July 06, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
July 6th - 2014
Al three fledglings were seen on the nest building when we arrived, with Lorne and Tormey on the upper north face and Petra on the upper west.
Food was dropped off to Tormey and Lorne at 3:00 PM by Linn.
Petra took flight at about 4:15 and flew around to the north face of the building just as one of the parents flew in with food. She must have seen it coming and decided that this one was hers. She grabbed the food in the from adult in the air but with a fist full of food and the added weight, she missed the landing and hooked back west and again. In an effort to try and make the upper concrete ledge, she struggled to gain altitude and eventually lost her altitude and did a face plant into the glass and fluttered down to lower concrete overhang. It didn’t take her long to recover, (only a second) and she started to eat her prize!! There was no way she was sharing any of this with anyone!! Tormey flew in to see if Petra might share but was soon disappointed with her sisters attitude of non-sharing and flew back to the north face pretty upset. She screamed and vocalized the entire flight back!!
After Petra ate, she flew off and got herself up to the upper glass pyramid level on the north east side.
Tormey flew around to the back of the building and Lorne flew to the Kitchen and back to the nest building on the north side with some good strong flights!
Looks like all three fledglings now know how to get altitude from the lower levels. Although the landings are still pretty clumsy, (OUCH),, it would appear there is little worry about them being stranded and in need of rescuing on the ground at this point. Lets hope that they have learned about bumping into windows and will stay clear when the high speed flying and hunting lessons start.
The girls have some catching up to do as their brother Lorne in so far as their flying ability, as Lorne is flying much stronger, but remembering that the girls are younger and heavier. But look out Lorne, as in a few days the sisters will soon catch up, and if there is food involved,, Petra just might give you a very good run for the pigeon 
At this point, we have finished the dawn to dusk fledge watch at the Scarborough nest site, and will be only spot checking the site from here on in. The rest is now up to Linn and Ruben. We will be back next week with the cameras and tripods for some “relaxed watching time” to get some decent photos of the best that is yet to come!!
We would encourage any and all watchers to visit, and remember to bring your cameras!!
Posted on July 6, 2014 11:19 pm
July 05, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
Saturday July 5th - 2014 - Day 10 on the Scarborough Fledge watch
When Mark and I arrived Petra - (Yellow Tape) and Tormey - (Red Tape) were still on the west face of the Yellow Pages building, with Petra on the upper concrete ledge and Tormey still on the middle concrete ledge where we had left her yesterday.
Petra was somewhat active walking back and forth across the ledge but Tormey looked like she was going to sleep all day. After about and hour and a half Petra finally took flight and made it to the glass pyramid flapping to try to balance on the point which she managed to do. I guess she felt a little uncomfortable there with the wind so she hopped down to the ledge below the pyramid and there she stayed for several hours.
Little Tormey had us concerned as she just walked back and forth across her ledge on and off all day, not showing allot of energy. By the end of the day she was starting to show some energy and started playing with some dried up scrap of food looking bored out of her mind but still had not taken flight.
I walked around the building late in the afternoon as Petra had been out of our site for some time and found her on the opposite side of the same ledge and found Loran on the North side upper concrete level. As soon as I got back to our sit spot one of the parents flew in and gave food to Loran who ran off into the corner with his prize to have his lunch. Tormey and Petra got none.
At 6:30pm, Mom flew in with and made several circuits around the building and flew off. That was enough to finally get Petra off her feathered butt and she flew off to the north hooked back and landed on the upper elevation of Yellow Pages just making it.
She looked quite excited and proud of herself. Soon after Mom come in with food and flew to the kitchen and Petra - (Yellow tape) immediately bolted into flight and flew right after her This is one meal she was determined to beat her brother to!!
She made a clumsy very hard landing on the top of the glass arch, but got her lunch. Minutes later Loran - (Blue tape) flew in to squabble with his sister over what ever leftovers she had but it looked like Petra had eaten everything so they sat together for a while.
Tormey - (red tape) finally took a short jump and sort of a flight up to the upper level concrete ledge, approx. 1 floor up and landed just fine. She then walked to the leading edge of the North West glass ledge just below the glass pyramid and a few minutes later Mom finally came in with her food reward.
Everyone has now been fed and seem to settle down for the evening - (including both of the adults), so we left the family high and safe.
Our biggest concern is still Tormey - (Red tape) as she has clearly not taken her second real flight from the Yellow Pages nest building and actually been able to return to any altitude. She is now 44 days old as of today, so she should be flying tomorrow.
Lets hope tomorrow is the day that she will be able to get some real flight time and demonstrate that she is no-longer at risk from coming to the ground and in need of rescuing.
