He just came back with food in his talons? Right into the nestbox.

!!! Janet Is Missing
May 29, 2012 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Frank Butson Reports:

Unfortunately our worst fears were realized today.  Janet made a wonderful high flight towards the condos behind MEC 3, when the new adult female, bumped her. Janet recovered and tried to make it to the 2nd condo,when she was bumped again, this time causing her to go into a dive to get away from this harrassment.  Sante did his best to stop the adult female from doing this but was unable. It didnt appear to be a crash type landing but we dont know where Janet came down. From the trajectory, most likely in the residential neighborhood to the east of the MEC complex. I headed immediately to begin a search. I stopped in at St’s Peter and Paul  school and got a quick permission to search the roof and immediate school grounds. Thanks to the office staff and principal for allowing this. CPF really appreciates this type of co-operation from the community. While Janet wasnt found there, it was a good help to simply allow us to check.

 The search continued on foot and by car. Both Bruce and I searched high and low to no avail. Tracy drove the neighboring areas with no luck either.  Sante was searching from the sky. From his early behavior it didnt seem that he knew where Janet was. Mark arrived and did a once around search by car too.

 The positive is that from all over the neighborhood we could see the MEC buildings and Janet will be able to also. This will mean she can head towards home. There is a window of 4 days for Janet to return or be found. If Sante finds and feeds her then there is no limit.  CPF will have a team back on site searching for Janet and monitoring the nest area for her return.  Her need to be fed will drive her to head for home.  She is a good flyer now so getting back home is well within her ability,even at this early stage.

There may have been some noteworthy observations but our sole mission is to find Janet.   We are very hopeful of a positive outcome.

 

Thanks for the update Kris, I was afraid something was wrong as I checked on my lunch break and there were no updates. 

We had a similar situation here this weekend Donna.  Baylie reported that she heard Oconnor screaming around midnight on Saturday night.  Everything was fine the next day when she checked but we were wondering if a predator may have been spotted, either that or someone was on the roof of the condos having a late night toast.   

!!! Flying and Fabulous Father
May 29, 2012 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Frank Butson Reports:

Janet made a few big flights today, keeping her altitude and going long distance both. She made it back to the nest building eventually.

Tracy will edit this part..As we arrived,all 3 falcons were in the air. Janet being harrassed by the new female and Sante protecting Janet. By the time we parked things had momentarily settled. Soon Janet took off again. She headed behind the MEC complex and ended up on a red bricked condo at the corner of Shipp and Rathburn. She landed on a windowsill. There she sat for many hours. By now Tracy had left for a Mississauga school visit so I watched Janet. She wasnt active so I sat down briefly out of visual contact with Janet. I checked several times and she was still there. I saw Sante go to check on her and when we both looked neither her father or I could see her! Ugggh she had flown. I had no idea where. I began scouring every building I could see starting with her last known location. Nothin! Tracy called to say she was on her way back and wanted an update. Frustrated I gave her answers that she was less than happy with.  Finally, while I had been scanning the building she left a fellow saw me looking from his condo unit and came out to the street. He told me it was his windowsill that Janet had rested on and which direction she flew. He said towards the condo across the street. So I went there. I  still couldnt see her. Then I saw 2 falcons on the same ledge at MEC 3.  It turned out it was the new girl and Sante. Back to looking at the other condo. Finally I took the long walk down Rathburn and the backside of the condo where I found Janet! Pheew!! I called Tracy with the good news who by now had arrived and was doing a car search. As I was telling her, she was just down the road at the intersection and spotted Janet too.  Crisis over, Tracy had to get gone to school 2.

Janet stayed atop the condo for several hours. Around 4pm she flew again. Out of my site around the corner. Bruce had just arrived on site and he was relayed the message that Janet was coming his way. He looked up and saw her arrive back at MEC 1. Yeah!! She made it home.

