June 11, 2011 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Tracy Simpson Reports:
A tremendously exciting day at the Canada Square building at Yonge and Eglinton where three beautiful chicks named Luke, Chester and Buzz were banded. A big thank you to all that made this fabulous day possible!! Here are some more pictures of this amazing event. I was able to get some images of the female taking care of the “villain” and dispatching him from her nest ledge. The resident female did a fabulous job and Stormin’ took the fantastic crew from Solar Window Washing to task as well. Enjoy!!
Posted on June 11, 2011 11:14 pm
June 11, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Linda Woods Reports:
All accounted for at the Sheraton Toronto. Sunshine has not fledged as yet. Food was delivered to the nest ledge at 9:00p.m. this evening.
Today, not much activity. Did not see any touch and go from the adults. Sunshine and her siblings were seen briefly. Mainly sunshine and Kate sat on the edge of the ledge and peered out. An unusual bird was seen late this evening in the area, but identity was not made.Certainly not as majestic as the peregrines, but Perhaps not so unusual for the downtown core.
Fledge watch continues
Posted on June 11, 2011 9:51 pm
June 11, 2011 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill
Doug Garbutt Reports:
It seems that if only the young ones here could get rid of those pesky white downy feathers, they would take the big jump. They don’t have many left and they’re quickly shedding them. When they flap their wings like crazy in the box, it looks like a snow storm. The downy feathers just fly in the air. It will be very soon (perhaps tomorrow) when they get the guts to go. Trouble here is that there nothing but a whole lot of water 200 feet below their box. If they can’t fly, they will have to swim. We all know that won’t happen especially with 200 seagulls trying to drown the falcon who can’t swim! I’ll let you know when they do get the nerve.
Posted on June 11, 2011 7:47 pm
June 11, 2011 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
Day 36 and all is well with the Etobicoke trio. I spent approximately 6 hours at the site today, rain was expected but it held off so it was a nice day in spite of the clouds.
Both Jack and Angel were in the house when I arrived. Aside for leaving twice to check on his other family, Jack spent most of the six hours at our site. The kids are pretty dark now and one of them is still about a day or so behind in development and still had some visible white fluff on his/her chest. Of course that was the one racing up and down the ledge flapping his wings as if it was a runway.
The other two seemed quite relaxed and save for a flap here and there when a parent flew by the ledge, they didn’t seem to keen on moving much. One took a 2 hour nap in the nestbox at one point while the other two sat side by side beaking and preening each other.
At approximately 2:45 Jack brought food to Angel and she took it into the ledge and beak fed them. It was a small package and incited some excited screaming and yelling that was obviously a complaint at the lack of substance. A few minutes later Angel flew to the cache and came in with more food which one of young promptly stole and ran into a corner with. Not one to be deterred, Mom went right over and repossessed it and promptly proceeded to feed them all. Finally satisfied, all three laid down for a nap and that is how I left them.
The ‘official’ fledge watch will start this Monday with Frank and crew being on site from dawn to dusk. I will be out tomorrow for a few hours just to ensure they are still on the ledge and I expect they will be. The parents aren’t doing fly by’s and mom is still beak feeding them so they obviously feel they need a few more days as well.
A big thank you to Joyce and MAK, two falcon fans from Rochester who came by to say hello and visit with the family today. It was a pleasure to meet you both!
Posted on June 11, 2011 5:00 pm
June 11, 2011 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
This morning we visited the site. Freddie was on the Pipe and Voltaire was busy feeding Lady Gaga and Spitfire. When she was done she took the rest of the food and flew on to the East West beam. Lady Gaga and Spitfire are getting bigger as the days go by. When we left both of them were resting, Freddie and Voltaire were sitting close by each other on the beam close to the nest ledge. One big happy family.
Gwen
Posted on June 11, 2011 10:56 am
June 10, 2011 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Mark Nash Reports:
A huge success banding the three young hatchlings today and lots of excitement!!
With both resident adults defending the hatchlings and ledge, it was a huge success! A big thank you to the property management for hosting the banding and to Solar Window washing for their support in getting the three young hatchlings for us and staying on the nest ledge to be the villains to distract the adults while we were banding the chicks. It was a very good day indeed!
The best news came half way through the banding process, with the new resident adult male “Stormin” who also made a strong appearance while assisting his female mate in defence of the 3 young hatchlings and the nest ledge. Both resident adults were on hand to strongly show their dissatisfaction with the entire situation and were aggressively defending ,, which is exactly what we all wanted to see!
Stormin, - (who was produced in 2009 at the Toronto Sheraton nest site - Banded Black 30 over Black Y) not being the sire of the these chicks (and replaced the original resident male “Irving” -after he was killed two weeks ago after a colliding with a hydro line) has finally, and clearly demonstrated that he has accepted parental responsibility for the hatchlings. The resident adult female is not banded and her origin is not known. Irvine, the original resident male - (and sire of the chicks) was produced in Chicago Ill USA in 2009, banded with a Black B over a Green 44. He was killed on May 21st at Eglinton and Mt. Pleasant here in Toronto.
