Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Buffy and Legacy Currently Not Incubating

April 27, 2013 - Bowmanville - St Mary's Cement

Tracy Simpson Reports:

I visited St. Mary’s Cement in Bowmanville yesterday to check up on the resident pair and whether they were in fact incubating eggs.  I met up with Ruben and we headed out to the area where the peregrines were expressing interest in possibly nesting.  On our way through the plant, we found Legacy tucked up on a ledge on the east side of the main structure.  There he sat preening away and I must say that he looks so much like his father Tiago.  He has that full helmet head and is incredibly dark.  We continued around to the coal silos and stopped to look for Buffy in the spot that I located her on my last visit.  She was not in the cavity at the top of the silo and we turned our attention to the clinker silos to the west.  Of the two silos in the complex that we can fully see, the one to the east which has an external stair is where I have seen the adults roosting and eating on each occasion that I have been monitoring.  A quick check revealed Buffy on the platform railing halfway up the height of the silo.  With both adults in view they are clealy not in any serious full time incubation at this moment.  Ruben and I discussed the likely possibility that the juvenile female that was out here on my first monitoring of the season may in fact have contributed to the pair not incubating at the moment.  A second attempt was possible as it was not too late in the season for another try.  I will be back out again to St. Mary’s to check in on the pair and I would like to thank the excellent staff at the plant for being such a great host site to Buffy and Legacy.  We look forward to seeing you again soon.

!!! Full Clutch!!

April 26, 2013 - Hamilton - Sheraton Hotel

Kathy Reports:

Thank you to Hanny over at BCAW for catching this great photo yesterday of Madame X and Surge’s 4 eggs!!!

A Great Earth Week Event and Three Falcons at Holcim

April 23, 2013 - Mississauga - Holcim

Tracy Simpson Reports:

I had the distinct honor of attending the Holcim Cement Earth Week event on Tuesday at the plant and spent time with the employees sharing the Canadian Peregrine Foundation’s passion for raptor species at risk with them.  In attendance with me was Oscar the Peregrine and Alexandra the Great Horned owl; I think they were both a hit!  After the event, I headed out to the parking lot and looked up to see a peregrine flying in from the west over the parking lot.  I grabbed my camera and took a couple of quick shots before this female in the air moved out of range.  I watched her soaring over towards Avonhead Road and so I decided to spend some time watching the resident pair, Storm and Caspian, as they continue to incubate a clutch of eggs.  When I reached my watch spot, the resident female Caspian was out of my view, presumably now on the nest ledge incubating, and Storm was not in the immediate area.  It wasn’t long before Storm came racing in like a shot and swung behind the silos low and out of my view.  I looked to the north end of the silos to see if he would make his way back around but what now flew towards me was a female.  ??????????

So who was incubating the eggs?  Before I could finish that thought, Storm came screaming in from the north and met the female in the air.  This was not “happiness to see you”.  The two tussled in the air for a brief moment and upon release of the talon lock, Storm flipped and grabbed her right by the chest!  The female howled at this contact and tried her best to make a hasty retreat to the north with Storm now hot on her tail.  ???????????

Now I’m befuddled.  I have lost sight of both birds and there is clearly no love lost between them.  I quickly grabbed my camera to review the pictures and you’re just not going to believe this.  The female I have photos of is…   …a juvenile!!  I know you’ve heard me tell this same story now half a dozen times but I can only tell you what I see and can prove with certainty.  I stayed on site and waited for the two to return but it was Storm who came back alone, made a brief circle flight above the nest ledge and then flew to the top of the highest peak on the main plant.  There he sat, for a while, until he was once again off like a shot to the southwest.  I waited again for his return and he came back alright…   …chasing the juvenile female through the territory and out to the east.  Again he returned alone after 15 minutes and back to the peak of the plant he went.  The peace lasted all of 20 minutes and boom!!!…  …off goes Storm to the north and out of view.  After 10 minutes he was back again and in pursuit again of the juvenile female out over Avonhead Road.  This last intrusion finally brought Caspian off the nest ledge and she was furious.  I now had three falcons in the air as the two adults escorted this pesky juvenile off the edge of the territory to the south.  Caspian broke away from the chase and beat a hasty retreat back onto the ledge and her eggs.  This time Storm stayed away from the territory for a good 30 minutes before returning to a smack down drag em out fight with a Red Tailed hawk, the hawk quickly deciding that Storm was way too enraged to mess with.  He stooped and smacked this Red Tailed a half a dozen times before trying to grab it by the face.  Fury times 10!!  The Red Tailed moved out as fast as it could get gone and Storm finally returned to the peak of the plant where he remained in position as I finally pulled away.  Phew!!!!!!!!

