March 11, 2015 - Etobicoke - William Osler
CPF Postmaster Reports:
March 11th - 2015
After having our earlier observations confirmed, it appears that the new resident male peregrine now in Hamilton at the Hamilton Sheraton nest site is in fact Ossie from the William Osler nest site!
Ossie, banded with a Canadian solid Black leg band baring the digits 0 over 8, (with a line separating the above and below digits) has been positively identified and confirmed to be Ossie!
Posted on March 11, 2015 3:20 pm
March 10, 2015 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Marilyn Weller Reports:
Windsor volunteer, Paul Gosselin sent these beautiful photos of Voltaire taken this week at the Ambassador Bridge nest site. Voltaire looks healthy and ready for another breeding season!
Thank you to Paul, for sending these great shots!
Posted on March 10, 2015 7:34 pm
March 08, 2015 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:
Sunday March 8, 2015
+1 C / 33 F 12:30 PM Sunny and clear
Monday, March 9, 2015
+4 C / 39 F 10:00 AM Sunny and clear
Finally, above zero degrees for 2 days in row. The canal is no longer frozen over. Just the odd ice flow is making its way out to the lake. The water birds are once again busy diving for food and the Trumpeter Swans are visiting daily so they can drink and bath. YAH!!!
Cirrus and Mackenzie are very busy in and around the nest box. Cirrus is not straying too far. Mackenzie is in the box working on the scrape while Cirrus is standing watch from the corner of the nest box. There is a fair bit of calling going on between the two and lots of mating taking place. When will be have our first egg???
We were able to confirm Cirrus’ band number but have not been able to confirm that Mackenzie is the male. We are working on it. Cirrus is now 9 years old being born in Dayton, Ohio in 2006 and Mackenzie was born in Etobicoke, Ontario in 2009 making him 6 years old this year.
Keeping our fingers crossed for a successful nesting this year.
Posted on March 10, 2015 2:23 pm
March 10, 2015 - Toronto - King Street
Linda Woods Reports:
Windwhistler has been replaced by Stormin. Windwhistler has not been seen in his King St Territory since January. Courtship activity including flights has not been seen. Erin tends to sit away from Stormin , appearing that she is not interested in him. Also, Erin has been lying down behind the pillar since September. Could be a number of possibilities given the harsh cold temperatures this past winter and her age. It is certainly not incubation as there are no eggs as yet. Her age is a good indicator and the fact that only one egg hatched last year at this site. We’ll keep watching for courtship activity but at this time it’s not happening. I think Stormin is more concentrated on patrolling the area, and sometimes wandering over to the Sheraton nest site, which is very close.
Posted on March 10, 2015 10:47 am
March 09, 2015 - Toronto - King Street
CPF Postmaster Reports:
March 9th - 2015
Again, thank you to Laura who was able to capture this photo at 4pm this afternoon of both resident adults on the nest ledge at the 18 King Street nest site.
With much speculation of Windwhistler having been displaced (and replaced) earlier on in January of this year by one of his grandsons - (who was clearly identified as being a peregrine named Stormin via his leg band identification), we have yet to be able to identify re-identify the adult male that we’ve been seeing at the Toronto King Street nest site these past two weeks.
Windwhistler (the long standing resident adult male at this site) would be 17 years old this year. He was produced at the Etobicoke nest site at Bloor & Islington in Etobicoke.
Erin, the long standing resident adult female at the 18 King Street nest site (who we suspect is still the adult female being seen on the nest ledge) will also be 17 years old this year!!
The photo taken today by Laura shows an adult laying in the nest bowl behind the pillar in the dark shadow, and an adult male on the ledge just coming in.
Sadly, no leg bands are readable.
Remember that both Windwhistler and Stormin have solid Black coloured leg bands on their left leg,, and Erin has a two coloured leg band (Black over Red) on her left leg.
So the question remains, who is currently residing at the 18 King Street nest site now??????
Please don’t hesitate to send us any and all photos that you are able to capture that have show any legible band numbers!
Also, it certainly looks like we have incubation happing????? Are there any eggs yet?????
