June 24, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
What a great day! Could not have asked for a better one!! It started with Ann picking up Lilly for us and meeting us at ICICI building. We hydrated a very fiesty, angry little girl(we love to see them this way!!) and Mark & I took her up to the roof(thanks to Alan & security). Mark hauled her up, positioned her, took off the door to the crate, pulled the towel off(from a safe distance)and, with a very angry peregrine look, we were off the roof!! Down we went to wait. Not 15 minutes later, up she popped!! Mom was watching from the DeBeers sign-never made a move, just watched her daughter-yay!! Wingersizing like mad(happy to be out of that cage and home) she slipped off the roof and off she went–around the building and on over Eglinton Ave to the 411 building-to land on the roof there! Well done Lilly!! Within a half an hour, a parent had flown over and circled over her–then up popped Morgan! Down she went to her sister and a lovely reunion it was. Just beautiful. Soon Dad was over with food for his long lost daughter–she screamed, ran to him, grabbed it and popped down off the ledge to the roof to eat!! It was pretty quiet after that–tho Mom, Dad, Horton & Morgan treated us to some great flying, games of chase–such fun!! Of course until 8:30 ish when Lilly decided to fly off(Irma & I thought she was trying to get to her sister at Forester bldg)–she made it to the next building to the west, the OFL building. Morgan joined her soon after. Ann had eyes on both of them, but when I joined her, Morgan had just received a hand off of food from a parent and had split with her prize. Around 9:15 she decided to fly back to the 411 building(geez Lilly its getting dark) but it was a nice little flight!! Ann had enough stress lol and said goodnight so Irma joined me in watching her fly around the roof abit finally settling(we hope) on the north side and that is where we left her at 10:20pm. I am planning on being there at daybreak to keep an eye on our girl!
Ann took some great pics(thanks so much for sharing)–enjoy!
Posted on June 24, 2015 11:39 pm
June 18, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Mark Nash Reports:
June 18th - 2015
Some updated news on little Lily-Gean and her situation. Some very good news indeed, there are no life threatening or long term injuries, but a fractured keel will need some time to repair before she can go back to her parents. If you have ever had a broken collar bone or fractured ribs, you can get an idea of the discomfort that this little bird is experiencing with sort of injury.
The best news, is that just like any fractured bone, it will easily repair itself in a eight to ten days and will not cause her any flight problems down the road after its healed! The juveniles repair and heal very quickly in comparison to us older folks!!! Lol 
A quickly look at her x-rays tells the “inside” story.
Well, it has been a challenge at the Don Mills nest site this season, especially with all of the nest building rooftop activity going on. Sadly, with the microwave dish work that has been ongoing on the roof of the nest building itself, this has caused a number of problems,, especially that of the increased daily (and nightly) nest building rooftop activity needed by the technicians that have been attending to the giant Microwave Dish’s.
Unfortunately, one of these nightly disturbances was likely responsible for Lily’s premature fledge, as it has had both resident adults airborne in the darkness flying overhead in an effort to defend and ward-off the perceived human rooftop threats above and behind the nest ledge. As such, this is likely the attributing factor that had Lily was scared off the nest ledge to take flight in the darkness and ended up getting injured as she made a hard grounding and contact on the concrete in the parking lot.
Thus the need for her rescue and retrieval. Sadly, little Lily was that last to hatch, being four to five days younger, and much smaller, (and much further behind her two other siblings by virtue of her younger age). We know only tooo well, that this simple fact alone puts her at a disadvantage of having to compete with her two much larger and far more experienced siblings, now fully flighted.
Given that the young peregrine fledglings only have 60 plus/minus days with their parents to learn all of the necessary life skills that they will need to survive on their own once they leave their parents care, a ten plus day absence away from the parents and siblings at this critical time of the her training and development will have her at a huge disadvantage as you know.
It is unfortunate that we can’t do the same type of rehab with Lily and her parents that we did several years ago out at the Etobicoke Bloor and Islington nest site that worked out so successful, as the Don Mills nest building rooftop also has a similar very tall retaining wall that surrounds the entire rooftop that would keep her contained and from flying anywhere until she is actually repaired and physically capable to do so,,, allowing both her parents (and her siblings) full access to her for food, care and parental support,, but the daily and nightly nest building rooftop access by the Microwave Dish technicians prevents this type of rehab to happen.
