Canada Falcons: All but those hatched in Rochester

[Donna]

Wow, great news Carly Black/Green HUH....hmmm 

[Donna]

!! Yonge & Eglinton Scramble!
June 25, 2010 - Toronto - Uptown Yonge and Eglinton
Mark Nash Reports:

A brief update as we are all scrambling. Four hatchlings produced!! Surprise Surprise!! Oh my goodness!! Quick calls yesterday, Building management, Mark at OMNR, Big Frank, Tracy, Bruce, Linda and a host of other calls burning up the telephone lines! One dead battery on the cell phone, and starting on the second battery!

One fledgling rescued that was trapped behind the glass balcony way up on a condo. Rescued by Toronto Animal services, transferred to the Toronto Wildlife and in the bag safe and sound as we say.
Calls to some old friends at Yonge & Eglinton - Northam Realty property managers - (nest site building), quick talking and some very quick reintroductions. Great folks, and many thanks to Neil Armstrong for his assistance and support!!

Emergency call from Bruce Massey while he is on site in the afternoon, - as he watches one of the resident adult parents - (the female) fly to a huge tall condo building east of Yonge Street,,

- yet another fledgling observed trapped behind a glass balcony on the 43rd floor. Oh my goodness!!! Quick contact with building security at Minto for help. Long story, (many calls later), Tracy dispatched with yet another rescue carrier,,, - end result, Tracy and Bruce do the rescue,, - (second fledgeling in the bag as we say) safe and sound.

Two fledglings still on the nest ledge. Sizes indicate one female and one male still on the nest ledge raring to go!! Mark Heaton from MNR to band both fledglings
later prior to their re-release,,, and likely more to band as they tooo will be coming down to the streets! Very busy part of the city!!! Lots of congestion, NO PARKING ANYWHERE without a kings ransom or your first born!! Oh my goodness, - $ 12.00 for 3 hours of parking!!!!

Metro police Sargent very nasty at 47 div. demanding that we not stand in front or around the station, and forced to move from our watch position! Right,,,, To serve and protect. I must remember that.

Many more calls for help and logisicts!! Still scrambling, but its pulling together and making head way. Our team are some of the greatest folks on the planet!!

With a huge thank you to all that has been involved so far - (way tooo many names to mention during this rush e-mail), a watch has started. First priority to the birds!!

Stay tuned for many more updates and photos to come….

[carly]

Due to the rioting downtown I can't go out to the new nest site at Y&E as I'm subway reliant and they've shut everything down again today.   I just got an email from Frank and he says they will have a scope out today and hope to get the Male's band ID.

[Donna]

Due to the rioting downtown I can't go out to the new nest site at Y&E as I'm subway reliant and they've shut everything down again today.   I just got an email from Frank and he says they will have a scope out today and hope to get the Male's band ID.

 

[Donna]

!!! While the kids maybe out of the house, the parents still have the hardest job ahead of them!
June 27, 2010 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:

While the “kids� maybe away from the house (or off the nest ledge) at the moment, its only for a short time. The resident adults still have the hardest part of their job still to come.

Ongoing protection, feeding and training the “teenagers� to fend for themselves is a huge task for the two resident adults.

So far, there has been NO mortality and everyone seems to be doing quite well, staying aloft and away from the windows. The very good news: Is that each of the juveniles have all brushed up into the windows, and unlike many other birds, the young peregrines actually learn the dangers of the windows, and if they hit them softly and don’t injure themselves on these initial collisions, they do learn to stay away from glass.

This is an important lesson learned, as they will soon be picking up incredible speeds as they get older and more experienced, and if they have not learned the “window lesson “ early in their flight development, collisions with the windows at advanced ages usually results in serious injury or most often mortality due to the speeds that the juveniles are now travelling. We actually hope that they experience the “window lesson� early in their maiden flights, as they are slow and sloppy in their flights, and usually hit them softly at this stage.

For the next 30 to 90 days, the juveniles will be utilizing the nest ledge and still sleeping there most nights. Far from independent and able to feed them selves at this point, the youngsters have much to learn now that they can fly.

The adults will have to teach them many of the life skills that the juveniles will have to learn to survive to adulthood, or should I say, just survive another day)!!

Remember that by mid September, thousands of years of hard wired instincts will have the young juveniles head south on a migration and with upwards of an 80% mortality and many perils and risks, the juveniles will need all of the help that they can just to survive their first year.

