Was out there this morning. Both juveniles have successfully fledged, found them on North side of Hospital between Stack and Nest Ledge. For sure, had the Adult Female. Possibly had the Adult Male too, but the Bird was at a distance.
Bruce
The name the chicks contest has closed and the winning names for the 2023 chicks are Elding for the boy and Olive for the girl.
Another site with 2 chicks this time one boy and one girl.
Don Barron form the hospital met us at the main entrance and explained that along with Mark Nash who explained the banding procedure and importance of banding and was also the person who stayed out on the ledge at the nest box to distract the adults, Mark Heaton and Eva Boback our banders, Glenn Barrett and Kyna Dawn from Environment and Climate Change Canada who were doing blood testing on the chicks as part of a 5 year study of environmental toxins, Don and myself there would also 3 people recording, filming and taking photos and because it is a very small area the hospital ran a contest allowing only 2 winners to attend the banding and the lucky winners were Tia and Laurie. I brought with me 4 more people who have been assisting the foundation to monitor the falcon family and who wish to become fledge watchers keeping an eye on the chicks when they take their first flights and rescuing them should they come to ground.
We were spread out enough that we could work without any problems and the chicks were not overwhelmed. All went very well and everyone who attended were able to got some photos. We decided in order to protect hospital staff and patients this year we not have anyone hold the chicks at the end of the banding for a photo shoot due to Avian Flu but doing a selfie with the chicks in the photo would be ok.
I want to thank Don Barron and Lakeridge Health for their ongoing support of Oshawa`s only Peregrine falcon family and for giving us access to band the chicks, place a nest box on the ledge for the falcons and install a camera in the box to better monitor the falcons. Their tremendous support has made a big difference in the survival of these falcons and management of this nest site.
Here is the band information of the Oshawa chicks along with photos taken by myself of the chicks at banding and Mark Nash of the chicks and adult female out at the nest.
There are no names of the chicks listed her because the hospital is running a name the chicks contest with the staff so stay tuned for the names.
Each chick got 2 bands one on each leg. The first a Black alpha numeric Canadian Recovery band and the second a USA fish and wildlife band.
First chick weighed 500 grams was a male his band number is C over 41 and he has Yellow tape on his silver band.
The second chick weighed 790 grams a female, her band number is 26 over AB and she had Red tape on her silver band.
The Colored tape helps the fledge watchers identify the chicks form a distance.
Banding day is set for May 29th at 2:30 stay tuned for banding information and photos.
We have at least 1 perhaps 2 hatchlings as of May 5th. Banding is planned for May 29th stay tuned for banding information and photos.
Just got feedback from the hospital. Yes, the female is incubating but she is right under the camera so it’s a bad angle to see there are eggs just not sure how many.
2 female and 1 male babies hatched and banded. Having a webcam makes it easy to plan banding date and thanks to Don Baron checking on the monitor we got the hatch date and another successful banding.
We are working on getting this webcam up on our website hopefully next spring you will have another peregrine family to watch.
the chicks were all healthy and so far we have not seen any evidence of avian flu in any of the chicks. Here is the banding information.
835 grams female band number 18 over AB with Yellow tape on silver band named Jessie
585 grams male band number C over 36 with Blue tape on silver band
760 grams female band number 19 over AB with Red tape on silver band.
Thank you to the staff and management of Lakeridge Hospital for their support.
Mississauga MEC May 17th 11:00.
Canada Square May 17th 2:30.
Etobicoke Private Residence May 24th 10:30.
Bloor Islington Place Etobicoke May 24th 2:30.
Port Colborne May 25th 10:30 AM
220 Duncan Mill Rd. May 26th 10:30.
Hamilton Sheraton May 27 11:00 AM
St Marys Cement St Marys Ont May 30th 1:00 Pending
Lake Ridge Health Oshawa May 31st 1:00 PM.
Kitchener CTV tower June 1st 1:00 PM
Waiting on hatch reports for
150 Ferrand Dr. Don Mills and Eglinton.
Yellow Pages Scarborough
Toronto Downtown Sheraton
Beachville quarry
Windsor Ambassador Bridge
Only 1 chick a male at 680 grams this year. There were 2 eggs laid but only one hatch the other egg was missing likely It was infertile and disposed of by Mom. The Boy was named Colonel Sam.
We were shuttled in by Don Baron and 2 of his electrical engineers through service areas along many corridors, elevators, up a flight of stairs, and down other stairs to avoid patient’s wards. I am so glad we had them to guide of or we would have gotten hopelessly lost lol.
Alfrieda the adult female who was hatched in Buffalo in 2016 was there defending the nest and chick the entire time while dad was spotted soaring high but did not come down to see what was happening.
Eva Bobak from the OMNRF extracted the chick from the back of the nest box while Mark Nash from CPF distracted Alfrieda at the front of the box.
The chick was brought in through the access hatch to the mechanical room where Mark Heaton and Eva Bobak weighed, banded, and checked Sam’s health.
All went well and Colonel Sam is a very healthy chick. Of about 27 days old.
As you can see Lucie took some photos from outside looking up at the nest as well. She spoke to many people watching the extraction from outside who were very interested and wanted more information about Oshawa’s falcons.
Thanks to Don and his staff, Mark Heaton and Eva Bobak, and Lucie Kirchknoph we have yet another successful banding day.
Cheers
Marion
