June 27, 2015 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Bruce opened the watch this morning with all four on the ledge but not for long. Sven, Winston and Benny were all over the place this morning playing tag and investigating everything. That left Peggy on the ledge on her own trying to work up the courage to take that first big leap into the air. She came very close this morning during a period of intense activity where her flapping actually resulted in some lift. Her launches forward though were only wee hops. Still, she is very close to being ready and I can empathize with her reluctance… …look out ’cause here comes Benny!! This little man has become the star flyer of the family so fast that he has become ridiculously confident. That’s excellent for him but not for his siblings whom he regularly terrorizes the second they take flight. The games of tag have occasionally gotten a little rough over the past few days and it is always Benny who instigates the tough stuff. The great part about that is that he is challenging his brothers abilities and encouraging their skill development. The not so great part is that when Peggy goes for that first flight he’ll most likely be all over her wanting to play. Don’t worry Peggy, we’ll be there for you!
As the weather moved in the kids were all beginning to quieten down. Around noon, Peggy went back into the nest tray for a nap and the boys wandered the ledge in search of scraps to eat. Given the rains, heavy at times, all the local prey species were huddled and hidden so food was not abundant for the young today. That should make them good and loud come morning and in Peggy’s case, good and motivated! I arrived around 2pm and the family was all at rest. I took over the watch from Bruce and sat down for some action. Nope. Hello????? Are you guys still up there???? It was the quietest I have ever seen William Osler this year. I went back to the south down to the end of the driveway and looked back to find all four young ones on the southeast corner in one big goopy pile. Half wet, half dry and all asleep. I would say it was like watching paint dry but since paint won’t dry in the rain I wasn’t even able to watch that!! Yet as much as I wanted to go and most likely could without concern, I wanted to make sure that Peggy didn’t get any ideas about flight come suppertime. I am glad I stayed a little longer as at 6pm the whole crew woke up and the boys started flights. They were ripping around the property in the rain playing tag and having a blast. Peggy started to flap quite a bit and was pumping hard when she almost slipped off of the wet ledge. For almost an hour the foursome were active and just around 7pm Winston the watcher arrived. He took over the watch for me until close and the flappy bunch that I left him with didn’t take long before they all tucked in for the night.
Posted on June 27, 2015 11:37 pm
June 27, 2015 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Linda Woods Reports:
Sandy remains unfledged. Good thing, not a good day to be taking a first flight. Rain, heavy at times, wind and cool temperatures and then fog rolled in, blocking the view of the ledge from ground level. Sandy spent a lot of time sitting in the frames of the ledge looking out, probably watching for Rhea Mae and Tiago. No food to the ledge this afternoon/evening as far as I could see. When the fog rolled and the view disappeared, I closed the watch for the night. On web cam view at 9:30, Sandy is seen sitting on the nest tray near the camera.
Posted on June 27, 2015 10:00 pm
June 26, 2015 - Mississauga - Holcim
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 26th - 2015
In typical Holcim fashion, the red carpet was laid out again for all of the attendees at the Holcim banding event this afternoon, and a very good day indeed! A huge thank you to Barb and all of the staff at Holcim for making the day go so seamless.
Again, another huge thank you to John Millar, our high altitude climber that has once again donated his time and his professional services to repel down to the nest ledge to do the extraction, but was also put to work again at the nest ledge to install a new nest tray for the Holcim peregrines.
Despite the fact that the existing roof elevation have served the Holcim resident peregrines quite well, we have all been noticing less and less available nesting sub-straight materials for the peregrines as the roof has over the years been both windswept and weather stripped.
While water pooling has not yet been a problem,, we know only too well that its only a matter of time given all of the harsh weather that we have been seeing of late, in particular, all of the flooding that been going on as a result of the severe downpours we have all been experiencing.
In addition to the increased moisture, we are seeing more severe winter conditions, with higher accumulations of snow and cold damp spring temps. All of these conditions have played a roll in the decrease of our urban peregrines productions over the past five years.
In an effort to prevent a nest site failure from happening as a result of water pooling and other more sinister conditions, (some that we can actually control), Holcim provided the funding that allowed the CPF to build a new nest tray, and we took the opportunity to have John install the nest tray and pea-gravel while the little hatchling was away being banded.
As you know, access to this nest ledge is very limited and this was a golden opportunity.
