August 29, 2013 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Marty Jones, a birdwatcher in Indiana, posted this story about a juvenile peregrine that was passing through her area. It turns out that the juvenile is Miss Fran from the Kitchener CTV tower nest on her way south!! Her is what Marty wrote;
“I thought I’d share an interesting story about this juvenile peregrine falcon I photographed last week on August 24th at Goose Pond in Greene County, Indiana. The falcon had legs bands on both legs. The right leg band was all yellow and the all black left leg band read S over 29. With the band information, John Castrale, Non-game Bird Specialist with IDNR was able to help track down the origin of the falcon. It was found that when only 23 days old the bird was banded on May 30, 2013 at Kitchener Ontario (about 30 miles west of Toronto). The bird was determined to be a female and weighed just 866 grams on May 30th and she was one of three chicks in the nest. I calculated that this peregrine falcon flew approximately 552 miles and was only 106 days old when I photographed it on August 21st”
It shows how important the act of banding these juveniles is as we now have not only a resighting of Miss Fran on migration but we also know how far she has travelled, the route that she is taking and so much more. The bands will also readily identify her as part of a recovery program and protect her as she travels. Way to go Miss Fran and thank you to Marty Jones for this awesome story!!!
Posted on August 29, 2013 9:29 am
August 29, 2013 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Tracy Simpson Reports:
A few days ago I received an email from Barb Baldinger in Michigan that Gwenis was found in Allen Park healthy and hopefully a little wiser after entering a pigeon trap in the hopes of an easy lunch. She was taken from the trap to a local rehabber where she checked out very well and should be released shortly after some rest, food and rehydration. Thank you to our friends Barb and Chris in Michigan for taking such good care of her and sharing her story with us. Hopefully Gwenis has learned that there really isn’t an “easy lunch” in these pigeon traps and steers clear!!
Posted on August 29, 2013 9:10 am
August 19, 2013 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Harry Crawford Reports:
At 10:30am, I was showing Peter from Australia a few of our peregrine locations. A male was on the west side of the nest building facing in - couldn’t tell if it was an adult or juvie. In the next segment to the south, the adult female was visible.
Posted on August 19, 2013 5:58 pm
August 19, 2013 - North York - Nest
Harry Crawford Reports:
At 9:45am, I was showing Peter from Australia a few of our peregrine locations. We found the male on the north logo of the RBC building on the east side of Yonge. The female was on the north side of the Transamerica building just across the street.
Posted on August 19, 2013 5:51 pm
August 14, 2013 - Hamilton - Sheraton Hotel
CPF Postmaster Reports:
August 14th - 2013
Hamilton Sheraton chicks have both successfully fledged, and are doing well. Both turned out to be females, named Laura #1687-19646 S over 30, red tape; and Brock 1687-19646 S over 31, (although she tape removed the next day),, (uncertainly over Brock’s sex at banding so she got a name that would be either male or female). Brock was several days younger than Laura, and she had a bit of difficulty with her landings, having to be rescued twice before the Falcon Watch was done. During her first check up after her rescue she was determined to be female. Both chicks and the parents have been visiting the nest ledge over the summer, and at times the two chicks can be seen there although those times are dwindling fast.
Deborah
Posted on August 14, 2013 2:06 pm
August 13, 2013 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I stopped in to check up on Hurricane, Chessie and the kids last night in the hopes of finding the family hanging around the nest building. When I pulled in I checked all sides of the hospital, the nest ledge and tray, the hydro towers and the rooftop antennas but no one was to be seen.
Since the young have fledged, they have started to follow the parents on their hunting forays out to the west. We have had reports and seen Hurricane over at the Humber College campus and that is most likely where they all are. In the past few weeks, I have had only one opportunity to have the whole family at home just the once and I was able to get a picture of all three of the kids, Aura, Blizzard and Maverick, on the west ledge of the hospital watching the parents over at Humber College. They are all doing fantastic and I was so pleased to see them all together one last time before migration and dispersal sets in.