I have a lot of pictures to review but I can say for certain that the story of the pesky juvenile is being told at nest sites all over southern Ontario.  I will be taking a very close look to see whether this juvenile has bands and if conspicuous red tape appears on her left one as it did in Port Colborne.  I will also now be pulling out all of the pictures from all of the sites that a juvenile female has been seen at this year so far (William Osler, Burlington, Port Colborne, Brampton, St. Mary’s, Hearn and now at Holcim) and checking closely to see if we have a single bird working the lower province or if these are different young girls looking to make a name and a nest for themselves.  In Port Colborne, we believe based on the band configuration and colours that the juvenile is Lucky Seven from the Niagara Gorge nest last year.  If it is in fact her visiting all of these sites, she better take care who she chooses to challenge.  We have some pretty tough resident adult females out there and the males are taking her on as well.  Today Storm made his opinion abundantly clear and she was lucky that Caspian was otherwise occupied.        

Pictures soon to follow.

Second Attempt at Hearn Has Failed

April 23, 2013 - Toronto - Hearn Power Station

Bruce Massey Reports:

Peter and Angela have been working on a clutch of two eggs in the old nest ledge that was used last year and they have struggled over the past week to ensure that both eggs were under their protective care.  Of the two adults, it was Angela that was having the most difficulty arranging both eggs beneath her and often the egg closest to the edge of the ledge went uncovered outside of her wing.  Peter on the other hand was all over those eggs and worked for hours to finally get them both properly beneath him. 

With them having a challenging time positioning their eggs, I thought it would be prudent to head down and check on their progress and so I attended the site this past Sunday April 21st.  I found the nest cavity empty and both adults off site.  It wasn’t long after I arrived that the adults returned but neither of them entered the ledge to continue incubation.  I attempted to find the eggs with the spotting scope but the one closest to the edge was now clearly gone.  The one that was further back may have been present but I was not able to confirm its presence in the ledge.  What was clear without a doubt was that this clutch was not being attended to by either adult.  Peter was now showing an interest in another ledge to the left of the most recent scrape and managed to entice Angela to join him for a look.  He was his usual self in defence of the territory addressing two Red Tailed hawks, a Kestrel and a Cormorant.  I did witness the pair mating twice throughout my observation period indicating that they may not be done for the season quite yet but the bulk of the adults time was spent roosting and preening on the roof of the main building.  At the end of the day, Peter did make a spectacular attempt at a pigeon that was flying north towards the plant.  He made a direct flight out towards it and snatched the bird in mid-flight without missing a wing beat.  He attempted to carry his heavy load back to the main building but Angela met him out over the yard and tried for a transfer.  The pigeon was dropped and disappeared from my view and I don’t believe that it was recovered by either adult.

We certainly hope that Peter and Angela are able to sort out a good nesting location this year and settle in on a clutch this season.  Last year’s success has Peter rather excited to try and we will continue to monitor and update you on their progress. 

