Rob checked the chicks at Etobicoke General William Osler today and found all 4 high and safe. two on the Main Hospital and two on Etobicoke Wellness Centre.
Rob was out early and found Bip by the fountain off Aberfoyle, east Condo and caught him up. He seems fins and in in the carrier waiting for release.
Etob. Nest site - Bloor & Islington
June 10th - 2022
Afternoon and Evening report:
Another good day on the fledge watch. By the time I arrived out at the Bloor and Islington fledge watch after completing a successful banding this morning at the Don Mills nest site, all four Bloor and Islington juveniles were observed on the nest ledge. Bruce gave me an update of the mornings events that the little male named “Bullet” (Red tape) had already taken several flights out from the nest ledge and successfully returned back to the nest ledge. Apparently Lucie and Bruce had quite a show!
The afternoon and early evening was once again like watching paint dry with not much happening on the nest ledge. Several feedings (beak to beak) and two food drops took place.
Once again just when we all thought that the evening might be quiet, at 8:10pm “Bullet” burst off the nest ledge and took flight. This time although, despite his best efforts, (and five flights later) after clinging on the wall face of the Kingsway Condo tower about half way up the building, then his second flight had him ending up clinging on the glass dividers half way up the nest building face, then yet another flight over to the rooftop of the Bell bell building where he did finally land for a short breather, and then the 4th flight back over to the nest building unable to gain much altitude and a long way down from the nest ledge he made yet another attempt to gain some altitude to reach the nest ledge.
Unfortunately yet again he lost more altitude and ended up once again clinging onto the window dividers about a third of the way up the glass wall of the nest building. After several minutes of clinging (on the glass wall face much like a bat clinging on a wall) he finally had to let go and was air borne once again, (his 5th and final flight). He ended up flying around the side of the nest building in-between the nest building and the centre tower, eventually loosing his altitude and ended up on the mezzanine level between the two office towers.
While not in any imamate danger at this level as its still two floors above the ground level, it overlooks Bloor street, and it has been our experience over the past 25 years that every downed fledgling over the years that has ended up on this elevation eventually ends up down on the street level and most often than not, on Bloor Street in the middle of the busy road way and the traffic.
With reports from both Bruce and Rob having both seen several raccoons on this elevation during this watch, it was decided to capture him up and get him back to the upper roof area of the nest building (east tower roof above the nest ledge), and back to his parents care (and far out of reach of the raccoons)!
With a successful release under the cover of darkness, I was finally able to pack up and head home by 10pm.
1 big boy 700 Grams band number C over 37 named Sam. We still put colored tape on his silver band just in case he turns up somewhere and we only get a partial band number the red tape on the other band will help us determine the rest of the number and who he is. He was very feisty during banding not only striking out with his talons but biting the gloved hands quite hard good for him as his attitude will someday serve him well.
Rob went out to the watch this morning very early and found all 4 chicks on the nest and 2 adults on the flip sigh.
Bloor & Islington
June 9th - 2022
2 Fledged!
Just when we thought it was going to be a very long fledge watch, things changed in a second!!
After a very long boring pretty uneventful day here in Etobicoke at the Bloor & Islington nest site, (kinda like watching paint dry), Bruce and I hads resolved ourselves to another no-fledge day. With the four chicks having been fed several times throughout the day and everyone (including the adult parents) seemed to have settled down with little activity happening on the nest ledge we were talking about the heavy overcast and rain clouds that were quickly moving in. The sun had long since disappeared and it was threatening rain,, the unexpected happened!
At 8:15 pm, two of the four chicks left the nest ledge with absolutely no warning! One after another only minutes apart!
Both of them quickly disappeared from our view as they flew around the back side of the nest building and the Kingsways condo tower! Sadly, after an extensive search, neither of the two fledglings were located!
Then it started to rain!
By 9:50 pm and now in total darkness, we were forced to abandon our search efforts.
Unfortunately, I had already packed up the spotting scope and tripod so we have no idea which two fledged.
Fingers crossed that we will be able to locate them tomorrow!
Scarborough Nest Site Update:
June 9th - 2022
Great News to report from the old Yellow Pages nest site… We have a hatch!!
Just as we were running out the door to the Duncan Mill and the Bloor and Islington fledge watch, we got a call early this morning from the security folks at the Scarborough nest site (formally called the Yellow Pages Nest site) to investigate and give them an updated status on their resident peregrines. (We had earlier written off the nest site believing that the nest had failed again as the eggs had been long overdue to hatch).
Security called as a result of a contractor working on the upper elevations of the building in the early morning was very aggressively and relentlessly attacked by the resident peregrine pair.
Knowing only too well how aggressive “Linn” (the long standing resident female peregrine, who was produced at the Kodak Tower in Rochester New York) has been over the years, especially when there have been hatchlings in the nest, we immediately diverted and headed up to the site to further investigate.
Assisted by security we were quickly escorted to the upper roof doorway and entered the roof area with brooms in hand. We were immediately met by “Linn” and her unidentified male mate with a constant barrage of stops and dives!! In typical Linn fashion, without her making a single sound I was reminded of just how aggressive she can be!! A VERY AGGRESSIVE FULL CONTACT gal!! Thank goodness for hard hats!!
Much to my delight, after a failed nest site last season, I observed a single hatchling, just shy of a week old, and one egg! Two weeks ago, there were still four eggs in the nest. One very pale white egg and three typical reddish modeled brown colored eggs.
So the good news, Linn is still producing and back to her old self and in fine form indeed!! It is worth noting, that her mate was also VERY aggressive and also made several full-contact hits,, (which is typically not the norm with most of adult males).
I stayed just long enough to get a few quick photos (as we literally ran for cover) with my cell phone.
DAY ONE FLEDGE WATCH DON MILLS: Well, busy morning!! I arrived to find only 3 on nest ledge..oh oh…but as I was going to park, I found Ace, across the street, 4 floors up(not bad height) but this building doesn’t have much of a ledge and fledglings have always had trouble getting off this building. Most come down, a few figure it out. Well, Ace had ALL day to figure it out and didn’t. He’s still there lol. Fingers crossed for what I find tomorrow. Later I was joined by Bob. And then parents brought food to the other three so I saw my chance to take a quick break while Bob watched Ace. And of course, Nitro decided to fledge! Bob almost missed it..he saw a large bird flying low below Ace and realized it was one of the 3! He watched him fly low , cross the street, hook around and back to nest building, where he just missed the 2nd floor and fell gently to the first! Too low. We were joined later by Marion and then Sally in the evening. Nitro spent most of the day ledge hopping back and forth, back and forth. He finally slipped and came to ground. As Bob and I approached, Quest started alarm calling lol. Poor Nitro was a bit panicked but I managed to scoop him up with my trusty towel, with help from Bob. We put him safely back up on the roof in the evening and hopefully he’ll have better luck tomorrow. Yeager spent the day ledge hopping. Zigzag was a ledge potato though once Yeager was back in the evening, he finally took his first jump up onto the nest box!! He’s coming along…long day! And more to come..stay tuned
Cathy has been joined by Bob on the watch. She just sent a pic of Nitro who also just fledged but lost altitude. All is still good though as he landed on the first floor ledge safely. Hopefully his next flight brings him up higher and same for Ace. Zigzag and Yeager still on nest.
Busy morning
