July 09, 2022 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
Piper has fledged. Bruce was on site by 8:00 in the morning and could not find Piper. He searched for him for 2 hours walking around the building checking all the possible ledges he could be on and there are many on this building. He finally popped up on a 12th floor ledge face the parking lot. Lyn came in later and fed him a small package so by the time Mark and I came to do the afternoon and evening shift and joined Bruce watching he was sitting in the shade on the ledge and there he stayed all afternoon. Seems like a boring afternoon right, not a chance. Bruce packed up and headed home for dinner and Mark and I were soon joined by a woman who was obviously either very drunk or mentally unstable, she spent the next hour yelling at us and threatening us getting right up in our face. Luckily the police were still on site at the far end of the parking lot because they of the body they had found yesterday and Mark went over to talk to the officer to see if he could help us and remove this woman from the property. While Mark was talking to the officer she began to therein my again and was leaning on the hood of our car using it to wright on so I nicely asked her to get off the car and she pounded the hood and refused. Mark came back and said the officer can’t leave but had called dispatch and police were on the way. He then gently pulled the woman off the car and stood between her and the car. While trying to block her from the car she kept trying to get at the car and duck around him yelling and screaming and grabbing him and finally punched him in the face and stabbed him in the face with her pen. I tried to help Mark and grabbed one of her wrists to pull her off Mark but she managed to pull free. Mark then grabbed her by the shoulders and gently lowered her to the grass just as the police arrived. She grabbed her backpack and ran out onto Progress and across the street I pointed to her so the police could see her and he went after her. I grabbed some napkins from the car and hand sanitizer and cleaned up the blood from the pen stab on Marks face. The office came back to take a statement and let us know she was arrested and a restraining order was issued so she could no longer enter the parking area or come within 1000 yards of us. In 26 year of doing fledge watches that often last well past dark this is a first. As for Piper he was happy to watch the crazy humans below. He finally took another flight when just at sunset Ln flew past him with food and the chase was on. He flew off the ledge after mom and hooked east around the building lost more altitude and landed on the first floor roof overhang. Mark and I watched him there until dark and since he seemed to settle down and resign himself to the fact he was there for the night we headed home. Hopefully he will wait for us to come in the morning.
Posted on July 10, 2022 8:01 am
July 07, 2022 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
When Mark and I arrived there were police cars and a coroners van on the street at the south east side of the building and police tape blocking off that part of the parking lot. I find out a body was found in the tall grass in a field near the parking lot. Creepy I am so glad I don’t have to do this watch alone!
Piper did a lot of wing flapping today and looks quite ready to go. He was fed at 5:00 PM and in bed by 8:00 PM so mark and I called it a night. Hopefully he takes flight tomorrow.
Posted on July 8, 2022 2:03 pm
July 06, 2022 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
We plan to start the fledge watch on Thursday July 7th. There is only 1 chick this year and it was not banded but we hope to band it if it comes down to ground and needs to be rescued. Mark did a spot check on the site and Lyn is as aggressive as ever and the chick was lying down sleeping. Lyn’s screaming woke up the chick and Mark was able to get a quick photo before she drove him off the roof. The chicks looks like it my be a male I plan to call Piper after one of the new Kitchener fledge watchers, it is also the name of a small airplane.
Posted on July 6, 2022 2:45 pm
June 09, 2022 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
Scarborough Nest Site Update:
June 9th - 2022
Great News to report from the old Yellow Pages nest site… We have a hatch!!
Just as we were running out the door to the Duncan Mill and the Bloor and Islington fledge watch, we got a call early this morning from the security folks at the Scarborough nest site (formally called the Yellow Pages Nest site) to investigate and give them an updated status on their resident peregrines. (We had earlier written off the nest site believing that the nest had failed again as the eggs had been long overdue to hatch).
Security called as a result of a contractor working on the upper elevations of the building in the early morning was very aggressively and relentlessly attacked by the resident peregrine pair.
Knowing only too well how aggressive “Linn” (the long standing resident female peregrine, who was produced at the Kodak Tower in Rochester New York) has been over the years, especially when there have been hatchlings in the nest, we immediately diverted and headed up to the site to further investigate.
Assisted by security we were quickly escorted to the upper roof doorway and entered the roof area with brooms in hand. We were immediately met by “Linn” and her unidentified male mate with a constant barrage of stops and dives!! In typical Linn fashion, without her making a single sound I was reminded of just how aggressive she can be!! A VERY AGGRESSIVE FULL CONTACT gal!! Thank goodness for hard hats!!
