Ann Reports
10:00 to 1:00 shift
excellent flights, 9+ on her landings,tucked on back of ledge 240 building. quest brought her food and then down again.
both adults hunting together over valley
Sunday July 10th - 2011 - PM watch report:
By 9:15pm this evening, Baby H had settled down for the evening, resting on the upper ledge of 240 Duncan Mill Rd building quite obviously pooped out with the days activities. During her late afternoon and early evening antics, she made more than seven short flights from building to building without any problems, gaining altitude from the 5th and 6th floor ledges to the upper roof of the 225 Duncan mill road - (the Harlequin building roof top). This roof top is 10 plus floors in elevation. Quest and Kendal were with her (or should I say almost on top of her during most of the flights), and are incredible parents, especially given that they are new parents!
I must add, that after more than 17 years of fledge watching in the streets - (and at many different nest sites), Quest is one tough parent, and certainly a demanding sot! I have NEVER seen a more “nagging” parent, as Quest constantly pursues Kendal around vocalizing at him during most of the daylight hours!! Even the other fledge watch team members have all come and asked us what on earth does Quest want of Kendal????
She is screaming, pursuing and chasing him all the time even after he brings in food!!! This poor little guy never gets any piece and quiet!! Well, what can I say, family rearing is a demanding job,, and the female falcon wears the “feathers” in the family and its obvious that she feels that she needs to keep him on his toes and is making sure that he is attentive at all times!!
WOW, is she keeping him on his toes!!! Oh my goodness!! Is she a nag!!!
Marion and I closed the watch for the day just after 9:30 pm feeling very good about what had been reported by the fledge watch team from earlier events of the day, and very satisfied with Baby H’s progress during the evening watch. She is doing very well indeed, and obviously benefiting from not having any siblings to compete with for her parents attention!!
The low rise office buildings surrounding this nest site with all of the easy to access ledges are a great benefit both Baby H and the parents. It is also a huge benefit to us doing the fledge watch.
The availability of empty parking lots and open unobstructed air space around the three main buildings is very accommodating and makes this fledge watch a very easy process. There is absolutely no weekend traffic and the area is very quiet indeed! Makes for a very stress free watch in comparison to most of the other fledge watches were involved in.
Quest and Kendal are outstanding parents and are staying tight to Baby H.
Saturday July 9th - 5am report
Took over from Anne B & Carol @ 1430 Hrs. Quest @ Nest Tray, Harlie @ East End of Building in some shade. Had around 2 hours of peace & quiet and then Quest flew low past Harley and then looped around to land @ roof level and then called to wake up Harley, and boy did she ever wake her up. For the next 15 to 20 minutes this girl vocalized she was faint w/hunger, all her feathers were be slowly pulled out one by one etc etc. Meanwhile Mom had gone & got a food package & after eating a little herself brought the rest in for Harlie.
After that, there was around 4pm or so hours of flapping (Good Coordination, a little lift) disappearing around the East Corner. The determining factor was that the adult/s (Quest) were absent until the last feeding @ around 2000 Hrs. After this Harley went over to a column in the middle of the building and laid down facing inward. (Yahoo, an early night). Around 1/2 hour later a TTC Bus w/noisy brakes had her up again and finally around 2130 Hrs she had settled on one of the concrete pieces sticking out of the middle of the building. I left soon after that @ 2140-2145 Hrs releaved by Mark and Marion,, and Dennis and Gwen who came in from Windsor Ontario - (CPF chaptor coordinators from the Windsor Ontario nest site).
Thanx
Bruce Massey
Sent from my Black Berry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
<
Murray and I did 2 drive byes yesterday (Sat July 9) before arriving at 2:30 ish to help out with the fledge watch. At 2:18 we watched nervously as she did her second flight. A little scary, but definitely exciting. We were worried she was going to go in the valley, but she turned around and mommy Quest and daddy Kendall were in the vicinity watching. Very awkward landing, but ok.. Have learned lots of info from Mark and Marion of the CPF and Bruce the bird man. Stayed till approx 8:15pm after all of the birds seemed to settle down for the evening and met lots of wonderful dedicated people.
Will be back tomorrow!!
Debbie & Murray
Today at the watch Harlie decided it was time to test my nerves. Both Debbie and I are still shaking.
First thing first. Thank you To the Canadian Peregrine Foundation and all their fledge volunteers who do this day after day after day, year after year. You have nerves of steel and man I admire the lot of you. Mark Marion Bruce Tracy Frank Lyn and Kathy (the only ones I know) you are totally amazing. Thank you thank you thank you.
I arrived today at the watch and Bruce and I enjoyed watching Baby Harlequin fly around the Harlequin building and then land on top of the building.
Baby Harlie was amazing.
Murray and Debbie arrived
3 hours later was a different story. .
Harlequin was chasing the adults on the Harlequin roof - even taking short flights in the air. Kendal did a food drop to Harlie and then Quest came and took it away. Harlie ticked off. She chased mom all over the roof.
Now come the time that apparently I screamed
As Harlie was chasing mom she slipped off and fell head first from the top of the building spinning around. LUCKILY mom and dad peregrine falcon were there to help her adjust her flight and change her direction and truly saved their baby. Now the fun part they started to chased the baby and the baby chased the parents, around and off around and off. Lots of great action and amazing flights by all three of them. Meanwhile I am standing there with my towel on my shoulder, camera off to the side and going OMG OMG. Goosebumps galore and man no nerves of steel with this gal. Bruce comes over and is laughing at me. Both Debbie and I were speak less (oh yes really Murray and Carol)
Bruce took my towel and waved it at me and told me I was fired as photographer since i forgot about the camera during all this amazing action. lol
So that was the end of my little adventure at the fledge watch today. I really admire all the people who can handle this work.
