Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Do you have photos or videos of fledges or parents? Share them with us!

June 11, 2009 - Burlington - Lift Bridge

Matt MacGillivray Reports:

If you have photos of any of the CPF monitored nest sites, birds or fledglings in this exciting time, we would love to see them!  If you have older photos or videos from CPF events, like the 2009 Sportsman show, we would love to see those too.

We’ve got a flickr group that you can upload photos and short videos to.   If you have longer videos, upload them to youtube and tag them with cpf and peregrine and I will find them.

Example shot from the Sheraton Banding in the Flickr Pool -

We might include some of the videos or photos in our updates, or around the site.  You could be famous!

Matt.

Fingers still crossed for a 2nd clutch

May 16, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

There has not been much to get excited about here lately but the last couple of days the birds appear to be showing signs of courtship behaviour. It may be too late for a 2nd clutch this year but the birds have been seen scraping & e-chupping & they have not been doing that since the terretorial dispute (there has been no  sign of  3rd falcon in the area lately). We have not seen any copulation but as I have stated, this pair is really hard to view from our vantage point.

No more eggs here

May 05, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

I noticed today on the monitor that the remaining 2 eggs (which have been badly neglected the last week or so) have also been broken. There are now remnants of shells but nothing else. Millie was observed in the box for over an hour just doing houskeeping & walking around. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

This clutch is toast

April 29, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

Today it is confirmed that there are 3 falcons here. They were all seen at the same time by Rolf. And if we were wondering if the remaining 2 eggs will be able to hatch, we are wondering no more as the birds were not on them all day or in the morning when I arrived at work at 6:00 am. I think our only hope to have young ones this year is if they have another clutch. We are also wondering if it is possible that the 3rd falcon could be Freedom. It is very difficult to get a good look at bands here in this situation as the falcons are guarding the nest box at all times and this is our best spot to view them. The intruding falcon is not able to get close enough for us to view his or her bands (providing it has any). Don’t worry though, it’s just a matter of time before we get that information.

!!! Big Problems Here!!!

April 28, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

On April 25th a falcon was spotted chasing another falcon forcing it to within 6′ of the water. I think there are 3 falcons here & a dispute is in progress. When I returned to work on Monday 27th , the clutch of 4 eggs was reduced to 2! To add to that, after about 3 weeks of hard incubation (we barely had a chance to view any eggs during this time), the birds were off the eggs most of the day even although it was a warm 70 degrees. Today was the same thing, the birds were hardly on the eggs all day but the temp. was a cool 55 degrees. It was also obvious that the birds seemed a bit on edge. I’m not sure what this means for the chance of these eggs being viable but we’re still hoping.

Offspring of Freedom & Purity in Rochester

April 26, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

For those of you that have been following the Rochester falcons, you already know that there resident falcons there have had a tough go this year. If you don’t know I’ll bring you up to speed. 1st of all, they had to move their nest box as Kodak needed to do major repairs to the structure where the falcons were nesting. The female (Mariah) was traumatised by the netting they put up to restrict her access & the male (Kaver) did not return this year. Mariah ended up severly injured in a terreratorial dispute by 2 young intruders, a male & a female. It turns out that the  male in question is a 2006 bird from Port Colborne named “Archer”. For those of you who don’t know, our plant name (ADM) stands for “Archer Daniels Midland” so we thought Archer was an appropriate name. Please keep in mind that Freedom (the male who produced Archer) is the 1st offspring of Mariah & Kaver, so although it is very sad to see what has happened to 2 of the most prolific falcons in recorded history, we here in Port Colborne are glad to hear that one of Mariah’s grandsons lives on in the skies of Rochester hopefully to carry on the legacy. I have more news but it will have to wait until tommorow.

Dates of egg laying this year

April 21, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

1st egg layed Mar. 30/09 @ exactly 7:30 pm…. 2nd egg dusk Apr. 01/09…. 3rd egg dusk  Apr.03/09….4th egg  dusk Apr. 05/09. Full incubation commenced Apr. 06/09. Looking for a hatch May 8th 9th or 10th assuming The tiercel is not shooting blanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Changing of the guard in Port Colborne

April 21, 2009 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

Very early in March this year as I walked towards the mill from the parking lot I heard falcon sounds I’d never heard before. I believe the falcon  making the sounds was in distress. It was still dark out & I could not see any activity but I knew the sounds were coming from the grain elevator next to ours. When it got slightly lighter outside, one worker caught glimpses of 2 falcons diving at eachother at extremely high rates of speed. I didn’t know at the time but I am assuming that this was infact a terretorial dispute as our resident tiercel (Freedom) has been displaced by a younger falcon (unnamed). We were able to ID this bird thaks to Carol Phillips from Rochester & The N.Y. State D.E.C. They confirmed that the bird was produced & banded at the Statler bldg. in Buffalo 2007. The resident female here is still “Millie” from the St. Lawrence Plant in Mississauga (also a 2007 bird). Millie has produced 4 eggs between Mar. 30 & Apr. 7  this year when full incubation commenced. Unlike Freedom who spent much of his time hunting on the west side of our facility where we could observe & photograph him, the new bird has chosen to stay on the east side of the building, making it difficult to track his actions. He has though taken part on tending to the eggs but not nearly as much as Freedom would.