[Sukura and KendalJune 16, 2011 - Toronto - King StreetLinda Woods Reports]

We Lost Her, Then We Found Her, Then We Lost Her, Then We Found Her, Etc. Etc. Etc.
June 16, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:

First off let me say, stay tuned for Mark Nash’s report from yesterday about Rocky Raccoon.  It is quite a story.

It was another trying day at the Lift Bridge.  I don’t know how we would have handled any more than 2 juveniles.  3 sets of eyes are just not enough to keep up with them.  I couldn’t begin to write a whole report for the day so this is just a recap.

When Bill and I arrived at the Bridge this morning at 8am, Lady Nelson was nowhere to be found and the search began.  No luck!!  Several hours later, Mark just happened to look up at the Control Tower (on the Hamilton Bay side) and lo and behold, Missy had worked her way over to the edge and there she sat in full view.   She spent the next couple of hours making her way around the Control Tower, ending up just over the walkway and the road.  She was sitting right above a “Danger Signâ€� and she was most definitely in danger.   A decision was made to rescue her before the next lift of the bridge.  Well that didn’t work out too well.  She took off out over the canal and tried to land on the Burlington Tower, missed, came around and tried to land on the Burlington Hydro Tower, missed and landed in the trees somewhere???

The search was on.  Over the bridge, search the ground, search the trees, search the towers.  If it wasn’t for the Red Wing Blackbirds and Baltimore Orioles dive bombing her we would never have found her.

At around 4:30pm Bill and I decided to take a break and go home for a bite to eat.  When we got back around 6:30pm, Lady Nelson was no longer in the tree and was MIA.    By this time, some backup had arrived and the search was on once again, over the bridge, etc. etc. etc.

An hour or so later, she was finally spotted by Robert Williams on the upper beam on the bay side of the Bridge.   When we left at 9pm, that’s where she was.  I don’t think that she had been fed all day.  She must be one very hungry and tired bird.

While all this was going on with Lady Nelson, Lady Lamont was no angel either.  She is flying well and holding her altitude, but the landings are still not very good.  When we left this evening, she was sitting out in the open on one of the cable wires.

Even while all this searching was going on Mom and Dad continued to entertain us with their hunting skills.  I have never seen anything like it.  In all my years of falcon watching I have never seen a pigeon plucked out of the air.  Well today I finally saw it.  Mom and Dad working together, it’s quite a sight.

Keeping our fingers crossed that all will be well when we arrive in the morning.  Photos to follow.

Sukura and Kendal
June 16, 2011 - Toronto - King Street
Linda Woods Reports:

Sukura and Kendal are still at home on the nest ledge. Sukura is darkening very fast now that we finally have warm weather. Little evidence of fluff on her. She no longer has the white haze. Kendal still looks like he has fluff across the top of his head. This evening, one adult in view sitting on the Spire of the church, while Sukura and Kendal sat on the nest looking outward. Minimal flapping, no vocalization. At 8p.m. both Sukura and Kendal went behind the nest pillar and out of my view. At the same time the adult on the Spire was gone. I don’t know where the adults are camping out for the night, but tucked in where they still have a view of the nest ledge. All was quiet for the most part and I closed the watch for the evening at 8:45p.m.

!!! Just when you think it’s safe to go home!
June 15, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Mark Nash Reports:

The morning started off with Lady Lamont in sight for the most parts of the day,,, but at some time from first light to 8am, Lady Nelson had taken her first flight and was no where to be found! Our worst fears given the two big bodies of water and the two busy roadways. After hours of searching both sides of the pier on the lake side them on the bay side, pure frustration led to defeat as we all retired to the base camp to do the only thing that was left,, sit and wait and watch the parents to give you a clue as to her location. Hours passed and absolutely noting!! Mom and dad were scarce at best, and when the were visible, they showed absolutely no concern on interest for their missing daughter!!!

Another fews hours passed, and more scanning with the bins and scope and still nothing. Finally, at approx. 2:45 pm, we asked the guys in the bridge if they could escort us to the roof area of the Hamilton tower roof, (now safe as we once again had lady Lamont in sight on the other tower).