While the photos are not the greatest, (remember that the peregrines are a very long way up, and we are some distance away from the building itself so we can get a decent view of them given the angles involved without succumbing to the serious affects of “Falcon-Neck” as we all refer to it as),, the photos show the coloured tape that we put over their USFW silver leg band to help us identify them at distance.
I have also included a photo of Mark and I, as we have now been in the streets on the various fledge watches and running to the various banding events from Toronto to Windsor to Stoney Creek to Burlington to Kitchener to Mississauga to Pickering to Scarborough for over 8 weeks now. You can see that we are starting to show the affects of the 14 to 16 hours a day - seven days a weeks while in the streets on the fledge watches.
So if you one of us looking a little “odd”, or someone that looks similar,, have pity, its likely one of the CPF fledge watch team
Posted on July 6, 2014 1:14 pm
July 04, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
June 4th - 2014
I can’t think of a slower day, especially for fledglings that are now 50 plus days old!! Its been over a week now on the Scarborough fledge watch and we don’t seem to be any further ahead :-), at least with the two young female fledglings, - Tormey and Petra-Fire!
Petra was released back on the roof top today as she checked out healthy and fit after being rescued from the ground yesterday by Marion and Michael. Given that there were other fledglings on the upper roof elevation and fearing that we may spook the others into a panic flight if she was released at this time, Petra spent the evening in a carrier at security. A wise decision anyway, so she could be observed much closer to ensure that she had not been injured in her hard meeting with the concrete. A hold-over is always a wise idea to insure that undetected traumas don’t manifest. A final examination was completed prior to her release.
After her release, she decided to have a restful day sitting up on the roof top all day long. Her sister, Tormey also sat like a gargoyle most of the day having not left the ledge she had flown to yesterday. Even Loran spent a lazy day with only a couple short flights, but for the most parts all three juveniles and both parents didn’t do allot of flying at all. Can’t figure it out, it was a great day, much cooler from the debilitating heat and humidity that we have all been through this past few days!
There were constant cool breezes all day and what we would have expected to be perfect flying conditions for all, but this was not the case today. While the little fledgling male (named Lorne) is flying very good, the two girls have yet to take their first real flights away from the building.
Linn - (Mom) went after a gull today with some spectacular stoops and dives seemingly without any provocation and chased it clear out of sight to the south east of the nest building. Don’t know what was up with that, as over the past week while we have been on the fledge watch out here at Yellow Pages, both adults have not given any of the gulls any attention, even the ones that were flying only several feet above the building rooftop.
At one point earlier on in the week, a gull repeatedly stooped one of the young fledglings right in front of the adults, and they didn’t give it a second look and just watched the gull stoop the juvenile.
Otherwise it was a very quite an uneventful day on the watch for all of us. It was so slow today, we are all starting to count windows on the building to keep us occupied and awake 
We’re all going to compare window counts later on this weekend. Oh my goodness, HELP US STAY AWAKE!
We were joined by Patty for a couple of hours this afternoon who was able to get a few photos with her new 500mm lens. Michael also joined us for a short time today who brought out his 800mm lens to snap a few photos of the fledglings.
By 8pm, it was quite apparent that everyone was tucked in for the evening and absolutely no activity was observed by the time we closed the fledge watch shift down for the evening. We all departed by 9:05pm and departed fro home.
A big thank you to Dave and Bonny for coming out and helping us at the fledge watch today, and to Paul from Petra for getting us to the upper roof elevation to release little Petra-fire back to her parents.
Stay tuned, we’ll be back out again tomorrow…..
Posted on July 5, 2014 11:29 am
July 03, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
When and I arrived this morning Tormey way low on the 2nd floor canopy over the front of the Yellow Pages building on the north side so I set up on the grass across the street to watch her. Dave came shortly after and set out to look for her brother and sister.
Dave found both a few minutes later and both were high and safe so we settled in to keep an eye on Tormey while she walked back and forth on the overhang flapping and looking like she was not too happy to be there.
In the afternoon Petra decided to take flight and she flew out and hooked back to the building but missed the landing and fluttered down the front of the windows and landed on the opposite 2nd floor overhand to the one her sister was on.
Tormey walked around to see her and the 2 looked across at each other while people came in and out of the front door oblivious to the drama the fledglings were feeling above Oh my how do we get back up there to Mom and Dad???
Dave moved to the North west to watch Petra and I stayed with Tormey and there we sat all afternoon.
At about 1:30 Mom and Dad took off and flew to the south parking area to escort 2 Turkey vultures out of their territory otherwise it was a quiet all afternoon.
