 stairs and is distracted by a small noise. As she turns, guess who is stilling at waist level on the rail several feet from where Ann was standing,, no other than Rainbow Dash,,, who was standing on the metal rail throughout her entire search period, watching all along. An was able to take some great photos.

Knowing the a rescue was not possible with her camera, Ann in a defining moment umbilically detached herself from her camera,, (I wish I had been there to get that photo) As she re-approached for the second time, Rainbow decided that it was time to go and took flight very low across the road (thank goodness there was no road rally races going on) and managed to gain enough altitude to land on the first floor lower overhang on the south west corner of 220. This is where Rainbow stayed until 1:30 in the afternoon after a lazzzy day of sleeping and stretching, flapping and sleeping, sleeping more, and watching all of the silly humans take her photograph. She attracted the attention of many passer-byes that dropped in throughout the morning to take her photo.

Finally, somewhere between 1pm and 1:30pm, she took flight again, and only after colliding into the windows of the pink/bronze coloured building glass on the building next to 225, she ended up on the lower balcony rail (north west corner), and eventually couldn’t keep her balance and slipped and fell down into the balcony in a flower pot filled with some long green shrubbery. Over the next 6 plus hours, Rainbow-Dash appeared to be dissecting the long green plants while watching the “other identical twin peregrine juvenile” mimic its exact moves,, - her reflection in the glass!! Hilarious is an understatement!

Debbie, Sally, Kathy and myself watched spent most of our time laughing at her lack of gardening skills and dissection this poor plant while simultaneously trying to get the “other peregrine in the glass to get of her way so she could get off the balcony. Sky, her dad, dropped in and landed on the balcony rail on at least one occasion to check up her. Finally, after more than 6 hours, Rainbow finally flew up to the balcony rail and with allot of coaxing from her parents as they proceeded to feed two of the her other siblings, she took flight and ended up on the hydro wire and hydro pole across the street. After her short inspection of the hydro wires and connections, she eventually took flight and ended up on a 5 story window ledge on the west side of 240 Dncan Mill Road where she remained until we closed off the fledge watch around 9:49pm at darkness.

The other problem child, Stormy, who was rescued from the street yesterday and had to be put back to the nest building roof, spent all day on the same elevation of the nest building roof until after 7pm. An hour before the falcon follies, she made her first real flight, (and while not a good one), she flew over to the 240 building trying to make it to the upper rooftop. Sadly, she did not even come close as she struggled to get altitude, falling far short of the upper roof ledge, and ended up on the upper window ledge with a face plant into the back concrete wall. The good news, she did manage to recover and end up on the window ledge despite her “concrete work” and stayed put.

The other two fledglings, Hayes and Cosmo were flying from roof top to roof top all day and all stayed high!! They were the ones that got most of the food all day,, (and each got food several times as they chased their parents around from roof top to roof top).

By the end of the fledge watch shift, Stormy has taken her third flight - (which no-one actually saw), and was spotted on a ledge directly above the front entrance of the pink/bronze coloured building next to 225 Duncan Mill Road.

At Dark when Bob and I finally departed, all four fledglings were accounted for and in view.
Stay tuned………

!!! Merry makes it to the top and seagull is on the menu tonight!

June 19, 2014 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower

Lisa Reh Reports:

Merry was still on the 5th floor and was on the smoke stack at last report at 9:15 a.m. The fledge watch team kept a close watch on him and are concerned that he may have a wing injury due to his mishaps with the windows. The good news is that he is still flying although his flights have not had much height. Keep trying Merry – you are named after one of the bravest hobbits!

At 1:15, Dale reported the good news we needed to hear today. He observed 2 good flights most likely of Merry and perhaps also of Helia. The first flight was a long and leisurely one over the fledge watch tent on Union Street right. The juvenile flew back to the King Street side of the building where one of the adults was watching from the Sun Life sign. The 2nd flight ended up on the Park Street side of the building. They were of a good height, although not high enough to get up to the roof. At the same time, Susan had a report from an employee on the 16th floor on Park Street, that there was another crash into the windows. They thought it was a bird but weren’t sure. The adult falcons flew past right after.