We will be monitoring her repair progress closely, and hope that she will be cleared to be released back to the parents care before her time runs out. Her two other siblings are far advanced in their flights and doing very well indeed.
Stay tuned……………..
Posted on June 21, 2015 12:42 pm
June 19, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
Now that our little Lilly, after coming down out of the nest again, is in the “hospital” healing, we have suspended our full time fledge watch -we will restart when Lilly is returned to her family. Daily spot checks will be done to keep an eye on Horton & Morgan! Who are doing just fine thank you very much!! I was over there tonight to check on the pair–found Morgan right away on her favourite bed spot-upper level of the ICICI building! Dad was watching over her on his favourite spot on the roof. No sign of Horton. Or Mom. Until I checked on one of her favourite spots from previous years–there she was, over on the Forester building! I looked all over-no sign of the little imp, ugh. Suddenly Dad took off over to the Debeers sign–and there was Horton! He had chosen to try out the “r” to sleep on tonight–has me wondering if he will hit every letter before we are done!!
Posted on June 19, 2015 11:48 pm
June 16, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
I arrived this morning to find Horton & Morgan on the ICICI building, looking in. No parents. No eyes on Lilly–well except her siblings! When Dad flew in, Morgan pounced on him and Horton was screaming, so I figured Lilly must’ve got stuffed this morning! The security guard told me there was a lot of noise this morning–a happy reunion indeed!! Things quieted down–no sign of Lilly(she was resting after all her excitement from yesterday)-couple of flights by Horton but Morgan just kept hopping down to the roof and then popping back up–happy to see her little sister! Time for afternoon siesta! I was then joined by Sally.
From Sally:
Joined Cathy at her watch between 12:30-1pm. Lucie joined us soon after. Pretty calm afternoon, with periodic flights around to the roof of Icici/Sony -east side. around 4:30 Lucy and I were treated to some beautiful flights around ICICI/Sony bdg with Horton chasing his parents. He’s really getting the hang of circling, coasting on the wind, and little wing tucks. At one point it was like watching acrobats. Eventually we noticed a juvie on the top ledge of the south alcove. We had been watching for Lilly to appear on the roof but the flights distracted us long enough to miss Lilly come down from the roof to the alcove ledge. Lucy checked with her scope to check the band colour. Yellow. Yup. Oh hi Lilly! She had obviously been encouraged to get moving from all the activity above. So now we knew where to focus. Fun and games from the others had Morgan flying out west towards the Foresters bdg. Then suddenly caught in some sort of down draft. She was being sucked down fast and I won’t repeat what we all exclaimed. Parent to the rescue! An amazing swoop under and bump/redirect until Morgan regained control. Lucy found her and she spent a long time on an upper east ledge of The De Beers bdg before surprising us again at dusk, with a determined flight to Lilly’s ledge. Missed. Wheeled out and attempted to get back, repeatedly. Made it to the other building clinging like a bat. Back again, continually missing Lilly’s ledge. She almost made it but nope, bat flapped, slid, recovered and around the building. Yikes. At this point my friend Laura had joined us and came with me as we split up to circle around. Cathy had found her on a low ledge where she will hopefully be when Cathy gets back there early tomorrow!
—
Lucie & I left Morgan tucked in a corner around 10:15pm. Hopefully she will have a safe night and regain her strength and confidence for a great flight tomorrow! We left Lilly safely on her ledge, all tucked back in, and Horton on the Sony sign(his favourite bed) this time the “Y”!! Many thanks to Sally, Lucie and Caroline for all your help today!! Pictures will have to wait-time for bed-5 am comes real quick lol
Posted on June 16, 2015 11:19 pm
June 15, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Marion Nash Reports:
A quiet day here–Irma & Dick report that Horton and Morgan continue to do some impressive flying!! And they are continuing the sibling tradition–hanging out together!! Such cuties. At dark, Irma, Mark & I got our girl Lilly back up, not on the nest building unfortunately , but on the ICICI roof top, where we hope she gets her confidence and flies high! And lets hope whatever caused her to leave her nest after dark, does not happen again. Will tomorrow be so quiet?
