June 27, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
Sally reports:
We arrived this morning to find Flynn two ledges higher than where we left her last night. Fantastic! Did a walk and drive about to see if we could see Logan but no luck (we remain hopefull the parents know where his is and we see him this week).
Returning from our Logan search, we found Flynn on the Intel building across from where we’d last seen her, but, she was lower and definitely wouldn’t be fed that low. We checked her for a full crop but no, definitely hadn’t been fed a big breakfast before we arrived. After a couple of hours, with the heat rising, and Flynn hunkered down in a tiny patch of shade, we headed out to get lunch.
When we returned she was still there, screaming for food whenever a parent flew over. She eventually flew over to the Good Life parking garage roof, a little higher, and when she finally flew over the large parking lot, to her nest building, it was quite a nice high flight. If she’d landed successfully she would have been high enough for a rewarding feed. It was windy though, and Flynn didn’t pull up and consequently hit a window quite hard. Too hard to drop to the ledge and stay put. She rebounded and flew around to a much low ledge. Damn. Too low to be fed.
She also stayed there for a long time, and had us a little worried because it was a while before we saw her stretch her wings after her window smack. She ran back and forth whenever she saw the parents, and eventually attempted to fly but literally flapped to the ground. Cathy almost had her but she flapped and ran into an alcove and Cathy scooped her up. She hissed and bit through the towel which was a good sign (still had some sass!). Into the carrier she went. OK, roof top much better than a very low ledge, and the easiest roof for us to access was the old nest building. We didn’t expect to see her hop up on the roof ledge before close. We just hope she’s reunited with her parents and gets fed.
I can’t believe it’s “only” day 3 of this fledge watch. It feels much longer, probably because we’ve had very long days and closed the last two days worried. We also have a new female at this site to observe, very young (her first year as a mom) and Chester is deferring to a new partner. I think Cathy and I have been fledge watching about 10 years, but we have been fortunate that this site has had the same pair until this year. Gone is the usual predictable behaviour of the adult pair.
Thanks as always to the security staff at this site who have been so very supportive, and escorted us up to the roof today.
Come home Logan, wherever you are, and fingers crossed for Flynn.
Posted on June 28, 2021 12:02 am
June 26, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
Many thanks to my friend and fledge watch buddy Sally for writing up tonights report!
Sally reports:
Cathy and I arrived by 8am, resigning ourselves to a long day and hoping for clearer skies than the previous day. Thankfully our wishes came true. Very windy at times but clear overall.
Flynn was where we left her, still in the tree. A relief. Cathy moved to check the nest ledge and food was brought in to Logan around 9:30. All good there, we could both focus on Flynn’s wrestle with the pine needles.
After quite some time she finally moved UP to a more open branch, and bopped up and down in the wind, finding moments to preen and rip out the last remnants of fluff. Finally up on top of the branches, she could stretch her wings unhindered.
Alarm calling from parents alerted us to not one, not two…SIX turkey vultures, enjoying the thermals, and coming over our way and a little too low for Chester and Milli’s liking. Off they shot to “escort” the curious visitors out of Amexon building site. It worked for a little while but back came two, persistent and very low. Lower than the roof building and making for the nest ledge! That brought the parents back over and Cathy joined them below, yelling up at them to “get away! stop that!” Which subsequently brought a passerby jogger out of the Eglinton sidewalk tree border to check all was OK (much to our amusement later, but apologies to Mr Jogger if he thought a human was in distress!)
OK TVs off, all quiet (even the birds harassing Flynn). She eventually made an awkward flappy flight (literally a hop skip) to the nest building, hanging on to the wall doing “the bat flap” before coming to rest on a ledge below. Phew. Now if the forecasted storm came over she’d be safe on a ledge (lucky for us, that never happened but the wind really picked up at times and this no doubt prevented Flynn from attempting to fly across to another building). She screamed for food whenever she saw a parent fly over. Two days without food now. A very HANGRY juvie!
