June 22, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
June 22nd - 2012
The morning stated early again as usual and with the CPF fledge watch team in place as they settled in with far more seasonal temperatures and actually much cooler in comparison to the last three days when it was almost impossible to breath with high humidity and blistering hot sun. One of benefits of this location and fledge watch is all of the unobstructed open air around Yellow Pages building, where there are no other hi-rises to obstruct your view when a fledgling takes flight. On the down side, there is absolutely no where to escape the sun anywhere!
A recap of the days events had the second hatchling take its first flight. Little Albus - banded R over 43 struggled to hold his altitude as he flew around the north side of the building trying to grab onto parts of the wall after colliding with the window. Eventually he ended up doing what we call the “bat manouevre”, clinging on to the vertical portion of the wall approx. ten storeys up. Albus hung on as long as he could and finally let go falling another six floors down the wall until he finally gain some composure and fluttered to the ground around the east side of the building where he was scooped up by Kathy from the CPF fledge watch team.
Later on in the morning, I received a call from a representative of St. Mary’s Cement in Bowmanville where I was told the a peregrine had become trapped in the lower basement section of one of the buildings on the property and asked if we could help. So leaving the fledge watch in Kathy’s hands, I proceeded to Bowmanville Ontario.
I called Mark Heaton at the OMNR to advice him of him of the situation and it was decided that if it was in fact a peregrine, (and only if I was able to confirm that it was a fledgling produced at this site), I would return to Toronto with the bird if it was uninjured and safe to do so, so it could be either treated and/or banded and returned to it parents. Upon arrival in St. Mary’s cement in Bowmanville, I met with company representatives and then taken out to where the bird was located.
A very young female peregrine falcon still with some white down was in fact identified, rescued / retrieved, examined for injuries and was then placed in the rescue carrier without incident.
With no apparent injuries, the feisty young fledgling was safely taken back to my vehicle for transport. The staff at St. Mary’s were able to spend some time with me doing walk around in an effort find a possible nest site.
Moments into my search, I was able to locate and identify the resident adult female peregrine falcon and an active nest with at least one other hatchling in the eyrie on one of the buildings on the property. Very satisfied with the find, I returned to Toronto with the fledgling so it could be banded by MNR and returned to its nest.
Mean while, back to the Scarborough Yellow Pages nest site, I was able to release the young fledgling Albus back to the nest building rooftop and his parents without incident.
Stay tuned…….
Posted on June 24, 2012 12:00 am
June 21, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
June 21st - 2012
Another hot humid scorching day that had all of the hatchlings pretty sedate for most of all day.
With not allot of flapping going on at all throughout the day, the remaining two unfledged hatchlings were pretty quiet, this despite the fact that they should being taking their first flights today given their age and from what I’m seeing.
Little Panagiotis, the first to fledge yesterday, stayed tight to the same upper ledges that I released him on last night and although he has been somewhat active throughout the day running around on the upper ledges, he’s not been doing much flapping at all.
This evening we had thunder storms, lightning, high winds along with torrential rain and incredibly, the humidity simply blew away,,, - (thank goodness)!!! Back to some seasonal weather tomorrow we’re told and officially, the second day of summer.
The fledge watch was closed down early, as it continued to rain with heavy downpours and high winds well into the darkness. The hatchlings were soaked to their down by the time I left for the evening.
No photos today.
Stay tuned………
Posted on June 22, 2012 12:50 am
June 20, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
Wednesday June 20th - 2012
The fledge watch started out at 6:30 am this morning with Kathy Smith from the CPF on site and all three hatchlings still in the nest ledge in full view. With this hot and humid stuff again today, Oh my goodness, it is debilitating out here.
Pressed and stressed for time with not enough hours in the day and night to be in the streets on all of the ongoing fledge watches, its been very difficult to get any computer time to get the huge back log of updates and photos posted with fledgling peregrines falling and resident adults from the sky all over the place, so I have to be short and sweet.
Alerted by Big Frank that one of his collogues having been passing the nest site, saw a fledgling in the air on a direct flight path downward to the south east of the Yellow Pages parking lot.
More telephone calls on the mobile as the young fledgling peregrine ends up on the ground in the roadway on one of the main arteries of the rear parking lot. Paul from Petra security and Vivian from the CPF watch team rushes to the grounded birds location and holds back the on-lookers and reroutes the vehicle traffic around the downed fledgling until others can get to the rear parking lot to do the rescue.
Kathy holds position to keep her eyes focussed on nest ledge on the remaining two hatchlings,, now up on the nest ledge flapping looking like they are going to go.
The grounded young fledgling is Panagiotis - banded Black R over 42 and is successfully rescued and retrieved from the roadway without incident.
Later in the evening, the young peregrine is again examined for any injuries or trauma usually associated with grounding on hard services and is cleared to be released back to its parents.
Successful release under the cover of darkness with the fledge watch team still in place in the now darkened parking lot waiting just in case the released bird takes a panic flight back into the air at release, everything goes exactly as planned. The fledge watch finished for the evening with the two un-fledged hatchlings still on the nest ledge and one other very happy fledgling back to elevation and in its parents care.