At 7:30 p.m., Janice was looking out from the 6th floor window facing the hospital and Mystery landed on the lower roof with a seagull! She sat on it for quite a while looking around and pulled off all of the feathers. At 8:00, Janice found Merry on the 19th floor balcony at the corner of Union and Park Street. Looking a little bruised and battered, with a bit of a limp and a broken tail feather and missing his white tape, our little guy finally made it from the 5th floor to the 19th! No small feat for Merry especially since he had at least two crashes into the windows and possibly a 3rd on the way up given his noticeable injuries. The fledge watch team all breathed a big sigh of relief this night.

Photos courtesy of Janice Newton.

Saturday June 21st at Etobicoke Sun Life

June 21, 2014 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre

Tracy Simpson Reports:

With our two remaining kids flying high and flying well, today was more of a pop in and watch day for all of us as the physical and emotional effort has taken its toll.  Kathy started in the morning watching the kids as they really showed they’re getting it all worked out.  Nice flights were seen along with much better landings by both Skyla and Sunni.  After about 3 or 4 hours, Kathy went home for a much deserved rest after putting in such an amazing effort.  Rob and Angie were up next and spent several hours watching the young ones.  Back and forth.  Building to building.  They just kept getting better with every flight they took.  They also were able to share in the pleasure of watching Jack hunting starlings in the area and putting on quite a flight show for them.  After such a long and tough week, its nice to finally be able to watch the family thrive and enjoy themselves for a change!

Given the amazing flights that Rob, Angie and Kathy were all witnessing, I decided that I would follow suit.  I came down for a few hours in the evening and was treated to much of the same.  O’Connor was on the top of the west tower, Skyla was nearby Sunni was roosting atop the centre tower.  Jack came in with food early on and stayed with his mate for almost 40 minutes before taking off to the north.  I left around 8pm with the family all relaxing in the evening sun.

Today officially closes the watch for us here at Islington and Bloor at the Etobicoke Sun Life centre.  We could not have done this watch without key volunteers, the community, the building management and security all working together to make this a success.  It is with my most sincere gratitude that I would like to thank Kathy (our rock), Rob and Angie (our other rocks), Jim (amazing rock), and Baylie (our dearest rock).  I would also like to thank Jim and Lynda from Wild Birds Unlimited for answering the alarm call and coming right away, Stacey for joining us in support of the site and Bob for your moral support, assistance with the birds and saving my bag of chips for me.  I would also like to thank Tom and David from Paragon Security for helping us all and the CBRE Management Group for being fantastic and understanding hosts.

We did it everybody!  Now go take a nap.

!!!

June 20, 2014 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton

Marion Nash Reports:

A little surprise greeted us this morning. After the *no-show and no-go* days we have had it was good to see the first youngster had left the ledge and was on the *porch level* just below, on Canada Square. Eventually I was able to identify the colour of the tape on the band and match it to a name from banding day. Red tape and that meant Equinox had made the first move.

A half hour after my arrival Malik brought in a food parcel to the top two and they promptly disappeared to the back of their ledge. Equinox flapped madly at the time and a few minutes later he did the same thing only this time he had lift-off for a few feet. He also ran up and down the *porch level* a couple of times before resting.

There was slight activity from one of the youngsters on the main level but that soon petered out. Haven flew along the west side of Canada Square and then over the Yonge/Eglinton intersection and this motivated Linden into action on the main level. Then he and Equinox were both exercising their wings at the same time.

Haven and Malik made a few fly-bys and Haven popped onto the main ledge a number of times throughout the afternoon.

Around 5:30 pm Marion spotted Haven on 2190 Yonge (black building) and there were feathers flying everywhere! Malik, too, was on 2190 and only a couple of metres away from her. Judging by the size of some of the feathers I believe she had caught a pigeon. Once the pigeon was cleaned, Haven ate before flying to the main ledge with the rest of it. There she fed Chinook, the baby. He had a good feeding, thirteen minutes of it!! That done she dropped down to the *porch level* and gave the remains to Equinox. He disappeared from sight for a few minutes. Malik in the meantime had found scraps on top of 2190 and he was eating those.

