April 2nd - 2019
A further update today from our friends at the Kitchener CTV studio, as they have confirmed that there is 4 eggs in the nest box!
April 1st/2019
As per the norm it would seem for this Mississauga Lakeshore nest site,, we have received an update this morning from the CRH folks that their peregrines are very visible around the nest site,, with very visible squabbling and fighting going on with territorial disputes with another peregrine over claim on the territory!
You know what they say,, location, location, location,, and this seems to have been the norm at this nest site over the years with constant squabbling at this time of year between the resident pair and other peregrines wanting the territory for their own!!
Historically, this is actually the norn at most of these lake-side nest sites with many of the existing peregrines fighting each other for these prime nesting spots!
As the migrating peregrines return back to southern Ontario from their wintering-over grounds in the far south, as they fly along the migration fly-ways, the pressure is on to quickly get back on an availability territory,,,, scope it out,,,, hold and defend it,,,,, attract a mate and then once again,, HOLD and DEFEND it from all others,,,, all wanting to do the same thing… in your territory!
Given the limited number of “suitable nesting locations” here in southern Ontario on the lakeside borders,,, there is always a high demand and competition….. and you’ve got to be prepared to defend it!!
And they do,, sometimes to the death!!
Stay tuned,, let’s hope that this disruption won’t affect the courtship routines too much and a final outcome is sooner than later, so the pair (who ever they are) gets back to family matters……
April 1st - 2019
Great news reported from the Oshawa Lakeridge Health Care centre (Oshawa Lakeridge hospital),, in that there is now an egg in the nest box as of this morning, and likely due to the terrible cold and snowy weather,, (YES, MORE SNOW fell this past weekend) 
the resident adults have been down hard in incubation duties on this egg!
Late Saturday night after an all day of freezing rain event, we had another several centimeters of snow fall fall in southern Ontario, and with the blustery cold winds and freezing temperatures, it stayed on the ground! Sunday morning looked like full blow winter had returned!!
As of this posting, (Monday April 1st) midday, we are still far below seasonal temps and the lingering snow is still on the ground!
It has at least stopped snowing,,, and the temps will be climbing to +3 degrees Celsius. We’re told that is could get to a whopping +4 degrees celsius as a high today by late this afternoon…. STILL VERY CHILLY INDEED!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
While we know that the egg was laid sometime after March 27th as it was clearly visible via the live nest camera this morning (April 1st) when everyone got back in to work this morning. Our guess is that given there is only one egg so far,, it was probably laid sometime this late Saturday or Sunday March 29th/30th.
March 17th - 2019
A big thank you to Lucie and Richard for their efforts and their successes in getting some good shots and an identification of the resident adult peregrines at the Beachville nest site again this year.
Confirmed,,, via their leg band numbers,,, that it is Joe and Virginia again this season back on territory hanging around on the CPF nest box and tower!
March 26th - 2019
Just as a quickly update on Hamilton’s second pair of nesting peregrines,, we have been notified that the Dafasco peregrine’s are once again back on site at the Dafasco plant in Hamilton and are currently incubating an undisclosed amount of eggs.
Fingers crossed that the pair will be successful again this year in producing and fledging offspring!
Given the huge manpower resource at the plant and the many social and environmental programs that Dafasco has, we’re sure that their peregrines are in good hands and will be well looked after.
March 29th - 2019
We have just received some great news from our friends at the Kitchener CTV studio…
A delightful surprise and very good news indeed has just arrived via e-mail late this afternoon that the Kitchener peregrines have once again returned to the Kitchener CTV / Bell tower and the CPF nest box and it has been confirmed that the peregrines are currently down hard involved in FULL TIME INCUBATION duties on eggs!!
Sadly, we are unable to tell you “who” is nesting in the nest box, (but they are peregrines),, as we have no idea as yet on any band identification of the birds there… but time will soon tell….. 
The challenge is on……
We have been running afield for the past two weeks and a little slow to get back into the CPF office to pick up e-mail, thus a little late in getting this news posted (along with all of the other 2019 updates we’ve got so far)….. BUT we are slowly getting there…… There is allot of running around!
We are waiting for confirmation from CTV Kitchener if they will be running the nest camera live again this season…..
Stay tuned,, more updates to follow……….
Friday March 29th - 2019
Sadly, without a nest camera this season,, it’s back to our humble beginnings to get any detailed observations of the happenings going on, but my observations today yielded some very good news indeed. Just gotta do the time in the field (or streets as it applies to the urban nest sites).