Much to my delight, after a failed nest site last season, I observed a single hatchling, just shy of a week old, and one egg! Two weeks ago, there were still four eggs in the nest. One very pale white egg and three typical reddish modeled brown colored eggs.
So the good news, Linn is still producing and back to her old self and in fine form indeed!! It is worth noting, that her mate was also VERY aggressive and also made several full-contact hits,, (which is typically not the norm with most of adult males).
I stayed just long enough to get a few quick photos (as we literally ran for cover) with my cell phone.
Posted on June 10, 2022 3:31 am
May 25, 2022 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
3 eggs seen 2 have become bleached out meaning Lyn as spent some time off them and the sun has lightened them, One egg still redish color. She was on the eggs when Mark arrived so perhaps one will hatch or she may re clutch again.
Posted on May 25, 2022 12:05 pm
May 16, 2022 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
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
Posted on May 16, 2022 6:40 pm
May 13, 2022 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
Lyn has laid 4 eggs one looks quite old as it is very pale. Hopefully they hatch this year. Mark said she was as aggressive as always.
Posted on May 13, 2022 4:57 pm
May 31, 2021 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
As of May 21st Lyn has laid eggs on 3 separate ledges this year and is not
incubating any of the eggs.
Posted on May 31, 2021 7:54 pm
April 02, 2021 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
Just a quick update and some better news to report!
A resident adult pair is on-site and courtship has begun!
Today I had an opportunity to re-visit the Scarborough nest site at the old Yellow Pages building on Milner Ave in Scarborough. A huge thanks again to Petra and security for accommodating me for a second site visit to take a more detailed look at the situation and activities of the resident peregrines. As you know by my previous report last week, we responded to security’s call of a dead falcon laying on one of the upper elevations on the nest building and found a deceased sub-adult male peregrine. Given the evidence, it was quite clear that this sub-adult male had collided with the window and died on impact. The impact site on the window was clearly visible with the tell-tail sign of the bird’s preen oil power stain on the glass.
What made this particular death initially suspecious and concerning it that the bird was an urban produced and raised peregrine,, one that was produced in an urban environment, on a similar hi-rise glass building,, and one that already learned and experienced bumps with the glass,, and survived to the sub-adult hood age. Unlike many other smaller birds that never seem to understand the dangers of hitting the glass, peregrines do in fact learn as we documented over the years, and rarely make the same mistakes twice when it comes to hitting the glass..
We highly suspected that there were likely “other factors involved” that caused this urban savvy peregrine to make a mortal impact with the glass… as this is usually the case.
That said, our suspensions were confirmed today as a result of my second visit today a to the likely reason we have a deceased sub-adult male at the site.
After a very detailed walk around of the upper elevations of the nest building this afternoon and several hours of ground time observations, I can now confirm a number of things,,
1.- That there are no new eggs as yet on any of the usual/available nest ledges.
2. - That there is still an adult “pair” of peregrines that are still very active both on and around the nest building.
3. - the pair are very actively involved in courtship routines, and it appears that they have selected a nesting ledge spot on the building again this year as much of their focus and attention was concentrated on one particular ledge. The pair was observed in several rounds of copulation activities during my ground time observations.
While I can not confirm what actually caused the younger sub-adult to collide with the building’s glass windows as we have witnessed to the death, I highly suspect that a territorial dispute and conflict with the resident adult male had a lot to do with it.
Unfortunately, I was not armed with a spotting scope during this visit so I can not confirm the identity of the resident pair (or if they are even banded) due to the distances involved from the ground to the upper building elevations where most of the bird activities took place.
I will be back again next week to do another follow-up.
It is also worth noting that the roofing contractors are still working on the building’s roof areas, although still well below the actual nest ledge level.
Mark Nash
Posted on April 7, 2021 12:09 pm
March 31, 2021 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
We got a call from Paul at security at the Milner ( Yellow Pages ) site. A peregrine was found dead on site. A white feather dust mark on the window along with urine marks the spot where it hit one of the windows. Mark went out to retrieve the bird and found it to be banded C over 13 it’s Nino produced at the Bloor Islington Center in 2020. Mark saw no other Peregrine on site but will be going back tomorrow to see if Lyn is there perhaps on eggs.
Posted on March 31, 2021 4:33 pm
