!!! Holcim Banding Success! Meet Ogden!
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…