As I look on, it still seems like yesterday that I held Quest in my hands as a while fluffy baby many years ago when I was down in Rochester New York while at the Kodak world headquarters nest site where Quest was produced, and painstakingly cut and trimmed her backpack harness and fitted her for the deployment of her PTT / satellite radio transmitter! I still have some of her baby pictures!
Both adults are on territory as we say and VERY ACTIVE indeed, on and off of the nest ledge and in the nest box itself! It would appear that while full time incubation has not yet started,,, I believe that is at least one egg in the nest box,,, as Quest,,, (YES, it’s still QUEST from Rochester NY) :-)) was fiddling with something in the nest box,, and holding pretty tight inside - (although standing, not laying down incubating).
Her mate,, (sadly no band confirmation / information as yet),, delivered food to Quest to another roof top to the west of the nest building,, and she left the nest box and joined him to eat there…… well, joined him is not exactly what happened,, as she flew over to him,, snached the food from him,,, ate it,, then returned back to the nest box :-))
Over the next 30 minutes or so during my observation, she remained standing upright in the nest box,, never actually laying down, BUT it was obvious that she had something in the nest box that she was “pussy-footing” around and fiddling with. The sun was really warm, with temps in the double digits of 10C and absolutely no wind,, it was a delightful warming observation period indeed.
Stay tuned….. more to come…..
Friday March 29th - 2019
Unfortunately we have some mixed news and updates to report from the Etobicoke nest site at Bloor & Islington nest site.
The good news,,, is at least there is a pair that is very visible and quite territorial at the Bloor & Islington nest site. Both adults were observed on the nest ledge, with one adult standing in the nest tray itself and the other roosting on the top of the internal nest ledge camera housing during my visit. Both adults seemed to be quite relaxed and content to soak up the afternoon sun and enjoy the warm mild temps this afternoon. This in comparison to the chilly windy temps that we have been experiencing over the past weeks!
The afternoon sun and warm temps were very soothing indeed, and with absolutely no wind to chill anything down, even I didn’t want to leave my rooftop elevation! It was incredibly relaxing!! Neither of the two adults seemed to be very interested or concerned at my presence from the adjacent rooftop, as they both remained in their roosting spots on the nest tray and camera housing throughout my entire visit. I didn’t even get a scolding or even a second look! It did appear that they had other things on their minds,, (each-other) :-))
The unusual and somewhat disturbing news is that there was a peregrine egg clearly visible on the concrete portion of the nest ledge itself,, (several feet away from and outside of the nest tray), with neither adults showing any interests in the abandoned egg. Incredibly, the egg was perfectly intact!!
The not so good news,
: despite all of my efforts to try and restart the the nest cameras, sadly I was unable to get either of the cameras back on line to produce and up-load a live image
It looks like its going to take the technicians and good folks at Daymar and their expertise to get things back up / online and running again. The new digital security cameras that they installed for us several season ago that replaced our older 1997 analog nest cam are far more sophisticated for me to deal with, especially without the specialized electronic equipment needed to deal with this type of challenge.
We have contacted Daymar and advised them that we have some challenges with the cameras and in need of their assistance….
Stay tuned…. we will get the camera’s back online soon……..
Until then,, its back to the old way of doing things,,, you remember,, the basics….. feet and eyes in the street, bins at hand… and time in!
March 29th - 2019
Full time incubation has begun!
While on site in midtown Toronto this morning during my visit at another rooftop east of the Mt. Sinai hospital, I was able to utilize the birds eye view of the Toronto’s west views to get a good (although distant) clear view of the east side upper ledges of the Mt. Sinai Hospital and have some good news to report.
It was quite evident that a peregrine was down hard in incubation duties on the nest tray that we installed several years on the east lupper edge of the hospital. The adult peregrine never moved of her incubation duties throughout my hour long observation. While I was on the much higher Bay Street street rooftop, an adult male peregrine flew in from the Mt. Sinai hospital rooftop and flew over our heads in an very deliberate effort to “check us out” and see what we were doing.
Sadly, I did not have the equipment to get any detailed information as to being able to identify any band numbers of the pair,, I can certainly confirm that the Mt. Sinai pair are incubating egg(s)!
Stay tuned….
I am happy to report that Jenna and Chester have a least one egg! I have been watching them mating over the past week or more so we headed up to check and found Jenna brooding. She refused to budge for us to check how many…time will tell. Stay tuned….