During her stay on the first condo, Sante was trying to bait her off with food. 2 times the new female tried to interfere with this. Sante gave up on the food idea and seemingly came up with his plan of attack..literally. I know we sometimes give human thoughts to Peregrines to explain their actions, but tell me this doesnt sound like Sante was running interference?  He would hover almost in Janets face as if to say ok get ready. Then he made a beeline for the new female where she was perched. He dove at her,stooped her and made contact with her forcing her to duck and cover on the ledge she was on. Not once but at least 3 times he repeated the whole process. My interpretation was that he was keeping the new female busy, giving Janet the chance to fly undisturbed.

 Sante was very very agressive with the new female. He attacked her several times, all over the MEC complex of 4 buildings. He gave suck a display of flying.  As stated in other postings, he is really using alot of his energy to do all of this and I do hope as do we all that he looks after himself too.

As the day started to wind down, Mark arrived and he, Tracy and I discussed the days happenings. Mark was chasing answers about Rogue the resident female that is in rehab. Im sure he will post soon with what he has learned. We sat chatting at MEC 3 when we got a call. Security had a double banded bird down and dead. Our hearts jumped to our throats as Tracy and I went over. Indeed they had a band on both legs of a very dead bird. Fortunately it was a Peregrine meal rather than a Peregrine. It was a banded pigeon! We thanked security for the call and told them to keep calling as the next time it could indeed be an injured (or worse) Peregrine. We are glad they are so vigilant in their inspections of the properties and know to call us ASAP. Thanks again for the call!

Tracy and I will be onsite again today, hoping to see more great flights by Janet and there incase the new female does cause Janet to get into trouble. This dynamic is both high drama and very interesting personally to watch unfold as this is a new experience for me. What a chance to observe what goes on when a resident adult female is (potentially)replaced.(photos to come)

Thanks Donna.  Must be hard on the parents too, losing so many chicks at once.  I hope they can get the two back as soon as possible. 

I'm so glad they've been rescued and are in good hands.  What happened to the parents?

A second egg is hatching for Lady!!!   

Great news this afternoon as it looks like the process of hatching has begun for one of the remaining two eggs on the osprey nest at Loch of the Lowes. Staff noticed a tiny hole in one of the eggs this afternoon, and the tell tale tiny egg tooth of the chick moving beneath. As the evening has progressed the crack running out from this hole has been getting bigger, and we have noticed the usual behavioural changes in our female osprey too- lots of listening, shuffling and fretting over the hatching egg, as well as her rather wiggly older chick.

We believe the egg that is hatching is the third egg ( today is day 38 of incubation for this egg) and not likely to be egg number two, which it looks like wasn’t viable. We will be over the moon of this chick manages to hatch successfully and if it makes it through the first few critical weeks, and survives to fledging it could be our female ospreys 50th fledgling- a remarkable achievement.

http://blogs.scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/osprey/

Oh they're like big ole cottonballs 

Thanks for the close up of Beauty's foot Donna.  I don't know much about those kinds of injuries and I may be naive but it looks good to me.  Looks like it's healing nicely?

Janet Back on the Nest Ledge and the Watch Continues
May 27, 2012 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:

The watch at the Mississauga Executive Centre continues with Janet, the remaining female juvenile, having returned to the nest ledge as of last night from the rooftop where she was released and she is now running the ledge like an expert. She travelled most of the nest building today by hopping from ledge to ledge and running the length of it while flapping most of the way. All this under the watchful eye of Sante, the resident male, who currently has his talons full dealing with not only the loss of his resident female who still remains in rehab ( her condition unknown ) but also with a new female on site as of yesterday at about 3:oopm. This is a banded female and we were able to confirm that she has a black over green band on her left leg and a purple USFW band on her right.