At some point we needed to check on the nest ledge. Mark and Marion joined us for a while and Cathy took the opportunity to move to the best spot for nest ledge watch. Nothing. We spent the late afternoon and evening taking turns checking the ledge, and walking around the immediate area where we saw the parents flying over. By dusk we realized that another accidental fledge must have happened. Turkey vulture spook? Crazy high wind? We don’t know but the parents made regular flights over a particular area and we closed the watch figuring they know where Logan is. As the darkness came we drove up and down our fave viewing spots hoping to catch sight of Logan. Fledge watchers always do stuff like this because we hate to not know! Even though we know by dark a juvie is tucked in somewhere, and you won’t hear a peep.
Tomorrow we hope to find Flynn on the same ledge, making a flight, and Logan getting himself out of a suspected pickle and accounted for. It’s not the first time we’ve closed a watch here with a peregrine in a precarious spot, but if Logan is like his half sister, Tardis, he’ll navigate his way home to a rewarding feast.
Tomorrow’s weather forecast looks decent.
Posted on June 27, 2021 12:46 am
June 25, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
DON MILLS/AMEXON FLEDGE WATCH: DAY ONE
I arrived to see a parent fly up above the next ledge to join other parent, and heard one of the kids…seems ok. But after an hour, I started to worry–I should have seen Flynn by now. She was up yesterday and looking good…please tell me she did not fledge without me lol. Both parents had mostly stayed put above the nest ledge-even when a heron flew through! Very unusual for Dad. But I was glad he let it go through. By now Dad had done a couple of unusual flights just part way round to the north end of the building and back. Hmmm. Two and a half hours and Logan finally showed his cute little head. But that was it. Now I was fairly certain Flynn was no longer on the nest ledge. Dad did another flight part way round and then back over to the Intel sign. Ok. Now I’m worried. I did a walk about, no Flynn on the ground or any ledges or roof tops. But I knew Milli & Chester knew where she was. Only I figured if she was high, one of them would be with her. I kinda figured she was in trouble… Thankfully Sally joined me to help look for her. I’ll let her tell the rest of the rainy, damp day…
Sally reports:
I joined Cathy this afternoon, for the rainy portion lol. We watched from our usual spot and eventually saw Logan pop his fluffy head up, seeming to enjoy the rain. Still quite a lot of fluff!
Cathy was concerned she hadn’t seen Flynn pop up all morning, and still no sign of her as we watched from the car while the rain continued. The parents were up high, and earlier Chester had flown out and round part of the nest building and back again, a few times. Cathy thought this probably indicated that the parents knew where Flynn was. We took a slow drive around the immediate area to check rooftops and back yard fences and gates, and all sides of the office towers beside the nest building. Nothing to see, so then we parked, grabbed the umbrellas and went to check the scrub and treeline that separates the houses, condos and office buildings from Eglinton Avenue and the DVP access ramp (near where Chester had flown over). The songbirds were quite restless in a couple of spots , including the hilarious WAAAAAHS of the cat birds! Cathy’s hunches are usually correct. She was positive Flynn was somewhere nearby. So we walked around, observing the agitated birds, and as we rounded the nest building below the cluster of pine trees yep, Cathy found Flynn. Yay! and Uh Oh! She was on a fairly low tree branch next to her nest building. Not far from the lowest ledge, but it was raining and she’d be wet and no doubt lacking in confidence to make any move. Hmmm did she accidentally slip or get blown off early this morning? Thankfully she seemed OK, just wet and not able to maintain a comfortable footing on the slippery narrow branch, causing her to turn around and do a side shuffle from time to time lol. We brought our chairs and umbrellas over and sat out the rain with her until dark. When the rain eased up for a bit, she fluffed and stretched out her wings, turned around, and around…checking out the views. Don joined us briefly and brought us some food. No food for Flynn alas, but we could hear the parents calling above, and saw them bring food in for Logan, almost right above her. We closed the watch, disappointed that Flynn didn’t come to ground so we could safely contain her until a roof release. Hopefully we will find her tomorrow safe and sound. Current weather report for that area is a brief dry spell in the morning.
