December 31, 1969 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:
January & February - 2014
Despite the bitter cold temperatures and what seemed to be never-ending snow events these past two months, both Tracy and I continued to brave the freezing cold temps and carried on with the manufacturing processes of the new nest boxes and nest trays needed this year to replace some of the old nest boxes and nest trays that are in much need of replacement. In addition to having to replace some of the old vintage nest boxes and nest tray that we built and installed back in the mid 1990’s, we have also built a brand new nest tray and new nest box to accommodate two new peregrine pairs nesting here in both Toronto and southern Ontario.
Unlike the older nest boxes and nest trays that we manufactured back in 1995, 1997 and 2000 at the various nest sites which were made out of only pressure treated wood and stained, newer materials are now available that are very exciting indeed!
Now, the new poly-composite marine decking material that we are using is already coloured and no longer needs to be stained. In addition, the new premium marine decking material is water-proof, UV resistant and incredibly durable that comes with a 25 plus year guarantee!
On the down side, this new premium marine decking material is very costly, very heavy, and requires special screws in addition to everything has to be pre-drilled. It is quite a challenge to work with given the detailed cuts and connections that we have to do in the manufacturing of the nest boxes and nest trays. The up-side and good news is that once constructed, this new material is incredibly strong and durable, and completely UV and water resistant. No fading or rotting!!
While the structural interior frame of all of the new nest boxes we are manufacturing are still made of 2″ and 4″ inch pre-stained pressure treated lumber, all of the outer shell of the new nest boxes are covered with this new marine poly-composite material providing a permanent colour fast UV and water resistant exterior covering.
The new nest trays are for the most parts now completely made from the new poly-composite material and once again, colour fast, completely UV and water resistant!
Stay tuned for the install updates soon to come!
Posted on March 1, 2014 10:41 am
January 14, 2014 - International, National and Local News
CPF Postmaster Reports:
January 14th - 2014
A huge thank you to Rob for his observation report and photos, we have identified both peregrines via their leg band numbers from his photos, -
The Black banded peregrine with the solid black band 63 over X and the Yellow tape on the silver USFW band on the other leg is one that was banded on May 24 2012, produced at the Canada Square nest site here in Toronto in 2012 as a hatchling, - named Simcoe, (produced at the Canada Square nest site is a the Yonge & Eglinton nest site here in up-town Toronto). You can see the history of the nest site on the CPF web site - http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/w/c/sightings/toronto-uptown-yonge-and-eglinton
The larger female peregrine in your photos, is a USA produced peregrine, (the one with the Black over Green band – 73 over AW). The Black over green/ 73 over AW peregrine was Hatched 2012, a Female, Her named is Alfrieda, named after one of the architects of the Central Terminal in Buffalo NY USA
Rob Reports:
Sighting January 14, 2014 at the lakeshore in Whitby, Ontario, at the waters edge in Lynde Shores Conservation Area.
Two Peregrine Falcons were resting in a tree by the lake’s edge. After some stretching, they flew off one at a time towards the East.
There are many ducks and also many small birds in the area as they are constantly fed by visitors here.
Bands:
One bird had a silver metal band on the right leg and a black over green on the right leg. The number on the black was 73 but the letters on the green were not very clear, I believe it may be AW (see pictures).
The other bird had a yellow band on the right leg and an all black band on the other. This one was clearly 63/X .
Please feel free to use the attached pictures. I can send higher resolution pictures if needed.
yours truly, rob millar
Rob Millar
Posted on February 3, 2014 6:18 pm
November 17, 2013 - International, National and Local News
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Good morning.
November 17th - 2013
My friend and I were out birding the Niagara River yesterday (Sunday November 17th) when we saw this Juvenile perched high up in a tree. Sorry the lighting was awful so the photo isn’t very good but I thought you might be interested and hoped you could identify it by the leg bands. I don’t know the name of the park but it was at the head of the river near the Fort Erie historical site and it was 11:20am.
The photos have been colour and light edited to see if the leg band number can be more visible.
Cheers.
Paul Reeves
Photography
Posted on February 3, 2014 5:57 pm
January 29, 2014 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
A great sighting and photos of Jenna and Chester, the ICICI nest site resident adults, by Cathy Kerr. Thanks so much for the great news!
