This morning I checked my email only to find a message from our great friends in Ohio - Chad & Chris, affectionately known as C&C! They attached a photo of a female juvenile they wanted me to ID - I was so so happy to look up her bands and see that she is Luna, banded Y/69 with Yellow Tape! More details to come as I get them…!
As promised, some pictures of Quest and Skye taken on Sunday during our visit.
The first three are of Quest and the last three are of Skye. Both birds were relaxed in the morning sun and comfortable with each others presence. As you can see in the photos, Skye is sitting next to the nest box and he has been accepted being there.
With so many of us still awaiting the status of Kendal’s condition, we have turned our attention to the Duncan Mill Road nest site to monitor Quest and her family. Recently a young male, Skye from Etobicoke Sun Life, has been visiting with her and hanging about in the territory. On Sunday, Bruce and I attended the site and were watching the pair interact and things have become much more friendly of late. When we arrived, Skye was actually in the nest box and was working on scraping out a bowl while Quest watched from two doors down. She sat on the ledge and occasionally stretched out to look in Skye’s direction. There was no discomfort, just curiosity. When Skye finally exited the box, he moved onto the ledge right beside it and Quest flew over to claim it as hers. She let Skye know that she was very much in charge of things and he was alright to hang about for now. It would seem that she has accepted his presence and the pair began to relax. Quest spent much of her time in the box preening, sleeping and housekeeping and Skye stayed on the ledge beside the box doing much of the same. All was calm, quiet and accepting.
We are unsure what the future will bring, or which male will rule the site, but we can say for sure that the nest site will remain active. We will continue to keep you updated on the latest news regarding Kendal, Quest and Skye so check back soon.
Pictures will follow very shortly.
Aug 2nd - 2013
A quick check in at the Duncan Mills nest site found Quest chilling out in her nest box where we watched her for over an hour preening and catching some quiet time in her nest box. The two fledglings are still very visible although not sticking as close to home these days as they investigate their new world no that they are fully flighted. We are still seeing Carina and Luna around meal times as they are still looking to Quest for food handouts, despite the fact that they are both chasing, catching and now killing their own food, (at least part of the time).
Despite the fact that Kendal is still in rehab and not around, Quest is doing an outstanding job in dealing with the situation and single parenting.
CPF volunteer Bruce Massey has been keeping an eye on the family to make sure Quest is managing to keep up with the needs of her kids without Kendal and has discovered today that Quest has a new suitor.
Bruce was able to confirm by the band number, recorded as being Black 50 over X that the new male has been identified as being a bird named Skye, who was produced at the Etobicoke Bloor and Islington nest in 2011 and is on site courting her.
We are still not sure whether Kendal will ever recover well enough to be released back to the wild but we certainly never expected him to be replaced so soon.
We will be keeping an eye on the site to make sure that this years offspring are doing ok and will keep you posted on how they are doing and on possibility of a new romance in the making.
Stay tuned………
July 29th - 2013
We have just received an update on Kendal as of July 29th-2013
Kendal’s doing fine as of date. Both eating well and holding his weight and still receiving medication for pain management and to prevent Aspergillosis (not uncommon in captivity if peregrines are under stress). He still has the wing wrap on, and he’ll have it on for a minimum of 3 weeks.
Kendal is being housed in a room by himself to minimize stress and keep things as quiet as possible for him.
July 22nd - 2013
Kendal’s Diagnosis:
Kendal suffers from a fractured left coracoid in addition to his right clavicle having also been fractured. The head trauma and swelling on the left side of his head, trauma to his left eye has since dissipated less than 24 hours after his admission and as of date, is no longer an issue. There is a tiny ulceration on the left eye, which is being treated and no longer a concern at this point.
After more than 17 years dealing with peregrines and having had to deal with hundreds of fractures over this same time frame, we have long since learned that in these cases, the coracoid fracture (especially for a peregrine and peregrine sized and smaller birds), that this is the most serious of his injuries. While far from being life threatening, coracoid fractures are not surgically repairable for small birds.
This particular injury could only be best described as having a permanently dislocated shoulder, one that could prevent full extension of the wing, and a huge loss of muscle strength and wing control.
As you know, peregrines are very unique in their flight set and skills, unlike many of the other birds of prey. Peregrines (and most other large falcons in general) have thick heavy bodies and very small wings in comparison to other raptor’s.
Other Eagles, Hawks, Owls and Accipiter’s have much broader wings, and many of these other birds of prey can both easily fly and stay aloft even in dead air, as their larger wing mass allows much greater lift and sustained flight. Peregrines although, (and other similar type falcons) due in part to their smaller wings and heavy body mass, need allot of assistance from air movement, updrafts and altitude to allow them to do what they do, requiring incredible wing and muscle strength and in particular, wing flexibility and mobility.
While he may be able to fly from perch to perch, (maybe ground to perch), we must remember that the peregrine is the F-16 jet fighter of all birds of prey, one that is a hi-performance open air dependant bird. They hunt from altitude, in the open air from above and behind their prey, utilizing an incredible muscle set and wing make-up to achieve this type of performance, one that not only allows them to both survive, but to be able to out perform the very birds its needs to provide for itself and family.
