Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Buffalo Bill & Trillium have moved!

May 01, 2013 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

As reported by Tracy Simpson after her and Bruce Massey’s visit here, our resident falcons have found a new nesting site. It is at a location about 5 km North of our facility.  With all the stress causing Trillum to destroy her eggs here (presumibly because of the young female from Niagara Falls) they have decided to give it another shot at a different location. However, there is still activity in the nest box here. The Sub adult intruder has been hanging out at our site & I think she has set up shop in our nest box. Buffalo Bill may have his hands full servicing both these girls. More to come!!

Port Colborne Egg Mystery May Be Revealed

April 22, 2013 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Tracy Simpson Reports:

Doug Garbutt and the staff at the ADM Mills have been watching their resident adult peregrines, Trillium and Buffalo Bill, rather closely since Trillium consumed both of her eggs by April 5th.  What made matters more complex is that the monitor at the mill had failed and they were now blind to the activities inside the nest box.  All that they could be certain about is that Trillium was seen on the monitor consuming her two eggs and that had staff at the mill very concerned about their peregrines.  As if this story wasn’t complex enough, on one of Doug’s recent bike rides through the park beside the northern mill in town operated by Horizon Milling, he heard a familiar call, looked up and found a pair of peregrines on the east face of the mill.  Well, who was this now.  Are there two pairs in Port Colborne?  Is this Buffalo Bill and Trillium?  Bruce Massey and I went down this past weekend to see if we could help sort out some of the mysteries surrounding this new development.

When we arrived we met up with Doug and travelled straight to the northern mill.  When we arrived, the winds were howling and so were the peregrines!  Absolutely there were two peregrines on site, one in the air and one perched on a vent cover on the east face of the main building.  The roosting bird took to the air and now both birds were up and flying.  Both birds flew up and into a vent shaft on the east face of the mill and disappeared from our sight.  We could clearly hear them vocalizing in the vent and then suddenly the male appeared and was in the air again.  The female flew out shortly thereafter and the two peregrines were now circling.  Then a third bird arrived!  This peregrine was most definately a female and was now being addressed by the male.  This intruder was not being treated with the ferocity I would have expected from an adult challenging the resident pair for their territory and for the most part, the male only circled with this second female.  A couple of talon locks were attempted but there was no serious effort to drive out this intruder.  Okay…  A non threating yet annoying third peregrine.  The adult resident male now escorted this female to the south towards the ADM Mill site and the adult resident female continued to circle above us for a few minutes before following them.  This gave me a moment to review some pictures I had taken which revealed some interesting facts.

The male is definately an adult with the same band configuration as Buffalo Bill.  I can almost make out the band number and I am 99% sure that it is him.  Buffalo Bill has a black over green recovery band marked 68 over R with a silver USFW.  The first female is an adult as well and is clearly unbanded which is consistent with the resident adult that ADM staff named Trillium.  Ok.  So this is the ADM Mills pair.  Now onto bird number three.  Ha!  Juvenile coming into her subadult year!  Probably the only thing that saved her from a serious battle is the juvenile plumage that she still wears as her moult has yet to begin.   This now begins to make more sense. 

We piled into our vehicles and headed down to ADM Mills to see if we could find the three peregrines and what exactly they were up to.  When we arrived, the pigeons on site were wheeling madly around so we knew that they were here.  It was hard to determine what exactly all three were doing as they were whipping around the mill at Mach 10 and at times were only 20 feet or so over our heads.  What I got out of the observations is that the juvenile is being a serious pest.  At times we had all three in the air and it was a much more serious situation.  Both resident adults were now clearly frustrated and defending their site with talon locks, dives and escorts.  This female juvenile was just not getting the message.  We walked to the pier side and looked up at the nest box to see if we could find a roosting bird for further confirmation of identity.  Just then Trillium burst out of the nest box and whipped through the mill after the juvenile.  Back on the other side the dives and madness continued as now the pigeons, gulls and peregrines were all wheeling around in the screaming winds and all we could do was watch.  Trillium and Buffalo Bill had finally left our view for over 5 minutes and the juvenile was nowhere to be found.  Back to Horizon Mill.