The first photo is of Jenna, the resident female, and the second is of Chester the resident male.
Posted on January 29, 2014 11:23 am
December 27, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I wanted to post a quick update on several sites that our watchers have reported in on. Peregrine adults were out enjoying the sunshine yesterday as were many of our volunteers and sightings are now pouring in. They include;
Windwhistler and Erin at 18 King
Chessie and Hurricane at William Osler
Peter at Hearn
Jack and O’Connor at Etobicoke Sun Life
MacKensie at the Burlington Lift Bridge
Rhea Mae at Toronto Sheraton Hotel
Haven at Canada Square
Jenna and Chester at ICICI
One adult ( not sure which, too far away ) at Duncan Mill Road
Thanks to all who have been monitoring and thinking about our resident adults through these two storms and checking in on their pairs. With great appreciation we thank Bruce, Sue and Bill, Rob and Angie, Lyn and Linda. Great sightings everyone!
Posted on December 27, 2013 11:08 am
August 13, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Over the past week, Bruce, Cathy, myself and a few others have popped in to check up on Chester and his family. I was fortunately enough to catch sight of Lucky at home and Bruce has seen AM-E stopping in to occasionally harass the parents in the hopes of a tidbit. It’s been great to see the family doing so well and it is in part thanks to the exceptional watchers out there.
With so many concurrent watches happening this year, we were certainly short staffed for some of the sites around Toronto. As with several other sites, there was a small crew at ICICI that held the fort and kept the kids safe from danger on their first flights. Cathy and Irma were the mainstays at the site this year and were instrumental in helping to run this watch. With help from Mark, Marion, Bruce and a few others both Lucky and AM-E are flying high. As with many of our other sites where we have an unbanded female, we will often give them names and at this site we wanted to give that opportunity to a watcher that was the mainstay of this year’s Fledge Watch team. Cathy was asked to submit a name for the unbanded resident female and has decided on Jenna as her new moniker.
Thank you Cathy, Irma, Marion, Mark and Bruce for all of your efforts this year on the watch and the many others that stopped in to help. We look forward to Chester and Jenna having another successful season next year.
Posted on August 13, 2013 11:18 am
August 12, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Well. On Friday he had two girls arguing over him. On Saturday he had one girl hanging out with him. Yesterday little Ossie was alone at the Revenue Canada building and seemed to be enjoying time to himself to sleep and do some feather maintenance.
Watching him I was feeling a little nostalgic and thinking about the fledge watch at William Osler last year with him and his sister. When he was just a juvenile at William Osler, he and his sister Tobi spent much of their time teasing one another. He being the older of the two would often take advantage of his sister’s wobbly growth period, sneaking up on her and plucking down off of her rump after which he would happily bounce down the ledge before she could catch him. He thought that it was just a gas! As flighted juveniles, the games between the two would get rather racous and it was always tit for tat. His sister would fly by him roosting on the H sign at the hospital and bonk him on the head with her foot as she flew through and in return he would fly into the ledge while she was sleeping and grab her by the tail with both feet, hanging on while she wailed and dragged him down the ledge. All of these games along with the training by his father, Hurricane, set him on a course to be ready for days like these. He has shown us over the past few days that he has the potential to be a great territorial male and boy does he ever look like Hurricane!
Yesterday he was quite happy for the break though, resting on the northeast corner of the Revenue Canada building on his own. As I watched, his head was swivelling north, then east and finally south towards the MEC complex that he could see quite clearly several kilometres south. He has learned well by the experience of his father that when the girls get into it, you just simply get out of the way. On this day he was doing just that. Out of the fray but keeping his eye on everybody around him. The MEC territory is the closest to Mississauga North whereas George St. in Brampton is almost 10km away. We still have migration and a whole lot of activity to come but we do hope that Ossie is successful in setting up a territory of his own.
I was able to get some pictures of this handsome young man that I do hope you enjoy.
Posted on August 12, 2013 1:17 pm
August 11, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Well… …um… Ok. That’s how we are all feeling these days about the Hurontario corridor. While right now we can expect that migrating adults, subadults and juveniles will be moving through shortly and that things won’t settle until next spring we are determined to at least try and understand who the local players in the game are. Note that I said TRY!!