Posted on March 10, 2015 12:57 am
March 09, 2015 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
March 9th - 2015
Despite the on-going painters activity at the lower elevations, the Etobicoke Bloor and Islington peregrines don’t seem to be too concerned, and obviously not upset about the new paint job at the nest level. We managed to capture a few photos of one of the peregrines today via the nest camera out in Etobicoke.
Fingers crossed that we should be seeing egg production soon!
Stay tuned……..
Posted on March 9, 2015 1:27 pm
March 09, 2015 - Etobicoke - William Osler
CPF Postmaster Reports:
March 5th - 2015
We have just received some interesting although sad news from Mark Heaton from the MNRF - (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry,,, OMNR’s new name) with regards to one of the William Osler juveniles that was produced last season in 2014.
It has been reported to him from wildlife officials in Colombia South America that a juvenile peregrine falcon banded with a solid Black band Y over 6, dawning a silver USWF band number of 1156-06858 had been found dead 1.1 miles from Barrio Boyacá, District Capital of Colombia, Bogota - (in South America).
Based on the actual report, it was a collision death - flying into a wire.
After checking the banding database, the black banded peregrine banded with the Y over 06 band was named “Ace”,, identified and sexed as a male, banded on June 11th, being 23 days old and weighing in at 680 grams.
The question has often been asked, where do all f the young fledgling peregrine falcons go and what happens to them? Well, this answers one of those questions,, (combined this band return with 7 years of data as a result of the CPF satellite tracking program where we satellite tracked first year peregrines from Quebec and Ontario), and with the combined accumulated band return reports such as this one, we have a partial answer as to where some of our Canadian peregrines are going to winter over during the winter months.
We found a large percentage of the Ontario and Quebec Canadian produced peregrines that were tracked via satellite in our tracking program ended up wintering over in Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina in South America, in addition to many that wintered over in Central America countries - (Nicaragua and Costa Rica),,,, and never to forget little “Lightning” from the Richmond Hill CPF hack site and all of the fuss he caused everyone with Global, National and local news media headlines while wintering over in the Dominican Republic!!!!!!
Always a huge thank you to the Canadian Ambassador of the time who was stationed in the DR and the local DR news paper - (the Ultima Hora who posted front page full colour photos and block buster story and headlines of little Lightning in three separate issues of their newspaper,, (never in the newspaper history had they every printed full colour front page photos and story of anything before this),,, and local TV station that did a special show, - aired country wide in the DR that also contributed and helped save little Lightning’s life while he was wintering over in the Dominican Republic.
Little Lightning did survive his ordeal with the DR government who had originally planned to “dispatch him” and did in fact return safely (by his own accord) back to Ontario the following spring. A story that we will never forget!
Posted on March 9, 2015 1:01 pm
March 07, 2015 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Mark Nash Reports:
March 7th - 2015
A big thank you to Athena who sent in an observation report and some great photos of a young juvenile peregrine that she was able to photograph yesterday at the Colonel Samuel Smith Park here in the Greater GTA.
After closely reviewing her photos at increased magnification, we were able to identify the Solid Black coloured band number as being S over 35, obviously with Red coloured tape. Checking with the banding database, the little peregrine falcon in Athens’s photos are non other than Shibikesi, a 2014 produced peregrine from the Ambassador Bridge nest site in Windsor Ontario!
Athena writes:
Hello there,
I recently saw and photographed a peregrine falcon in the Toronto area on March 7th. I saw it at Colonel Samuel Smith Park around 4PM. Its right leg has a red band and the left I think is black with S over 35.
There are photos attached.
It would be great to hear back from you about where this bird was banded and anything else, I’m very curious! This was the first time I have seen a banded raptor in the wild, very exciting.
Thank you for your time!
-Athena
Posted on March 9, 2015 11:02 am
March 08, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills
Kathy Reports:
Our newly returned Skye wasted no time getting down to business today. Lots of bonding and beaking in the nest box with his mate Quest.
Posted on March 8, 2015 4:53 pm
March 08, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills
Kathy Reports:
Bruce is on site and has just confirmed the male we’ve been seeing the past two days on cam is banded 50/X - Skye is back home from migration and home with Quest!
Posted on March 8, 2015 10:27 am