The adult parents have their job cut out for them while teaching the juveniles how, what and where to hunt food, and how to recognize and escape from all of the “bad guys� out there. At this point, even their landings are terrible, as it takes allot of practice just to brake and coordinate a good landing!

Even after the juveniles have learned what to hunt (where and how to hunt it), there will be many trials and errors (misses and failures) before they are actually able to catch anything them selves, and this will take some time to hone their hunting skills.

Stay tuned, and look to the skies, as the best viewing is yet to come!!

 Things Are Pretty Quiet
June 27, 2010 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:

When we arrived at the Lift Bridge this morning, we found 2 Juvies and Mom on the Hamilton Hydro Tower.  Dad was nowhere to be seen.  Everyone was just sitting around.  It was quite foggy so I put the scope up to see if I could identify who was who.  In a flash, Mom was off the Tower and heading towards Stoney Creek.  We watched as she went into a dive and plucked a pigeon out of the air with no problem whatsoever.  She brought it back to the bridge abutment over the Marina Parking Lot and before she had a chance to set it down, both juvies were off the hydro tower and screaming towards her.  Diana won, and she certainly is not very good at sharing with her brother.  He tried to get close but she would have none of it. (Callidora) 

[carly]

Just spoke to Frank and although they don't have the ID on the new black/green banded male - he does apparently have 'black tape' on over the US band ID - leftover from fledge no doubt!  I'll keep you posted.

[Donna]

 Blackberry Rescued and Released
- Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Frank Butson Reports:

About 1pm Mark Nash was notified that Blackberry was trapped on a glass balcony at the corner of Bloor and Islington. He attended and was able to rescue Blackberry without incident. He was fine. About 1115pm Mark and I arrived and with the help of security released Blackberry without incident on the roof of the Sunlife Centre….without incident is relative. There was a fire alarm going off just as we arrived to the point we had to release Blackberry. This meant when Mark and I finished the release we had to walk all the way down 18 floors to get out of the building,Im sure muscles neither of us knew we ever had will ache tomorrow morning…Blackberry’s revenge?

[Donna]

Just spoke to Frank and although they don't have the ID on the new black/green banded male - he does apparently have 'black tape' on over the US band ID - leftover from fledge no doubt!  I'll keep you posted.

Not one of Rochester's finest...but keep us posted.

[Donna]

!!! Two fledged, two rescued, two banded, two named, and two returned to thier nest ledge and their parents!  PHEW!!!
June 27, 2010 - Toronto - Uptown Yonge and Eglinton
Mark Nash Reports:

A long day in the heat with endless traffic delays and tie-ups due to the G8/20 and looking like a police state, we did our best to navigate around the city trying to do the rescues and re-releases of the three downed juvenile fledglings. Now on the road from Bloor & Islington back to the CPF centre in Woodbridge to hook up with Mark from the OMNR, and with Tracy on the road to pick up one of the earlier rescued downed fledglings from the Up-town Yonge & Eglinton nest site that was also trapped behind the glass on a condo balcony, we all assembled at the CPF raptor centre to get the two young fledglings banded. The Good news, with one juvenile male and one female fledgling in hand, both birds were banded without incident and in good time. The heat, sun and humidity was although debilitating at times for all of us, and the juveniles were re-hydrated with fresh water from spray bottle on numerous occasions. Reports from the watch team at Yonge & Eglinton still indicating that the other two juveniles are still on the nest ledge.

Obviously one is a male and the other one given its much larger size in comparison is a female.

With banding successful completed, its back on the road yet again to Yonge & Eglinton nest site for the release of the two banded fledglings. After hooking up with Lyn and Frank who were holding the fort at the fledge watch, we waiting for darkness and let up of the torrential rains to do the release back to the nest building.

The two banded juveniles will be named:

For the first young female - (banded 21 over X) - was named “Cyclone “ - (violent hurricane) - given her robust energy and very nasty attitude, this is a most suitable name for her!

For the young male, (banded *6 over D), he was named “Typhoon�,, - (very appropriate given the torrential flooding and rain storming that we are currently experiencing in Toronto at the moment !

Under the cover of darkness (and with two juveniles still on the nest ledge),, we were escorted by building security to a lower balcony ledge just below the actual nest ledge to do the release of Typhoon and Cycloon. A big thank-you to Tracy, Big Frank, Lyn, Marion, building security and the building management for allowing access, and Mark Heaton, his son, and both of this parents for assisting with the banding, the rescue and the release of these two fledglings!

