Timbit’s release went well. Just as Mark was putting the hatch door back on he took off east in a strong flight. Bruce found him on the Munich building roof so he had lots of altitude. Now we just need his sister to take a couple flights, stay high and fly well.
Day One : Pretty quiet day-enjoyed watching Quest & Mysterys beautiful little family. Canuck is really revving up his wingersizing-maybe tomorrow?? A few pics from today
I was out at the site close to the sportsfield east of the CTV tower. There’s a fairly good view of the site from the field. Both adults were very active and they continually flew north towards Herbert Street and squawked a lot from the trees on that street. They then flew back to the nest site I checked the web cam and Hope, Casey & Artemis were all safe and sound. They did this at least 5 times, so we decided to walk down Herbert Street to see where they were going. We figured out what tree they were going to, but to get a better view we needed to go into Mount Hope cemetery from the north side off of Roger Street. We found the tree, it’s a very large sugar maple tree and I spoke to one of the neighbours in their backyard. She said that the adults have been continually doing this for at least 1/2 hour or so. It looks like there are quite a few bird feeders in those back yards, so Mystery and Enigma were probably looking for a snack. The odd crow was flying about too. A raccoon peeked it’s head out from the crook of the tree while we were talking to the neighbour.
On our way back through the cemetery, we noticed there were quite a few crows that had arrived, probably 30 in a large dead tree at the north corner of the sports field. The peregrines were not happy about them being there and as we headed home, they were giving the crows a hard time.
2 chicks rescued at ground at Sheraton. The first was Epione who was picked up from the pool level by Bruce and released back to the nest ledge by Mark the second was Timbit picked up at ground level late last night and will go back to the nest today. Way to go Bruce!!!
Today was banding day for St. Mary’s Cement chicks. There where 2 male chicks both healthy and of good weight. The chicks were 30 and 31 days old.
Tara and her team got up up to the tower to the nest site and watched out backs keeping the adults off Mark while the chicks were extracted. Anne Yagi and I set up the banding table in a small mechanical room at the nest level. When the chicks were brought in Mark warned that they were grabby and feisty and that they were the first one Anne picked out of the carries grabbed and ripped her glove.
Once we had the chicks in hand they calmed down and both were weighed and banded.
The first weighed 649 grams at 30 days old his band number is 21 over AW named The Rock.
The Second chick also a male weighed 703 grams at 31 days old and his band is 22 over AW named Pebbles.
Both chicks had a full crop of food so their weight would be 35 to 40 grams less.
Photos of banding to come.
Karen reports:
When I arrived I saw one of the adults arrive with a pkg. then the other adult flew in to check on the situation as well. They both didn’t stay long. Not sure who got to eat but shortly later, two of the young were out sunning themselves. I checked the live feed and it seemed the other one was eating by its manners. One of the adults did come back to the tower and hung around around the top level. June 1st, 2020 This all happened around 1pm to 1:20pm.
Photos courtesy of Karen von Knobloch
Site Coordinator Paul has been watching the Ambassador Bridge nest site closely and reports sighting one tiny head popping up for feeding. Looks like a very recent hatch and so far, only confirming one hatchling.
Paul hopes to get some photos to share soon.
Toronto Sheraton Hotel fledge watch update day two. Bruce has been watching Vimy all day. He has been fairly low for the most part but has flown rather well when he did fly. He flew over to old City Hall and spent some time there and made several other very decent flights with good control. His last flight ended up right back where he started at Bay and Richmond about 30 feet off of the ground. In scanning the ledges in between watching his low bird Bruce confirmed that two others have fledged. We are only guessing that the other two fledged birds are the other boys. Currently we can only guess at their whereabouts. Bruce has walked through all of the usual areas and I did the same. While I was on the north side of the EY building I could clearly hear a juvenile sounding off but I couldn’t locate it. At the same time I could also hear the young one on the ledge as well as the other fledgling somewhere in the vicinity of the Hilton. Tomorrow Bruce will connect with security to check the pool area of the Sheraton. He will also continue to check the areas in which we have heard the juveniles responding to seeing the adults flyover. With a little work and some luck we will hopefully have all three fliers in view tomorrow. I especially want to thank the staff at the Toronto Sheraton hotel for allowing Bruce a space to park while he comes down and watches over their young ones. The staff at the Sheraton have been exceptionally supportive and we could not do this without you. Thank you so much! As I was walking to my car where I am currently sitting writing this post, the Hilton and the Sheraton have together done something rather special with their hotels. A picture says 1000 words.
Quick update for Don Mills/Old Harlequin: Quest & Mystery’s trio are growing fast! I checked in on them last night-all look great-the boy, Canuck is on track to go first- least amount of down on him(tho Seven of Nine stayed pretty hidden except for her head lol). Fledge watch starts Friday-unless we have a slip and fall!! Or hopefully, a slip and flight!
The chicks still have quite a bit of fluff on them so we think the fledge watch should begin on June 5th. Anyone wishing to help out please contact us at 416-481-1233.