On Thursday, Mystery was observed with laboring body movements. She left the nest around 9:30 this morning to reveal a 5th egg! It will be a busy fledge watch this year and we’ll need all the help we can get!
Saturday April 2nd - 2016
Its looks like winter is back for another week, along with freezing artic temps and three separate clippers to come, all with snow about to hit us over the next 48 to 72 hours!
In an effort to get back out to do an update before the snow hits the fan and it gets really cold again, I was able to get back to the Scarborough Yellow Pages nest site to do get an update on what’s been happening.
Both resident adult Pefa’s were visible and in my view upon my arrival (on the upper rooftop of the building), but obviously no incubation was happening! Very odd indeed, given the blustery cold winds, snow flurries and wind chills!! I spent a good 30 minutes watching and observing the pair from the south eastern parking lot prior to going up to the roof. Both birds were roosting quietly on separate ledges on the east upper side of the building.
So it was back inside and up to the roof area with security to check the ledges. After checking all of the upper 8 ledges with no success (and no interest from either of the two resident adults), we decided to do a second-go-round, this time in the opposite direction to get a look at each of the 8 ledges from the left hand side. Remembering that there is a overhang that surrounds each ledge and its easy to miss something without taking a detailed look from both sides of each of the 8 ledges.
As we moved around to the south east corner ledges, we finally got a some attention by the resident adult female, (Linn who was easily identified by her Black 91 over Green V coloured leg band). Moments later, she was joined by her mate, George, (clearly identified as being George by his Black 54 over Green W coloured leg band). *See attached photos
Both birds spent some time scolding us, (along with the usual areal dive bombing) as they seems to be focusing their attention to us as we approached one of the upper eastern facing ledges. *See attached photos
A quick peek over top of the retaining wall to view down onto the ledge and the story (at least in part) unfolded. A sad story indeed!
*See attached photos
While I could speculate all day as to the potential causes, I just haven’t had the opportunity to watch the site over the past few months and without any recent history of events, it is impossible to say what has taken place and caused this net result at this point.
What I can report, is the obvious, while three eggs were clearly observed, two of the eggs were fractured with gaping holes in them, and all three eggs were dried out looking and almost pure white. There was no shine to the eggs, and they appeared to be sun bleached white. While Linn and George were quite territorial and protectant of the ledge itself,, neither birds ever attended to the ledge even after my visit.
I did spend 30 plus minutes down in the parking lot observing the birds behavior after my visit and both birds took up roosting positions on other ledge corners and did just that,, roosted. Again, neither birds showed any interests in the ledge with the eggs.
I can only hope that the eggs were from last season, and the pair have yet to lay eggs this year!
I will be back in a couple of weeks to do another site visit and hopefully will have some better news about the pair to report.
Stay tuned…………..
March 30th - 2016
As a result of my site visit yesterday, I am delighted to confirm that the resident pair are in fact tending to eggs and involved in full-time incubation. While it took some searching, I was finally able to locate their “new” nest location. While it is still on the 250 Ferrand Drive building,, the pair have changed ledge yet again,, and this time have set up house on the south facing lower ledge! *See attached photos
Chester was on hand (actually overhead) to let me know that he was watching my activity very very closely!
This could spell some good or some bad news for the fledglings,, depending on how it shakes out at fledge time! Now, the ideal place to be to observe the nest ledge is further south on Ferrand Drive, (at the Library). With spotting scope or binoculars the overall nest ledge is in plain view. **See attached photos
I have been out several times in the past week checking in on the activity at Holcim. Both adults seem to be favoring the old nest box in the heart of the plant which has made identifying the pair heartily frustrating. They are both out and active with copulation ongoing so eggs will be hopefully coming. The big question is where will the eggs be laid and who are the adults. I will be back out soon to try and figure that out.
This past weekend I spent a total of 11 hours monitoring the activity at King Street. The adults were both in and out of the nest ledge often during my visits and there were two attempts at copulation while I was there. Erin spent a great deal of time on the St. James spire, one of her favorite spots, and I was able to read her recovery band. She is black over red B over rotated D with a faded purple USFW. Stormin spent time roosting on the south roofline of 18 King Street and I was able to see his solid black 30 over Y.
Both adults were paying a great deal of attention to the north end of the nest ledge, preferring that to the bowl commonly used behind the pillar. At times Erin would go and lay down in the nest bowl and Stormin would visit her with gifts of food. While we are unsure whether they will produce eggs this year, they certainly are trying.