While I was hoping to find the family in it was still a nice evening at the William Osler site. It has been great news of late finding Ossie, hatched here last year, over at the Mississauga North site trying to establish a territory of his own. I look forward to watching the parents throughout the fall and wish the kids well on their journey.
A huge thank you to all of the watchers that helped out at William Osler this year especially Bruce and Winston. I’m already excited about 2014!!!
Posted on August 13, 2013 12:13 pm
August 13, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Over the past week, Bruce, Cathy, myself and a few others have popped in to check up on Chester and his family. I was fortunately enough to catch sight of Lucky at home and Bruce has seen AM-E stopping in to occasionally harass the parents in the hopes of a tidbit. It’s been great to see the family doing so well and it is in part thanks to the exceptional watchers out there.
With so many concurrent watches happening this year, we were certainly short staffed for some of the sites around Toronto. As with several other sites, there was a small crew at ICICI that held the fort and kept the kids safe from danger on their first flights. Cathy and Irma were the mainstays at the site this year and were instrumental in helping to run this watch. With help from Mark, Marion, Bruce and a few others both Lucky and AM-E are flying high. As with many of our other sites where we have an unbanded female, we will often give them names and at this site we wanted to give that opportunity to a watcher that was the mainstay of this year’s Fledge Watch team. Cathy was asked to submit a name for the unbanded resident female and has decided on Jenna as her new moniker.
Thank you Cathy, Irma, Marion, Mark and Bruce for all of your efforts this year on the watch and the many others that stopped in to help. We look forward to Chester and Jenna having another successful season next year.
Posted on August 13, 2013 11:18 am
August 12, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Well. On Friday he had two girls arguing over him. On Saturday he had one girl hanging out with him. Yesterday little Ossie was alone at the Revenue Canada building and seemed to be enjoying time to himself to sleep and do some feather maintenance.
Watching him I was feeling a little nostalgic and thinking about the fledge watch at William Osler last year with him and his sister. When he was just a juvenile at William Osler, he and his sister Tobi spent much of their time teasing one another. He being the older of the two would often take advantage of his sister’s wobbly growth period, sneaking up on her and plucking down off of her rump after which he would happily bounce down the ledge before she could catch him. He thought that it was just a gas! As flighted juveniles, the games between the two would get rather racous and it was always tit for tat. His sister would fly by him roosting on the H sign at the hospital and bonk him on the head with her foot as she flew through and in return he would fly into the ledge while she was sleeping and grab her by the tail with both feet, hanging on while she wailed and dragged him down the ledge. All of these games along with the training by his father, Hurricane, set him on a course to be ready for days like these. He has shown us over the past few days that he has the potential to be a great territorial male and boy does he ever look like Hurricane!
Yesterday he was quite happy for the break though, resting on the northeast corner of the Revenue Canada building on his own. As I watched, his head was swivelling north, then east and finally south towards the MEC complex that he could see quite clearly several kilometres south. He has learned well by the experience of his father that when the girls get into it, you just simply get out of the way. On this day he was doing just that. Out of the fray but keeping his eye on everybody around him. The MEC territory is the closest to Mississauga North whereas George St. in Brampton is almost 10km away. We still have migration and a whole lot of activity to come but we do hope that Ossie is successful in setting up a territory of his own.
I was able to get some pictures of this handsome young man that I do hope you enjoy.
Posted on August 12, 2013 1:17 pm
August 11, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Well… …um… Ok. That’s how we are all feeling these days about the Hurontario corridor. While right now we can expect that migrating adults, subadults and juveniles will be moving through shortly and that things won’t settle until next spring we are determined to at least try and understand who the local players in the game are. Note that I said TRY!!