Posted on June 16, 2015 11:24 am
June 14, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
It was such an uneventful, damp, rainy, dreary day! I arrived this morning to find the girls where I left them and Horton over on the nest building. Everyone got a lovely breakfast and then the rain came! So things went quiet. It stopped for abit, so Horton did a few fly overs to dry off, Lilly stayed put and then Morgan flew off around the ICICI building! When she didn’t come back, I went to look for her–found her on the second “C” on the ICICI sign on the north side of the building! Not bad for a second flight! She pancaked out, tired from her flight-glad I had seen her sitting up otherwise I might have mistaken her for some of Dad’s stash!!! It started to pour again. Yucky day for birds and me!! When it wasn’t raining both the flyers made some nice flights-tho Morgan tried to steal food from Mom mid flight at the end of the day, missed of course, flew screaming to the nest building, made the top floor and bumped the window ever so gently but it quieted her right down!! And there she stayed for the night. Lilly of course was still in the nest and Horton decided that “U” made a great bed last night and there he settled in. Home I went. Around 10:15 I got a call from Peter, a security guard at 150 Ferrand Dr-we had a bird down!! What?!! They were all settled in!! I went right over-the security staff had her protected–yes, it was Lilly. Peter said he hear a awful ruckus from the parents and went out to investigate and found our Lilly–many many thanks to him for saving her life!! It was a text book rescue, and into the crate she went! Unfortunately Mark is out of town tonight to come examine her, so she will be reunited with her family tomorrow night!
Posted on June 15, 2015 12:00 am
June 13, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
What a day!! I arrived this morning to find Horton on the roof of the ICICI building and one of the girls visible on the nest ledge. I was joined by Caroline and we waited, wanting to make sure noone else had fledged. And we waited. It was Morgan in the nest, no sign of Lilly. Irma joined us and we started a search(just to make sure). Three and a half hours later, Lilly flapped her wings and was in the nest the whole time!! Enjoying a lazy Saturday morning–lucky her!!! Things were pretty quiet for a while(they do enjoy their afternoon siestas lol). Sally joined us later that afternoon and then the fun started. Lots of beautiful flying by Horton-roof top to roof top, flying with his Dad(upside down even!), into the nest ledge–we were very impressed!! And so was his sister Morgan–so much so, she decided to try it for herself!! She kept altitude and made it to the ICICI building top floor!! Great first flight and she was promptly awarded with a meal by Mom(who first sent Dad off to get it immediately!!). She decided that was enough for her and there she stayed for the night. Lilly stayed put in the nest and Horton decided those letters on the Sony sign were just the best bed last night, so picked the “U” to sleep on tonight!! Looking forward to some more great flying tomorrow, as long as the weather holds!
Posted on June 13, 2015 11:51 pm
June 12, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
On Wednesday Mark & Marion got a call from our great security staff at Amexon that we had a baby down–right at the entrance to the nest building! They put caution tape around him and stood guard until Mark & Marion arrived–many thanks to them for keeping him safe!! He deaked Marion out and flew across the street, over the small park, cleared(barely) a fence and landed in someone’s backyard! There Mark found him, staring at himself in the basement window. Mark scooped him up, got him safe until we could put him back up on the roof that night. Unfortunately we were unable to put back on the nest building but we put him safely up on the sister building-ICICI. I kept an eye on him yesterday–he seemed to be staying put with Mom keeping an good eye on him not far away. I watched him playing in the rain today, flapping and running around abit. I had to leave for abit but went back at 8pm. And where did I find the little imp? On the “M” of Sony Music!! Mom was watching proudly from the Sony symbol to the left of him. This feat has taken his brothers at least 3 days to do in the past lol! We will be watching tomorrow to see if he can repeat it!!
Posted on June 12, 2015 11:32 pm
May 26, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Mark Nash Reports:
May 26th - 2015
Banding day!
Meet Lily-Gean , Horton and Morgan.
Lily-Gean - 680 grams, Female, 19 days old, banded Black Y over 94 - with Yellow Tape
Horton - 585 grams, Male, 24 days old, banded Black Y over 09 - with Blue Tape
Morgan - 820 grams, 23 days old, banded Black Y over 95 with Red Tape
It was a busy day for all today with the CPF out in the field again to day running from the Kitchener banding event at the Kitchener CTV studios back to Toronto to the Don Mills nest site banding.
