Canada Falcons: All but those hatched in Rochester

[MAK]

 ??? They're a bit confused there on Yonge St.  Eggs in separate scrapes !! Yikes!!!   

[Donna]

??? They're a bit confused there on Yonge St.  Eggs in separate scrapes !! Yikes!!!   

Crazy huh?

[Donna]

High-tech camera will be trained on peregrine falcon nest in downtown Edmonton

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/High+tech+camera+will+trained+peregrine+falcon+nest+downtown+Edmonton/4637730/story.html

EDMONTON — Local biologists will set up a new spy-agency-calibre camera on top of Edmonton’s Bell Tower to keep track of a peregrine falcon known as E4.

[Donna]

!!! New Adult Female at Brampton Courthouse
April 24, 2011 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:

Bruce Massey was on-site at the Brampton Courthouse today and was able to positively identify the female by her alpha numeric band number.  Up to this point, the pair at the courthouse consisted of a banded male and an unbanded female as reported earlier.  The female is Black 36 over Black X.  Her name is Truss and she was hatched and banded at the Burlington Lift Bridge in 2009.  It would appear that Truss is now the resident female and Bruce was able to witness copulation and lots of vocalizations around the southwest corner of the building where there is a ledge that they appear interested in.  The identity of the male remains elusive and until we have positive confirmation of the alpha numeric band number, considering all of the combinations available, we won’t speculate as to who he is.  We will certainly continue to monitor the site for potential nesting and pictures of the building will follow shortly

.!!! A quick peak, and confirmation of at least two eggs!
April 15, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Mark Nash Reports:

A cold blustery day with less than ideal weather conditions, we had an opportunity to get quick peak of the hidden treasures that lye beneath a very dedicated mom who has remained tight to her clutch of eggs for the last several weeks. A big thank you to the (PWGSC) Public Works & Government Services of Canada for giving us permission to post and share this photo with you that confirms that Cirrus is in fact doing allot more than just “holding the fort�. She has been involved in full time incubation now for several weeks and the photo clearly shows that there is at least one egg. While we were able to get an visual of two plus eggs, the camera phone was simply not quick enough (or should I say the photographer was not quick enough) to capture what was actually observed, but we can confirm at least the presence of two eggs. Due to the cold winds and not so seasonal temperatures, Cirrus has been holding tight to her incubation duties and did not give us much of an opportunity to get a peak.

During our visit, the resident adult male, “Sir Adam� was out and about terrorizing the local avian inhabitants looking for a lunch while capitalizing on the strong easternly winds.

Fingers crossed that we will be soon seeing a successful hatch in the next weeks to follow.
A big thank you to the great staff at the bridge for arranging access and allowing us the opportunity to get a close-up peak of Cirrus.
Stay tuned, more to come………

[Donna]

!!! New colour camera and a very good view indeed!
April 24, 2011 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Mark Nash Reports:

A big thank you to Matt our CPF web master for giving up so much of his time behind the scenes for sourcing out, researching and endless hours programming the new camera, rebuilding two new computers, and all of the field work he has been putting in to get us back on top of our web camera game. And to Linda, our downtown falcon watch coordinator for all of the running around, co-ordinating and arranging accesses to the various downtown nest sites that have allowed us do the necessary repairs and fixes to get the CPF web cams back up and running.

A huge thank you to Wendy and her colleagues at Osler, and to Jan Chudy who now both lives and watches the nest site from France for all of their continued support and contributions that have allowed us purchase the new camera and finally able to replace the aging black and white camera.

Lastly, we would like to thank the Toronto Sheraton Centre hotel management and staff, security , and ITT Hotels and Resorts for all of their support and patients, and for being both there for the CPF and the birds, and for being such great nest site hosts and foster parents to the birds.

We are delighted to report that the Toronto Sheraton nest has a new colour camera that is producing a great colour image of the nest ledge!
Enjoy, and stay tuned…………

[MAK]

 

[Donna]

Brampton Territorial Male Identified
April 30, 2011 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:

Bruce Massey was on-site today and was able to make a positive identification of the male.  It is the bird known as Milton that was hatched at the Gulf Tower in Pittsburg in 2002.  This male and his young mate, Truss from the Burlington Lift Bridge in 2009, are still holding the territory but their status as a nesting pair is still in question.  While copulation was witnessed by Bruce last week, the adults are being seen off of the ledge at the same time most often.  There was a period today where both birds entered the ledge and “discussed the situationâ€� but it is apparent that incubation is not underway at this time.  With the change over of the female from an unbanded one reported earlier to now being Truss has certainly disrupted cycles and timing at this potentially new site.  We will continue to monitor and update as we follow the pair this season.

