I plan on officially starting the fledge watch on June 6th anyone wanting to volunteer some time please contact me at the office at 416-481-1233
and hour here and there can make a big difference and is very much appreciated!
Marion
June 1st 2016
They still have white fluffy legs and a lot of down but they’re flapping up a storm and running about.
Not long now 
It was lovely to see the photo on the CPF site showing Mac feeding a chick. I have still yet to see it whenever I’m watching! Need to have that web cam on all the time now! Yesterday he flew in with food, and Quest turned her back on him and totally shut him out. He stayed off to the side, and eventually crept over with the food. She took it, half heartedly it appeared, and there was a bit of a tug of war (quite comical) between the two. Then she flew off with it, probably to enjoy it herself. He stayed there for a while, doing what he mostly does when I happen to look over with the binocs. Just stare at the “step kids”. Then fly off. Too funny.
Sally
Saturday May 28th - 2016
Marta took a snapshot today of the new male Mac as he’s been nick-named, feeding the chicks and you can see the entire family in this shot!
This is what we have been waiting for! It appears that Mac, the new resident male at the Duncan Mill nest site has finally stepped up and is now feeding his adopted hatchlings, (as we know, Mac replaced the resident adult male Sky sometime after the eggs hatched), and although Mac has been providing food to Quest all along,, - remembering that he is still very much in courting mode,, this is the first evidence of him actually feeding the chicks. It does appear that Mac is under a very watchful eye of Quest as seen in the photo, with Quest standing just beside of the event obviously ready to jump in should things not go right.
It will be interesting to see if Mac will carry on with the fatherly duties, as it is the male that does most of the flight and hunting training with the fledglings!
Stay tuned……….
May 26th - 2016
Banding Day!!
A good day with two successful banding events today, with the William Osler Health care banding this morning and the Duncan Mill hatchlings this afternoon!
A huge thank you to Harlequin and to Don for all of their support and for hosting the banding again this year, we were joined by all to celebrate and be part of the 2016 banding!
A huge thank-you again to John Millar who was there for us again to descend down to the nest ledge from the upper roof area to safely extract the four young hatchlings for the banding, and get them back to the nest box, as everything went as planned without a hitch!
With Mark Heaton from the OMNRF at the banding table, all four hatchlings were successfully banded and returned back to Quest safely in record time.
Four healthy hatchlings, three males and one huge female hatchling, all four were safely banded, named, examined for their health and returned back to Quest.
Quest was in her fine form and on hand to “supervise” the extraction. Mac was also very visible, but remained at a distance most of the time, obviously confused about the entire event. Remembering that he is NOT the sire of the hatchlings and a young inexperienced male himself,, it will be very interesting to see how the balance of the season shakes out with Mac, - (the new resident adult male), who has obviously replaced the resident adult male Sky sometime after Quest laid her eggs! These hatchlings are not his!
Given that Quest has so far accepted Mac, (and he is in fact providing food to Quest),, it would also appear that Mac, has at least in part, accepted the fact that there are hatchlings and he has not made any motions to harm them, things seem to stable so far. It will be interesting to see if Mac will actually feed the hatchlings and later take the lead in the flight training of the four offspring?? As we know, it is the adult males primary role at fledge time to do most of the flight training with the fledglings. So far, Mac has not been observed actually feeding any of the hatchlings, as Quest has been very guarded over her young! Only time will tell!
So for the particulars of this years clutch of hatchlings,,
We have:
- a 685 gram male, 25 days old, Black banded Y over 25, with Blue tape, named Geddy
- a 695 gram male, 28 days old, Black banded Y over 26, with Yellow tape, named Achilles
- a 685 gram male, 28 days old, Black banded Y over 27, with White tape, named Jet
and a huge female, 965 grams, 26 days old, Black banded S over 54, with Red tape, named Marta
We have a HUGE amount of photos to process from the two bandings today and you must bear with us to get them posted. We are on the road and in the field again today with not much time in the office sitting down at the computers and the internet.
Stay tuned………………..
Off and on for the past few weeks there have been observations of a third bird in the territory harassing Skye and Quest. Following up on observations of our watchers there I decided to spend some time checking in and reconfirming the adults identity. There seems to have been a change.
Monday May 16
I arrived at about 10:40 and saw a bird I believed to be the male on the nest box landing platform. When I came back from parking the car it was not there and had disappeared for 20 minutes or so. The male returned to the same position after about 30 minutes of being absent however I was quite surprised when I saw it its had red tape on its USFW band. With the weather and strong wind that was causing my scope to shake and my eyes to water I struggled for a band read yet I did manage to get a partial band number. The solid black recovery band was W over 7 something. Those two alpha numerics along with the red tape that was clearly visible were enough to conclude that this was most likely McKinney, the bird I had seen on this territory in December. Even though I was at the rear of the building, it was quite evident that when the female showed up the males behavior changed quite dramatically. His body language was much more tense and he began to bow and vocalize at the female sitting on top of the Harlequin building. As I walked up to the front the female flew off the northeast corner of the Harlequin building with the male following shortly. I was able to get a partial read of the female’s black over green band and am confident that this is Quest. The other thing I observed were that the chicks were very well fed. One of them was so cropped up that it looked like it would burst. Some further observation will be required to see how Quest is taking to this new mate and how the family dynamics are. Unfortunately there was no sign or indication that Skye was in the area.
