Canada Falcons: All but those hatched in Rochester

[jeanne]

I'm so sorry, Carly    Fly free dear little one

[Kris G.]

Observation for Mississauga - Holcim
A Posting I Missed; Emmalina Rescued Again June 20th
July 01, 2012 - Mississauga - Holcim

Tracy Simpson Reports:

First let me apologize for missing this most important posting.  Between working and the 7 different watch sites over the last 32 days I have been attending, this one I was sure I posted by sadly and embarrasingly was missed.  My most sincere apologies folks.

On June 20th, Mark Nash received a call from Holcim Cement from a gentleman, Mark, who works at the plant who told us that Emmalina had once again come down to the ground.  This time she landed right in front of staff and after a moment or two, began walking towards them.  Her eyes were watering and it would appear that she had gotten into something.  Mark and Armando immediately rescued her and after closer inspection, noticed that she had dust all over her face and in her nares.  The two jumped to action and began washing her face and eyes with saline solution and then flushing very well with water.  Once cleaned up, she was placed in a rescue carrier, left with security and the call was placed.

Mark Nash called me and asked if I could go out and take a look at Emmalina and ascertain whether she was in need of medical attention.  I dashed out of work and arrived at the site at approximately 5:30pm and went in to take a look at the young bird.  When I initially lifted up the towel on the carrier, she hissed and lashed out as a healthy peregrine does but on further examination, her eyes were still watering from her contact with the dust and we decided to take her to Toronto Wildlife Centre for evaluation by their vet.  When she arrived at TWC, she was once again washed and treated for dust and throughly examined.  The dust that she had made contact with had caused a chemical-like burn to the soft tissues of her eyes, nasal cavities, mouth and throat.  She was hydrated and today remains at the TWC under close watch as she heals from her latest adventure.  We will keep you informed as to her progress as the updates come in.

Posted on July 1, 2012 5:05 pm
Observation for Mississauga - Holcim

Update On Emmalina
July 06, 2012 - Mississauga - Holcim

Frank Butson Reports:

Today I got an update from TWC about Emmalina who fell into cement powder. She had complications from the toxicity and was seizuring for days. Emmalina now seems to be stabilized but is being treated for really horrible eye ulcers. The workers that found her and rescued Emmalina had done an eye wash on this little one (an eye wash you would normally do in an emergency situation for humans). We think this very much saved the little ones eye balls.  
  We will post updates as we recieve them. Thanks to the folks at the Toronto Wildlife Centre for all of their efforts.

Posted on July 6, 2012 10:28 pm
Observation for Mississauga - Holcim


Poor baby-hope she does well. Kudos to the people who took quick action with her and her eyes!

[MAK]

Good luck little one! 

[Donna]

Awesome Flying by the Adults at Waterloo Sun Life
July 09, 2012 - Kitchener - Sun Life Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:

I arrived on site just after noon and met up with Bruce Massey, Sue McCreadie and Bill McCreadie who were manning the Watch at the Waterloo Sun Life Financial nest site.  They informed me that it had been rather uneventful for most of the morning with the exception of a food delivery into the nest ledge area at around 6:30am.  It was not to remain that way for long!!  First off I was able to look at the resident adult male for the first time from outside of the Sun Life building.  All of my looks had been through smoked glass at bad angles due to where he roosts and so I was keen to confirm his band information today.  What I learned, thanks to Bill and Sue lending me their scope, is that the adult resident male is in fact wearing a black over red recovery band on his left leg!!  I was fooled earlier last week by the distortion and tint on the glass but I am in no doubt today!!  This was reconfirmed later by Bruce, Sue and Mark and so we have identified the resident male without a doubt to this point.  Now for the tough part, the numbers / letters that pinpoint his identity and origins!!

At 12:30pm. the resident adults had both taken to the air and Statler, the resident female, had come up to one of the concrete walls we call parapets and had a pigeon with her.  The resident male flew up to the retaining wall above her and watched as she devoured most of the meal over the next 45 minutes.  By 1:40pm she’d had her fill and took off with the remains of her lunch.  She flew for over a minute with long and swooping flights over top of the nest ledge area as if to incite some activity from the juvenile.  After a good long swoop around, she flew directly onto the roof on the east side which has been identified as the nest ledge area.  She entered with food, dropped out of our sights and finally exited after 5 minutes without any food with her.  She flew up to the top of the north facing Sun Life Financial sign and perched on the westernmost girder that supports the sign; one of her favourite perches.  The resident male was perched on the east side on the retaining wall right where it meets one of the parapets.  If your not looking carefully, he can easily camoflage and disappear in that spot!!  At just after 2pm, the adult male left on a hunt and by 2:30 had returned with food.  He flew past Statler with it and she took to the air.  This next little flight was amazing to watch!!

The adult male flew in circles with the food in his talons while the female circled just below him.  He swooped up and almost inverted himself while at the same time letting go of the food.  The momentum carried the food up into the air for a brief second before it started to fall.  It didn’t have to fall far before the female was in and snatched it right out of the air.  Awesome food transfer by the resident parents!!  She carried the food around and out of our view on the southwest side of the building.