Yesterday I stopped by the Amexon site to try and identify the resident adults and the nest ledge of choice this year. The male was out and active all over the Sony and Infor signs and I was able to confirm his band number. His solid black Ontario band is 95 over Y with a silver USFW. This is Chester hatch at the Yonge and Eglinton site in 2011. The female was photographed by Ann Brokelman over the weekend and is unbanded which is consistent with Jenna who has been resident female for the past several years.
I stayed and watched for several hours but Jenna did not make an appearance. Chester was doing fly bys of several of the ledges and was paying no particular attention to any certain one of them. I will be back today to try and witness a shift change and determine which ledge they have chosen this year.
After MEC, I headed down to the William Osler site to check in after CPF received a report from Ross Bartlett of three eggs in the nest bowl. When I arrived, the resident female was on her favorite corner on the southeast side of the ledge watching her mate in the nest tray incubating the eggs. I left her there preening to hook up with Ross and security for access up to the mechanical room and the camera monitor. When we arrived upstairs, the male was in the tray incubating and four gentleman who have been working inside the mechanical area for the past week said that the fourth egg was laid today completing the clutch. According to these gents (sorry I didn’t get your names) the first egg arrived last week on Wed Mar 22nd.
What makes this all interesting is that I was on site last week on Friday attempting to identify both the resident adults and whether eggs were present yet. Security was very busy that day so a trip upstairs was not great timing. I opted instead for observations from the ground. On Friday during the two hours I was there, neither adult was anywhere near the nest tray and while the female looked ready (puffy abdomen with a dose of egg lethargy in the afternoon sun) I wasn’t sure and made mental note to return. So instead of focusing on the nest tray, they were instead focused on something out to the east. This had the male very agitated and active and I suspect this is due to the return of Hurricane from migration.
Each winter for the past three years, Hurricane the resident male, has migrated for the winter. After he leaves, Casper, the resident male of our Viscount territory just 5km away, comes and spends the winter with Chessie as his mate Claire also migrates. When Hurricane returns, he drives young Casper back out to his territory and life for Chessie and Hurricane returns to status quo. Add to that reports from Ross over the past two weeks of three falcons on site I believe that Hurricane is back and disruptions were ongoing right up to and including last Friday.
Who is the victor this year? Don’t know yet. What I can say for sure is that the male is banded with a solid black recovery band and silver USFW consistent with a Canadian born bird and the female is wearing a black over green recovery band and silver USFW consistent (but unverified) with Chessie. I will be back this week to try and find out.
Yesterday I was out at the MEC nest site in an attempt to get the camera flowing to the internet. A big thank you to Peter and Manny for your assistance in getting it up and running! From the mechanical room level I could see that there were four eggs now in the nest bowl, the same bowl used last year, that had them tucked up into the small blind spot at the far side of the nest box. The male was incubating at the time and the female was out on the Symcor sign soaking up the sun. After spending some time identifying where the problem was with the camera and initiating some help with that, I went back outside just in time for a shift change. While I wasn’t able to get a read on the female, the resident male is still unbanded so his origins remain unknown. This is consistent with the male last year that we nicknamed Renegade. I will be back in the days to come to get a read on the resident female.
March 29th - 2016
Its been a long while, but well worth the wait!! I received an e-mail from Manny at Colliers and MEC today with some very good news indeed!! In addition to the internet connection problems having been fixed allowing the web camera to finally deliver its live colour images out for global viewing again,,, the attached photo says a thousands words!!!
Four eggs,, two resident adults on site and in attendance!!
Life is good at MEC!!! 
March 29 - 2016
It would appear that one of two recently laid eggs has been broken 
Sadly, this is one of the typical results of an urban nest ledge,, where there is little to no nesting sub-straight base for the peregrines to dig out a proper nest bowl to contain and coddle the eggs in safety so they can be incubated properly. (Thus the need for a nest tray and proper nesting sub-straight)! But,,
For what ever reason, the resident female decided to lay her eggs outside of the nest tray this season, and as we have seen many times over the past 20 years where the peregrines have not used the nest tray, the results are all too familiar.
Once again, there seems to be lots of activity on and off of the Toronto Sheraton nest ledge, but the adults are not giving us any decent views of their leg bands and positive identification has yet to be confirmed.