So far, 22 young fledglings have been rescued and /or pulled from the streets so far this season since the fledge watches started!
Stay tuned, you can bet there will be far more to come……..
Posted on June 21, 2012 11:24 am
June 18, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
June 18th - 2012
A spot check with Yellow Pages today yielded some disturbance results indeed that has us more than concerned. It would appear that while we are on track with the official starting of the fledge watch tomorrow given the photos of the hatchlings taken on Monday, it might appear that one of the hatchlings is missing!
Kathy, the Scarborough Yellow pages fledge watch coordinator conducted a extensive search of the facility with the help of Paul and they were not able to located the third hatchling.
Two of the three hatchlings remain in their nest ledge and both resident adult parents are attending. It is incredibly bazar although that the past five days of spot checks have produced some unusual behaviours from both the adults and the hatchlings.
Typically at this time of the hatchlings development, we are seeing them up on the rim of the nest ledge flapping and carrying on in the usual fashion. Both Bruce and now Kathy have reported over the past week that this has not been the norm out here this year.
While it is entirely possible that our missing hatchling has already been ledge hopping (and there are allot of ledges to hide out in), it is noticeably odd that we haven’t seen allot of ledge hopping and flapping.
Kathy will be out there again Tuesday doing an extensive property search and facility search from the ground to see if we can spot the missing hatchling.
We are calling on all available fledge watchers to join us on Wednesday June 20th to participate in the Yellow Pages fledge watch.
Stay tuned……………
Posted on June 19, 2012 9:20 am
June 08, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Banding Day Success, June 8th - 2012
A huge thank you to Petra and Yellow Pages at the 325 Milner Ave nest site for hosting the banding again this year! A huge success, and 3 very healthy hatchlings were sexed, banded, named, photographed and returned to their parents.
A big thank you to all who entered the name the chick contest. Many thanks to Mark Heaton from the OMNR, the CPF staff and volunteers and the many who attended to support both the CPF and the peregrines. A personal thank you to Carolyn from TD Friends of the Environment for their assistance at the banding table.
The young hatchlings particulars:
1. - 660 grams, male, 25 days old, Banded Black R over 41, named Panagiotis with Blue tape
2. - 650 grams, male, 24 days old, Banded black R over 43, named Albus with Green Tape
3. - 640 grams, male, 25 days old, Banded Black R over 44, named Eagan with Red Tape
Posted on June 9, 2012 1:01 am
June 02, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Bruce Massey stopped in this morning at the Yellow Pages nest site to check in on Linn, Rueben and their growing family of three. At first Bruce could see Rueben at the office tower to the west of the nest building and Linn perched above the nest ledge on the upper roof. There were no chicks in view and so Bruce watched for signs of the young ones popping their heads up above the rim of the ledge. Rueben took off in pursuit of food of which Linn was obliged to chase him for, take possession of and return to the nest ledge. She landed on the edge of the ledge and wandered the length of it as if not knowing what to do with it. It was a challenge for Linn to feed her little ones when they were tucked under the overhang of the nest ledge napping!! Thanks to Bruce for checking in on the family and we look forward to meeting them all at the banding set for the 8th of June!
Posted on June 2, 2012 11:36 pm
May 30, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
CPF Postmaster Reports:
May 30th - 2012
We are delighted to announce that we have confirmed a banding date of Friday June 8th at 2:00pm!
With a meet and greet in the lobby at the Yellow Pages building at 1:30pm, we will then proceed to band the young peregrine hatchlings at approx. 2:00pm.
Hope to see you there!!
Posted on May 30, 2012 10:27 am
May 16, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
May 16th - 2012
I am delighted to report that the results of my site visit today yielded a wonderful surprise: Three healthy young new hatchlings! Given their small size, (and the largest of the clutch), it would appear that the first hatched was likely on or about May 12th or May 13th.
Congratulations Yellow Pages and Petra!!
Posted on May 17, 2012 1:21 am
May 16, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Frank Butson Reports:
An excited message from Mark has come that Yellow Pages has 3 hatchlings. Congratulations to the folks at Yellow Pages. Photos to come tonight with a complete posting.
Posted on May 16, 2012 7:03 pm
May 11, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Tracy Simpson Reports:
On Friday, Marion and I made a trip up to the Yellow Pages building to check in on Linn and Rueben and their progress towards a hatch this year. When we arrived, neither adult was in sight and so off we went inside to speak to security. Paul Zisis, security for the building, was able to share the recent activity around the building as being relatively quiet and only one adult seen at a time. Marion and I then headed up to a higher elevation to check on the pair and struck it lucky as Linn had just taken off for a break and Rueben was out of the area. This allowed us to take a first glance at their progress and indeed the pair have three eggs that they are currently incubating. We will be watching for the change in behaviour that will signify a hatch. Check back soon as we hope to be announcing their first arrival!!
Posted on May 14, 2012 1:19 am