Now at roof level, and by 3pm I was scanning the world. Just as I was ready to call it quits, a tiny little brown figure appeared in the massive undercarriage amongst the steel girder superstructure frame of the Burlington skyway bridge on the leading edge of a huge horizontal steel beam.

Guess WHO?? Yes, it was Lady Nelson standing several huge concrete support columns down from on the Burlington side of the canal way up in the steel I-beams!!! I radioed to the group and base camp to a more than overjoyed and very relieved crowd down at ground level.

For the next few hours we watched Lady Nelson make some very short flights (and terrible landing) through the spider web of steel superstructure undercarriage of the Skyway bridge as she made her way back closer to the lift bridge towers.

As she flew to a beam directly behind us. Dad finally appeared in our view, seemingly flying out into our view from thin air to join his daughter. Hmmmm, did he have his eye on her the entire time???

The evening had Lady Nelson finally flying over to the Hamilton tower of the lift bridge, holding up on a steel beam way up on a beam of the Hamilton tower overlooking the canal As darkness fell, and with both fledglings and both adults in sight,, (Lady Lamont back in the nest box and Lady Nelson safely on a steel beam), and both settled in for the evening, we all agreed the it was safe to pack up and go home for the evening.

It was NOT TO BE! Minutes after 9pm, both parents were again airborne alarm calling as they stoped and dove around the upper tower area above and the rear of where Lady Nelson was roosting. After more than 15 minutes of scanning the darkened beams, Sue finally spotted “Rocky the Raccoon� with her binoculars high up on the tower moving around in the shadows.
Both parents were frantic as they continued to alarm call and flew around in the darkness around the rear corner of the upper levels of the back side of the tower.

Finally, we all got a sight line on this huge raccoon slowly descending face down one of the vertical steel ladders. We all watched in horror knowing only tooo well that if “Rocky the Raccoon“ spotted Lady Nelson, it would have been likely a very bad close to the day!
Thank goodness that McKenzie and Cirrus continued their pursuit of Rocky as I`m sure that it was their encouragement that kept Rocky both distracted and on the move down the tower and
past Lady Nelson.

By 10pm, Rocky had finally made its way to the lover bridge road way area and disappeared into the darkness.

We all crossed our fingers that Rocky had enough of McKenzie and Cirrus and officially closed down the fledge watch for the evening.

Stay tuned……

After 3rd meal today!

Once again, Harlie gets fed!!

She there
and gone

donna you can get your card by mail--never have to leave the computer

The only thing holding me up from renewing my passport is getting a new picture taken-I just never seem to get around to it 

DITTO!! I hate going to MV!

WAIT til you see the new pic for my driver's license - or NOT, preferably! Dan Fogelburg would not have been singing: "I said the years had been a friend to her..."

Oh Bobbie, you look Mah-vel-ous!!!

Throughout the course of the day so far, it has mainly been our male that we have seen on the nest incubating the three eggs that remain. 7Y, took over from our female at 9.15am and incubated for the next 2 ½ hours. The female then returned with the tail end of a fish and landed on the nest to incubate for a short period. By 12.30 the male returned and there was a changeover. The male has incubated since this time; with the female returning briefly at 12.50, but not settling on the nest to incubate. During the afternoon, out male has been turning the eggs regularly.

16 days over expected hatch date 

Gee, does it fly TU??

Only when Joyce is driving.

 

Harlequin gets fed again!! 

Hmmmm, will we decorate our pefa-mobiles to look like Peregrines?   I'd do that!

First, you need the right version of the Falcon car. I choose this one.

http://www.tuvie.com/falcon-concept-car-features-great-power-with-jet-propelled-engines/

LOL a Tuvie!! Seats TU!! Gee, does it fly TU??

donna you can get your card by mail--never have to leave the computer

The only thing holding me up from renewing my passport is getting a new picture taken-I just never seem to get around to it 

DITTO!! I hate going to MV!

Some morning pics of Harlequin

The people on the ground will help if, say, the falcon plummets into a busy street.

Plummets?

Plummets! IDK!!

[5]

Gee, what a nice camera setup. Imagine what it could do with 5 eyases.   

