May 24th Banding Day a Mississauga Executive Centre
May 25, 2023 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Marion Nash Reports:
It was a perfect day for banding not too hot or too windy. Sky Reach was there when we arrived and had the swing stage all set up and ready to go. Angie from Colliers Property Management had everything ready in the lobby for us including coffee and cookies for everyone ( nice treat).
With a ride to the nest by volunteers at Sky Reach on the swing stage Mark Nash Director of The Canadian Peregrine Foundation extracted the chicks from the nest and Eva Bobak from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests who volunteers her time on a day off hauled up and received the duffel bag holding 3 chicks and brought them down to the banding table.
Eva then assisted Mark Heaton a retired Ministry of Natural Resources and Forrest field biologist and CPF volunteer band the chicks, then John Beals our new climber transferred each banded chick to Glenn Barrett from Environment and Climate Change Canada who did blood testing on each chick as part of a 5 year field study on environmental toxins.
All this was done within an hour and the 3 chicks all females were returned back to the nest and mom safe and sound. Job well done by everyone.
It’s a lot of effort to book and confirm everyone, and make all the arrangements for each banding in Ontario, get all the bandings done safely for both the humans involved and the chicks and none of this could be done without the support of the building management, Sky Reach, and all of our volunteer banders and chick extractors not to mention all those who make donations to the Canadian Peregrine Foundation. A big thank you to all and to those who took time from their busy day to come and see the banding a be part of this annual event.
The chicks were named Rana a star employee of Peregrine Protection MEC security ( yes that is the company name lol) and could not be more fitting since they are often the first to find a downed falcon chick before we even get there in the morning during the fledge watch and call us to rescue the chick. The next name Scuttle was chosen by MEC tenants and the last was named Dragon Heart by me for a fellow fledge watcher.
Here is the banding information on the 3 chicks again all females this year. Each chick got 2 bands one on each leg, the alfa neumeric band is Canadian Recovery Band the second silver band is a US fish and wildlife band.
Scuttle 910 grams band number 21over AB with Yellow tape on her silver band
Rana 895 grams band number 22 over AB with Red tape on her silver band
Dragon Heart band number 23 over AB with Blue tape on her silver band.
All chicks were alert and healthy and as usual squawked and complained the hole time, although Dragon Heart was a bit more feisty bighting the gloves of the banders. Guess she was living up to her name.
The Falcon Fledge Watch will begin in about 2 weeks and we will be on site to rescue any chick that may come to ground or get into any trouble until they are all flying well enough to hold their altitude and learn to stay out of trouble whtch can take some time with females.
Her are some photos taken by Mark Nash of the extraction and by me of the banding.