Upon our return, we found Trillium on a vent cover near the top of the mill.  There she roosted and preened for quite some time on her own.  We suspected that Buffalo Bill was in the area as he had just circled around the back side of the mill when we arrived.  After roosting for a while, Trillium flew off of the vent cover, passed Buffalo Bill who was now in the air above the canal and swooped up entering a lower vent shaft.  There she stayed and Buffalo Bill took up position near the top of the mill.  Bruce was able to get a view of her in the scope and Trillium was now lying down in the vent shaft and gravel picking.  We suspect that she either has an egg already or is in the process of producing eggs as we speak. 

The stress that this juvenile has put on Trillium is most likely the cause for her destruction of the first two eggs in the box at ADM Mills.  With the monitor now replaced, the staff at ADM will be watching to see if any peregrines enter the box and just who is in there.  The nest box at ADM will not stay empty for long as this location has been fought over almost each and every year.  The food is so abundant, the site provides suitable nesting habitat and the location is perfect…   …almost too perfect.  Doug will be watching the other mill for signs of nesting by Trillium and Buffalo Bill as well as watching the activity at the ADM box.  Bruce and I will be making another trip to help out as well.

The question that I can hear rattling around in your minds is who is the juvenile female???!!!  Is she banded?  Yes, she is.  I have yet to go through all of the pictures but I can tell you that she is an Ontario hatched bird with red tape on her USFW band and we strongly believe that this is Lucky Seven hatched at the Niagara Gorge nest site last year.  When I am able to confirm this for certain, you will be the first to know!!

More pictures to come!

!!! Another setback

April 13, 2013 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

At the time of my last report, our resident female was on 2 eggs. With the cold snap, she was on them as if in full incubation mode. Last week within the period of 3 days, she was observed eating the shells of both eggs. She has not been back in the box since then (at least not for any length of time). The male is the same one we have had for the last few years, Buffalo Bill. We think the female is also the resident as she is unbanded. It’s not too early for a 2nd clutch as she produced one last year. We’ll hope for the best.

2 Eggs in Port Colborne

March 30, 2013 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

As of  Thursday Mar. 28/13, we have 2 eggs here. We will keep you posted.

!!! 2 Eggs in Port Colborne

March 30, 2013 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

We have been without a monitor here until this past Monday Mar. 25/13. When we turned it on there was 1 egg in the scrape. On Mar. 27/13 another egg was laid. I haven’t been back since Thursday, but I would expect there to be another by now. We will keep you posted.

!!! Another failed clutch

June 07, 2012 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

I’m sad to report that we have had another loss of eggs. I did not witness what happened to them but on May 26th full incubation was under way. On May 27th, all 3 eggs were gone. In my last post I reported that there was an intruding falcon on site. Perhaps this had something to do with the situation. It’s discouraging to go through but we are dealing with nature here and it’s out of our control. The falcons are still around but I think it’s unlikely there will be a 3rd attempt at laying eggs.

3rd egg produced

May 23, 2012 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

Yesterday upon arriving at work, I noticed a 3rd egg. The falcons are now in full incubation mode. This is not an easy go for our resident male as yesterday in the early morning there was quite a spectacular aerial combat display. An intruding male tried to take over the nest box. I don’t know for sure who was the victor but we’re hoping it was Buffalo Bill. We’ll try to confirm. The important thing is that Trillium is still incubating the 3 eggs. If it works out, they should hatch around the 21st of June.

2 eggs!!!

May 21, 2012 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

Believe it or not, a 2nd egg has been produced. It was 1st seen in the early morning of May 19th. Hopefully this 2nd clutch will be successfull and with the help of  the MNR & CPF, we will be able to band some young falcons.

Here we go again!

- Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

After 3 weeks of no activity, all of a sudden our resident female has decided to lay an egg. This is after losing all 4 eggs produced almost 2 months ago. The egg was produced yesterday, May 16th. We are really hopefull that more eggs are to come & that they have some luck with this clutch as they have not had much luck the last few years.

!!! All 4 eggs are gone

April 29, 2012 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Doug Garbutt Reports:

For whatever reason, all of the 4 eggs that were produced here this year are gone. The adults have consumed the eggs. After 4 weeks of hard incubation this seems really wierd to me. I thought it was the cold weather but knowing that at least one other nest site has young ones, it makes me wonder. However, perhaps it’s not too late for another clutch!