Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Stormin?

June 07, 2016 - Toronto - King Street

Linda Woods Reports:

Caught this camera image June 7, 10:50am.

Can’t read the bands, but I think it’s Stormin

MEC Boys Doing Well

June 07, 2016 - Mississauga - Executive Centre

Tracy Simpson Reports:

With the MEC boys doing fairly well Bruce has moved down to the foursome at the Islington Bloor Centre and Grace is taking over monitoring the MEC boys. Updates on their progress to follow.

Etobicoke News Flash. First Fledge

June 07, 2016 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre

Bruce Massey Reports:

Not sure who it is just yet but no sooner had I parked when the first chick flew.   Made three flights and stayed at rooftop level. Will update as news becomes available.

Josally Continues to Impress at MEC. Olimar Catching Up.

June 07, 2016 - Mississauga - Executive Centre

Bruce Massey Reports:

MEC Fledge Watch

Jun. 6/2016:

5: 15 AM-  Arrived at site and set up.  Only one  juvenile seen on side of 3. One adult scene on corner of Nest building.

5:50 AM.- 2 juveniles seen on 3.

6:30 AM.- First juvenile. Flight of the day. Based on the fact I can’t give any style points for the landing. I believe this one was Ollie.  It appeared he was trying to fly from Ledge to Ledge, but then turn back to the building accompanied by an adult.  It was basically a “Hail Mary” landing.  I attempted to scope him, but he wouldn’t give me the color.

6:45 AM-  Whichever juvenile  flew became a moot point as the second juvenile flew over to the roof of the nest building.  This flight however was much more confident in the landing was better therefore again I didn’t scope him but I would say this was probably Josally

8:40 AM.- Bird from top of roof down to brother on ledge.

8:45 AM- Mom in with food to Oimar. Just before Josally decided to fly to 3 Robert Speck Parkway. There is a fairly strong wind and quite gusty.  This gave him a a little bit of trouble landing but I did confirm he had stuck the landing on the top corner of the roof.

9 :30 AM.- By this time, the wind picked up considerably and Josally headed back to the nest building where he introduced his face to the glass.  It wasn’t a real hard hit but he did turn around and head back to #3.  By this time he was followed by a parent and I believe it was the female. Because of the high wind she would not let him back to #1.  Instead, she foiled every attempt for him to get back and slowly worked him to back to over the top of # 3 and then forced him to land behind the walls on the catwalk.  This effectively shut him down from flying in the high winds and in fact it took about 3 hours for him to show himself.

9:45 AM.- As I was putting some things away in my vehicle on the Southside of number 3. I heard a juvenile and adult squabbling. When I look up I saw the female making sure a juvenile landed on the southwest corner of #3.  This was Olimar who also attempted a flight and Mom put him on the building to stop him from flying in the high wind.

12:30 PM- Josally finally extracted himself from the catwalk and flew over to #1 ledge, where he plopped down for a nap. Olimar was visible on the West Desjardins sign

5:30 PM.- Josally flew over towards #3 but then went around and out of my sight.  I eventually found him on the Southside of #3 at the roof level.  His brother had moved around the corner to the east side of #3.

Over the next hour they moved to various areas of #3.

6:45 PM- There were severe thunderstorm warnings. The first storm had an intense micro burst of wind that had to be around 100 kph.  It was so intense it was shaking the car also stripping dirt off the gardens.  By the time the storm hit. Josally had managed to work his way around to the Southside and therefore was fairly protected.  Olimar however, was on the exposed side and must’ve ducked into the window well because much to my surprise he was still were he started off.

7:45 PM. Winston arrived to relieve me, I briefed him and actually went down to the parking lot of #4 to confirm that Josally was still OK.  As I left, I texted Winston this fact.

Note:  This is my last full day here at MEC.  The boys will still be watched but by someone else as Grace was taking over days. As of tomorrow I head down to Bloor/ Islington.  This watch could be interesting as I have 3 girls and one boy.

!!! One egg remains - down from 5 eggs to 1

June 05, 2016 - Burlington - Lift Bridge

Mark Nash Reports:

June 5th - 2016

It’s not looking very good at all for the resident peregrines down at the Burlington Lift bridge this season, as the latest update shows that the resident peregrines are down to one egg,, (from the five eggs that they had originally produced).

The most recent update and photos sent into us clearly shows that only one egg remains in the nest box. While both resident adults are still very much attending, they are well beyond a hatch date at this point and it would appear that the pair will not be producing any offspring this season (at least from this clutch of eggs).

A big thank you once again to the staff at the Burlington lift bridge and the PWGSC for the photos and updates!

!!! 3 Fledged !! Well, sort of…..

June 06, 2016 - Toronto - Don Mills

Mark Nash Reports:

June 6th - 2016
A very long day indeed, with the successful banding of the 3 hatchlings from the Canada Square nest site at Yonge & Eglinton this morning, and a successful rescue of “Achilles” (Y over 26 - Yellow Tape) late this afternoon from the ground after he was blown off the nest ledge by the high winds that moved in with the cold front. Shortly there after, “Jet”, (Y over 27 - While tape) the second male took his first flight and ended up on the ledge one level below the nest ledge (5th Floor). Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more chaotic, the third male, “Geddy” (Y over 25 - Blue tape) was also blown of the nest ledge and ended up two floors down on the 4th floor ledge of the south side of the nest building,,,, almost directly below Jet!!

In less than an hour, three of the four young peregrines had become fledglings!! Well, sort of……

When we arrived, all was calm and rather uneventful. Sunny warm bright skies with some humidity. All four hatchlings were lounging in and on top of the nest box with Quest standing guard directly in front them on the nest ledge in front of the nest box. Quite a picturesque warm family moment with all the kids and mom together. Sadly although, Mac, (the new resident adult male) was no where to be found.

