May 25, 2016 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Mark Nash Reports:
May 25th - 2016
Sorry for the late update, but we have been out of the office and on the road at bandings for the past six days and not getting much office time as a result. As you might expect,, we are back into 12 plus hour days with the many bandings.
A big thank you to the great folks down at the lift bridge and the PWGSC for being able to do some of the close monitoring for us this season,, and for the photo updates that they have been able to sent into us.
Sadly, it would appear that the pair are now down to two eggs, from the original five eggs that they originally laid. Last week, the resident adult female kicked out two more eggs and later ate them,, leaving the last two remaining eggs.
While the pair are still down into hard incubation of the two remaining eggs, it might appear that a hatch will not be a given. Only time will tell.
The attached photo, shows the resident adult male attending to the incubation duties with his Black Canadian recovery band clearly visible.
Stay tuned for more updated news as it becomes available………………………
Posted on May 27, 2016 11:10 am
May 26, 2016 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Mark Nash Reports:
May 26th - 2016
Banding day
Two bandings again today, back to back,, William Osler this morning at 10am and Duncan Mills this afternoon at 3pm! 
Despite the not so good news this morning at the William Osler nest site, we still have two very healthy hatchlings that were very feisty and in fine form!
A big thank you to Todd and his security team, and to the William Osler Hospital for all of their support, we were successful in banding two very healthy peregrine hatchlings that were very feisty and in fine form!!
It might appear with all of the recent activity in the form of competition from other peregrines trying to take over the William Osler nest site, (and there has been some very aggressive squabbling among the peregrines), two of the hatchlings have succumb to the fighting among the adult peregrines and have been killed. Sadly, we had to pull two dead hatchlings out of the nest tray. The two dead hatchlings were every bit as large as the two surviving siblings, and it appears that their demise has been a very recent happening indeed!
The security staff that have been monitoring the CPF nest camera on our in-house live monitor said that all four hatchlings were all quite alive and well 2 days earlier (as of last Tuesday May 24th), so this has been a very recent event!
The two surviving hatchlings were very closely examined for any signs of illness and other injuries and were deemed by all to be quite fine!
We were fortunate to have both Mark Heaton from the OMNRF and Kim Fernie from the Environment Canada and the Canadian Wildlife service with us today to get a second and third opinion on the two surviving hatchlings. The deceased bodies were removed from the nest tray and handed off to the Mark and Kim. Given the high heat and humidity, the deceased hatchlings were not in the greatest shape.
Peregrines do not cannibalize themselves nor do they typically feed their dead to their other hatchlings as some other birds of prey do (as with Bald eagles in particular),, and unfortunately the two deceased hatchlings were way too large and too heavy for the resident adult female to remove them from the nest,,,, which would be quite typical as we have documented via the live cameras over the past 20 years.
With well over 600 peregrine hatchlings having gone through our hands in the past 20 years from nest sites all over Ontario, (excluding that of the 100 plus hacked out and fostered peregrines that we parented, raised and released back to the wild through our hack release and satellite tracking programs), I can assure all that the two surviving hatchlings are very healthy indeed!!!
That being said,, we can not although do much about the territorial squabbling between the resident adults and the other peregrine intruders that have obviously caused the problems in the first place,, as they themselves must work out these problems on their own. We can only do so much. We will although be monitoring the nest site as closely as possible.
The two surviving hatchlings at we banded,, one male and one female were in fine form,,
- a male, named Ramses weighing in at 690 grams, 23 days old, Black banded 05 over Y with Blue tape. (This is an older band, and the reason why it is out of sequence and different from all of the other bands being used this season).
- a huge female, named Sahara weighing in 985 grams, Black banded S over 53 with Red tape
We are waiting for the William Osler staff to provide us with names for the two hatchlings, and will post them as soon as we have the names.
The two hatchlings were successfully banded and returned back to the nest ledge with the resident adult female “in waiting” on the nest tray!!!
Please bear with us with regards to photos, as we have MANY photos to go through from the two bandings today. We are out on the road and in the field again all day today and not able to get much office and computer / internet time. Its that time of year again!!!!
Stay tuned……..
Posted on May 27, 2016 10:44 am
May 26, 2016 - Toronto - Don Mills
Mark Nash Reports:
May 26th - 2016
Banding Day!!
A good day with two successful banding events today, with the William Osler Health care banding this morning and the Duncan Mill hatchlings this afternoon!
A huge thank you to Harlequin and to Don for all of their support and for hosting the banding again this year, we were joined by all to celebrate and be part of the 2016 banding!
