Canada Falcons: All but those hatched in Rochester

[Donna]

!!! A Hatch at Burlington Lift Bridge!!!
May 06, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Tracy Simpson Reports:

I went out to the Burlington Lift Bridge today to check on the progress of the resident pair and their clutch of eggs.  I was able to take a look in the nest box and was delighted to see that Cirrus was brooding two newly hatched young.  One of the chicks appears to have hatched the previous evening while the other had more physical control indicating that it probably hatched on Wednesday May 4th, which ties into previous observations of the restlessness of the resident female on May 4th by Sue and Bill.  I could clearly see that there is still one egg left to hatch and Sir Adam was watching from the other side of the lift bridge as Cirrus gingerly tucked them beneath the warmth of her feathers.  A big thank you to the (PWGSC) Public Works & Government Services of Canada for being so supportive of the nesting pair.  Way to go Cirrus and Sir Adam!!!

[carly]

First hatch Hamilton...minutes ago!!  Madame X is munching on the shell, she helped the baby out..it was awesome!  Second egg looks like it has a huge pip and will be out soon 

Madame X...12 years old this year...    

[Dumpsterkitty]

Oh I love brand new eyases!  Congratulations!

[Donna]

  me too Ei!! Congrats Hamilton!!

[carly]

Here comes number two 

[MAK]

 

[Donna]

!!! Mother’s Day Hatch(s)!
May 08, 2011 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:

Just arrived back from a 2 hour visit to the nest site.  When I arrived, even without binoculars, Angel could clearly be seen from the ground flipping back and forth like pizza!  Up, down, frontwards, backwards…on and on it went for a good 45 minutes.

Finally she left the nestbox and flew over to the cache and returned quickly with food in her talons.  She spent 8-10 minutes feeding something - her head was up and down and she was clearly chupping to someone between, single chups that prompt a chick or chicks to eat.  When done she immediately left with the food in her talons and stashed it on another ledge and then right back in to the box.

She settled a bit but was again seen moving around, head clearly seen from the ground, more flipping around!  About 45 minutes later, I heard Jack’s shrill signal that he was arriving - here’s the funny thing, I never saw him.  I had his perch on the other side and the nest ledge clearly in sight and never saw him once.  Angel started chupping to him and I could hear him answer back.  At one point she got out in front of the nestbox and looked straight up and was chupping up a storm to him and then right back into the box she went.  He gave the ‘I’m leaving’ signal and then all was quiet…amazing!

CPF members will be onsite tomorrow to confirm what I saw today.  Week before last I was watching the Gulf Towers webcam online and the female was so excited that her eggs  were starting to hatch that she brought in food to try to feed the eggs..it was very sweet!  So I’ll wait for a visual confirmation.

In the meantime, Happy Mother’s Day to Angel and all Mom’s out there - including my own who was understanding about me spending time with ‘my other mom’ this morning!


This is THEE Jack!! 2 nests

[Donna]

!!! We Have a Hatch at William Osler!!!!
May 09, 2011 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:

Bruce Massey was on-site today at the William Osler Hospital and was able to gain access to the mechanical room peep hole for a check up on the resident adults and their clutch of eggs.  To his delight, the resident female stood up to reposition herself and there was a newly hatched chick in view.  Bruce puts the hatch date as yesterday or last night.  A huge thank you to the staff and security at the William Osler Hospital for all of their support and congratulations to them on their very first hatch!!!!

Still Awaiting a Hatch at MEC.
May 09, 2011 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:

Bruce Massey was on-site today at the Mississauga Executive Centre for a check up on the incubating adult pair and their three eggs.  A quick look at the monitor revealed that there has yet to be a hatch at this site.  The resident pair is certainly working hard on incubating and caring for the eggs and we will continue to check back regularily for a hatch.  Check back soon as it could be any day now!!!

Site Check In at Holcim
May 09, 2011 - Mississauga - Holcim
Tracy Simpson Reports:

Bruce Massey was on-site today at Holcim in Mississauga and from his period of observation, he could not detect any adults birds.  There certainly was activity at this site over the past few weeks of a territorial pair but Bruce was unable to locate a ledge of interest.  Has this pair settled in somewhere?  Check back soon as we will be keeping a close eye on this site for any signs of nesting activity!!

!!! Behaviour Change, fine weather or a Hatch?
May 09, 2011 - Toronto - King Street
Linda Woods Reports:

Back to the monitor this morning. The Adult female did not move to show me a thing. She was a little more unsettled on the nest today. Perhaps the warm weather has her at ease.

This afternoon a return visit to the monitor. Forgot it’s all in shade and very difficult to see anything until the sun is off the while building across the street. The camera lens reacts to reflective light, thus the lens is reacting to the bright sunlight reflecting off the building. The male did make an appearance on the nest ledge. He sat there for  a while then gingerly approached the female from behind. He stood there for a few minutes, but the female totally ignored him and did not move an inch. He eventually flew off. She did get up and adjust the eggs and I wasn’t quite sure if I saw a little white fluff,or just the white of her chest feathers. I’ll check again tomorrow .

!!! Adult peregrines remain in the area
May 09, 2011 - Toronto - Mount Sinai Hospital
Linda Woods Reports:

Reports coming in are stating that the  resident pair remain in the area and are seen roosting on both the Hospital and adjacent buildings. Closer observations will be needed to watch for potential new nesting behaviour and/or a new clutch of eggs.