Shortly after our arrival, Mac - (the new resident adult male) appeared with food, and flew in to the nest ledge with a small food drop , and that’s when all hell broke lose, with screaming flapping chicks all scrambling and competing for the small morsel of food. With Quest in the middle of it, trying to divvy it up between the four hatchlings, it quickly became every hatchling for themselves and the squabbling started.

Moments later, the bright warm sunny skies quickly disappeared and swallowed up and as a cold front moved in with some very heavy gusty winds and dark over cast skies along with some very dark moisture filled clouds, and that’s when it all happened!!! We were very fortunate that Cathy Kerr was able to respond to Marion’s call and was able to stop by after leaving work, in addition to Bob who also came out to assist,, as admittedly, both Marion and I were a little overwhelmed with three of the young peregrines all on the go at the same time, this along with the heavy winds and rain that was now upon us.

By the end of the day, we were able to release Achilles back to the nest building roof top and settle Quest down, (who had taken flight moments after he had been blown off the nest ledge) flying both around and above the nest building in an obvious effort to locate him.

By dark, all four hatchlings were all safe and sound on the nest building with some altitude. The young female hatchling remained on the nest ledge throughout and eventually retired for the evening back inside the nest box. She also received several more feedings while her two brothers were left running back and forth on the lower ledges screaming and flapping for attention and food!

Quest eventually settled down and retired to her usual roosting spot across the street from the nest building while Mac disappeared once again. We still don’t know where he is hanging out of sight.
I suspect that tomorrow is going to be a very busy day!

!!! Successful Banding Day

June 06, 2016 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton

Marion Nash Reports:

June 6th 2016
3 Girls for Canada Square. Thanks to the folks at Canada Square Oxford Property Management for getting us access to the nest and to the staff at the Canadian Tire offices on the 14th floor for hosting this years banding of the peregrine chicks everything went very well.

Mark Heaton of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests with help form staff members from communications Andrea and Kristine as well as 2 from the Ministers office Peter and Kory banded 3 healthy female falcon chicks. It was so nice to see the folks from Queens Park taking an interest and participating in the hands on field work of their area biologists.

This year one of CPF’s long standing volunteers of 18 years, John Miller a certified climber went out to the ledge to extract the chicks and although John has done this many times at many sites he had never met a more feisty mother falcon than Canada Squares Haven said John “she was far more aggressive than Madam X from Hamilton”.

The chicks were weighed before banding and all were of good and healthy weights based on their age. The chicks were named by members of Oxford Properties Security, Canadian Tire and a contest winner from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests.

chick 1 920 grams Band S over 55 named Symphony
chick 2 850 grams Band S over 56 named Louise
Chick 3 800 grams Band S over 57 named Quasar

!!! TSC Monday June 6

June 06, 2016 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre

Linda Woods Reports:

Morning snack for the wee one. It appears there is only one hatch again this year.

Sunday Night at MEC. Go Josally!

June 06, 2016 - Mississauga - Executive Centre

CPF Volunteer Reports:

Tonight at MEC blue made 3 good short flights between 3 and 1. Landings were noticeably improved over yesterday’s clumsiness. He used his wings to slow himself upon approach to ledges and didn’t scramble once his feet touched the building. Dad brought in a nice sized meal after blue’s 3 flights, around 8pm, but only red got to eat as dad removed it after about 25minutes. Red did little more than hop a couple gaps.
Very windy tonight, less so when blue was flying, so not surprisingly on a full stomach red called it a day pretty early.
Both birds are tucked in on the window wells on 3 on the desjardins face like last night.

Winston

Sunday at MEC. Josally Doing Great and Olimar Needing to Catch Up

June 06, 2016 - Mississauga - Executive Centre

Bruce Massey Reports:

MEC Fledge Watch-Day 3.

June 5/2016

5:30 AM.: Arrived at MEC,  found one bird in the position Winston  last saw it.   The rain has ended  but still a little bit misty.

5:55 AM.: Adults in to nest ledge vocalizing.  This woke the kids up and pretty soon they were quite noisy.

6:05 AM.:  One of the adults ( I think the male) took out a starting over the parking lot and took it up to feed them.

7 :00 AM.- There’s been no flights by the juveniles in the last hour. However, they have been flopping around and currently one is out of sight around the corner.

8 :00 AM.- Juveniles split up on the northwest corner and decided to lay down.  Have only seen one since then. And then around 8:30, I saw a bird coming from the west. What got my interest is that as he soared and turned he sort of did  a wing flutter typically something the juveniles do. Anyway I did, I walk about but couldn’t find him.

10:00 AM: Finally both Juveniles popped up on the corner.  Adult Male also seen at same time.

5 :00PM- Finally, a flight by a juvenile, that had Josally doing a “Bat” On the wall about 2 feet above the Nest Tray. He let go and landed at the nest tray. Olimar is still on 3 Robert Speck Parkway.

It was a pretty uneventful late morning through to early afternoon.  Around 2 o’clock are so, Margaret came and gave me a second set of eyes  until around 4 o’clock.  An hour so before she left we had a series of thunder storms and strong winds.

5:00 PM- Finally. a juvenile flies.  I didn’t see it leave the building, but I caught it circling around and doing the bat maneuver just above the Nest Ledge height.  He then let go and flew on to the ledge.  When I scoped this juvenile it turned out to be the blue tape Josally that flew

6:00 PM:  Winston  showed up to relieve me, and  I updated him him and headed home for something to eat and go to bed.