Posted on June 25, 2021 11:49 pm
June 24, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
DON MILLS /AMEXON : Fledge watch starts tomorrow! I have been keeping an eye on these two, Flynn and Logan.. They really haven’t been seen much. Saw Flynn this evening for the first time on the ledge… Dad was flying over and that got her up lol. Logan was only seen (head shot only ) when Milli came in and took the food Away! Chester chased /went with her for a bit but then went back to sit above the kids. The pictures are from the past week or so… Flynn’s fluff is mostly gone,but girls fledge later so… We’ll see what tomorrow brings… The weather forecast is absolutely awful for the next week (rain)… Let’s hope they are wrong…
Posted on June 24, 2021 11:21 pm
June 09, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Marion Nash Reports:
It was raining just before the banding and the chicks were a bit wet and they had just been fed so the crops were just bulging full so the weight of the chicks are a bit over the real weight.
It was very hot by the time John Miller started the climb over the edge and repel down to the nest and Mom and Dad were on high alert stooping and yelling at him. John was able to quickly catch up the chicks and inside the building they were quickly banded and returned before both john and mom and dad got too over heated darn this climate change makes things a challenge sometimes.
2 chicks this year a girl and a boy.
the Boy named Logan weighed in at whopping 720 grams his band number is C over 19 and has blue tape on his silver band. The girl Flynn was a 835 grams a good weight for a girl her band is 05 over AB with red tape on her silver band. they are about 23 and 25 days old today.
Posted on June 9, 2021 11:03 am
May 24, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
DON MILLS/AMEXON UPDATE : I went up to check on how many hatches(2!!)and caught a feeding. Milli never looked up and kept feeding them. Snapped a few pics and Chester flew over, time to go! Milli then joined him and made sure I went down that ladder lol. Looking forward to banding
Posted on May 24, 2021 10:07 pm
April 17, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
Don Mills/Amexon Update: I have been observing new pair Chester and Milli over the past weeks. The last mating (that I saw) was last Thursday and this past Thursday I witnessed an exchange from the nest ledge. So, my son and I went up to the roof to check yesterday. When we got there we saw one peregrine on the roof and I was pretty sure it was Milli. Up we went and as soon as I popped my head over, Chester took one look and took off, as he always does. Thanks Chester, I got a good look at 4 eggs! I snapped a couple of pics and backed away as both peregrines were flying and buzzing us, tho only Milli was alarm calling. She was not impressed. Chester took off once I was away from the ledge(I somehow got a couple of pics of them, not great but..) but Milli stayed, calling until we were down the ladder. All was quiet when we left. So, hatch in about a month, more or less. My son and I will be watching for the little fluff balls then.
Posted on April 18, 2021 4:53 pm
March 30, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
Don Mills /Amexon : There’s a new girl in town… Meet Millidarry, banded Z/25 at OPG 2018. We will call her Milli. She’s young, this may be her first clutch.. Will she remain? Be successful? Time will tell… Just have a few pics for now but will be keeping you updated…. Stay tuned
Posted on March 30, 2021 11:17 pm
March 30, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
Don Mills /Amexon update : Big changes… And I am heartbroken to say that resident female Jenna has been replaced . As it happens in the peregrine world, a younger female has ousted her(next post is about her). I saw Jenna last Thursday at the nest. My last pictures of her. I drove by before work again yesterday morning, snapped some pics of them and headed to work. When I checked them, I had two banded peregrines. Jenna was unbanded. I have watched her since this nest was discovered (my first year volunteering). She was fierce, beautiful, a great mom(her son Lucky resides at Bloor /Islington for one), and a wonderful mate to Chester. They are all wonderful but she was special to me. She will be missed.
Posted on March 30, 2021 11:13 pm
March 20, 2021 - Toronto - Don Mills and Eglinton - Amexon
Cathy Kerr Reports:
I have been watching Jenna & Chester over the winter and they are doing great! And for the past 10 days I have seen mating happening!! Exciting! When I stopped by yesterday I even got a few pics lol. Lets hope for eggs soon
Posted on March 21, 2021 6:26 pm