That being said, the prognosis for this type of wing / shoulder injury does not look promising. At this stage, for Kendal, only time will tell.
Our fingers remained crossed for Kendal.
Stay tuned…………
Stopped in on Don Mills on the way back from a meeting. Only had a short visit. First saw Carina on the ledge of 240 SW corner eating something large. Quest flew by me as I watched from Harlequin. I could hear a second juvenile calling from the back of 240. Just as I was going to look for the juvenile Quest came in with more food and landed on the ledge with Carina. Carina crop was huge but she wanted the food mom brought in. She chased her and grabbed the food. Quest moved ahead, Carina over and over followed her on the ledge. Finally she knocked Quest off the ledge and the food went flying in the air. Quest lost her dinner. Carina continued to eat the left overs on the ledge. At the time I left Carina and Luna were on 240 and Quest was on 220.
July 22nd - 2013
While it took some searching and the right timing, we were finally able to get a visual on Luna this evening. After speaking to Bruce late in the afternoon, (and getting his update on Carina which he had in his sights this afternoon), it was almost dark when Luna finally appeared, literally out of no where! It is worth noting that Bruce had watched Carina fill her crop with a large meal earlier on during his observations. He left Carina with a huge bulging crop as he observed her through his scope prior to his departure. He was not able to get a visual on Luna, but had Quest in his sights throughout his observations.
We spent most of the our early efforts locating Quest, and we finally found her, hiding out on the south side of the upper mid rooftop section of the Westin hotel, clearly hiding out of sight from the entire northern hemisphere.
As the diner hour moved in, Quest finally left her roosting spot and dropped down onto yet another lower elevation of the hotel and retrieved a large food cache (clearly visible through our bins as being a large white pigeon) that she had obviously killed and stashed at this lower elevation earlier on in the day. After she plucked it, she flew off to the north with the pigeon, with Marion and I in hot pursuit.
As Quest approached the south side of the Harlequin building - (just over the south side end of the rear parking lot), a juvenile suddenly appeared in the air, in our view coming from the east and started to chase and vocalize at Quest. After several tight circles with the screaming juvenile in pursuit, Quest finally dropped the food mid air to the juvenile, who had no problem retrieving it prior to it falling to the ground. Although the juvenile struggled to gain its altitude, it eventually landed successfully on the upper roof top ledge of 240 Duncan Mill on the north side of Duncan Mill Road,, (the sister building to the 220 Duncan Mill nest building).
For almost 15 minutes, the juvenile mantled over the food prize, all along looking around behind her screaming at Quest who had landed on her usual roosting spot on the north west corner of the Harlequin building.
As the juvenile finally took flight, we were finally able to see her leg band colours and snap a few photos. It was only after reviewing the digital images on the camera that we were able to identify the juvenile as Luna, as she finally exposed the yellow tape on her USFW band.
Luna flew around the south side of 240, than over to Quest at 225 Duncan Mill Road. She landed, than disappeared down into the lower roof out of our view. Moments later, Quest flew off south, then appeared back in our view and landed on the leading edge (north side of the Harlequin building roof top) with Luna at her side. For several minutes, Quest picked and ate some of the pigeon only inches away from Luna,, (who continued to scream at her the entire time). Eventually, Quest started to beak feed Luna for several minutes.
Quest then flew off to the north out of our view, and minutes later Luna took flight and followed her. Believing that the two had flown over to the nest building at 220, we held our position in the upper parking area between 220 and 240.
Moments again passed and the both birds appeared in the air again and landed on the north east corner of the upper roof top leading ledge of the Harlequin building. By this time, it was getting too dark to get any real decent photos of the two, but I did manage to snap a few before we lost our light altogether. As darkness fell, Luna flew off to the north east out of our sight, with Quest having flown off to the south out of our sight.
Sadly, the photos are not anything to brag about, but the poor lighting and back-lit skies made it difficult to anything decent.
(OK, most of the poor quality photos clearly show my novice photographic skill sets) 
Marion and I finally packed it in shortly before 10pm and headed for home to get some diner ourselves.
July 21st - 2013
A huge thank you to Bill acting so quickly in seeking out help for Kendal and for sending us his story and photos.
Bill Writes:
There was a bird outside my front door the morning after the storm. There are downed trees less than a kilometer from here. It must have been injured and was sheltered in front of my garden. When I came out of the house, the door noise startled it and it jumped about 3 meters toward the road. I phoned 311. They gave the number for TWC who dispatched a guy to cage the bird. It was then taken to TWC. The one thing mentioned was that the leg band looked like one of the “Duncan Mill Road Peregrines”.
As I looked around for clues as to what happened, I found a small tuft of feathers (no flesh) and there was no sign of other feathers or fur. There was no mess on my window either. The left wing seemed injured (but I know that can be a fake). It’s eyes were wide opened and facing me when I approached. At first, it didn’t move though I got quite close as I offered it some fresh meat. It didn’t move toward or away from my offering (Sorry! I learned that feeding is contra-indicated). Later it moved a little seemingly to face the road where there was very light traffic. When captured by TWC it struggled a bit but was quickly soothed and caged and covered.
Bill