Niagara Gorge Pair On Track

April 23, 2013 - Niagara Falls

Tracy Simpson Reports:

After visiting the Port Colborne nest site last Saturday April 20th, Bruce and I decided to travel over to the Niagara Gorge to look for Diamond and Onyx, the resident adult pair in the gorge.  Vicki and Roger, our amazing watchers south of the border, have been monitoring the gorge from Terrapin Point and have been working hard to determine if the pair are nesting again in the powerhouse where they successfully raised young last year.  The mist has been strong and the light challenging to get photo confirmation from the American side of the Niagara and they have been doing a wonderful job.  In the series of photos that they have taken, one of the shots potentially showed the image of an adult lying down but the mists occluded the photo enough that it was inconclusive.  In another photo, the cavity looked empty.  Although we cannot see into the nest cavity from the Canadian side, we hoped that we might catch the pair moving through the territory and therefore give us a clue as to what they are up to. 

We headed up the parkway to Table Rock, parked and walked down to the retaining wall directly above the powerhouse.  We weren’t there but a few minutes when Diamond popped up onto the edge of the roof.  She came straight up from below leading us to believe that she was roosting just out of our sights on the face of the powerhouse.  I had been watching over the water and did not see the male and so we decided to wait for a while to see if we were witnessing a changeover indicating that they are nesting here or if she was just lounging on a familiar perch.  Diamond didn’t stay long before she took off out over the water and banked around into town.  We followed her trajectory as best as we could and finally lost her low behind some trees near the Niagara Casino.  We scanned all of the buildings and rooftops for signs of her but she was not in visual range.

Given that it was now after 5pm and this time of day being traditionally the “witching hour” when one of the last hunts of the day takes place, we considered the possibility that this appearance by Diamond could possibly be a changeover.  We decided to walk down to the Maid of the Mist and take a look back at the powerhouse for her return.  We waited for almost an hour with no sign of her before slowly making our way back to the powerhouse retaining wall.  We scanned the cityscape again and found her roosting just below the rooftop on the Hilton hotel.  I decided that we were staying until we could determine where she was going to settle in for the night.  It wasn’t long before she took off of her perch on the Hilton and made a bee line for the gorge.  She whipped through about 20 feet above our heads and was out over the water before we could turn ourselves around!  She made a few circles out over the river and then swooped back up to the roof of the powerhouse once more.  There she found prey remains that she picked away at but was clearly not satisfied with.  She consumed what little was left on the bird and then turned her attention north along the powerhouse wall.  In seconds she was off like a shot and didn’t turn out over the water or up over the gorge wall.  She just simply disappeared.  Three minutes later she was back and this time with fresh dinner for herself.  When she was done, she roosted briefly and then made two separate flights that looped out over the water and ended with her landing back on the powerhouse roof.  We believed she was signalling Onyx to get his tail feathers out of her nest so she could get back to business.  Her third and final flight out over the river started off as a run at a gull she didn’t care for (why she picked that one out of the jillions that were there is beyond me) and ended with her flying north to the end of the face of the powerhouse.  There she dropped out of sight, skimmed the wall heading towards us, circled out once over the water and then flew straight at the wall.  Gone.  One minute.  Two minutes.  Three…   …ee-chup, ee-chupp!!!  The unbanded male that Marion and I named Onyx popped straight up from below the roof edge of the powerhouse!  He sat and preened for a good 10 minutes before taking off towards the falls and disappearing from our view on the cliff face.

Bruce and I believe that when we arrived at 4:30pm we caught the first changeover that gave Diamond her break from incubating.  Between 6:30-7:00pm, she returned to the eggs for the night and Onyx headed off to bed.  A heartfelt and huge thank you goes out to Vicki and Roger for putting Bruce and I on the right track and monitoring from Terrapin Point; we couldn’t have done it without you.  How many eggs they have is still unknown but it is great to see that they are well on their way.

We Have a Hatch????