Yesterday, Bruce arrived at the Mississauga North location and did a full walk of the territory to little avail. Sue and Bill joined him in the morning for some observation and there was one thing that they could positively ascertain and that was that the female roosting on the Revenue Canada building was confirmed again as Black 98 over Red E who is Midnight from the Brampton North territory. There was no sign of the male during their visit and he did not make an appearance until about 1pm in the afternoon. I started around the lunch hour at MEC, checking all of the buildings, rooftops, antennas and hideaways that I could and found no peregrines whatsoever. I headed north and continued to scan the buildings for signs of a peregrine and continued to come up empty. When I reached Bruce’s location on Avebury, he had Midnight now sitting on the Oracle building on the north side. We bundled into my car and did a serious drive about of the territory to the east and although we found some interesting high points where these birds could be sitting, we didn’t find a single peregrine. Back to Revenue Canada we went. When we arrived the female, Midnight, came in and landed on the southeast corner of the building where she roosted and preened for a while. The male came in shortly thereafter and the pair then took off around the building and north out of view. We walked aroud the building and found the female on the northeast corner but the male’s whereabouts were unknown. He came in shortly thereafter from the southeast to the northeast corner and landed about 15 feet away from Midnight. It was then that I was able to get a view of both his band and his tracking tape and identify this male. The band number on this bird is confirmed as solid black O over 8 and is a three character band. These bands that have a line dividing the upper and lower characters have not been used in a long time but last year, 2012, one was applied to a male chick at the William Osler Hospital and yellow tape was placed over the USFW band. This is Ossie from the 2012 nesting season of Hurricane and Chessie at William Osler!
He sat on the corner for a few minutes and then excitedly ran down the ledge towards Midnight who currently had her back to him. Her reaction was not “happiness to see you” as she raised her hackles and mantled. Ossie slowed his approach and stopped about 5 feet from her. Good choice. Midnight was very uneasy and unsure what Ossie’s intentions were and she turned to place herself in a launch position should things get serious. With Ossie now relaxed, preening and nodding off to sleep Midnight also relaxed and dozed a bit herself. These were the only two birds to be seen and the elusive Black over Green female was not sighted.
At this point, Bruce headed up to Midnight’s old territory at George Street in Brampton to see whether we now had a void there. Oh no we don’t!! Bruce found a male roosting on the overhang of the George Street condo and could confirm a silver USFW band on his right leg. Moments after our phone conversation, both Midnight and Ossie took off and I left to join Bruce in Brampton. Both Bruce and I scoured the downtown Brampton area and the only located peregrine was at George Street. We set up to watch the male on the overhang in the hopes of a peek at the recovery band. He was so high up and completely unwilling to share his identity but we maintained our position regardless. All of a sudden he began to bow and vocalize and in plops a female to the ledge!! She disappeared into the “cavity” on the ledge that was used this year to lay eggs (they failed to hatch) and out of view. After about 15 minutes of on and off vocalization by the male, he took off of the ledge and was soaring in lazy circles high above the territory. The female walked forward and I was able to get band colours only. Black over Red on her left and purple USFW on her right. ?????????? She was way too high up for a read of the numbers and so I cannot confirm who this was. I would just have to wait until she came down lower. The male joined her once again for another raucous chit chat before stooping off to the east and swooping up to the low BDC sign. Gotcha, I thought. I thought.
I grabbed my gear and scrambled over to the Market Square in the hopes of identifying the male. Nope. He was sitting too far back on the sign to see his leg. Grrrrr. I waited him out and got one fast look at his legs during a stretch. He definitely has a silver USFW on his right leg and a solid black band on his left with the lower letter being a Y. Is this Striker? I couldn’t say for sure.
So… here is what we know for sure… …Ossie and Midnight were seen at the Mississauga North location and both ID’s are confirmed. A black over red banded female and a solid black banded male were seen at George Street in downtown Brampton almost 10km away to the north. The black over green female was not seen today at either location.
While this will most definately settle out next spring but it is an interesting mystery in front of us nonetheless . It will be very interesting to see who sticks around after migration is over and the winter settles in. Those will be our early spring contenders!!
