!!! Toronto Rogers Centre rescues, two downed fledglings with both sucessfully rescued,, soon to be released back to their parents!
June 15, 2015 - Toronto - Rogers Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
June 15th - 2015
While it might appear to many to have been a more than crazzzy 18 hour day today for most, believe it or not, it was actually just a typical day for us at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation. We simply just refer to it as being peregrine season.
The day started out with two scheduled banding events, one in Oshawa at the Oshawa Lake Ridge hospital at 9:30am this morning, and the second banding event out in Pickering, at the Ontario Power Generation Nuclear facility at 1pm.
Between the two banding events, we received a call from the Director of Engineering to request support and assistance, as one of the their four young fledglings had come down to the ground and was on the street level outside gate 5 and in front of one of the retail entrances obviously in need of help.
In typical peregrine form, the young fledglings often don’t do well with their maiden flights, being too heavy - (laden with baby fat), uncoordinated, unskilled, and lacking the confidence they need to fly, they end up on the ground confused as to why they simply can’t fly like their parents. It looks so easy!
You’ve got to think of them as an infant child learning to walk for their first time, where their trials and errors have them standing and falling many times before they get it all coordinated and eventually learn to actually stand upright and eventually walk.
Its not much different for many of the young peregrines, in that they too take a little longer to coordinate all of the body parts, their two wings and their tail,, loose some of the heavy baby fat that weights them down, and a hole lot of practice to be able to actually hold their altitude and stay aloft.
Landings are another story altogether!! It is one of the most difficult things for a young peregrine to learn to do, land as opposed to crash and land that many end up doing in their first dozen or more attempts!
Mastering sustained flight is a real learning experience for most large falcon young!
In any case, a quick rescue lesion 101 with Dave over the phone, and with a towel and the CPF rescue carrier on hand, Dave McCormick jumped into action and was successful in his efforts to rescue the young fledgling!! Great going Dave!!!
Given our situation, with still one banding still yet to do, and with the time lines and staff support at the Rogers centre to be able to get up to the roof to do a release, it was decided to hold the young fledgling over until the morning when the young bird could be properly examined for any traumas that it might have sustained as a result of a hard concrete grounding, and be safely and be released back to the upper roof elevation back to its parents.
By 8pm, with the two banding completed, we were finally able to get back at the CPF office, trying to weigh through all of the photos and observation notes and reports in an effort to get them posted, and then get back out to the field to the Don Mills Amexon nest site to meet with Cathy and Irma by 9pm to release their rescued fledgling that they recovered from the parking lot the night before.
Once again, our plans were somewhat foiled as the phone was ringing again with yet another downed fledgling from the Rogers nest site in downtown Toronto.
A huge thank you to the staff at the Baton Rouge restaurant, and two out of town patrons who were dining at the Baton Rouge restaurant on Front street in downtown Toronto, just a block over from the Rogers centre.
As the story is told by all, one of the young fledglings apparently dropped in for diner (obviously without a reservation) and ended up coming down into the outdoor patio area of the restaurant in the middle of all of the restaurant patrons. With the quick action of the restaurant manager and staff, they were successful in scooping up the young peregrine and getting it into a cardboard box.
At this time, two of the out of town restaurant patrons, Brianna and Katie Johns quickly jumped into action to their smart phones and Googled peregrines Toronto and found the Canadian Peregrine Foundation web site and contact telephone numbers.
After talking to the both Brianna and Katie, (and having received their video clip and e-mailed photos), it was easy to identify their un-invited, party crasher peregrine diner guest and I was back into the car on route to the Baton Rouge restaurant to pick up the bird.
With this young fledgling now secure in a rescue carrier, and having been able to examine the fledgling, it was obvious that there were no injuries and the bird was deemed releasable. On the road again to join Cathy and Irma at the Don Mills nest site, see security to arrange roof top access, and with Cathy and Irma’s help, their little downed fledgling “Lilly” from the Don Mills site was back to the roof and to her awaiting parents.
A very successful text-book towel type of release under the cover of darkness!!
So back to the rescued Rogers Centre fledgling, who will be released back to its parents tomorrow - (along with its sibling in waiting in Dave’s office that he had rescued earlier this day).
Stay tuned for updated information and photos to follow…..