April 25, 2013 - Burlington - Lift Bridge

Sue McCreadie Reports:

If I were a betting woman, I would put money on the fact that we have a hatch.  After a couple of trips to the Lift Bridge today watching Mom’s behaviour, I would say that we have a hatch.  We went down the road by the washrooms and from there, through the scope, we could see that she is no longer down flat.  Her wings were spread as if mantling and she was very restless.  We saw what we thought were tiny little white balls of fluff popping out from under her wing.  We have not witnessed any food deliveries as yet, but may have just missed them.  Dad dropped by the nest box for a short visit and then flew to the face of the Hamilton Tower.

!!! ICICI photos from January 2013

March 26, 2013 - International, National and Local News

CPF Postmaster Reports:

April 26 & 28th - 2013

A huge thank you to Jared who has only just found us after his mom brought the CPF web site to his attention. He was kind enough to send in some photos that he was able to capture in March 2013. He’s been seeing a raptor flying around since his arrival at this location and though it was just a hawk until he got a closer look and able to do a little research.
Good photos Jared, thank you much!

Jared writes:

Hello CPF,
I started working in the ICICI building in January on the 9th floor , facing the DeBeers building. I have noticed Chester flying around for a while… Thought he was just a hawk or something (not too well versed with the birds) . But I told my mom about it and she quickly forwarded me to your site. Its very cool that I get to see these birds everyday.

Anyways, some photos are attached. There’s a couple of the adult peregrine eating (he was quite a distance away so it’s a little out of focus).

And then there is a couple of shots where he is right under the camera that is on the roof.
I know these aren’t professional shots but I thought maybe you guys would be interested.

PS: I got these cause I work for a security integrator company and we have a camera on the roof to show clients.
Sincerely
Jared

Port Colborne Egg Mystery May Be Revealed

April 22, 2013 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill

Tracy Simpson Reports:

Doug Garbutt and the staff at the ADM Mills have been watching their resident adult peregrines, Trillium and Buffalo Bill, rather closely since Trillium consumed both of her eggs by April 5th.  What made matters more complex is that the monitor at the mill had failed and they were now blind to the activities inside the nest box.  All that they could be certain about is that Trillium was seen on the monitor consuming her two eggs and that had staff at the mill very concerned about their peregrines.  As if this story wasn’t complex enough, on one of Doug’s recent bike rides through the park beside the northern mill in town operated by Horizon Milling, he heard a familiar call, looked up and found a pair of peregrines on the east face of the mill.  Well, who was this now.  Are there two pairs in Port Colborne?  Is this Buffalo Bill and Trillium?  Bruce Massey and I went down this past weekend to see if we could help sort out some of the mysteries surrounding this new development.

When we arrived we met up with Doug and travelled straight to the northern mill.  When we arrived, the winds were howling and so were the peregrines!  Absolutely there were two peregrines on site, one in the air and one perched on a vent cover on the east face of the main building.  The roosting bird took to the air and now both birds were up and flying.  Both birds flew up and into a vent shaft on the east face of the mill and disappeared from our sight.  We could clearly hear them vocalizing in the vent and then suddenly the male appeared and was in the air again.  The female flew out shortly thereafter and the two peregrines were now circling.  Then a third bird arrived!  This peregrine was most definately a female and was now being addressed by the male.  This intruder was not being treated with the ferocity I would have expected from an adult challenging the resident pair for their territory and for the most part, the male only circled with this second female.  A couple of talon locks were attempted but there was no serious effort to drive out this intruder.  Okay…  A non threating yet annoying third peregrine.  The adult resident male now escorted this female to the south towards the ADM Mill site and the adult resident female continued to circle above us for a few minutes before following them.  This gave me a moment to review some pictures I had taken which revealed some interesting facts.

The male is definately an adult with the same band configuration as Buffalo Bill.  I can almost make out the band number and I am 99% sure that it is him.  Buffalo Bill has a black over green recovery band marked 68 over R with a silver USFW.  The first female is an adult as well and is clearly unbanded which is consistent with the resident adult that ADM staff named Trillium.  Ok.  So this is the ADM Mills pair.  Now onto bird number three.  Ha!  Juvenile coming into her subadult year!  Probably the only thing that saved her from a serious battle is the juvenile plumage that she still wears as her moult has yet to begin.   This now begins to make more sense. 

