By Rochester falcon watcher MAK

Greetings to everyone who follow the Rochester falcons! This report however is about Quest and Kendal in Toronto Ontario Canada. Joyce and I joined CarolP and KathyO at the Harlequin headquarters parking lot on Monday where we met Mark Nash,Tracy,Kathy,Big Frank and a few other members of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation. My apologies for not remembering everyones names. Immediately we were treated to a view of Kendal plucking prey on the corner of a rooftop.

Before entering the building we were given instructions by Mark to speak in hushed voices when we got to the viewing room for it was next to the vice presidents office and after all it was a work day. When we got off the elevator on the 9th floor their was a receptionist there to greet us and show us to the viewing room. There was a mirrored wall behind her desk to the left and straight ahead was a mural of all the published books for the month of April. On the wall just outside the viewing room was a sign informing people this was the falcon room.

It was standing room only as everyone went to the windows to see Quest on her eggs in the nestbox. There was a large glass bowl full of money on the desk for donations to help CPF pay for the nest tray and other work they do. Harlequin said they would match all monies collected. There was a scope set up behind the desk pointed right at our transmitter girl Quest. KathyO was so touched to see her that she cried tears of joy. I must admit it put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye as well. Our wandering falcon had finally found a home of her own after almost 3 years of searching .

The cameras were off and clicking! Tracy and Mark had plenty of stories to tell us, some of which were posted by Big Frank on the CPF website. These Canadians love their birds and are VERY dedicated to them to say the least. We share their passion and devotion as well. There were Harlequin employees stopping in every few minutes to take a look in the scope and ask us questions quite enthusiastically about Quest and Kendal and peregrines in general. We watchers soo like to act as ambassadors to these magnificent birds whenever someone acts interested. There was a rack of romance novels in the viewing room that we were told we could take if we wanted.  Carol,Kathy and Joyce were only to happy to make a few selections. While the four of us went to lunch Mark went to the presidents room and got a clear shot of the nestbox as Quest and Kendal were standing on either side of their eggs. This is his pic which I took a pic of off his camera screen with my camera as I was the first one back to the viewing room.

Joyce came in next and I said look at the great pic I got and she was flabbergasted at how clear and bright it was. You see the windows in the viewing room are smoked and the presidents are not so we all got a big chuckle over that one. I did ask Marks permission to post his pic in my report.

We were informed there was an intruding falcon that Quest and Kendal went after with Kendal returning to the nestbox and Quest escorting it out of the area before returning. We also saw Kendal go after a goose and shortly after that 2 of them landed on the roof of the building the nestbox was on. Surprisingly he didn’t go after them.

Kendal is quite the provider for he was seen alot of the time we were there either bringing in prey, cleaning prey, caching prey or guarding it. Quest and their young will undoubtedly be well fed. Here’s a link to a video of him on the same corner as the geese were on plucking feathers from a Northern Flicker.                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5mBCb1CL_0

The day flew by as it was 5:00pm and quitting time for the Harlequin folks. We said our goodbyes to the CPF gang and Harlequin people and thanked them all for their hospitality. CarolP and KathyO had to return to Rochester as they had to go to work the next day. Harlequin told us we were more than welcome to come back to view Quest and Kendal as Joyce and I stayed over for another day of falcon watching. We stayed at the Weston hotel right around the corner. After checking in we took a ride to downtown Toronto to see if we could find Rhea Mae or Tiago but unfortunately after having some difficulty finding the Sheraton it was dark and raining quite hard. So we rode around taking in the night life and lights of Toronto.

On Tuesday we arrived at Harlequin to have  the viewing room all to ourselves. On this day we met Donna Hayes, CEO of Harlequin Enterprises who came in several times throughout the day to check on Quest and Kendal as did many other employees. Everyone there is really into it watching the falcons and very friendly. We finally got to see Quest fly in between and around the 2 buildings landing on a building kiddie corner from where we were watching to the right of us. I watched from inside while Joyce was outside watching at the time.

We ended our watch at 3:00pm because we wanted to check out the Burlington bridge falcons on our way home. Unfortunately it was so foggy and raining so hard we could not see any falcons but we did come across a couple small islands along the shore of Lake Ontario that were packed with cormorants and gulls. Onward we trudged and as we approached St. Catherines the fog lifted and the sun came out. Such is the luck of a falcon watcher. Joyce decided we would stop at Niagara Falls as it was still light out.

I will end my report by saying thank you to the members of CPF, the staff at Harlequin and my friend Joyce for making it possible for me to see Quest and Kendal in their Canadian home. May they live long and have lots of chicks in the future. I know they are being looked out for by ALOT of caring folks! Here’s the link to pics of my stay in Canada. Enjoy, I know I did!!!  🙂

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=782797122213%3A1921471000&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 at 1:42 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.