While Mark Nash and John Millar were busy installing the new nest tray, (along with several hundred pounds of pea-gravel), assisted by the Holcim staff, Mark Heaton from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Marion Nash from the Canadian Peregrine Foundation and Barb Smith from Holcim completed the banding of Holcim’ s newest family member,, “Ogden” as he was named by the plant staff at banding.
Little Ogden, is the sole survivor of two young hatchlings that has been produced at the Holcim site this season, with its other sibling having disappeared several days ago before the scheduled banding event. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident this season, with several other new born hatchlings having disappeared from the nest sites.
As you know, there are many natural dangers, challenges, risks and other natural events that even our urban nesting peregrines must deal with, from other avian and mammalian predators, (Great horned owls, Black-backed Gulls and Raccoons just to mention a few), to moisture collection as a result of driving rain, high winds and a host of other parasitic creepy crawlies!
So with a new nest tray installed, and a few hundred pounds of pea-gravel to prevent any moisture collection and ensure that proper drainage will take place, John waited at the nest elevation for the little hatchling to return after banding.
Back at the banding table with Mark, Marion and Barb, the little peregrine hatchling weighed in 580 grams, clearly identified as a male, being 21 days old, and was named Ogden!
Ogden was banded with a solid Black Y over 22 with Yellow tape to clearly identify him.
Welcome Ogden!
Little Ogden was successfully banded in record time, and was returned back to his parents care without incident. It is also worth noting that both the resident adults parents were on hand to supervise (and of course object) to the entire procedure as we would have expected,, (and very pleased to confirm that both mon and dad were very much on site).
A very good event all around!
Now its off to the Canada Square nest site to do a site visit to establish a start date for the up and coming fledge watch…
Posted on June 27, 2015 3:04 pm
June 27, 2015 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Harry Crawford Reports:
By 8am, I had Rhea-Mae on the northwest corner of 130 Adelaide W. Sandy was on the nest ledge. By 9:30am Sandy was flapping madly and running back and forth behind the nest ledge. When she stood still long enough, both parents would fly by and try to encourage her off. Rhea-Mae even flew by with prey - large prey, but no go. At 10am, both adults joined her on the nest ledge. Mom stayed for about 15 minutes. My guess is that Sandy was fed well and she was not seen from street level. When Alex arrived near noon, he could see someone on the old webcam box using his cell phone. Then the rain came.
Posted on June 27, 2015 2:10 pm
June 27, 2015 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Marion Nash Reports:
June 27th rain bath for Ninja
Posted on June 27, 2015 1:18 pm
June 27, 2015 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Yesterday I opened the watch at William Osler with Peggy still on the ledge and the three boys flying like little busy bees. They were all over the place and their “off” button was definitely not working!! Go, go, go!! No landing space was now sacred. Everywhere that Hurricane goes to roost and nap was now being invaded by his boys and it was clear that the adults were going to have to go off campus if they were going to get any peace. Hurricane went first and disappeared for over an hour in the morning. I’m not sure where he goes but I suspect over to the Humber College where there are tall antennas that allow him to see his site, his kids and his mate should trouble arise. Chessie was left with the screaming threesome that spent the morning knocking her off of everything. No food was being offered yet and Chessie just continued to do her best to avoid the boys rambunctious morning exercise. Peggy spent the entire time on the southeast corner of the nest ledge and she is looking very ready to go. Head bobbing, wing flapping and little lunges around the ledge kept her busy for almost an hour. When Hurricane returned from his break Chessie went on a hunt to the northeast and returned with a big pigeon. The boys were ecstatic. Chase mommy, catch mommy, my food, get your own! It was crazy! Chessie took the prey to the south H sign to prep and then went directly to Peggy and beak fed. Once she had her fill, Chessie then unceremoniously dropped what was left on the hospital roof for the boys to fight over which they did. Benny the jet continued with his “bite you in the face” greeting with his brothers and managed to score the majority of the meal for himself. Sven is now catching on to this and as Benny ate he kept trying to grab him by the head. Winston, in the scrum, grabbed the food and ran down the ledge which started another scramble until Hurricane brought in another piece for the boys. Wow. Settled down you three!