We piled into our vehicles and headed down to ADM Mills to see if we could find the three peregrines and what exactly they were up to.  When we arrived, the pigeons on site were wheeling madly around so we knew that they were here.  It was hard to determine what exactly all three were doing as they were whipping around the mill at Mach 10 and at times were only 20 feet or so over our heads.  What I got out of the observations is that the juvenile is being a serious pest.  At times we had all three in the air and it was a much more serious situation.  Both resident adults were now clearly frustrated and defending their site with talon locks, dives and escorts.  This female juvenile was just not getting the message.  We walked to the pier side and looked up at the nest box to see if we could find a roosting bird for further confirmation of identity.  Just then Trillium burst out of the nest box and whipped through the mill after the juvenile.  Back on the other side the dives and madness continued as now the pigeons, gulls and peregrines were all wheeling around in the screaming winds and all we could do was watch.  Trillium and Buffalo Bill had finally left our view for over 5 minutes and the juvenile was nowhere to be found.  Back to Horizon Mill.

Upon our return, we found Trillium on a vent cover near the top of the mill.  There she roosted and preened for quite some time on her own.  We suspected that Buffalo Bill was in the area as he had just circled around the back side of the mill when we arrived.  After roosting for a while, Trillium flew off of the vent cover, passed Buffalo Bill who was now in the air above the canal and swooped up entering a lower vent shaft.  There she stayed and Buffalo Bill took up position near the top of the mill.  Bruce was able to get a view of her in the scope and Trillium was now lying down in the vent shaft and gravel picking.  We suspect that she either has an egg already or is in the process of producing eggs as we speak. 

The stress that this juvenile has put on Trillium is most likely the cause for her destruction of the first two eggs in the box at ADM Mills.  With the monitor now replaced, the staff at ADM will be watching to see if any peregrines enter the box and just who is in there.  The nest box at ADM will not stay empty for long as this location has been fought over almost each and every year.  The food is so abundant, the site provides suitable nesting habitat and the location is perfect…   …almost too perfect.  Doug will be watching the other mill for signs of nesting by Trillium and Buffalo Bill as well as watching the activity at the ADM box.  Bruce and I will be making another trip to help out as well.

The question that I can hear rattling around in your minds is who is the juvenile female???!!!  Is she banded?  Yes, she is.  I have yet to go through all of the pictures but I can tell you that she is an Ontario hatched bird with red tape on her USFW band and we strongly believe that this is Lucky Seven hatched at the Niagara Gorge nest site last year.  When I am able to confirm this for certain, you will be the first to know!!

More pictures to come!

!!! Incubation Continues

April 23, 2013 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre

Kathy Reports:

It’s been a quiet few weeks here now that incubation is in full swing.   I do check in from the ground to ensure all is well and have seen both Jack and O’Connor out on a break or having a quick lunch while the other is taking over incubation duties.

Some great news from Rochester to share.   DotCa (born here in 2010)  is back for his second year there and his mate Beauty laid her fourth egg today.  We are hopeful for a very successful nesting season this year for this pair!

!!! Holcim peregrines involved in full time incubation!

April 12, 2013 - Mississauga - Holcim

CPF Postmaster Reports:

April 11th - 2013
A big thank you to Armando for the shot of the nest showing the resident adult female down hard on incubation duties. While we don’t know as yet how many eggs are in the nest bowl as the colder weather has had most all of the peregrines down full time on the egg(s) from the get-go.
we’ll have to wait and see for more photos as time goes on to see just how many eggs have been produced.

Also, I have included some of the photos that we were able to do a site visit back in late March when we observed the two resident adults mating.
Stay tuned…….