July 05, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
Ann Brokelman Reports:
Arrived at 4pm.
Saw Mira and Quest on the east side of nest building.
Mira flew to the feeding ledge.
Amora was on top of pink building and flew around.
Mira joined her and they played tag for a good 10 minutes over the trees before the apartments.
Saw a third juvenile join for a minute then took off screaming. Definately Blaze.
Quest never moved from the ledge.
She had enough lol
Posted on July 5, 2012 9:13 pm
July 03, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
CPF Volunteer Reports:
Don Mills report - July 3, 2012
I decided to do another check at the Don Mills site today after work hopefully to get more pictures taken of the family.
Arrived around 6:00pm and found no one at first.
Then a couple of juveniles came in from the north side and landed on the roof of Harlequin.
Because of the overcast and the position of the fledglings, I could not see the leg bands to identify them. But judging from the size, one very likely is Blaze since it is so much smaller than the other.
I heard some another falcon calling from the nest and was expecting to find the other fledgling there. To my surprise, it was actually Quest. She was having a great time preening herself.
Just want I was ready to leave, I spot Kendal quietly hiding from the rest of the family perching on a ledge of the Thales building.
Winnie
Posted on July 5, 2012 4:25 am
July 02, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
CPF Volunteer Reports:
July 2, 2012
We arrived at the Don Mills around 4:20pm Jul 2 Monday.
We immediately spotted someone was home in the nest box but due to the light, we could not identified who was that.
Then we followed the non-stop calling of two fledglings to the parking lot directly opposite to Harlequin and it was great that we found Patty, one of the fledge watch volunteers we met at the Yellow Pages fledge watch a few times. Patty was there for a few hours already, keeping a tab on the family.
We were able to located Kendal who was sitting on a corner of 240 Duncan mills. He was taking a break in the shade while overlooking Amora who was sitting directly across him on the 220 Duncan mills facing east.
While we were snapping pics of Amora (who must love all these paparazzi attention since she was doing a lot of poses and showing her bling), someone was quietly lurking around the corner of the same building. From the size of it and Patty’s note of the fledglings’ movements, we figure that this quiet little thing is Mira. Just when we want to take more pics to confirm, our camera battery died on us.
The two fledglings took flight almost at the same time. They were flying strong and far and circled around those apartments north of don mills road.
Quest just showed up at the golden building next to Harlequin at around the same time.
We did not spot Blaze during the time there but Patty mentioned that she saw him lurking around at the back of the nest building.
We stayed for about 1.5 hour and during the later part also met a gentleman who lives nearby. He told us the pigeon and hawk populations history of the area and some great stories about the amazing birds he saw when he was with MTO.
Winnie & Alan
Posted on July 5, 2012 4:18 am
June 29, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
Ann Brokelman Reports:
Tonight Janice M and I went to see the falcons. At 5:30 we saw Quest and Blaze on the east side of the 404. Blaze was chasing Quest and you could see him screaming. They circled the apartments a couple of times then we lost them.
At the site there was no sound at all. We decided to walk the building. 240 Duncan we found Amora on the east side facing the woods. She pointed us to another peregrine in the sky. Kendal was coming in with food.
Amora took off and flew after dad screaming. Janice and I watched an amazing ariel food exchange at the front of the building. Then Kendal took off with a juvenile chasing him.
We are not sure if the food was dropped by Amora or Mira took off after Kendal.
Amazing amazing amazing
Posted on June 29, 2012 9:44 pm
June 26, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
Ann Brokelman Reports:
Today at lunch I saw all fledged Peregrine Falcon.
Amora flew into the pillar with Mira.
Mira took off and flew to the top of the building
Then Mira flew over to the 220 building. Quest flew by and Mira went after her.
Blaze was tucked into same building just resting.
My final view was all three on 220 Duncan Millls
Posted on June 26, 2012 5:51 pm
June 22, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 22nd - 2012Hey Mark!
I have been by a few times this week, before and after work and always missed them! But went last night and saw the whole family! I first saw Kira then Mom, who Kira went after–on the building(240) and then she actually chased her!! Was lovely to see. Soon the siblings were there and hung out at 220 and Kira joined them. I got a few pics. Dad flew by late, with no food. Last I saw them, Blaze was in Mom’s favorite spot on nest building, and the girls were on the ledges at 240, along with Mom. Great to see them flying so well, tho Blaze’s landings were a little wonky! They really are beautiful.
Have a great weekend.
Cathy Karr
Posted on June 24, 2012 4:03 am
June 22, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
Mark Nash Reports:
June 22-2012
Murray reports this morning that one of his roving spot checks earlier this morning yielded good news in that all three fledglings were observed at the same time. 2 juveniles and both parents were on building at 240 and the 3rd fledgling was on the building at 220.
Looks like everyone survived the storms and torrential rains that we has move in last night.
The storm was a welcomed sight as the oppressive humidity and hot blistering air has been blown on down the road as we say, and its actually much cooler today.
Posted on June 22, 2012 10:53 am
June 20, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
Ann Brokelman Reports:
A tough evening with a very good ending
Arrived at Harlequin to introduce my daughter Julie to Quest and Kendal and family.
We enjoyed watching them running the building and doing some flying. All five in sight.
Amora was sitting on top of the building with Mira and Blaze going after each other on the next level up on building.
Quest and Kendal were soaring together above us. Beautiful. Mira and Blaze started to play touch talon and soaring and chasing.
Dean a neighbour from Harlequin was watching from his car. Suddenly the two youngster were chasing each other, one took off in front of Harlequin and one around the east side and right into the window. At this time we had no idea who it was.