You can see some of the video that John Millar captured with the new CPF wireless camera at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTZKmYVPdfM&feature=youtube_gdata
A big thank you to Amexon property management group for hosting the banding event today and allowing us access to their board room to do the banding, and to John Millar, our volunteer climber that once again braved the heat and humidity and the nest ledge and the resident adults as he scaled down from the upper roof elevation down the side of the building to the nest ledge to extract the young peregrine hatchlings, wait in position to distract the both of the parents until the three hatchlings were banded and then returned them safely to the nest ledge back to their parents.
Again a big thank you to Mark Heaton from the Aurora district of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests who was on hand to complete the banding in record time!
And a big thank you to Kathy, Erma and Lucie, members of the fledge watch team that were on hand and able to attend the banding today.
By the time that we got back to Toronto from the Kitchener banding, it was 30 plus degrees with a very high humid-X that was almost debilitating!! Both the resident adult peregrines were not only on site to “supervise”, but the resident adult female was waiting for us on the upper retaining wall ledge directly above the nest ledge as we came through the door to the access the upper roof area of the nest building. Kinda spooky actually, as it would appeared that she was expecting us!
Despite the extreme heat and humidity, John set up and scaled down from the upper roof of the nest building down to the nest ledge without incident and safely extracted the three young peregrine hatchlings, bagged them, and they were drawn back up to the upper roof via the duffle bag and a rope and were taken back down to the ground and the to Mark Heaton waiting in the boardroom for banding.
With Marion assisting Mark Heaton at the banding table, along with Guiomar from the Amexon Development Corporation, the three young peregrine hatchlings were sexed, examined to check out their health, and successfully banded, named and safely returned to John Millar who got them safely back to their parents without incident.
It is worth noting that during the hour long event while the three hatchlings were down in the board room being banded, as usual and planned, John remained in position on the nest ledge to distract the adult peregrines from realizing the their chicks had every been removed from the nest ledge. During this time, John notes that at one point, the resident adult female actually flew to and landed on the nest ledge, positioned herself only feet away from John and actually stayed with John for close to 20 minutes, (obviously vocalizing her objection to his presence), but completely unaware (and as planed), and totally distracted from every knowing that her babies were absent from the nest ledge.
At one point, the two were involved in an intense staring contest, where, if looks could kill, John would have been dead! As planned, when the three young hatchlings were returned safely back to the nest ledge, (and as John ascended back to the upper roof area), both resident adults were (at least in their own minds) left with the thoughts, that they had been successful in defending off yet another intruder and driving him away.
Just another day in a peregrine’s daily life at the nest, successfully defending and driving off all of the unwanted intruders!
By the time that we had finished and assembled in the parking lot, both adult peregrines were observed settled back down onto the nest ledge with their three young hatchlings. John also noted, that the resident adult female peregrine was not dawning any leg bands, (consistent to our knowledge of the resident adult female) and although the resident adult male never really came very close, we did see that he had a solid Black band, indicating that he is a Canadian produced peregrine. Sadly although, we were not able to get a clear identification of his leg band number to confirm his identity during this visit.
Stay tuned for photos. (There are allot of photos and video to edit and downsize yet before we can get them posted), so please bear with us …..
Posted on May 27, 2015 7:50 am
May 14, 2015 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
CPF Postmaster Reports:
May 14th - 2015
We are delighted to announce that we have booked and confirmed a banding day and time for the Don Mills hatchlings. Amexon Property management group has graciously agreed to host the banding in their executive board room again this year!
The plan is to meet on Tuesday May 26th at 2:30pm for set up in the board room at their sister building while we are setting up on the roof top of the nest building. - (bearing in mind that we will be coming in from the CTV studios in Kitchener Ontario as we are doing the Kitchener banding at 11am this same day, earlier on in the morning). As such we will be doing the physical banding at 3:30pm. This site requires a more complicated set up and procedure as the hatchlings are actually on one building, and the banding is being done in the sister building. Once again, a big thank you to John Millar, as he has agreed to do the extraction (he’ll also be with us doing the extraction of the hatchlings in Kitchener from the communications tower).
Because of the limited space in the board room where the physical ban ding is being down, this banding is closed to the general public.
Stay tuned……
Posted on May 20, 2015 10:35 pm