The adult female is attempting to court the resident male who has no interest in her given that he has a dependant juvenile on the nest ledge at this time. Whenever the male catches food for the chick, this new intruder chases him for it and he is spending an incredible amount of time attempting to dodge her and eventually deliver it to his young. When he is not hunting or dodging her as he attempts to feed, his is actively chasing and stooping her to attempt to run her out of the territory in an effort to protect his young. This is what the male spent most of his day and certainly all of his energy doing. The strain upon this male, without the aid of his female, is enormous and he is struggling to stay on top of things. Sante did manage to feed young Janet at least three times today with the last feeding at around 7:00pm.

We will be back down on the watch tomorrow as we are very concerned about the reaction this new female will have to the fledging of the final juvenile at this site. I cannot stress enough that without the assistance of the resident female, the male is having to work that much harder to feed, defend and direct his chick. He is doing an admirable job at it but it is without doubt draining him. Check back for a more detailed update on the progress of this situation.

We  welcome Suzanne to the watch team and look forward to the updates in the future that she will provide.

Does this stuff ever end? WOW! Thanks Carly. Any word on Mom?

I haven't heard anything further about mom yet.  Was kind of hoping she'd be free before a new female came in.

Not good!

I think this will delay her release either way.  We have a juvenile that's just learning to fly and doesn't know how to hunt yet.  Top that off with a new female who wants her food.  The last thing they would do - hopefully, especially given the loss of 2 juvies already - is interject the resident female into the middle of this.  It will surely result in a fight and the juvie might end up being a casualty just by accident.  You can be sure I'll be all over this - if they even think about it  

That being said, if she's ready to go now...might be okay and dad would recognize her and they could escort the new girl on her way.  I guess it will just depend on timing really...dad at least is making Janet his first priority so that's good but we'll see how aggressive this new girl proves to be.  Sometimes they drive out the juvies in their zeal to take over.  Talons crossed..at least we have boots on the ground to help if need be.

Does this stuff ever end? WOW! Thanks Carly. Any word on Mom?

I haven't heard anything further about mom yet.  Was kind of hoping she'd be free before a new female came in.

!!! A New Female Arrives
May 26, 2012 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Frank Butson Reports:

 Where to begin? How about at the beginning? On arrival at 730am, Bruce met me and explained what he had seen already Saturday morning. Janet was on the retaining wall of the roof of MEC #1(the nest building) and she had just been fed. As Janet seemed to have a crop already when Bruce arrived at 530am, he suggested she had been fed once already.  Not long after my arrival, Janet dropped her meal and it came to rest just below where Sante found and ate it. From there the day becomes a blur.  A new volunteer Herb joined me and by 1pm there wasn’t much different position wise than upon his arrival. Thanks for the help Herb it was much appreciated. We look forward to your invovlement at Canada Square.  About 3pm things got very interesting!!

     Zooming in a 3rd  Peregrine joined the fray. The bird flew directly into the nestbox and Sante(the resident male) defended his box. Over the course of many hours,it was determined that the “extraâ€� Peregrine was female. Sometimes she and Sante seemed to get along and be courting. Other times it seemed she was being a pest and she was being dealt with accordingly. There were chases where Sante struck at her,while at other times she would stay in the nestbox for hours.  She was not aggressive towards the young Peregrine Janet. Towards the end of the evening  Janet deliberately moved towards the new Mom looking for food. Prior to Janet being fed her evening meal, the new gal, kept harrassing Sante for food. Each time Sante flew with food,she would bug him for some. With great effort Sante would evade her keeping the meal for Janet.

     A million things went through my head as to the origins of this bird. I was very tired and knew I wouldn’t remember what I had seen, so began calling my own phone and leaving me updates.  My impression was that the bird was banded and it turns out she is. Tracy and I both observed a US Fish and Wildlife band and Tracy got the top colour of part of the recovery band.  Tomorrows goings on will be watched very closely, with an eye to how the new female treats Janet, especially once she tries to fly again. Later in the day we will use a scope to try to figure out the full identity of new female.

    The birds really made Tracy look smart. She had speculated that an intruder female may have caused the premature fledging of the other 2 chicks, leading to their deaths. While there really isn’t a way to determine this, it certainly seems plausible. Keep watching for more news