Dean, Julie and I started to search for the youngster. Julie was checking the bushes when a peregrine jumped up and lifted up his wings at her. Julie used her iphone and took a shot and called for me. Dean called as well. It was Blaze.
He then flew very low to the ground and kept going across the parking lot and over the two road and disappeared. The search was on again. Two youngsters were seen then a third landed at the building to the west of the nest.
He was bobbing but landed ok. He then flew to nest building, lost his landing and dissappeared behind nest building. Note: That Julie and Dean were trying to following him on foot while I was watching to see if he came to the front. At this time he dissappeared from sight. Tracy arrived thank goodness and took charge. We located 4 peregrines but it was now dark and we couldn’t see the tages on the two juv. Tracy was pretty sure that one was blaze. We all had to leave as we couldn’t see anyting. But thanks to Tracy that he went down but was able to fly at least 3 times, his eyes ere open when seeing Julie, and preening on the first roof she felt he had a good chance.
Dean and Julie meet this morning at 6am and were able to account for 3 juveniles and 2 adults. Blaze was being fed with Mira and Amora was back on the corner building.
I want to thank Dean and Julie for their support and for their ability to follow the peregrines even as it got dark. The security guard who found a drink for us, the heat was horrible. Tracy who pulled us together and kept us hopeful and Mark who talked me throught this by phone.
Posted on June 21, 2012 3:05 pm
June 19, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
Mark Nash Reports:
June 19th - 2012
It would seem that for the next few days during this heat wave and the oppressive humidity that our two best friends will continue to our cars air conditioning and a steady supply of Advil - (pretty typical for most of us at this time of year anyway) 
Despite the heat wave and humidity reaching 36 plus degrees C - (over 95 degrees F for us old imperial folks), with the combined help of the many supporters, local volunteers, the great Harlequin staff and the CPF fledge watch team, we had a pretty good idea on the whereabouts of the young fledglings positions throughout the entire day and evening. They didn’t escape our view for very long! Ha Ha, we’re good!!!
Most notability today given that so much has been happening with the “kids”,,, they have learned - (at least in part) what shade is all about and have hiding out in some shady spots to get out of the blistering sun. Like most all young children (and some adults I have met), they have limited attention spans and even hiding out in the shade to cool off has been short lived.
Now that all of the fledglings are actually flighted, they have been back together again off and on all day. Several times Quest came in with food (mostly to the nest building roof top) and we watched all of the fledglings come together and had mom feed them beak to beak. Quite a tender family moment for sure!! * See photos
While Amora is still not as confident as her two other siblings in their flight, by the end of the day she was taking some longer flights from roof top to roof top between 220 and 225 roofs.
Mira and Blaze on the other hand are rocking!! Actually pretty scary given that they are now building up allot of speed (and still 50% of their landings are terrible)!! Learn by experience!
This is typically the time that they end up sometimes crashing into stuff (very hard) as they are unable to judge distances and don’t understand their speed and can’t operate the “air-brakes” proficiently enough to stop them in time. Lets hope that they settle down. This is similar to the 16 year kid, one that has just got their drivers licence and the keys to the parents car for the first time,, BUT the car is a Porch!
On three occasions today when the fledglings were hiding out in the shade and couldn’t be seen, Quest was back into the nest box almost appearing to be pinning for babies again. While she didn’t actually lay down, she just stood upright gazing out into the airspace.
(Maybe she was actually thinking and wondering when all this stress is going to be over and have a quiet time house - back to herself again)?
All of the birds were noticeably hot and panted all day trying to cool off and get oxygen. I really felt sorry for them as both adults really struggled for the most of he day to hold their altitude in this bad air.
Late in the afternoon and early evening, it got a little cooler (but don’t kid yourself, not by much), but enough to given the birds some decent air and less direct sun to do some flying around. Still bad landings, and allot of shortness of breath, all three fledglings were airborne playing some short “catch me if you can games”, and “tag your it”. Lots of recharging in between flights.
By the end of the day, all of the fledglings were back on the nest building in various places, but all in view.
Given by what I have seen today and their activities and ability to hold their altitudes and able return back to the nest ledge itself (and all of the upper roof elevations), we can conclude our full time dawn to dusk fledge watch.
We will remain watching with daily spot checks but must depend on you to carry on with periodic checks to ensure that they are not getting in trouble. They can still run into challenges as they investigate their new world and can still get trapped behind glass balconies and run into windows that may bring them to the ground.
We must also remember that despite the fact that the juveniles are now flighted, they are solely dependant on the adult parents for food, support and protection for the next 30 to 60 days until they are trained to hunt, shown what to hunt, then able to successfully hunt, and that they will still be returning to the nest box / ledge and the nest building and roof top for security and their parents protection. This is still their home, and at this point the only one that they know!
We are counting on your support (as are the birds) for your support to further watch out for them.
We are, and remain on our mobile cell phones on a 24/7 call and not too far away.
Photos to come.
Stay tuned…………………………
Posted on June 20, 2012 3:01 pm
June 19, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
Mark Nash Reports:
June 19th - 2012
Murray reports at 7:30 am this morning that all three siblings are together on the roof of 225 and sharing some stories of their ordeals and experiences! Amora certainly has a story to tell her brother and sister from last night given her ordeal with “Human”!
Cathy reports around 8:30 am that Quest flew in to the rooftop of 225 with food and the three fledglings and mom has breakfast together. (Well sort of, as the three fledglings had breakfast)! A very loud screaming noisy event indeed!!
These final photos of Amora’s examination just prior to her release were taken by Cathy Kerr.
Thanks for sharing these with us, and for everyone that assisted in both her rescue and release last night.
Stay tuned………
Posted on June 19, 2012 10:06 am