Just after 5 PM a new volunteer watcher came to help and I gave Michael a crash corse falcon rescue 101 and set him up on the south west side just in case Petra flew off in that direction and that way Dave and he could watch her and Loran while I keep an eye on the ledge wandering Tormey who could not seem to decide if she preferred the north side of the overhang or the south.
While she was at the south end of the overhang a cuckoo landed just feet from her and scolded her and flew off only to return and do it again twice more, I see why being called cuckoo is not a compliment to ones intelligence.
I was just after 6:00 PM when I heard Michael say that one of the adults flew off to the west after something and asked Dave if he saw what it was. It had a long neck said Dave I think it was a swan.
I began to get quite cold and Dave decided to head home so Michael and I positioned ourselves in the best place we could to keep watch over the 2 girls and not more than 20 minutes after Dave left Tormey took flight from the south end of the lower ledge heading west to the Investors Group building and almost made it but was just a few feet short of the top. She grabbed hold to the top window frame and did the bat manoeuver holding on until mom flew over and batted her off and got her to fly. She hooked back to the Yellow Pages building and kept her altitude landing safely on the 12 floor ledge on the west side that a girl Tormey I thought now stay the heck up there whilst I deal with your sister.
I walked over to her sister Petra who looked down at me standing below her and I said ok kid fly and as if in response she flapped her wings and her feet left the ledge a fer inches and she settled bank sown so again I said good girl fly and she repeated the process. Michael who was watching this came on the radio and said I think she is teasing you so to which I replied I think your right so this time I shouted FLY and I am still laughing because she did. She took off and hooked around the building to the south with both me and Michael in hot pursuit around to the back parking.
Michael said I think I found her and I looked up to whare he pointed and there was a falcon with her back to up high at nest ledge level. Great we had her and «I was happy but after a better ;look that was mom so I backed up a little and had a closer look at the east side and found her walking along the ground on the east side of the building heading north towards the street.
I asked Michael to get circle around to the right of her and get in front of her while a sneak up behind her so he could approach from the front and me from the back so that she would not be flushed into the street. This worked out perfect and within minutes I had her wrapped in a towel and In the rescue carrier.
I called Mark and we decided to hold her over in security and will release her on the roof tomorrow when there is more light.
I will try to get some pictures of her and the release and post them for you tomorrow!
Marion
Posted on July 4, 2014 9:43 am
July 02, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
There was not much action today until the afternoon feeding when mom and dad booth brought in food, each had a pigeon and dropped them off for the fledglings who were all lined up on the same ledge.
Shortly after Lorne took a short flight around the building landing on the upper level ledge and his sister Tormey flew up to try to land on the point of one of the pyramid shaped skylights on the west elevations as she has seen her mom do over the last couple days. Although she did get there she slipped off and caught the ledge just below.
A rain storm came in later in the afternoon and that along with a full tummy kept the chicks quiet and there was no more flights until the evening. At 8:00 PM Lorne flew off to the north almost to SHEPARD then hooked back to the Yellow Pages building roof top. His sister Petra then took flight and circled the building landing on the west side keeping her elevation. Lorne then took off again and headed for the Investors Group building where we watched him land on the top elevation where he spent a few minutes and flew back to the west side of Yellow Pages for a few minutes and them back again to the Investors group very well done.
Lyn flew in at about 8:30 and the other 2 chicks seemed to take that as a signal to settle down for the evening and they ducked out of site and went to bed, Lorne seemed to want to stay with dad at Investors Group so we left them high and finally dry and called it a night.
Posted on July 3, 2014 8:49 am
July 01, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
July 1st - 2014
All three high and now flying!!!
Well, its been a very busy 24 hours and apologize for the very late posting and update on my part. I actually fell asleep at the computer on Tuesday night and woke-up with the telephone ringing at 6:30am from one of the other fledge watch teams. Its been a long time since I’ve actually slept sitting upright hung over my computer!!! Talk about aching!!! I don’t recommend that you try this !!
Well, there is not much I can say at this point as its really old news now that a day has passed since this outdated report, and the fact that I actually missed the best of what happened with my having been called away from the Yellow Pages fledge watch to go and do another rescue of a down fledgling from another nest site out in Pickering.
The three hatchlings have now all fledged and aside of the usual bumps and grinds, they are all out of the nest! The two girls, (Petra-Fire and Tormey) have only taken one flight each - out and immediately turned and returned back to the building ledges), have both survived their maiden voyages!
Lorne, the little male is doing short flights from the various elevations on the nest building and starting to build allot of confidence. It won’t be long before he starts doing some much better flights. Linn, their mom, is withholding food from the two girls and Lorne is getting the lions share of the food for sure, obviously being rewarded for all of his efforts. The two sisters are constantly screaming for food, not two days without food!!