Tuesday May 17
I spent around 3 hrs. at the Duncan Mill nest site today watching the dynamics between the adults and confirming that the chicks were being well fed. When I arrived Quest was at the nest ledge and the chicks were all sleeping in the rear of the nest box. Saying that , one of the chicks walked up to the edge of the nest box much to the surprise of Quest as they are now getting much more mobile. Around half an hour later a male brought in some food. It was the male I identified yesterday as McKinney with the red tape over his USFW band. The food was accepted by Quest, taken in and fed to the chicks. He then approached the nest box but didn’t go in or on the landing platform. In fact in the 2 days I’ve watched him he has been everywhere on the nest ledge with the exception of actually going inside the nest box. He is also closely watched by Quest. At times I couldn’t see her up on the Harlequin building but I could readily hear her vocalizing nearby. After she left the ledge, there was about an hour or so where the chicks were alone. McKinney dropped in a couple of times and also went over to the Thales building and was seen hunting the valley. I found Quest nearby on the roof of 240 keeping a watchful eye over all his movements. As I left, Quest was on the nest ledge and McKinney was hunting off the Thales Building.
Despite all of these changes Quest is taking incredible care of the chicks. They are well fed and looked after as witnessed during my two visits there. Again there was no sign of Skye in the area but we have put out the word and are keeping an eye out for him.
Banding day will be on May 26 at 3:00 PM
Log onto the web cam that day for images - http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/Web_Cams/Harlequin_Don_Mills/index.htm
Please remember, until we are able to identify and fix the web camera upload challenges, you must manually refresh the web camera image page on your browser to get the new updated image.
The Camera uploads a new image every 30 seconds,, BUT you must refresh via your browser to get it.
Thanks to Don and Scott from Harlequin and volunteers and supporters Dan Gill and Donna Hayes, we now have the webcam back live!!
Although it is no longer streaming video as the band width is simply too expensive for us to afford, it does give new updated snapshots every 30 seconds.
You can find all of the live nest web camera links at: www.peregrine-foundation web cams menu page at: http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/webcams.html
The physical camera page can be found at:
http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/Web_Cams/Harlequin_Don_Mills/index.htm
Please remember, that we are still experiencing some challenges, and until they are fixed, you will have to MANUALLY refresh your browser to get the new updated camera image. The camera uploads a new image every 30 seconds,, but you must manually refresh your browser while on the camera image page to get the new image.
We’re working on the problem and hope to have it fixed soon.
I managed to quickly run into an office when I noticed Quest and Skye out on the ledge. Sure enough, eggs have hatched. I am pretty sure I can see two babies. Wasn’t able to see if there are any unhatched eggs behind the white fluffy bundle, they were huddled together like they usually are. Quest was just outside of the box, no doubt waiting for Skye to bring food
Sally Williams
Sunday March 27th - 2016
With no web camera to utilize this season at the Duncan Mills nest site, it’s back to our humble beginnings in the way that we used to get logistics and updates on the nest sites,, it’s back to basics,, - “time-in”, “get out and observe, take lots of field notes”. analyze later,, observe now
So today, while I was not able to tolerate staying out nearly as long as I wanted too with the server flu symptoms and high fever I’ve been dealing with over the past week, I was easily able get a decent view one of the resident adults in the nest box laying down presumably involved in incubation activities. At one point during my observation period, the adult did standup and appear to be turning and readjusting egg(s) and then laid back down to resume its incubation duties.
With no scope in hand, (I did although have a small digital point and shoot camera) and was able to snap a couple of quick photos to document the observation.
While I highly suspect that the incubating female is Quest, unfortunately, I was NOT able to get a positive identification or ID as the bird never showed me any leg bands.
I did spend some time searching the immediate neighborhood and all of the usual spots where the adults usually roost, but was unable to see a second peregrine throughout my observation period.
I attended the Duncan Mill Road site on Saturday to check in on Quest and Skye. I found Quest in the nest box doing some house cleaning, moving several pebbles around as I watched. She stepped out into view on the porch and I was able to confirm her band number at that time in my scope. A male was perched on 240 Duncan Mill Road and I turned the scope on him for a view. My initial look caught red tape on the USFW that he bears on his right leg. Knowing that this is not consistent with Skye, I called Tracy for a consultation. I continued to focus my attention on the male and was finally able to get a read on his band number. This male is donning a solid black recovery band marked W over 78. This is McKenney from the Amexon nest site hatched in 2014.
Last year, Skye migrated in late fall and Quest spent the winter with a visitor then as well. Lucky, at the time a one year old and also from the Amexon site, spent time around the territory with Quest until spring when Skye returned. Lucky then moved on to take over the Etobicoke Sun Life nest site territory where he is currently the resident male.
It is quite possible that this is the same scenario as last year. Skye has migrated for the winter and Quest has chosen to remain. A young male finds his way into the territory and spends the winter until the man of the house returns. We do believe that this is the case and we will look for Skye’s return in the spring. This is the exact same situation that we see at the William Osler site every winter now so it is not extremely out of the ordinary. The best news that comes out of these observations is that McKenney has come a long way from the young fledgling watched over a year ago by the Amexon team and is looking very much a dapper little man.