Haven and Malik made a few flights and then another surprise! Marion noted that there were TWO youngsters on the *porch level*. This was much later in the day. We finally had a tape colour and discovered that Linden had joined his brother. The lonely little guy left at the top is Chinook.

It was becoming late and the babies SHOULD have been dozing off for the night. Haven was in place on top of the wall north of the ledge but Linden was just beginning to rev up. He ran up and down the ledge, flapped a bit, lifted off a couple of times and tried to get his sibling join him. Equinox was not co-operating and was down for the night. Chinook, too, was down. Linden eventually settled and we left.

Lyn

!!! Finally, the Scarborough nest site banding photos!

June 11, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages

Mark Nash Reports:

Well, its been an aggressive banding season with 14 nest sites here in southern Ontario that were successfully banded this season and we’re finally completed the bandings that we’re going to get this year. With bandings in Windsor to Stoney Creek, Mississauga, Toronto, Etobicoke, Scarborough, Burlington and Kitchener, this has been a very successful banding year!!

With only a few missed due to scheduling challenges and the very short window of opportunity based on the hatchlings age to actually band them, we did our best to get as many as possible given the time frames available.

So finally, with more than 1600 photos to edit, colour correct and downsize, we finally have the Scarborough banding photos ready to post.
Enjoy……………..

Stormy slips, falls, flies too low!!

June 20, 2014 - Toronto - Don Mills

Cathy Kerr Reports:

Never a dull day at Harlequin it seems!!!  Sue reported an exciting morning with Hayes having his first flight over to the top of 240 Duncanmill!  Way to go Hayes!!  And Cosmo returned home to the nest ledge–quite a feat!!  And there they remained for most of the afternoon with Quest hanging out with the girls and Cosmo– having afternoon naps in, on and in front of the nest box! Then they woke up!  Hayes flew to Harlequin’s top ledge, then over to the roof of the nest building.  He stayed there awhile but flew back over to 240 where he stayed and was there when we left for the night!

Now the other three were preening, wingersizing,enjoying the sun.  While Cosmo & Rainbow were doing some lovely beaking, Stormy decided to do some wingersizing and slipped off the ledge!!  She fell a few stories, then flew, very low to the building east of Harlequin where she landed on their driveway, not knowing what the heck had happened I’m sure!  We found her and after a failed attempt at grabbing her, she flew, so low she passed within a hair of my ankle, back towards the nest building only to land outside the nest on the road!!  To our horror I must add!  Our team of rescuers raced out to stop traffic and try and get her, but she would have none of it!! Back she flew, past us, to land right beside the road in front of 240.  We stopped a bus(tho to be fair he/she was slowing down–probably wondering what the heck a bunch of people were doing running down the road!!  what a sight we must of been!!) and finally, Stormy was scooped up, so to speak, by Bonnie!   Stormy was deposited in a crate and safely tucked away with Sam in the Harlequin building until she could be put back up on the roof of the nest building by Mark at dark.

Thanks to all our team, Bonnie, Bob, Ping, Madison & Jessica for an exciting rescue!!

Maturing quickly

June 20, 2014 - Toronto - King Street

Linda Woods Reports:

A camera check of Thea, juvenile at King St, and she is growing up very quickly.  Very little white left on her and she should soon be of age to take her first flight. She will be 40 days of age this weekend.  Time to start the watch at this site.

Two in view, two out of view

June 20, 2014 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre

Linda Woods Reports:

It has been a relatively quiet evening for the most part. These birds have been really quiet vocally this year, and not sounding off to give up their locations.  One juvie remains unflighted and still in camera view. The three others are not near each other in order for one person to see them .  One juvie could be seen on the west side of the Old Bell building south east of the nest building.  We scoured the roof lines trying to locate they other two, but no luck. They were just sitting out of view from any angle. As I returned to base, one juvie flew low over head and landed on a shorter building south of the Sheraton, it stayed there for a while walking back and forth trying to figure out which was to fly.  It took off in flight south of Adelaide and I was not able to track it very far before it was out of my sight line due to the height of the building. No further sighting of any juvies with the exception of the unflighted bird on the nest ledge.  Eventually one juvie was spotted in the same spot as it was last evening. Not sure how long it was there, but it was high off the ground and safe for the night.