Three healthy hatchlings named Luke, Chester and Buzz - (all male chicks) were successfully banded and returned to the nest ledge and their parents without incident.
Posted on June 11, 2011 4:06 am
June 09, 2011 - Nanticoke OPG
Mark Nash Reports:
Thursday June 9th
We have some good news to report from the Nanticoke Ontario Power Generation plant! After spending a great day with plant staff doing presentations for environmental week, we are very happy to report that their earlier reports of peregrine nesting activity has been confirmed.
Both Tracy and I had a great morning with approx. 70 OPG plant staff and four members of our feathered educational team. A huge thank you to Ulrich for bringing in his two eagles that joined us for the morning presentation. A very good morning indeed!
The afternoon was spent with plant staff investigating their earlier reports of peregrine activity and we have some further good news to report.
OPG Nanticoke has their first pair nesting peregrine falcons! We were able to both confirm the identity of the resident female peregrine as being a 2009 Etobicoke produced bird named Ms. Marla, banded with a Black 15 over Black X. We were also able to confirm that she has new recently hatched young! The now so good news has yet to be confirmed.
Earlier reports from the OPG plant staff is that there has been ongoing territorial disputes going on with another adult male, the staff have witnessed aerial between the two males earlier on in the week.
A resident male was not observed at all during our visit, and other observations recorded during our visit would suggest that there may not be a resident male attending.
We watched the Ms. Marla fly in to the net ledge with food and feed her offspring with no signs of a resident male. We also observed a Turkey vulture flying overhead during this dame time period, and at no time did we see a resident male defending or present anywhere.
On two separate occasions during our one plus hour observation period, the resident female Ms. Marla called out looking for her mate, but once again, no male ever responded or attended.
Speculation that the resident male may have been injured in the earlier aerial battles with the other male peregrine and may have succumb to injuries sustained in a battle and has been killed.
It is very odd to see the resident female with new hatchlings having to leave the nest to get her own food, as the resident male is usually supplying her with food directly to the nest ledge at this stage of family rearing with new born hatchlings in the nest. While the pair usually have a number of food cache spots where the male stashes fresh food that they can both draw from, and occasionally the resident female will leave new hatchlings to draw from these stashes herself, it is the male that usually delivers food directly to her, to the nest ledge to feed the chicks.
Further to this, Marla called out and loudly vacuolized on several occasions during our visit to attract the attention of her mate, but no response was ever heard, and no male was ever seen.
The fact that the Turkey vulture was allowed to come this close to the nest ledge un challenged by the adult male (especially with new hatchlings on the nest ledge), might also suggest the absence of a resident male. While it is entirely possible that the resident male may have simply been out hunting or taking a break on another part of the plant out of eye sight of the nest and his mate, the entire situation remains very suspicions indeed.
Further observations are needed to get a better handle on the situation before any hard conclusions can be made.
On a more positive note, the nest ledge is a great spot that is hidden under a huge conveyor belt structure with only a single accesses in and out to a completely closed-in portion of the superstructure frame underneath the conveyor superstructure , and it provides ideal protection both from the elements and any avian predators that might be in the neighbourhood.
The abundance of available food sources in the area also offer more than enough food and all in all, this is a fantastic location and nest site for the peregrines.
Stay tuned……..
Posted on June 11, 2011 1:17 am
June 10, 2011 - Toronto - King Street
Linda Woods Reports:
A brief stop at the King St monitor this morning before I headed out to the Sheraton Fledge watch. Both chicks in view of the monitor. Lots of white fluff on their backs, not a lot of activity from them. I guess enjoying the cool temps and sunshine. Adults were not in my view at this time.
Posted on June 10, 2011 9:55 pm
June 10, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Linda Woods Reports:
Well today Sunshine is 40 days old and just like any child still is at home. Not a lot of activity this evening, with burst of mild flapping, but no running of the ledge or excitement from her or the others. Rhea Mae and Tiago stayed in view well into the evening, prompting us to stay until dark. Sunshine finally gave up and went out of our view at 8:45p.m. and Rhea Mae was still on 130 Adelaide when we called it a night.
Rain expected tomorrow.
Posted on June 10, 2011 9:52 pm
June 10, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Harry Crawford Reports:
7:25am had me at the courtyard, south of the Sheraton. Two chicks
were visible but there were no adults around. At 5am, I had all
four chicks on the webcam. Around 7am, I could only see three of
them. I started wandering around looking for adults in case there
was a fledge. I met up with Zoe a few times and she could only see
three on her office computer. Eventually I found one adult in a
normal location so I stopped searching.
One or two chicks could be seen flapping and running along the nest
ledge. This still wasn’t the typical amount of activity before a
normal fledge. Linda and Annie showed up. I left the site in
Annie’s good hands. When I got home just after 12pm, I was able to
see all four chicks on the nest ledge [webcam]. It is going to be
soon now. They are probably waiting for the Rochester Four to get
here to join the weekend watch.
To the folks who managed to get the webcam back online - much
thanks! Because we are are stretched so thin this year, the webcam is
a critical participant.
Posted on June 10, 2011 4:06 pm
