4 eggs laid and still waiting on a hatch according to observations hatch should be soon.
Last week security called to let me know that one of the Peregrine Falcons has been found dead on a ledge at 2200 Young. The photo sent shows the Canadian black band and unfortunately it’s Malik the adult male.
Believing there must have been a territorial battle I asked Bruce to go have a look and see if perhaps there was another male on site and sure enough there was. The new male is black banded so we know it’s a Canadian produced bird but were not able to get a shot clear enough to see the numbers.
Haven is down on 4 eggs and this new male is helping with incubation so we hope that the new male will be a good dad. Will keep trying to get the new male’s band numbers stay tuned.
April 22nd
Got a call from Oxford Property Management at Canada Square reporting a dead peregrine on the roof. Although the bird was in an area that is not accessible they were able to snap a photo of the bird through the window.
Unfortunately the banded bird is none other than Malik the adult male. He may have been in a territorial battle with another falcon and lost. We will be going out to the site soon to see if there are eggs yet and if there is indeed another falcon on site.
Stay tuned for updates.
I made it up to Yonge & Eglinton around 10:30am. Both birds were on the
south side of the RioCan building in that incredible wind. I’m not that
familiar with these birds but the female has a definite salmon flush to her
throat and chest - a beautiful bird.
I know you have all missed keeping track of your local peregrine families but there is good news.
We now have someone to help with the web site and can post all the latest news.
Here is a quick summery of the 2018 nesting season, banding events and fledge watch. If you notice that I have not posted any information about the Bloor and Islington nest site it is because the nest failed this year. O’Connor the adult female has been replaced by a new female who although did lay eggs they did failed to hatch. We are not sure if O’Connor was killed by the new female in a territorial battle or if she has moved to an as of yet unknown location, hopefully the later is true.
Fledge Watch
although the fledge watchers were kept very busy by the fledglings and preformed many rescues we are happy to say that of the 41 chicks banded this season there were only 4 lost and 1 injured.
1 of the chicks lost produced at the Burlington Bridge nest was very sick with Trichominiasis a protozoan infection too advanced to save and who passed during extraction from nest.
The Second loss was Gigi from the Mississauga MEC nest site who unfortunately hit a window and died on impact.
The 3rd was Sun from the Toronto Downtown Sheraton Hotel nest who had gone missing for over a week and although our watchers made a tremendous effort to find him they began to expect by the end of the week that he passed. Unfortunately he was later found dehydrated and starving he was taken into rehab but passed same day.
I also got a report yesterday that one of the fledglings from 220 Duncan Mill Rd. Was found over the September long weekend in Hamilton with an injured wing. It turns out it is Loki identified by his band number X over 85. x-rays have been taken and shows a broken wrist so we are waiting on a report from the vet to see if this break is operable.
One other injury happened this year to the Adult male Lucifer in Kitchener at the CTV nest site and has been in rehab. Lucifer had a broken with that was operated on and he is now in flight pen to work the wing, His mate Mystery managed to keep her 4 chicks fed and protected but this is where the 4th loss comes in one of the chicks hopped off the nest box onto the tower where he spent a day or 2 and disappeared he was never found on the ground so we assume he was grabbed by and owl during the night. Hopefully all goes well for Lucifer and he will be released back to his mate soon.
Banding Events 2018
We are looking for funding to buy bands for next year as the Federal government is not longer supplying them to the Provinces and the Province of Ontario did not budget for them. If you are interested in supporting the banding program and help protect our Ontario produced falcon chicks please kindy make a donation to The Canadian Peregrine Foundation. You can send a cheque to the foundation at 25 Crouse Rd. Suite 20 Toronto, Ontario M1R 5P8 or go on line and click our donation button on the front page of the web site at www.peregrine-foundation.ca Canada Helps.
This year there were several unhatched eggs and most of the chicks hatched were male. The weights at banding age for most of the chicks was also low compared to pervious years.
May 22nd 2018
Mississauga MEC
Female-GIGI
band Z21
William Osler Hospital
Male-Indy
band X14
May 23rd 2018
Windsor Ambassador Bridge
Male-Hermes
band Y59
May 24th 2018
Hamilton Sheraton Hotel
Male-Lawrence
band
Y50
Male-Ainslie
band Y51
Male-Gage
band Y52
Male-Lisgar
band Y60
May 25th 2018
Oshawa Lakeridge Hospital
Female-Ripley
band Z22
Burlington Lift Bridge
Male-Cooper
band Y61
Male-Jackson
band X13
May 29th 2018
220 Duncan Mill Rd.
Male- Thor
band X83
Male-TT
band X84
Male- Loki
band X85
Male- Velcro
band X87
June 5th 2018
Canada Square
Male-Petrus
band X95
Male-Bart
band X97
Male-Ricklin
band R14
June 5th 2018
Rogers Centre
Female-Diamond
band Z23
Male-Grand Slam
Band Z24
Male-Homer
Band X94
June 5th 2018
Toronto Downtown Sheraton Hotel
Male- Geoff
Band X15
Male-Sheraton
Band X92
Male-Sun
Band X93
June 6th
OPG Pickering
Female- Millidarry
Band Z25
Female-Candu
Band Z26
Male- Chadwick
Band R15
Male-Cobalt
Band Z27
June 6th 2018
Scarborough Yellow Pages
Male-Alfa
Band R16
Female-Sierra
Band Z67
June 8th 2018
ADM Mills Port Colborne
Female- Mongolia
Band Z59
Male-Brandon
Band X03
Male- Macaroon
Band X07
female-Red Velvet
Band Z63
June 20th
Mount Sinai Hospital
Male-Chase ( banded when rescued during fledge)
Band X05
2 other chicks not banded ( believed to be male)
June 27th 2018
Don Mills Amazon
Male-Professor X
Band X04
Female- Chalaza
Band- Z38
June 28th 2018
Kitchener CATV Tower
Female-Eos
Band Z39
Female- Sadie
Band Z40
Male-Monarch
Band X12
Male-Mercury
Band W92
There were also 2 Quarry sites that produced chicks as did the Mississauga CRH Cement plant but due to bad logistics this year we were unable to get the age of the chicks in time to band. Hopefully we will get the information a bit quicker next year and if we are able to raise the funds needed to continue to band your chicks.
