June 6th 2014, banding day at Canada Square a great success.
June 06, 2014 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Marion Nash Reports:
Many thanks to Neil Armstrong of Northam Realty Advisors Limited for hosting the banding again this year. Thanks also go to Andrea and Ellie of Northam for their assistance as well.
Thanks once more to Solar Window Cleaning and in particular Steve who has *been out on the ledge* for the fourth year running to assist in extracting the young for banding. This year Steve and Mahesh from Solar did a great job collecting the chicks Steve has done this many times for us but this was a first for Mahesh and he did a great job ! He did take a nice shots of Haven to share with you.
Thanks, too, to Paragon Security for their help through the season so far.
As always our appreciation and thanks to the Ministry of Natural Resources and in particular Mark Heaton for banding the peregrines. Mark was ably assisted by Catherine, Aidan and Taylor.
Thanks Marion and Mark Nash for the innumerable hours you put into the protection of this species. Not just the banding but organising the fledge watches, all the liaising you do on behalf of peregrines, the education process and school visits and spreading the word about these amazing birds.
It is always interesting to note how creatures of the wild present themselves to *intruders* and what measures they take to discourage the intrusion. The African Elephant, large as it is, opens its ears wide and stands really tall to intimidate, other animals and birds have similar methods. Today we saw how a Peregrine Falcon deals with intrusion. It was wonderful to see Haven facing off with the *intruders*, at first just ruffling her feathers a bit so that they stood out. But she soon had feathers fluffed up to make her look twice her size. She also had her tail feathers spread out, fanlike. Normally she is a neat and sculpted bird. and reasonably slim, but not whilst her babies were being temporarily extracted for the banding.
Canada Square has produced three male peregrines this year.
Chinook weighed 530gms, black band W/85 and we gave him a blue *ID*
Linden weighed 570gms, Black band W/87 and he dons a yellow *ID*
Equinox weighed 620 gms, Black band Y/00 and he sports a red *ID*
The blue, yellow and red *IDs* are simply coloured tape put on the second band so that from the ground they are more easily identified. It is just impossible to see a number on a band when the peregrine is running around on the ledge or has fledged and landed somewhere and we’re trying to figure out who it is. The colours stand out and help in quick identification.
We look forward to successful fledges in a week or two.
Lyn