[ezsha]

!!! Three hatchlings!!
May 09, 2011 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Mark Nash Reports:

An exciting afternoon! First stop today ended up to be my last stop and I was hard pressed to leave. Arrived in the afternoon trying to time my visit upon Jack arrival, I made it just in time. After making my way up to the Kingsway Condo roof, I was greeted with some old friends from Skyreach who were just finishing up their activities for the day. After an half an hour of chit chat and moments after the Skyreach crew departed, Jack finally showed up carrying food and landed on the nest ledge where his mate Angel was patiently laying down in the nest tray. Seconds after his arrival, Angel stood up and flew off the nest tray to get some exercise.

Jack remained on the corner of the nest ledge and did not go up into the tray. It looked as if he had not been given permission to go up to the nest tray or somewhat confused by actions as he remained fast exactly where he had landed with food in hand.

Over the next few minutes we both watched his mate fly around the nest building several times all the time screaming at her. After several go-rounds around the nest building, Angel finally returned to the nest ledge, and in a single motion grabbed the food from him and stepped up to the nest tray, hesitating several minutes before she finally stepped into the nest tray itself. That’s when the real interesting stuff started.

Suddenly out of nowhere, one by one, three tiny fluffy white wobbly heads and necks appeared from the centre of the nest tray! With the camera snapping away like a full automatic machine gun, I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

For the next 10 minutes I watched with sheer delight while Angel fed the smallest morsels of food one by one to each of the tiny hatchlings. They couldn’t have eaten more than a thimble size quantity of food between the three of them despite Angels best efforts to encourage them to eat more. It seemed to take forever to feed them, as on one hatchling could hold it head up for more than a few seconds.

After the feeding, Angel removed the small uneaten remains of the blood soaked carcase dropping it from her beak only several feet from the nest ledge. In the same round about flight, she returned to the nest ledge, then to the nest tray and quickly resumed her brooding activities by covering the three tiny hatchlings from my view. I was at this point I finally noticed one reddish brown un-hatched egg.

Jack remained on the nest ledge for several minutes and finally flew off from the nest ledge to the west and disappeared from my view. Over the next hour, Angel never stirred an inch and remained brooding. It was quite apparent that the show was over (at least for the time being), and I departed in an effort to get over to Oxford and the SunLife centre to tell them of the good news and to get back on the road to the Toronto head office before the heat of the rush hour traffic was in full motion.

Again, many thanks to the great staff and management group of the Kingsway on Park Condo for their support in allowing me access to the roof to confirm that a hatch had occurred.

Now for the time consuming job of going over , editing and resizing the 1000 plus photos that I ended up taking. Oh my goodness!!

[Donna]

A pic  of Cirrus through a peep hole at Burlington Lift Bridge. Look at the babies!!

[MAK]

   SWEEEEEET! 

[Donna]

!!! Hatch confirmed!
May 11, 2011 - Toronto - King Street
Mark Nash Reports:

Tuesday May 10th

We have just received great news from Linda, our downtown falcon watch coordinator that a hatch has been confirmed at the King Street nest site! While the resident adult female was not giving much up as she is still sticking tight to her incubation / brooding activities, Linda was able to get a quick peek as the female shuffled around on the scrape in an effort to cover up her eggs.

At one point, Linda was able to see at least one fluffy white ball of down among the unhatched eggs, and some egg fragments that has been pushed aside clearly in the view of the camera.

Sadly, Linda is also experiencing some problems again with her Rogers internet service and she could not get connected to the www to do the posting.

It is believed that the actual hatch happened some time on Monday when Linda did her last site visit, as the adult female was paying allot of attention to something going on under her,, but she did not give Linda a view of what all the excitement was about.

Fingers crossed that there will be other eggs hatch over the next few days!
Stay tuned…

[Donna]

Birds on a Wire as Streaming Media Delivers More Falconcasts  (I put this here since it has to do with Canada's Raptors

http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000423547  story continues here

Thousands of views per day. Millions per year.

Online audiences continue to grow, as new technology enables local content creators and dedicated ornithologists to stream live video of endangered peregrine falcons.

In Canada, locations such as Montreal, Winnipeg and Toronto's financial district are sources of the online video. The so-called bird's eye views of urban peregrine falcon nests are proving to be very popular in Canada and around the world. Several international falcon cams sites have been established.

[Shaky]

Gee, what a novel concept.

[Donna]

!!! Ottawa is down on eggs!
May 12, 2011 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:

We have just received news from Eve Ticknor that the pair have finally gone down onto incubation! Eve reports that their resident female “Diana�is well hidden, behind a pillar, 2 down from the northwest corner. Sadly, because of the pillars, we will have no way to count eggs nor to tell just when the hatch takes place. It will be a different kind of Falcon Watch this year.

Still in the area
May 12, 2011 - Toronto - Mount Sinai Hospital
Linda Woods Reports:

Hunter and Ranger have not put down a new clutch of eggs as yet. Today the pair were seen sitting on the condo towers on Bay St around 1p.m.  Local watcher said, she has seen them on other buildings for short periods of time. This information may indicate that they are not attempting to put down more eggs at this time. We’ll continue to monitor this pair of falcons.