April 13, 2013 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
A bit of exciting news for Rhea Mae and Tiago! Legacy, their offspring from the 2010 nesting season, has been indentified and located at the St. Mary’s Cement plant in Bowmanville with a female named Buffy. The St. Mary’s pair failed to hatch eggs in 2010 and 2011 and then last year, they altered the location of their nest site to the east silos and hatched at least two eggs. Last year, as Legacy reached adulthood, may have been the year that he arrived and took over the territory which would coincide with the observed changes in nest site location and behaviour. Congratulations Rhea Mae and Tiago on another offspring successfully making his way in the world!!
For the complete story, please visit the St. Mary’s Cement page!!
Posted on April 13, 2013 9:56 am
April 09, 2013 - Bowmanville - St Mary's Cement
Tracy Simpson Reports:
After completing my Project School Visit presentations in the Bowmanville area, I travelled to St. Mary’s Cement in the hopes of gaining further insight as to the activities of the resident adults. I met up with Nick and then headed out to the silos for another round of observations and I was initially unable to locate any falcons on the structure. I scanned the area and even without binoculars I had no trouble in locating Buffy on the ladder of the west silos. She really is an impressive presence! I continued to scan the ladder that runs up the side of the silo and located the resident male two levels above Buffy. Both adults sat preening on the railings for 20 minutes before the male took to the air. He flew over towards my location and disappeared behind the east silo before coming around and swooping up to the ladders at my location. I managed to snap several pictures of him and it would appear, with 99% surety, that the resident male has a solid black Ontario recovery band that reads 39 over Y. This male is Legacy who was hatched at the Toronto Sheraton Hotel in 2010. He had come in with food and moved to the top of the east silo and was calling for Buffy to come. When she didn’t arrive, he ate the really small package himself and then moved back to the east silo ladders. This is the same location that I photographed Buffy at yesterday and it looks like this is the site they have chosen this year to attempt nesting. After a few minutes Legacy flew off of the east silo ladder to the side of the structure where he located a second cache of food. Off he went over to Buffy who was already full to the brim. He landed above her and began to eat his prize and that’s when the oddest thing happened. Another female peregrine falcon arrived on location and was flying circles above the resident adults. Neither of the adults moved to intercept or showed any aggression towards the third bird and this had me perplexed. I started snapping pictures like mad and upon review I was able to see that the third bird was a juvenile female. The most likely explanation was that this was the female hatched here last year that must not have migrated but instead remained in the territory throughout the winter with her parents. That female, named Madison by the staff at St. Mary’s, was rescued last year when she entered one of the buildings and became disoriented. I watched her doing figure eights around the distant silos while Legacy continued to eat his meal. Occasionally he would vocally scold her but made no move to attack or intervene. After his meal, Legacy took to the air and met the juvenile over the silos and again, no attack was in the offing. Instead he flew circles with her and vocalized his displeasure at her interruption of the nesting process. Legacy escorted the juvenile female out to the south towards the lake and just then appeared what looked like another falcon. The birds were dipping in and out of my sight and so I cannot be sure of this but I believe there may have been a fourth, this one the size of a male. Buffy didn’t move from her perch until all the falcons were past me and down by the lake. She flew over to the east silos up to the roof area and perched there for about 10 minutes watching to the south. Legacy returned 5 minutes later and flew up to the west silo stairs and Buffy took off to join him. There the pair remained for another 10 minutes before they both took off east through the plant and out of view.
Back in the office I had the pleasure of speaking with Ana for quite some time about arranging for the construction and installation of a nest box for their pair. Ana, Fabio, Nick and Rueben are all very excited about the prospect and we will keep you updated as to the progress of the nesting season and the potential for a nest box at St. Mary’s. Again I must thank the great staff at the plant for taking time to speak with me and helping me to gather further observations of the resident pair. While there is no confirmation of incubation or eggs at this time, we look forward to a productive and exciting nesting season at St. Mary’s and I will be back to visit again very soon!
Pictures to follow soon!!
Posted on April 13, 2013 9:43 am
April 08, 2013 - Bowmanville - St Mary's Cement
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I had the pleasure of delivering our Project School Visit program to students in the Bowmanville area this week and made a point of stopping in at St. Mary’s Cement to check in on the nesting progress there. Last year, after assisting in the rescue and banding of a juvenile female that the plant staff named Madison, Mark and I went out and spent some time monitoring the resident adult pair. We were able to identify the adult female by her solid black recovery band bearing the markings rotated Y over O. Of note was that her recovery band was on her right leg instead of her left. This female is Buffy who hatched in 2000 at the London TD Tower to George and Calypso and was raised by George alone after Calypso was fatally struck by lightning . We were delighted to see that a juvenile from that nesting season had survived and has gone on to breed highlighting the great job George did on his own. While we were successful in getting an identification on the female, the male was more elusive and all we knew was that he was also wearing a solid black recovery band indicating he was hatched in Ontario.