Yesterday, Bruce arrived at the Mississauga North location and did a full walk of the territory to little avail. Sue and Bill joined him in the morning for some observation and there was one thing that they could positively ascertain and that was that the female roosting on the Revenue Canada building was confirmed again as Black 98 over Red E who is Midnight from the Brampton North territory. There was no sign of the male during their visit and he did not make an appearance until about 1pm in the afternoon. I started around the lunch hour at MEC, checking all of the buildings, rooftops, antennas and hideaways that I could and found no peregrines whatsoever. I headed north and continued to scan the buildings for signs of a peregrine and continued to come up empty. When I reached Bruce’s location on Avebury, he had Midnight now sitting on the Oracle building on the north side. We bundled into my car and did a serious drive about of the territory to the east and although we found some interesting high points where these birds could be sitting, we didn’t find a single peregrine. Back to Revenue Canada we went. When we arrived the female, Midnight, came in and landed on the southeast corner of the building where she roosted and preened for a while. The male came in shortly thereafter and the pair then took off around the building and north out of view. We walked aroud the building and found the female on the northeast corner but the male’s whereabouts were unknown. He came in shortly thereafter from the southeast to the northeast corner and landed about 15 feet away from Midnight. It was then that I was able to get a view of both his band and his tracking tape and identify this male. The band number on this bird is confirmed as solid black O over 8 and is a three character band. These bands that have a line dividing the upper and lower characters have not been used in a long time but last year, 2012, one was applied to a male chick at the William Osler Hospital and yellow tape was placed over the USFW band. This is Ossie from the 2012 nesting season of Hurricane and Chessie at William Osler!
He sat on the corner for a few minutes and then excitedly ran down the ledge towards Midnight who currently had her back to him. Her reaction was not “happiness to see you” as she raised her hackles and mantled. Ossie slowed his approach and stopped about 5 feet from her. Good choice. Midnight was very uneasy and unsure what Ossie’s intentions were and she turned to place herself in a launch position should things get serious. With Ossie now relaxed, preening and nodding off to sleep Midnight also relaxed and dozed a bit herself. These were the only two birds to be seen and the elusive Black over Green female was not sighted.
At this point, Bruce headed up to Midnight’s old territory at George Street in Brampton to see whether we now had a void there. Oh no we don’t!! Bruce found a male roosting on the overhang of the George Street condo and could confirm a silver USFW band on his right leg. Moments after our phone conversation, both Midnight and Ossie took off and I left to join Bruce in Brampton. Both Bruce and I scoured the downtown Brampton area and the only located peregrine was at George Street. We set up to watch the male on the overhang in the hopes of a peek at the recovery band. He was so high up and completely unwilling to share his identity but we maintained our position regardless. All of a sudden he began to bow and vocalize and in plops a female to the ledge!! She disappeared into the “cavity” on the ledge that was used this year to lay eggs (they failed to hatch) and out of view. After about 15 minutes of on and off vocalization by the male, he took off of the ledge and was soaring in lazy circles high above the territory. The female walked forward and I was able to get band colours only. Black over Red on her left and purple USFW on her right. ?????????? She was way too high up for a read of the numbers and so I cannot confirm who this was. I would just have to wait until she came down lower. The male joined her once again for another raucous chit chat before stooping off to the east and swooping up to the low BDC sign. Gotcha, I thought. I thought.
I grabbed my gear and scrambled over to the Market Square in the hopes of identifying the male. Nope. He was sitting too far back on the sign to see his leg. Grrrrr. I waited him out and got one fast look at his legs during a stretch. He definitely has a silver USFW on his right leg and a solid black band on his left with the lower letter being a Y. Is this Striker? I couldn’t say for sure.
So… here is what we know for sure… …Ossie and Midnight were seen at the Mississauga North location and both ID’s are confirmed. A black over red banded female and a solid black banded male were seen at George Street in downtown Brampton almost 10km away to the north. The black over green female was not seen today at either location.
While this will most definately settle out next spring but it is an interesting mystery in front of us nonetheless . It will be very interesting to see who sticks around after migration is over and the winter settles in. Those will be our early spring contenders!!