I will post some photos soon
We will begin the watch on June 23rd. stay tuned for updates on the chicks.
June 12th 2017
3 chicks all boys banded. 1 of the chicks went missing just before banding perhaps it got pushed off the ledge by one of it’s siblings.
Male 615 grams banded X 78 named Jazz with blue tape
Male 650 grams banded X 82 named Taxco with red tape
Male 670 grams banded X 79 named Paro with Green tape.
All 3 seamed very healthy.
Photos to come.
June 26th 2016
Spot checked at 8:30 this morning and found 2 fledglings high at nest level on Canada Square and one at one at theater level having breakfast with Malik. All is well!
June 25th 2016
Today all 3 chicks had some flights in the morning and all 3 returned to the nest building. With the heat no one flew in the afternoon, not even the adults. As it cooled down a bit after 8:00 PM Louise was coaxed to fly by mom and she made a very nice flight to Rio Can landing on the same places the adults do then off to TVO following mom then back to Rio Can. Dad came in and fed Quasar but up until then no one had been fed at all too hot to hunt or perhaps weaning of the chicks was on the adults mind. It is time for them to come and get the food not have it delivered.
Symphony and Quasar were on the nest building and Louise was on Rio Can when we left them tonight. We will be winding down the watch now to spot checks and will post any interesting developments and photos we may get. We are now off to start the watch at Scarborough Yellow Pages and hope they do as well.
June 25th - 2016
The question has been asked of us repeatedly over the past 20 years and most forget the answers.
As fledglings, the young peregrines become flighted around 40 days old and often have to be rescued from the ground (among many other things, including garbage dumpsters, mechanical rooms, air conditioning chillers pools to name only just a few) and unable to get free and back into the air.
Inexperienced, heavy and over weight - laden with all of that excessive very heavy baby fat,, and basically lacking the confidence (and experience) to hold their altitude and stay aloft!
That being said, even after they have become flighted, there is still much to learn for the fledglings to be able to hold their altitude and actually stay aloft! Windows are a constant threat until they learn what they are, and able to recover from collisions and bumps into the office tower windows,, (this is of course if they don’t kill or severely injure themselves after these collisions). The good news, if they collide and survive,, they do learn and avoid these dangers down the road!! 
For those young fledglings that actually survive these window (and concrete collisions) uninjured, it really shakes the confidence out of them, and it usually takes them a period of time before they attempt another flight. Not all of them are eager to get back on the horse as they say!
Then there is the glass balcony’s that many of the fledglings get stuck behind (even after they are flighted, sometime weeks after they have actually fledged)!!
The good news is that we get allot of the calls from concerned folks and able to respond to do the balcony rescues. Some, as in this case,, (Pictured is Quasar from the Canada Square nest site at Yonge & Eglinton today) that has just spent over an hour trapped on a balcony behind the glass.
Sadly, the little fledglings don’t understand why they simply can’t fly through the glass and get free and airborne again! They do although eventually learn what glass is, but its a trial and error and learning experience that their parents really can’t teach them. They must learn many of these life lessons of survival themselves through trial and error!
In this case, Quasar finally figured out that if you use the chair arm to get higher, you maybe able to reach the balcony rail above the glass and get airborne again. And in this case, the owner / occupant of the condo unit was home (who took the photos),, and called the TWC, who called the CPF.
Quasar did get free all on his own!! No rescue needed on this one!
Unfortunately, this situation does not always have a happy ending like this one. While we have successfully completed many glass balcony rescues over the years,, (seems like we do several each year these days as so many more condo balcony’s are now glass, and so many hi-rise condos now) - before and long after the organized fledge watches,, some of the fledglings were trapped behind the glass balconies where the owner/occupant was away on vacation for weeks, and we obviously didn’t see the fledgling get trapped in the first place and no one was home to call!
Remember that even long after the young peregrines have fledged and holding their altitude,, they can (and do) still become trapped behind glass balconies weeks after we have finished the organized street fledge watches.
Some of these balconies didn’t have furniture that the young fledglings could use to help them get above the glass and off the balcony. In several cases, the adult parents didn’t see them either, and on two occasions, these young fledglings simply starved to death while being trapped behind the glass.
What a terrible way to die,, alone and starved to death! 
So, while the organized fledge watch maybe completed, (we can only stay so long and do so much),, the fledglings are still very vulnerable and we need everyone’s support to keep an eye out for them. Remember, they are just like young kids, with MUCH to learn,, and their parents can only do so much!!
A big thank you to Julia at the TWC and the owner/occupant who called in to report this (and for the great photos) that highlighted the situation!!