Talk about motivation by the parents!! Despite their withholding food, both Linn and Ruben are keeping a very close eye on all three fledglings, and I must say that they are really an experienced well tuned parents! They have really got their act together and really working well together in comparison to some of the other less experienced pairs that I have watched this season. As you know, some of the other nest sites have new mates (along with experienced mates), and although they all have been outstanding in their efforts at family rearing, you can still see a huge difference with an older experienced pair at family rearing.
A big thank you to Cathy, Dave and Marion for all their efforts today as they were the ones that were going a little crazzzy with most of the activity this evening during my absence at the other nest site.
I have attached some of the other rescue photos from this afternoon just to let you all know that I really was called away for another rescue. Sadly, we can say where the nest site is as we do not have permission to make the nest site public. The photos have been cropped to cut out the backgrounds to protect the identity and location of the nest site.
Stay tuned, more to come………
Posted on July 1, 2014 11:54 pm
July 01, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
Sunday June 30th - 2014
Well, today was one of those watching the paint dry days! It was hot and humid, and thank goodness for the constant breezes that persisted all day, right up to 8pm. Had it not been for the constant winds to keep us cool, we surely would have melted in the streets today.
The two young female peregrines spent all day again in the nest ledge again today with the occasional flapping and allot of screaming to their parents to food when ever they were in sight. Lorne, the little male fledgling who had finally been able to return back to the nest building yesterday after his disappearance, spent all day on the next column ledge over from the nest itself watching his two sisters. He spent most of his time sleeping, and getting two feedings by mom.
Much later in the afternoon, he was able to get one level up and ran the retaining wall ledge around the north side of the nest building. He visited his two sisters on several occasions and eventually got the nerve and dropped down back into the nest ledge itself and finally joined them! He never flew at all today.
By 9pm, the light was disappearing along with the overcast that was moving in, the winds died out and the three disappeared from our view down into the nest ledge for the night. Both adults were visible roosting on the upper north side of the nest building keeping a close eye on the juveniles in the nest ledge and they tooo bedded down for the evening.
Just to recap, neither of the two young female babies have taken their first flights yet. Please all, keep your eyes to the ground, as they were heavy at banding and most likely will end up very low or come to the ground as some point during their first few flights!!!
We closed the fledge watch down for the day and departed for home.
Posted on June 30, 2014 11:51 pm
June 29, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
Sunday June 29th - 2014
Short report today with the important stuff. The little fledgling named Lorne - (Blue tape), fledged this morning at 9am and didn’t do very well.. He took flight at around 9am and flew west towards the Investors Group building and was quickly turned around by Linn - (his mom). Lorne was turned around south on Milner headed back to the nest building but was unable to make any of the upper elevations that he was trying for and slammed into the west side windows of the Yellow pages building, and bounced off back the glass and went into a spin and ended up falling out onto the middle of Milner Ave on the roadway.
Marion and I scrambled to dodge the traffic in an effort to retrieve him from the ground, but he ran south down Milner Ave, got some air and ended up in the small trees that make up the boarder of the Yellow pages parking lot and Milner Ave. We searched and scanned the small trees for over an hour and was unable to find him.
We resumed our positions, (with Marion on the west side of Milner Ave to be able to view the entire west and south sides), and I positioned myself on the north east corner to be able to view the north and east sides of the building, and waited for him to re-appear.
Back on the nest ledge, the other two juveniles remained on the nest ledge with little activity for most of the day.
Just before noon, Lorne finally re-appeared, not from the trees, but from the ground (obviously hidden in the scrubs on the ground below the trees) and bolted north up Milner Ave. With a strong south west wind, he was carried north of Progress on Milner and quickly disappeared from our view. For the next hour, with Marion in position watching the west and south elevations, I searched Milner Ave as I walked up to Sheppard Ave and back several times, but was unable to locate him anywhere. By tis time, Dave and Bonnie had arrived and they held their position on the north east side to watch the nest ledge and he other two juveniles that were still in the nest ledge.
Very quiet most of the balance of the day until just after 5pm with out of no-where, Lorne finally re-appeared high in the sky, with s strong south west wind in his face to give him altitude, he slammed into the upper aluminum roof slope - ABOVE THE ACTUAL NEST LEDGE,,, slipped down the sloped roof and fell down into the upper walkway above the actually nest ledge directly above the nest ledge itself!! He was home!!
Moments later, he appeared on the upper roof retaining wall ledge about the nest ledge. Wow, this bird has a very hard head to have been able to survive this second impact!!! For the next few hours, he ran around the retaining wall ledge and finally ended up dropping down onto another lower elevation, down onto a ledge cavity close to the old nest ledge that his parents nested in two years ago and that’s where he remained until darkness.