Posted on August 11, 2013 1:17 pm
August 10, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
With the possibility of a new pairing shaping up, Bruce made his way out this afternoon for a check of the Hurontario corridor beginning with a quick sweep of downtown Brampton. On the condo overhang he was able to confirm a single peregrine on the ledge that he believes, based on size, was female. He then headed down to the Mississauga North territory at Hurontario and Hwy. 401 to check on the pair hanging out there. Rob was fortunate earlier to get a photo of a falcon on the Revenue Canada building with what appeared to be bright red on its left leg. While this could be tape on a bird banded with the USFW on the left instead of the right leg, Bruce aimed to find and confirm by scope who this was and confirm the second bird as well. When he arrived, he walked the entire territory in search of the birds and none were to be found. I decided to meet up with him and help locate and identify the birds and we also planned to travel further south to MEC where we are now void a resident female due to the loss of Cass a few weeks ago. Well, the best laid plans went quite whacky after I arrived.
I met up with Bruce as a bird had just arrived on the southeast corner of the Revenue Canada building and was perched looking southeast. The bird sat almost motionless for quite some time and I was able, when it turned, to get an absolute positive look at the band and read it without any doubt. The band was Black 98 over Red E with a purple USFW on the right leg. This was Midnight from downtown Brampton???!!!! There was no sign of the female we believe could possibly be Alfrieda based on a partial reading of her Black over Green band two days ago. What on earth was this now???
After 15 minutes or so, in came another falcon and landed on the upper retaining wall of the Revenue Canada building on the south side. I heard him come in and vocalize and Bruce watched him land. What made this interesting is that at the time Midnight was preening and his vocalization actually caused her to flinch. She was on edge. We spun that scope around to get a look at the bird that we knew to be the male and could only see his back and right leg as he perched. We both confirmed that he had a USFW band on the right leg with yellow tape and that he appeared to be a subadult. The left leg was hidden and with it, so was his identification. The pair stayed on the building for almost 2 hours during which the male went in onto the sub-roof area for almost 15 minutes out of view and Midnight remained on the southeast corner. Midnight finally took flight and made a straight shot out of view. The male appeared on the retaining wall edge but stayed back just enough to keep his left leg hidden. I had him right in the scope view when all of a sudden he bowed. The female had returned. She landed just to his right and looked furious. Her hackles were up, wings held out and neck stretched out towards him. He took off like a shot and was out of view for a good 5 minutes before returning to the northwest corner of the building. He then took off again, circled back and landed on the southeast rooftop. At this point the female, still puffed up and aggressive looking, stepped forward and I was able to clearly see a Black over Green band but no digits were clear. What????!!!! In the space of three hours we now had two completely different females on the same face of the same building after the same male. The male took another flight off of the corner around to the female and this time she pursued. They both flew south and she took a shallow run at him that was not bonding but slightly aggressive. The Black over Green banded female continued south and the male circled back alone to the southeast corner. There he sat alone as the sun was setting looking off to the southeast with eyes as round as pie plates. He was so on edge that he was flinching at passing insects!!
This whole experience this evening has completely reshuffled my mental deck and so I will attempt to summarize for you.
Last year between Bruce, myself and Rob we were sporadically catching sight of a juvenile peregrine female. She was confirmed in the territory in May of this year and we were only able to confirm a silver USFW. The past few months the sightings of her on the Revenue Canada building have increased and she was now being seen much more frequently by Rob who was keeping an eye on her. I was lucky enough to catch her two days ago on the building and get a partial look at her band in the scope. Black 73 over Green ?? is what I believe her to be. Yesterday Rob had a second peregrine on the building with her and we set our minds to confirming who this pair is. Today, not one female but two were in the territory, one confirmed as Midnight from Brampton North and the other confirmed as having a Black over Green band that came from the south. It was very apparent by their behaviour that they are arguing over the dashing little male who’s identity remains a mystery for now. Given that we are coming into migration soon things will be unsettled as birds move through but you can bet that we will be staying on it and will keep you updated. Phew!!
Posted on August 10, 2013 2:17 am
August 09, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I just heard news from Rob that the female we believe to be Alfrieda is still active around the Mississauga North buildings with a male yet to be identified. While on lunch break, Rob took a peak to see if they were there and the pair came bombing in with much chit chat. They definately seem to be courting and beginning to bond! We will be working hard to discover who the male is and confirm without a doubt that this female is Alfrieda. Don’t touch that dial there is so much more to come!!
Posted on August 9, 2013 12:32 pm
