Bruce found Mohammed on ground at the bast of MEC 2 and is now in carrier waiting on release still looking for Ishaq who was released last night. Looks like we will be making another trip to Mississauga tonight to release one perhaps both boys.
UPDATE: DON MILLS: Quest and Mysterys boys are growing up and almost ready to fledge!! I’ve been checking in on them and they’re doing great! These pictures are from today. Fledge watch officially starts Thursday but I’ll be checking every day and of course, on call if needed…
Ishaq came to ground for the 3rd time in as many days he was picked up by security this morning before Bruce got there. Bruce had a look at him when he arrived and transferred him to his carrier to rest and wait for release this evening. Tracy will be taking him back to the roof tonight and Bruce will check in on him tomorrow.
Mohammed if still flying well and keeping up high so he is a check mark.
Here is hoping Ishaq becomes more coordinated on his next attempts and stays off the ground.
Bloor and Islington Place fledge watch starts Monday. If you don’t see all the chicks on the nest over the next few days it is because they are under the camera or fledged so look for postings of their progress.
Both boys on the move.
Ishaq did a lot of flapping and flying across the top ledge of MEC #1. At about 8:45 he took a flight off the roof but in attempt to hook back to the building lost altitude and grabbed the window ledge on the 6th floor for a couple minutes then tried again and lost more altitude. Bruce believes he landed in the tree at the front of the building. He has been looking for him but the trees are so thick with leaves he has not seen him but the adults seem to be watching there as well.
Mohammed also flew off the roof top last evening and landed on the nest level ledge 4 ledges away from the nest, he then ledge hopped back to the nest and was fed.
Hopefully a couple more days and they will gain altitude and with luck keep high.
just before 6PM Bruce saw Mohammed Blue tape ledge hopping as they always do at this site, however he missed stepped and slipped off the ledge. Bruce said he came down somewhere in the valley and was off to find him. It turned out he came down on the path on the west side of the creek. Bruce was able to catch him up and in the carrier he went to wait for Mark to come out to check him and get him back up to the roof. At 10 PM Mark released him as he was just fine and ready to get out of the carrier. He was placed back on the roof of MEC #1 safe and sound. Hopefully both boys will have a better and planned flight next time.
We have 2 girls to watch over this year! At approximately 23 days old we have CORONA (red band #H73) at 865 grams and JEWEL (blue band and #H74) at 840 grams. Fledgling is usually around 40 days of age which takes us to June 18th. Congratulations KW Peregrine parents!!!
Photos courtesy of Karen von Knobloch
2 white fluff balls hatched on May 9 & 10! On May 14, there were still 2 unhatched eggs in the nest. More reports on CTV news.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/view-from-the-peregrine-falcon-nest-at-ctv-kitchener-1.5853007
On May 21, Kellie reported: “This morning at approx. 9:30 a.m., Papa came in with a food package, Mama Mystery came and grabbed it from him, and she fed the chicks. As an aside: One is quite “grabby” already - practicing “kill” mode. The chicks were mostly on their own this morning, as they seemed hot (we had warm overnight temps). Papa did come back after the feeding was over to give the chicks a little look, presumably.
Later, during the peak of the storm that hit around 12:00 p.m., I checked in on the cam and Mama was brooding the young. She stayed with them for a while until the weather had settled down.”
David reported at 4:53 on May 23: “Dinner just arrived a couple of minutes ago, kids being fed! I think the prey might have been a pigeon or dove, or possibly a bit smaller. I got a half-decent view, but only for a split second. The parent left just after 5:00 p.m. For a bit the parent seemed to be preferring one of the chicks. At first I thought it was the smaller one, but watching now I think it was the larger one. The other still managed to get in there though.”
At 8:20 p.m. on May 24 Karen reported one of the adults was feeding the babies. “Both seemed to be eating at the time. The adult left shortly after but I watched for a few more moments and you could certainly see that both crops on the young were full.”
Some good news today on several fronts! I visited Wiliam Osler Hospital today for two reasons,, the first was to finally be able to do a factory reset the live CPF nest cam so we canmove forward with getting you all with a live cam update on the nest broadcast to the CPF web site.