Ann
PS both Quest and Kendal are great parents - they lead and guide the baby all over the place. Could have been a different outcome if not for the parents. Great work mom and dad.
Again you guys at CPF are amazing. Thanks
I am off to take some Valium and rest for the evening. No photos today lol
Ann Brokelman
At the watch this morning from 9am to 2;30. Bruce took over
From 9:30 to 10:00 all 3 were on the building across from Harlequin.
Female calling for Kendall to get food
At 10am he took off and shortly after he sat in his normal corner by Donna`s office and prepared the bird for Harlie
Took it in to the nest box, and left and not seen again
harlie played with the food, pouncing on it, flapping the wings, going up and down the ledge. Finally settled down for a rest
Quest on building most of the day, every time Harlie went up to her she left.
After his nap he found Quest again and had a Harlequin moment. Oh so sweet.
Then took off to the end of the ledge at theother end.
From 11:30 on very quiet.
Ann
Toronto – Don Mills – Harlequin sighting – July 6, 2011 – 11.15 am
Harlequin was very active on the webcam this morning, running back and forth along the nest ledge and stretching her wings. On each pass she seemed to get closer to the edge, looking over, and on one occasion I caught a flash of what might be Quest or Kendal’s wing, encouraging Harlequin to make the leap.
I was able to capture a few screen shots from the webcam, one of which was Harlequin jumping off the nest ledge onto the smaller ledge at the right. She has now jumped out of frame completely, and the webcam is showing an empty ledge.
It looked like more of a jump than a fledge, but Harlequin has expanded her horizons nonetheless.
Photos attached (apologies for the poor quality – I was making screen grabs from the webcam)
Meg Langley Grainger
Kathy Smith reports today after spending some time at the Don Mills nest site today that baby Harlequin is progressing just fine and as we can all see by the Harlequin web camera, she is growing very quickly and will soon be taking her first flights!!
Quest & Kendal have been outstanding parents, as witnessed again today by Kathy’s observations of Quest as she tried to shelter baby Harlequin from the hot sun . There was some great family moment witnessed today with mom and daughter on the nest ledge!
We are looking for fledge watch volunteer support for this nest site, and will very soon be planning to hold the fledge watch training for all of those who are interested in participating.
Those that are interested are asked to come to the CPF web site and fill out the volunteer application form at: http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/volunteerform.html
Please indicate that you are interested in the Don Mills fledge watch in the additional information or comments section. Please ensure that you have left us your telephone numbers so we can call you back with details of the fledge watch training sessions.
We will be starting the fledge watch Friday July 8th in the later afternoon - (early evening).
Hope to here from you soon.
A quick spot check of the camera this morning has little Harlequin doing the same thing that most of the little ones at this age doing, trying to get out of the blustery winds, the direct sun and rain. Now that she is mobile and much older (and bigger) and can no longer be brooded by Quest given her increased size and body mass, the resident adults are not spending as much time on the nest ledge with her which is quite normal at this stage.
At this age, the hatchlings are able in part to better regulate their own body temperature, and as you can clearly see, she is very mobile and moving around on the nest ledge. She can move her position in and out of the sun, wind and rain allowing her to warm-up and cool down when she needs to. The thick heavy down acts both like an insulation from both the heat and the cold. Should there be any driving rain, you will see Quest back on the ledge sheltering her.
Both Quest and Kendal are although very close should any received threat present itself that would require their attention. Their parents in typical peregrine fashion, are roosting in a place that offers them a direct line of sight to the nest ledge, and as they have demonstrated on more than enough occasions, can get to the nest in seconds!!
You can now see Harlequins juvenile flight feathers clearly peeking out from beneath her thick down and you should almost notice a visible change on a daily basis as they continue to grow longer.
A huge thank you to Ann who is back from holidays and attended the Son Mills nest site this afternoon and send in soem great shots that she was able to take during her visit. Great shots indeed!
Stay tuned……
Banding Day!
June 21st -2011
We must apologize for the delays in posting the great news of the banding event that took place on Tuesday June 21st as we have all been busy in the streets with ongoing fledge watches and many rescues in the streets at several other nest sites. We are all putting in some very long days and late nights in the streets as some of the other fledglings just can’t stay of trouble and have found themselves at ground level in the streets needing our assistance to get back to the nest ledges.
We are still awaiting many of the photos to come in that were took during banding event and its going to take us a little more time to assemble all of the great photos and our notes to be able to do a complete posting of the days events.
This is a stressful time for us all with five different fledge watches on the go from the William Osler nest site in the north west end of Etobicoke to downtown Toronto to the extreme east end of Toronto in Scarborough, and several other watches in between. Its always very difficult to handle on-going fledge watches with overlapping bandings going on at the same time.
Please bear with us, as always, our first priority is with the young fledglings in the streets that are all at huge risks while on the ground unable to get back to their safety of their parents and the nest ledges.
In the interim, the young Don Mills hatchling of Quest and Kendal weighted in at a healthy 735 grams, banded today at 21 days old with a Black 54 over X band,, clearly identified as a female,, named Harlequin!
With several hundred people in attendance, including the Honourable Linda Jeffrey, Ontario Minister of the of Natural Resources, Donna Hayes the president and CEO of Harlequin, Harlequin staff, press and media, many CPF corporate sponsors and partners, our good friends from Rochester New York and many other invitees, along with CPF volunteers in attendance, it was an incredibly successful banding day!
Please stay tuned,, as there is much more to come with regards to the banding event!!