A huge thank-you again to John Millar who was there for us again to descend down to the nest ledge from the upper roof area to safely extract the four young hatchlings for the banding, and get them back to the nest box, as everything went as planned without a hitch!
With Mark Heaton from the OMNRF at the banding table, all four hatchlings were successfully banded and returned back to Quest safely in record time.
Four healthy hatchlings, three males and one huge female hatchling, all four were safely banded, named, examined for their health and returned back to Quest.
Quest was in her fine form and on hand to “supervise” the extraction. Mac was also very visible, but remained at a distance most of the time, obviously confused about the entire event. Remembering that he is NOT the sire of the hatchlings and a young inexperienced male himself,, it will be very interesting to see how the balance of the season shakes out with Mac, - (the new resident adult male), who has obviously replaced the resident adult male Sky sometime after Quest laid her eggs! These hatchlings are not his!
Given that Quest has so far accepted Mac, (and he is in fact providing food to Quest),, it would also appear that Mac, has at least in part, accepted the fact that there are hatchlings and he has not made any motions to harm them, things seem to stable so far. It will be interesting to see if Mac will actually feed the hatchlings and later take the lead in the flight training of the four offspring?? As we know, it is the adult males primary role at fledge time to do most of the flight training with the fledglings. So far, Mac has not been observed actually feeding any of the hatchlings, as Quest has been very guarded over her young! Only time will tell!
So for the particulars of this years clutch of hatchlings,,
We have:
- a 685 gram male, 25 days old, Black banded Y over 25, with Blue tape, named Geddy
- a 695 gram male, 28 days old, Black banded Y over 26, with Yellow tape, named Achilles
- a 685 gram male, 28 days old, Black banded Y over 27, with White tape, named Jet
and a huge female, 965 grams, 26 days old, Black banded S over 54, with Red tape, named Marta
We have a HUGE amount of photos to process from the two bandings today and you must bear with us to get them posted. We are on the road and in the field again today with not much time in the office sitting down at the computers and the internet.
Stay tuned………………..
Posted on May 27, 2016 9:26 am
May 27, 2016 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
In the wee hours of the morning this morning an egg shell appeared beside the incubating adult! After struggling with their first two eggs and eventually losing both, the Toronto Sheraton pair went back to the nest tray and got quite serious about their two eggs that were laid there. An egg shell this morning looks like great news for the pair!
Posted on May 27, 2016 7:28 am
May 25, 2016 - Hamilton - Sheraton Hotel
Marion Nash Reports:
Today Ann Yagi of The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests and I had the honor to band a very big female chick at the Hamilton Sheraton Hotel.
The Hamilton peregrine project once again hosted the banding of Hamilton’s peregrine offspring and although there is only 1 this year she is a very healthy girl at 953 grams.
A big thanks to The Canadian peregrine Foundations volunteers John and Matt our climbers for help extracting the chicks from the nest for banding, the Hamilton Sheraton Hotel for giving access to the nest and providing the club lounge for banding and to Ann Yagi for her donated personal time to CPF for this banding and many others in Southern Ontario. here are just a few pictures for more information, photos and videos please go to falcons.hamiltonnature.org
Posted on May 25, 2016 9:13 pm
May 23, 2016 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:
May 23rd - 2016
Hi All,
Richard and I decided to spend holiday Monday at Beachville watching the Carmeuse quarries nest site.
We initially came by on Monday, May 16, and saw the female in the nest the entire time we were there. She did get up and reposition herself a couple of times. There was no other falcon around. We stayed from 4-5 and then 6-7:15. Knowing that a hatch should occur at any time, we decided to come back one week later.
So on the 23rd, we saw signs there was a hatch!
We arrived shortly before 2:00 pm. The action started almost immediately. The female was in the nest and the male flew to a nearby beam carrying food (a starling). The female flew over to him and took off with the food. He then flew to the nest and I was able to ID him as Joe (solid black, 48/Y). Around 2:15, the female came to the nest with the prepared food and it appeared like she started to feed their baby/babies. It looked like she was feeding very small morsels. Joe sat patiently beside her. Too cute! Within 10 minutes, she took off with the leftovers and landed on a nearby post. I was able to ID her as Virginia (black over green, 76/AX). Joe went to sit with the baby/babies.
Joe continued to remain in the nest box until Virginia came back around 3:25. I didn’t see her land but she must have had food. The feeding looked pretty intense so I started to wonder if there was more than one baby? Joe took off and landed on a nearby post and stayed there for quite awhile. At around 4:30, he flew over to the drop off beam and squawked. No idea what was happening here. Then he took off back to his favourite perch.