A very special thanks also to Toronto Wildlife and The Toronto Animal Services for their support, and to Zoe, Bruce, Jan and Linda - (some of the greatest fledge watch team members in the world) for also coming to our rescue (or should I say to the birds rescue) . As you can see, there are MANY involved in the rescue of these birds here in the urban settings.

Stay tuned………
There are still two more to fledge…….

Way to go Toronto!!

[Donna]

Continued>>>>

 Yonge & Eglinton
-
Zoe Berger Reports:

Frank and Harry were there when I arrived - watching the 3 chicks (the 2 rescued chicks and the female who had been doing lots of flapping the past 3 days and apparently finally fledged) on the black building where the Eglinton busses turn in and out (constantly!).

 We still had one in the nest - the male who had not been flapping at all the 3 days I’d been watching. We kept eyes on the 3, sometimes 1 completely out of sight…and all of a sudden we had to decide who the 4 birds on that building were. It appears that quiet little guy fledged on his own totally unnoticed. We checked and definitely had 4 chicks on the black building. After lots of sitting all around, Frank and I suddenly had to get up to watch the path of a chick flying…and we BOTH watched it pass a tree and not come out the other side. We both walked up and down the roads in the area, both scanned the tree many times and finally Frank listened to a robin on the roof next to the tree where we had lost that chick on and sure enough there he was. The quiet non-flapping male had gotten himself trapped in many oak leaves and branches. Shortly after locating him he was really ready to get out of that mess and tried as best as he could to fly out - but he was trapped by a few leafless branches right above him and could not get flight…his wings got tangled in the bare branches and he lost his footing and literally  fluttered in slo-mo down to the street just out of traffic. Frank got the towel and we checked him as best as we could and got him in the carrier which was taken by Lyn to her  cool and comfy apt - all of which coincided with Lyn arriving at the scene just after the rescue.  So, rescue #3 from the site, he will be banded too (3 of 4 chicks).

Just before I left one of the female chicks took flight north across Eglinton and had a very good landing.  Linda and Bruce had arrived so I left.  Can’t wait for the update from Frank of what happened after I left.

I wanted to add more photos but my computer is not cooperating…!

[Donna]

Blackberry's rescue.   http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/w/2010/06/sightings/blackberry-rescue/ with pics

[carly]

One of the fledglings at the new site did not survive after his rescue

!!! Sad news…good news.
-
Frank Butson Reports:

The good news is we did everything right and rescued 2 of young Peregrines. One was rescued successfully,but the impact suffered caused it to succomb to its injuries later. The ride home for the fledge watchers was very sombre. The other bird,the unbanded female was rescued after landing in a tree and eventually coming to the ground. She will be banded and released tomorrow.

We thought the day was done with the remaining to youngsters on the TTC building,but at after 9pm and 2 feedings,the female chick flew to the aentena atop the nest building. The male made a good flight and landed on the roof of the nest building.

In all a day of defeat and triumph. Sadly this is the reality of being a young Peregrine Falcon,life is not easy for them. Hazzards of fledging and later migration,result in a high mortality rate of 80% in their first year. Knowing we do our best to help the Peregrine Falcon beat the odds is what we have to look at. We are hoping for a much better day tomorrow.
 

[Donna]

This is very sad news, thanks Carly.

[Donna]

!!! Fantastic news from the William Osler Hospital! There has been a hatch!!
June 28, 2010 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Mark Nash Reports:

While out on the Up-town Yonge & Eglinton watch last night, I received some very good news indeed, as we received a telephone call from the staff at the William Osler Health care centre in Etobicoke to let us know that there was something different in the nest tray this morning. This morning, there were fluffy white cotton balls visible instead of the reddish-brown coloured oval rocks. :-)
Yes, it has been confirmed,,, in that there has indeed been a hatch!!!

Congratulations to all of the staff at William Osler Hospital!!

Stay tuned, as there is more exciting news to come………..

WOW late bloomers! 

[carly]

Donna, There was some sort of territorial scuffle here awhile back and eggs that had been laid were destroyed.  No one knows if it's the same female or a new one that is the mom of these.  Perhaps now with a fledge watch to come once the kids are older - they can identify who is there!