A Pair at Holcim but Nesting Unconfirmed
April 30, 2011 - Mississauga - Holcim
Tracy Simpson Reports:

Bruce Massey was on-site at Holcim today with the hopes of catching some action from the peregrines in the area.  While they certainly are present and accounted for, Bruce was unable to secure band numbers on either birds or locate a ledge of interest.  We will continue to monitor the site and report on any nesting activity should this pair decide to set up house.

(Bruce Massey sure gets around) WOW!!

All Is Quiet
April 30, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Sue McCreadie Reports:

Bill and I spent an hour or so at the Lift Bridge today.  Sir spent the whole time sitting on the Hamilton Hydro Tower.   We couldn’t spot Cirrus anywhere and we could see no movement in the box.  From this observation we would assume that Cirrus is still in full incubation mode, hunkered down in the nest box out of sight.   Hopefully, we will see some action soon.

[Donna]

  So Jack has only had 2 females for 2 years. I thought longer.

Residential Falcons Time line. Click the pic twice for larger view.

[carly]

Actually it's Jack's third year with 2 females.  The first year though he didn't have offspring with TR Mom as she and Milton were about 3 weeks into raising their own brood when Milton was injured.  Jack and Angels' were in the middle of fledging when we noticed he was flying off in another direction for extended periods of time - he was wooing TR Mom and bringing her food to help with her single mom duties.

[Donna]

Actually it's Jack's third year with 2 females.  The first year though he didn't have offspring with TR Mom as she and Milton were about 3 weeks into raising their own brood when Milton was injured.  Jack and Angels' were in the middle of fledging when we noticed he was flying off in another direction for extended periods of time - he was wooing TR Mom and bringing her food to help with her single mom duties.

Yeah that makes sense, this is his 3rd yr. Thanks!

[Bird Crazy]

Actually it's Jack's third year with 2 females.  The first year though he didn't have offspring with TR Mom as she and Milton were about 3 weeks into raising their own brood when Milton was injured.  Jack and Angels' were in the middle of fledging when we noticed he was flying off in another direction for extended periods of time - he was wooing TR Mom and bringing her food to help with her single mom duties.

So he helped to raise Milton's eyas? Doesn't that make him unusual? It definitely raises my opinion of him a lot.   

[carly]

I know he provided TR mom with food...she wasn't exactly receptive at first as she was still looking for Milton.  At first she chased him off and was quite aggressive with him.  It took a bit of time before she was comfortable letting him near her kids.  We know he brought her food and defended the territory for her and she let him land on the ledge near the kids eventually but she was leary about letting him get too close to them unless she was there.  She did most of the work with them and the fledge training etc.. but he definitely helped and he was quite respective of the space she kept between him and the kids.

Tiercels are pretty good about raising anothers offspring..likely as they are smaller and know the female could take them out they pretty much bow to the female.  I expect they also realize that helping with the kids will win the female over.

[MAK]

  Thanks for all your interesting information Carly. 

[Donna]

Apr 30, 2011 - Cool news - Milton's location confirmed!!

Cool news was received today. Our old friend Bruce Massey was working his scope magic in Brampton, and has confirmed that the male falcon on site there is Milton, the original male from our nest site. It's great to hear, and to know Milton is in action in the region! Milton is currently negotiating potential nesting with a female named Truss who hatched at the Burlington lift bridge in 2009.

As far as our nest goes, incubation continues, and has been underway for some time now. The activity at our location is very low, and frequent checks via the monitoring camera show nothing more than a bird body huddled down in the corner, hence my lack of updates recently.

Monitoring continues, and I would expect things to get more interesting around mid May.

[Donna]

Not falcons but Cooper's

A great shot of both sexes in the same photo!
May 05, 2011 - International, National and Local News
CPF Postmaster Reports:

A big thank you to Roger From Scarborough Ontario for his photo of a female and a male Coopers hawk, one that clearly illustrates the size comparison between the two sexes.
As a rule of thumb with most birds of prey, the female is larger than the males.
Photo CredIt: Roger Knoll, Scarborough, Ontario

Regards
Roger Knoll

Great pic of both!