I arrived on site in the morning and met up with Nick who graciously took the time to assist me in investigating the silos that the resident adults were interested in last year. A full search of the silo area initially yielded evidence of the peregrines presence but they were not readily visible. At the base of the east silo, I took a picture of the crevice that had evidence of whitewash and to my astonishment, I found the resident female, Buffy, at the far right of the ledge. From the angle that we were standing at it was difficult to see whether she was fully lying down or not but the displacement of the feathers on her back led me to believe that she was in fact lying down. The spot that she has chosen is completely inaccessible and only viewable from the ground level and so we cannot be certain whether she has an egg yet or not. During our observation period, the male did not make an appearance and a scan of the area didn’t reveal his location. We will be keeping a watchful eye on the St. Mary’s pair for signs of nesting and further monitoring will be conducted to determine if Buffy and her mate, who has yet to be identified, will be nesting this year. My thanks to Nick, Fabio, Ana and the excellent staff at St. Mary’s Cement for their help today and I look forward to our next visit.
Pictures will be posted soon!
Posted on April 13, 2013 9:13 am
April 08, 2013 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Kathy Reports:
Kitty over at Rfalcon caught a quick shift change at 4:25 pm and Rhea Mae and Tiago now have four eggs!
Let the incubation begin!!
Posted on April 8, 2013 4:40 pm
April 08, 2013 - Toronto - Don Mills
Kathy Reports:
At approximately 1:38 EST, Quest stepped away from the nest box and DutchEagleFan was able to capture this confirmation of 4 eggs for Quest and Kendal!
Posted on April 8, 2013 3:05 pm
April 08, 2013 - Toronto - King Street
Kathy Reports:
Once again a debt of thanks to DutchEagleFan for catching Erin off the eggs this morning to show her that egg #4 has arrived!!
Posted on April 8, 2013 8:03 am
April 07, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Bruce Massey Reports:
Another stop on my rounds today was at the ICICI nest site at Don Mills and Eglinton to check in on Chester and his lovely lady. Upon arrival, Chester was sitting on the west side on top of the security camera arm and it wasn’t long before he was off. We checked in with security and waited around for Chester to return. Seeing as it looked like he was on a hunt, he would be returning soon with food for his lady and the nest ledge, if she was in fact in there, would be confirmed.
It didn’t take long before Chester returned and announced his presence before flying right into the eastern ledge into the back left corner. He emerged from there after only a moment and the female now appeared on the edge. She flew off the ledge and over to the De Beers north sign and waited for Chester for mating. At the last minute, he veered off when he realized there just wasn’t enough room for the two of them up there and he flew back over to the roof of ICICI. He was off again fairly quickly to the southwest and the female remained preening on De Beers. It would appear that if they don’t already have an egg, one is on the way. I would bet there is at least one as the female was in and out of sight for the first 30 minutes we were there.
All photos by Tracy Simpson
Posted on April 7, 2013 5:19 pm
April 07, 2013 - Toronto - Hearn Power Station
Bruce Massey Reports:
Yesterday I stopped down at the Hearn Generating Station to check in on the progress Peter is making with his new unbanded bride. When I arrived, Peter was on one of the rooftop pipes preening while the female was nowhere to be seen. I watched as Peter glanced down at the roof and discovered that in fact his female was lying down just to the right of his perch. The pair remained in their positions for the next 30 minutes and then Peter was off like a shot to the east. A Red Tailed hawk who had been roosting in a tree made a move to the air and Peter was on it in seconds. He put the hawk down on the ground before returning for some recon circling of the stack. After a half a dozen revolutions, Peter went into a power dive and swooped above the rooftop of the plant. This brought his female to her feet and he flew in for mating. The female remained on the roof top while Peter returned to the same elevation about 20 feet west of her. After 10 minutes he was again off like a shot, this time to the south. We tracked him until he was just over the marina and found him dive bombing a juvenile Harrier who was looking to get out of Dodge!! The Harrier inverted several times to meet Peter talon to talon and took the Red Tailed’s advice and grounded himself. Peter quickly returned to his lady and was back on the rooftop once more. What has us believing that she has at least one or two eggs on the roof is that she waddled back over to her initial position and then made the tail dipping motion indicative of an adult with eggs. She was about to lay down when… …you guessed it… …Peter was off like a shot again. This time we were unsure as to what had caught his eye but he was circling the stack for over 5 minutes before landing on one of the upper strobe lights.
Peter is absolutely on high red alert right now and doing an awesome job of it. To his credit he has recently downed two RT hawks and a Harrier. No fear here and on a mission!! The female’s choice of nest site is really poor. She is fully exposed to the elements and all aerial predators not to mention all the climbers around the plant such as raccoons and rats. Unfortunately the plant is not in any certified safe condition to allow access for installation of a box or any other nest substrate for her to use. We will continue to monitor the progress of this pair and talons crossed they will succeed in producing young this year.
All photos by Tracy Simpson
Posted on April 7, 2013 4:33 pm
April 07, 2013 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I have been struggling to write this post as it is such an unbelievable and complex story. Two sites intertwined with adults missing, moving, lost and found. Phew! What a tale. A long story but a must read. The timeline goes like this;
- Dec. 9, 2012 - Casper and Claire last confirmed as resident adults at the Hilton Garden Inn
- Dec 22, 2012 - Hurricane and Chessie last confirmed as resident adults at William Osler Hospital
- Jan. 14, 2013 - Hurricane missing from William Osler. Casper identified as new resident male with Chessie.