At around 5:45, Joe flew to the nest. I watched through the scope as they were just looking at each other. Then Joe took off and within two minutes, he came back with prepared food (I guess he had a stash) in his talon and carried it over to Virginia. He took off to his perch and she was feeding again, but she was hidden in the corner and I couldn’t see anything. Also by this time, the sun was coming in over the nest making it harder to see.
We left at 6:00.
Posted on May 25, 2016 3:27 pm
May 24, 2016 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
Banding day was a great success in Kitchener-Waterloo today! Caster could be heard on the tower vocalizing in short calls as the climbers readied themselves on the ground at 10:00 a.m. He flew off to the Kings Tower antenna and sat there for a few minutes and then went off on a hunt after some birds overtop of Mount Hope Cemetary. Mystery came in at around 11:15 with lunch for the chicks. At 11:45 as the chicks were being extracted from the nest, Mystery fussed about it however she watched from the tower at times, as well as swooping around the tower. Caster was not seen while the chicks were being removed from the nest box.
All chicks appear healthy and strong and after banding were back in the nestbox in the early afternoon. Caster was still nowhere to be seen as Mystery did all of the swoops around the nest box.
A busy fledge watch is anticipated in a few weeks. If anyone is interested in helping out, please contact CPF.
Photos courtesy of Karen von Knobloch & Lisa Reh
Posted on May 24, 2016 11:35 pm
May 19, 2016 - Mississauga - Holcim
Marion Nash Reports:
May 24th - 2016
Here are a couple of photos of the recently hatched chicks sent from the CRH Canada Group.
Looking really good!
Posted on May 24, 2016 10:20 pm
May 24, 2016 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Marion Nash Reports:
May 24 2016
Today was banding day for 4 healthy peregrine chicks. There was 3 females and 1 male chick this year.
John and Matt climbed the tower to collect the chicks for banding while local school children watched all eager to meet the newest additions to the Kitchener Peregrine Falcon family.
With the continued support of CTV Bell Media members of The Canadian Peregrine Foundation and Anne Yagi of The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests banded and weighed the chicks with many local watchers and school children, After the banding 2 chicks were taken to a room to have a small blood sample taken by Environment Canada staff. They again doing toxicology testing of the top food chain predator. Depending on information gained from the testing of the chicks it may be used to help pass legislation that will not only further protect the Peregrine and other wildlife but we humans as well.
The banding information is listed below
Female named Casper 668 grams band S over 41 with blue tape
Female named Ziegler 710 grams band S over 42with red tape
Female named Hope 785 grams band S over 43 with yellow tape
Male named Tenor 544 grams band Y over 49 with white tape
A big thanks again to CTV Bell Media, Kitchener Fledge watch team, Waterloo Region Nature and John and Matt our climbers for the tremendous support we could not do this without them.
Mare photos to come and information!
Posted on May 24, 2016 9:50 pm
April 15, 2016 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:
Friday, May 6, 2016 1:37 AM
Hello All
Yes, we have been monitoring the Beachville nest site as closely as we can, given the distances and travel times involved. Lucie and friends have been monitoring the Beachville grins since we installed the nest box. The peregrines remained on territory throughout the winter months and were still being observed on the old silos in and around of the old nest site up until the demo started.
They actually used the new nest box and nest box tower as an observation spot to watch the silos being demolished.
By April 6th – (see photos of the grins on the nest box tower), both resident adults were in and out of the nest box on a regular basis. Very shortly after, by April 12th, we started to observed the pair involved in courtship behaviours and copulation between the two. Being peregrine breeding season and with hormones running high with all peregrines in our region, this was
By April 15th, we started to see only a single peregrine at any one given time – (but seeing both the male and female at various times throughout several days of observing),, although never at the same time,, which is a strong indication that they were down on egg(s) involved in full time incubation. It was NOT a foregone conclusion nor actually confirmed at this time that they were actually using the nest box, but given the pairs activity in and around of the new nest box, we highly suspect that they are utilizing it.. Remembering that it is very difficult to actually see into the nest box especially given the distances and angles involved.
By the end of April, we had been able to confirm that the pair were actually utilizing the nest box, obviously involved in full time incubation of an undisclosed amount of eggs.
Lucie was able to get back down to do some additional observations, this time with some extreme magnification and was able to snap the attached photo of the female laying down inside the nest box.
Although the timeframes and observations are “somewhat lose”, we believe that if in fact the egg(s) are in fact fertile and have been properly incubated, that a hatch is only three weeks away..
That’s what I have so far, stay tuned………….
Posted on May 24, 2016 8:24 am