Posted on August 11, 2013 1:17 pm
August 10, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
With the possibility of a new pairing shaping up, Bruce made his way out this afternoon for a check of the Hurontario corridor beginning with a quick sweep of downtown Brampton. On the condo overhang he was able to confirm a single peregrine on the ledge that he believes, based on size, was female. He then headed down to the Mississauga North territory at Hurontario and Hwy. 401 to check on the pair hanging out there. Rob was fortunate earlier to get a photo of a falcon on the Revenue Canada building with what appeared to be bright red on its left leg. While this could be tape on a bird banded with the USFW on the left instead of the right leg, Bruce aimed to find and confirm by scope who this was and confirm the second bird as well. When he arrived, he walked the entire territory in search of the birds and none were to be found. I decided to meet up with him and help locate and identify the birds and we also planned to travel further south to MEC where we are now void a resident female due to the loss of Cass a few weeks ago. Well, the best laid plans went quite whacky after I arrived.
I met up with Bruce as a bird had just arrived on the southeast corner of the Revenue Canada building and was perched looking southeast. The bird sat almost motionless for quite some time and I was able, when it turned, to get an absolute positive look at the band and read it without any doubt. The band was Black 98 over Red E with a purple USFW on the right leg. This was Midnight from downtown Brampton???!!!! There was no sign of the female we believe could possibly be Alfrieda based on a partial reading of her Black over Green band two days ago. What on earth was this now???
After 15 minutes or so, in came another falcon and landed on the upper retaining wall of the Revenue Canada building on the south side. I heard him come in and vocalize and Bruce watched him land. What made this interesting is that at the time Midnight was preening and his vocalization actually caused her to flinch. She was on edge. We spun that scope around to get a look at the bird that we knew to be the male and could only see his back and right leg as he perched. We both confirmed that he had a USFW band on the right leg with yellow tape and that he appeared to be a subadult. The left leg was hidden and with it, so was his identification. The pair stayed on the building for almost 2 hours during which the male went in onto the sub-roof area for almost 15 minutes out of view and Midnight remained on the southeast corner. Midnight finally took flight and made a straight shot out of view. The male appeared on the retaining wall edge but stayed back just enough to keep his left leg hidden. I had him right in the scope view when all of a sudden he bowed. The female had returned. She landed just to his right and looked furious. Her hackles were up, wings held out and neck stretched out towards him. He took off like a shot and was out of view for a good 5 minutes before returning to the northwest corner of the building. He then took off again, circled back and landed on the southeast rooftop. At this point the female, still puffed up and aggressive looking, stepped forward and I was able to clearly see a Black over Green band but no digits were clear. What????!!!! In the space of three hours we now had two completely different females on the same face of the same building after the same male. The male took another flight off of the corner around to the female and this time she pursued. They both flew south and she took a shallow run at him that was not bonding but slightly aggressive. The Black over Green banded female continued south and the male circled back alone to the southeast corner. There he sat alone as the sun was setting looking off to the southeast with eyes as round as pie plates. He was so on edge that he was flinching at passing insects!!
This whole experience this evening has completely reshuffled my mental deck and so I will attempt to summarize for you.
Last year between Bruce, myself and Rob we were sporadically catching sight of a juvenile peregrine female. She was confirmed in the territory in May of this year and we were only able to confirm a silver USFW. The past few months the sightings of her on the Revenue Canada building have increased and she was now being seen much more frequently by Rob who was keeping an eye on her. I was lucky enough to catch her two days ago on the building and get a partial look at her band in the scope. Black 73 over Green ?? is what I believe her to be. Yesterday Rob had a second peregrine on the building with her and we set our minds to confirming who this pair is. Today, not one female but two were in the territory, one confirmed as Midnight from Brampton North and the other confirmed as having a Black over Green band that came from the south. It was very apparent by their behaviour that they are arguing over the dashing little male who’s identity remains a mystery for now. Given that we are coming into migration soon things will be unsettled as birds move through but you can bet that we will be staying on it and will keep you updated. Phew!!
Posted on August 10, 2013 2:17 am