- Feb. 2, 2013 - Claire is confirmed missing from the Hilton Garden Inn nest site
- Feb. 5, 2013 - Chessie and Casper identities confirmed and pair is mating at the Hilton Garden Inn territory
- Mar. 9, 2013 - Casper and Chessie choose William Osler as their nest site. The Hilton Garden Inn territory is now void.
- Mar 27, 2013- Last known photograph of Casper at William Osler as resident male with Chessie
- Apr. 2, 2013 - First egg arrives in the nest tray.
Fast forward to this past Thursday April 5th…
As reported earlier, I stopped in and spoke with Ross at Environmental Services and learned that the first egg was in seen the tray on Wednesday. I travelled upstairs to the monitor for a quick look and there were now two eggs. Given that the interval for egg laying is about 48 hours, that dates the first egg laid as April 2nd. Back outside, I see the male on the eastern nest ledge to the south of the sign. I report that he is babysitting and I must tell you, I resisted the temptation to compare this male to Hurricane. He was sitting in the EXACT same spot as Hurricane always did when it was his turn to watch the kids and doing the EXACT same thing, sleeping. Not wanting to dwell on the past, I ignored my instinct that told me that something was different. Still, I was back the next day, Friday, as this was nagging at me. The bird looked different ( very dark helmet head), acted different (calm, quiet) and had a familiar “feel” about him. I wanted to confirm his band number.
On Friday, things took a turn for the bizarre. I found the male at 4pm on the edge of the nest tray facing south and sleeping. Boy did this ever remind me of Hurricane. Chessie was on the southern “H” and had just finished eating. She flew up to the southeast corner of the rooftop and was poking around up there for a good 10 minutes. She then took to the air and landed on the southeast corner of the nest ledge. The male was off the tray and flew in to mate with her. The pair then took to the air and spent the next 20 minutes in aerial courtship. What? Aren’t we past this? We’re doing the egg thing now. Bonds are set. Watching the flights of the male, he is clearly not Casper. This male was flying around the building at mach 10 with incredible control and when he hit the winds, not even the slightest wing quiver could be seen. This guy was seasoned. He took off on a hunt and was back in 10 minutes with food. Even though Chessie was full, she still chased him around the building and he was easily outflying her. He drew her in to the northern “H” with food and the pair sat on the sign together for a few minutes. Chessie then returned to the southeast corner and the male cached the food and was back on the tray. She sat staring at him on the edge of that tray for over 40 minutes. He made no move to incubate or attend to the eggs in the tray at all and she just sat and stared. She was not aggressive nor concerned, I would say more confused than anything. He flew off the tray around 7pm with her following and again, another incredible tandem flight display of soaring, dives and chases. He landed on the northern “H” to eat and Chessie bombed into the nest tray to lay down on the eggs. As the male ate, I snapped pictures. Although not completely clear, I could see a familiar line that we only see on three character recovery bands. These bands are older indicating that this was an older bird. Fits with what I’d been seeing of his flights. I could almost make out the 5 on top and the X on the bottom but before I could tell the world what I knew in my heart, I had to confirm this 100%. Bruce was dispatched that night to attend Saturday morning with me and we weren’t leaving without full confirmation.
Yesterday, the pair were in fine form together. The male was in the east tower and Chessie was in the nest tray. Bruce was able to confirm through scope view that indeed the bottom letter of the band was a singular X and that a line appeared above it. I wanted to be doubly sure and so we kept watching. Chessie came howling out of the tray to the southeast after a Red Tailed hawk that was wandering too close while the male flew recon around the hospital. This is the second time that the pair defended against another raptor that morning and the male was in full support of her. She returned to one of the antennas on the top of the building and he flew in to mate with her. It was like watching courtship all over again. He hunted for her, flew with her, mated with her and was clearly bonding with her. This male, without any doubt as the band was now clearly read as a solid black three character band with 5 over X, is Hurricane.
When this change happened, I can’t say. It is recent though. Casper was last seen on March 27th and photographed at that time. Where is he now? Where has Hurricane been? Migration is not likely as he has never done it before and starting now doesn’t make sense. The idea that a territorial male, who was now without a female and less than 5km away, came and challenged Hurricane for his site and won the day a few months ago makes some sense of this. Its possible that an injury kept him away for the past three months while he healed.
Bruce and I will continue to look out for Casper in the hopes of finding him well. With a mixture of elation at what we’ve found and the sadness of what we’ve lost all rolled up into a ball of “What on earth is going on???” we welcome you home Hurricane. Now quit messing with me old man!!!!
Posted on April 7, 2013 12:19 pm
April 06, 2013 - Toronto - Don Mills
Frank Butson Reports:
About 630pm Kendal brought in a snack for Quest and this allowed a view of all 3 of their eggs!
Posted on April 6, 2013 7:15 pm