Bruce took over while I headed down to Islington and Bloor for a spot check. All was quiet through the afternoon until the day cooled and the supper bell rang. All three boys are now making spot on landings in the tower and regularly are fooling around up there. They were for Bruce as they were for me, all over the place and into everything. Winston on two occasions went down to the tenth floor window ledge and Bruce could see that this was a very purposeful action. Hurricane is now using these ledges to stash food as it is a tougher landing to manage for the boys. He hoped that the food would be safe there but Winston had it all figured out. He scored a nice piece for himself and didn’t have to share. The second landing on the window ledge was evidently to avoid Benny as he is now ramping up his playing in the air to grabbing of tails and talons. While Sven is up to the task Winston isn’t quite ready for such aggressive pursuits and play so he hides out away from Benny when he gets a little too rough.
When Peggy does fledge, which should be any minute now, she has three boys to contend with. We fully expect that Hurricane and Chessie will manage her first flights and deal with the boys attempt to play tag with her before she’s even made her first landing. We have no doubt that she will catch up quick in her skills and when she does, oh look out you boys! They are actually being quite good with her right now as they regularly visit her on the nest ledge and snuggle with her. It’s quite nice to see.
Check back for more antics from the boys and Peggy’s soon to fledge moment!!
Posted on June 27, 2015 10:21 am
June 27, 2015 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
After downgrading the full time watch to spot checks, it’s still important to pop in every once in a while and check up on the progress of the young ones and count heads. Yesterday I planned to do just that and it was great to see all the birds in the air! At first when I arrived O’Connor was on the west condo roof at Kingsway on the Park and she was really upset. Alarm calls, fly arounds and just a general posture of discomfort was very clear to both Rob and I. Her focus of disturbance was the roof of the west tower of the condo where we found Ferris on the very top of the elevator shaft screaming for food. She would hush him with alarm calls and when she settled, he would start singing once again. We looked around for the source of her discomfort but were unable to pinpoint the source. It could have been the recent window washing activity on the east tower that set her off, we aren’t sure. We will be keeping an eye on this though as the young are still working out landings and flights and we want to make sure that all are safe.
I was determined to identify all four by tape colour today as the boys are jack rabbiting around like crazy and figuring out who is who, well that’s the challenge. Two boys were up playing tag in the air after O’Connor had settled down and we were able to photograph Ferris and Mel ripping it up! Great job boys. By the flights you could see that they are still working out their in air coordination but they are well on their way. A quick walkabout revealed a juvenile sleeping with an enormous crop on the Aberfoyle side of the nest building who later was ID’ed as Ninja. Back out front we went and watched Mel and Ferris still going at the aerial games when out of nowhere a third juvenile joined the scrum. We had all three playing games of tag, learning to twist and turn in the air. The third youngster was Glider and boy he’s catching up quick as the last to fledge. By 2:30pm, food was now coming in and Mel tried to meet O’Connor out in the air as she brought it into the nest ledge. She bypassed him and flew straight to the ledge which infuriated our little flyer as Glider, who was napping in the nest tray, got it all! Sorry Mel, maybe the next one!
I ended my spot check with food going in to Mel and Glider, Ferris on the ledge next door to the nest ledge sleeping and Ninja working on digesting his massive crop. Great job boys!!
Posted on June 27, 2015 9:50 am
June 26, 2015 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Marion Nash Reports:
Stopped in to check on The chicks Omega and Typhoon to see how they are progressing. Typhoon the youngest still has lots of down but his sister Omega is only showing a slight Mohawk of down on her head. As the chicks have not yet made it out of the nest area we call the playpen and onto what we call the front porch the ledge just below the nest I expect they will not take the first flights for a couple days yet. We will officially start the fledge watch on Monday the 29th. anyone interested in helping should contact head office at 416-481-1233
Posted on June 27, 2015 1:12 am
June 26, 2015 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Linda Woods Reports:
Another quiet evening for the Sheraton Watch. Rhea Mae and Tiago were not seen in the direct area of the Sheraton all evening, but they are sitting high in the neighbourhood.
Sandy did a very short session of flapping, but that was it. No food to the ledge, no flight lessons. Finally at 9pm, Sandy disappeared out of view, probably went to her ‘bed” for the night.
Rain, steady rain and cool temps are predicted for the weekend.
Posted on June 26, 2015 9:57 pm
June 26, 2015 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Harry Crawford Reports:
From Alex Stepniak
I just got back from the Sheraton. The parents were flying to the ledge and away to coax Sandy. She then went to sleep from 2-3:30 but after that there was some flapping and some running around.
Posted on June 26, 2015 5:08 pm