Linn, (his mom), finally rewarded him with a huge pigeon diner later on in the evening.
The other two juveniles still in the nest ledge got a small feeding throughout the day, but only one feeding all day. At darkness, all three juveniles were in view on the north side of the nest building and we departed for home.
Attila joined us this evening later on in the day and will be out early tomorrow morning to open the watch.
Stay tuned……..
Sadly,
Posted on June 29, 2014 11:39 pm
June 28, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
CPF Volunteer Reports:
June 28th - 2014
Hi guys. Well not a very exciting day in the end Lol. I am convinced Lorne did a flapping run, was momentarily airborne but remained in, close to the building. As he went around to the south side of that overhang he seemed to drop down behind the overhang ledge and remained somewhere on the overhang. After I did a walk around the back and scanned the lot, and buildings around, I resumed my spot on the west side.
I’ll be there Monday and will try to pop in on Tuesday also.
Sally
Posted on June 28, 2014 11:38 pm
June 28, 2014 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
Saturday June 28th - 2014
A huge thank you to Dave, Cathy, Sally, Alan, Winnie and Marion for coming out today to help with the Scarborough fledge watch as it really made it an enjoyable day (and MUCH EASIER) to keep track of the babies.
For the most parts, it was a slow day with the exception of our first to fledge that happened shortly after 6am this morning, when the first little peregrine - (Lorne) took his first flight. Not what you would call a spectacular flight as he couldn’t resist the urge to follow his mother - (Linn) as she did one of her many close fly-byes to check in on the trio in the nest ledge.
He struggled to hold his altitude as he flew west along the north side of the building across Milner out over the parking lot when both his mother (Linn) and his Dad, (Ruben) flew in beside him nudging him up as best they could. He was eventually herded by both his parents back around towards the nest building and eventually made a soft crash landing on the lover over hang just above the north entrance of the nest building. There his stayed for the rest of the day spending most of his time sleeping, with spurts of running around to the south, west, and north west canopy top where he finally bedded down as darkness fell at the end othe day.
The other two hatchlings were content to spend the entire day on the nest ledge, but not after causing me incredible grief in the early part of the day when I was alone, as there was only two of the three juveniles that were visible until after 2pm, when Dave finally spotted the third juvenile on the nest ledge. This only came after I spent most of the morning running laps around the building, while checking out every parking lot, street corner, and beating the bush to the east of the nest site building believing that the second juvenile had actually taken its first flight when I was distracted following Lorne around on the west side.
I had forgotten that this is a very tough nest site to do a fledge watch by yourself!
Throughout the day, Linn - (the mom), stopped in to the nest ledge and spent some extended time with the two hatchlings in some very tender family moments, while Ruben did many fly-overs around the various building elevations to keep track of everyone. They are very attentive parents that’s for sure!
Linn brought in food only twice all day, twice to the nest ledge at 3pm with a large pigeon and a second very small package to the nest ledge just after 6pm.
It was really funny, as the first food package (the large prepared pigeon) as dropped at the nest ledge by Linn for the two hatchlings and she flew off and roosted on the upper elevation just above them and watched for about 15 minutes. Both the two juveniles screamed at both her and prepared pigeon unable to figure out how to get it from the nest ledge floor into their mouths!! Babies!!
Linn finally broke down and flew back to the nest ledge and proceeded to beak feed the two juveniles with the pigeon. Sadly, the little fledgling named Lorne who took his first flight earlier in the am that ended up on the lower overhang above the sidewalk, was not rewarded with any food or his efforts and went without food all day.
It is funny (although not likely very funny for little Lorne), that mom at one point late in the evening, flew into the nest ledge, grabbed a small piece of food (basically taking out the garbage from the nest ledge as the parents often do), and flew around to a higher elevation just above where little Lorne was roosting, and proceeded to eat it in front of him! There was no attempt to offer him anything all day, and really not typical of the usual reward that many of the other adults do after one of the kids takes their first flights. Hmmmm, I can’t help but think that mom was not very happy with his efforts, or maybe the ultimate tease to coax him back up to a safer elevation.
Cathy was able to get some of really good photos of Lorne given that he was so low to the ground, enjoy….
A big thank you to Paul from Petra who was able to get me to the upper floors to take a look to the various windows at elevation for what I though was a missing juvenile when I had only two of the three juveniles for most for most of the morning!! Quite stressful when your missing one for hours, always believing the worst has happened, and looking for squashed baby peregrine on the roadway!!
Stay tuned……….
Posted on June 28, 2014 10:29 pm