As many were unaware, we have had a live-streaming nest camera viewing the William Osler nest site for many years, but the live real-time streaming video image was only viewable on the colour monitor within the maintenance area at the hospital, primarily for live internal viewing to help us and the hospital manage the nest. Today, Scott and I were able to factory reset the camera that will allow us to reprogram it and get it broadcasting to the www. With the support of their ITT folks, we should be able to get the live streaming nest images out to the CPF website and viewable to the worldwide audience. While I know that we will missed seeing the complete nesting season (this season),, our expectations is that we well finally have the nest camera broadcasting live soon!
On another note, the four peregrine hatchlings have very little white down fluff visible now and we can expect that they should be fledging sometime this weekend. While there was two males and two females, they all look ready to go very soon! All four hatchling (now completely all brown with their juvenile feathering) were way down on the furthest south east corner of the nest ledge (furthest from the nest tray).
This was the only way we could have dealt with the camera, as we needed the hatchlings all mobile and out of the nest tray before we dared to open the hatch directely behind the nest tray were the camera is installed.
All in all, a sucessful endeviour,, with a successful factory reset of the colour camera, Scott was able to access the real-time colour live streaming nest image on his internal computer down at his office. No longer will they have to go up floors to the mechancial area to see when there are eggs, incubation and hatches. Hopefully soon, we’ll all be ableto see the live nest images fromyour home computers via the www!!
Male fledgling, Black banded C over 25, Red Tape, Named Ishaq
Well folks, it never fails at this time of year,, just when you think that things can’t get more hectic, with the car loaded with all of the banding equipment and the CPF enclosed trailer hitched up to the car, wall to wall stop and go traffic on Hwy #401 and construction and road delays, and an hour from Toronto on route to the Kitchener banding, the call comes in with a report of a fledgling down on the ground at the MEC nest site! Panic! Bruce calls with the report from MEC security to let him know that one of the young falcon hatchlings has come down to the ground in front of MEC#1, on the roadway right out front of their main entrance! Quick action from the MEC security staff and a contractor that happened to be there had them rush to the fledglings rescue and managed to corral the young fledgling into a cardboard box and get him to the fire room inside of the building for safekeeping until Bruce was able to attend to assess the young falcon’s condition.
While we knew that the fledge was going to start very soon, it caught us all off guard. Bruce was in Oshawa and more than an hour from Mississauga,, and we were more than an hour outside of Toronto heading to Kitchener!! Fortunately Bruce was able to get to MEC that allowed us to continue on our way to Kitchener.
It’s always the way things seem to go at this time of year,,, especially when we are still on the road in banding mode and the earlier banded chicks are starting to fledge!!! So, Expect the unexpected, prepare for the worst, and cross your fingers that someone is available that can get to the downed fledgling to do a rescue before the cars, raccoons, foxes, buses, and other terrible things get to them first!
A very good news report this time, the good guys got to the grounded fledgling first! A HUGE THANK YOU to the MEC security staff for their quick action and response to get the fledgling out of harm’s way and safekeeping until we were able to get there to the examination and release. And the closing news, we dropped into the MEC after the Kitchener banding and examined the fledgling again before his release, and all was well. One very energetic,, very feisty peed-off fledgling in very good condition despite his ordeal.
Deemed cleared for take-off after a detailed examination, he was successfully released to the rooftop of the nest building and returned back to his parent’s care!
With that said, I should add that both of his parents were already waiting on the rooftop as I popped up through the roof hatch,, and I must say that neither of them had any kind words for me!! LOL The resident adult female went into attack mode almost immediately and I was bonked on the head twice while trying to get little Ishaq out of the rescue carrier! Thank goodness for HARD HATS!!!! She continued to stoop, scream and dive at me as I very quickly scurried back across the rooftop to the roof hatch and finally got back inside the building out of her sight!
Never the less, despite the hectic day, a very good day all around, with the successful banding at the Kitchener nest site, (no rain, lightning and thunder showers that was predicted), and a successful rescue and release at MEC!
A long 14 hour day for sure,, but its peregrine season don’t you know!
This is just the way it is at this time of year for us all. Wildlife doesn’t take holidays off, and neither do we!
