!!! Some disturbing news. Abandoned egg and change in nest ledges?
May 02, 2016 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Mark Nash Reports:
May 2nd - 2016
After having received several disturbing observation reports from Kathy regarding the Don Mills pair, ie: seeing both resident adults off and away from the nest ledge for long periods of time, (for many hours at a time),, this in addition to also seeing the pair copulating again and going to other ledges altogether,, we all concluded that something was not right and we need to get back to the roof to check things out.
Well, this afternoon, I was finally able to get back up to the roof of the nest building and take a detailed look at all of the ledges, including the nest ledge.
As we suspected based on Kathy’s observations of the peregrines recent activities, (and what I observed during my site visit today), it has became quite apparent that the pair have in fact abandoned the original nest ledge on the 250 Ferrand Drive nest building leaving a single egg unattended. The egg was dull and lacked luster and sheen, and very consistent to the sort of appearance that an egg would look like that had been exposed to the elements for some time - (many days unattended). This is also consistent with Kathy’s observations of the pair.
The peregrines are now showing allot of interest as they are now being observed on the original nest ledge over on the 150 Ferrand Drive building, where they successfully produced young several years ago. For what ever reason, they have apparently decided to move to another ledge,, abandoning their first clutch of egg(s).
Unfortunately, we were never able to confirm just how many eggs that the resident adult female had laid in her first clutch, as she was down hard in full time incubation mode when I did my earlier site visit.
We will be monitoring the situation closely in an effort to figure out just what the birds are doing now.
Stay tuned………..