   Or do you have some inside information?

5

[The osprey had cornered the owl and was preparing to attack it when crews at the Mothball Fleet arrived.]

It turns out that the Mothball Fleet, a collection of abandoned warships in Suisun Bay, is host to an unexpected aviary.

Sandy Plate, a volunteer with the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, recently boarded a rusted-out oiler to save a barn owl. Aboard the vessels, she witnessed nests of other birds who made their home on the ships -- purportedly raccoons and even an opossum have been found in the ghost fleet.

"The ships have seen better days," Plate said.

So, too, had the owl.

"The owl was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Plate, who went to the ship after boat workers, who thought the owl was injured, called police. They, in turn, put out a call for a volunteer to help the threatened owl. The bird had taken flight from a large hole on the ship where it was living when it landed on an osprey's nest. The osprey had cornered the owl and was preparing to attack it when crews at the Mothball Fleet arrived.

Plate took a small boat out to the large ship and climbed aboard to find the owl hiding above a cabinet. She was able to grab the owl, which was not hurt but was a fledgling that had not mastered flying. It could have drowned if it had landed on the water, she said. The barn owl is likely male, though wildlife experts are not sure.


The owl was the first animal of any kind at the Mothball Fleet to be rescued by the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, according to officials there. The bird, now at the museum's wildlife hospital in Walnut Creek, was treated for insects in its ears, said Polly Gusa, Lindsay's barn owl species manager. At the hospital, the owl receives medication and eats about six mice a day.

For a barn owl to make a home aboard a desolate oiler makes perfect sense to Gusa.

"They have food. They can hunt nearby. There are no predators and they have ocean views," she said.

On Wednesday, workers brought the 11-week-old white-faced owl with deep-set eyes out of its carrier to record its weight, which is about 400 grams. The owl made a hissing, screaming sound as though someone were strangling a cat. Gusa said it was being defensive.

With gloved hands, technicians stuck a tube attached to a syringe deep into the owl's throat to hydrate it.

Within the next few days, museum officials will check on the owl's progress by freeing live rodents in front of it and seeing whether it still has its predatory nature to scoop up prey. The owl likely will be released in Benicia, near where it was rescued, in a few weeks.

"We want them out of here and back in the wild," Gusa said.

The museum usually sees about 150 barns owls a year, said Susan Heckly, wildlife rehabilitation director. A couple of barn owls also are on display at the museum.

In the central U.S., barn owls are becoming endangered, partly because there are fewer barns for them to live in, Heckly said. In California, they thrive mainly because they have adapted to living in palm trees -- and apparently boats in Suisun Bay, she added.

"I bet there is quite a habitat island out there," she said.

Plate was impressed with the concern the crew at the ships have for the animals who live there. Months ago, they put up nets, hoping the osprey wouldn't nest in the boats, but the osprey simply used the nets as hammocks and built large nests on top. Even a goose made its way in and laid six eggs, she said.



Mercury news

A "young of year" brown pelican, which means born this year, was found wandering in downtown on Wednesday June 16 near the El Cortez Hotel. Two passers by saw the bird drinking from the gutter and trying to find food in the bushes. With the help of San Diego Police, they contacted Marie Molloy, founder of Wildlife Assist Volunteers, a group that captures and transports wild animals in trouble to the appropriate treatment facilities. Molloy netted the emaciated sea bird and delivered it to the SeaWorld Oiled Wildlife Care Center which cares for injured sea birds and animals. Kim Peterson, Supervisor for Birds at SeaWorld, received the animal along with aviculturist Sarah McCauley. Together they did an assessment of the animal and determined that the bird was just a few months old and was severely malnourished, dehydrated and infested with lice. The young bird was the 41st similar pelican that they have received since May 20th. "Every one that we can salvage and return to the wild to breed is important to the whole population" Peterson said. "Even though people are seeing large numbers of pelicans now doesn't meant there are more" she said. The brown pelican was just recently removed from the endangered species list. San Diego has seen large numbers of the iconic brown bird this year but fewer birds have been noted in areas of Baja California, another area with a traditionally large pelican population.