Staying true to the timelines that I witnessed last week, the male took off at 4pm on a hunt.  This time he didn’t immediately return with food but rather stayed off site until 5:40pm when he returned to roost on his favourite eastern perch.  The female was expecting a little more from him than just a visit and so she positioned herself on the northeastern retaining wall to await her mates next food delivery.  By 6:30pm it was apparent that it was not coming and so Statler took to the air and headed west in lazy, climbing circles.  Marion and I visually followed her through our binoculars and watched as she spotted a target and then made a spectacular stoop out of our sights.  Within 10 minutes, she returned with prey and was on the east side louvers section stashing it away.  As I left, both adults had taken up positions on the building near to the nest ledge area and looked to be settled in for the night. 

Thanks to Tony Bergauer at Bentall Kennedy and Waterloo Sun Life Financial for all of their support in getting the Fledge Watch underway!!  We look forward to an exciting week of meeting the community, sharing our stories and watching this wonderful peregrine family!!

[Carol P.]

Sad news from Jack's other site this morning, one of two has been found dead.  One was rescued last week and banded before being returned to the ledge - both were thought to be female 

Jul 3, 2012 - Unfortunate news ...

Sometime this morning, one of our juvies (the unbanded one) apparently had a fatal accident, likely an impact with the building.

The bird was located on the ground near my patio, and has been preserved on ice for the night until the MNR can retrieve for research purposes.

Sad to see, but as we know these birds face many challenges in their lives, and survival in an urban environment can be just as difficult as in the most pristine of natural environments.

So sorry for the loss of your little one Carly.   

[carly]

!! ICICI Eglinton & the DVP - Another new nest for 2012!! Two Fledglings Rescued!!

July 09, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:

July 9th - 2012
Two fledglings peregrines were observed wandering around on the ground at 7:30 am in the morning, guarded by several members of the local community until CPF was notified. Bruce and Kathy from the CPF to the rescue!

Well, it seems that every year over the past several years we have discovered a new nest site that has evaded detection and is only discovered when fledglings start appearing on the ground. This year is no exception! Today, reports started flooding in to the CPF head office phones, mobile phones and e-mail of a report of two young falcons wandering around on the roadway narrowly being missed by on coming vehicle traffic. A huge thank you to Randy and his family who spent most of the day protecting and guarding the two fledglings until CPF was finally notified and dispatched to the site at that ICICI building in the Eglinton Ave east and Don Valley Parkway.

What really adds injury to insult, (at least for us), is that we have been getting reports of peregrine activity in this area for the past six plus years. For this same period of time, we have spend many hours each year and never have we seen been able to find a nest site. This is the first year that we have had evidence of actual nesting activity and offspring being produced.

Again thanks to Randy’s persistence with the many telephone calls that he made with most everyone not given him much attention and assistance, he was finally forwarded to the Toronto Wildlife Centre in Downsview, who identified his photos as peregrines and then called the CPF.

With an incredible story to follow of the days events by all, the two young fledglings were eventually rescued from the roadway. A huge thank you also goes out to Bruce and Kathy from the CPF who responded so quickly and managed to facilitate they rescues.

More of the story to follow. Here are some of the many photos that were sent into us by Samantha, Dominic and Randy.

Stay tuned for additional details of the rescue, banding and release back to their parents!
Now a new fledge watch!! HELP!!!!!!

[Shaky]

When posting pics to this forum, do not just add .jpg to the end of a url. This causes incredible amounts of problems for the Forum. I fixed the post above this time as I have with previous posts like it. In the future, I will simply delete them.

[Donna]

Fledge Watch Begins at the new Don Mills Nest Site!!
July 11, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Kathy Smith Reports:

I arrive 5:50am and Randy (neighbourhood volunteer) was already there. He had spotted one baby on the 5th floor window ledge of the ICICI building and the other was nowhere to be seen. The female was south on the apartments screaming away so I patrolled the grounds around both complexes with no site of Ben ( blue tape ). While watching Len ( yellow tape )  Irma and her husband Dick had joined us. We look up and there’s the lil brat Ben on the chimney of apartments!!

By 8 am Ben on the chimney gets food and by 8:30 am, Len who had been hanging out on the 5th floor window comes down to the but not before circling both buildings. I take Len in to security and we place him in a rescue carrier and lock him in the security room. By the afternoon, the parents, both confirmed as unbanded adults, are now flying by Ben on the chimney with food.  Ben was content to stay on the chimney and scream but refused to fly for it.  No takers!!

  Bruce arrives and shortly after the adults buzz Ben several times in a effort to get him off of the chimney.  There was work being conducted on the roof area of the apartment building so I obtained the managers phone number just in case.  Bruce went over and was able to catch a couple of workers coming down for a break and gave them the heads up or should I say “HEADS UPâ€�; a little friendly warning in case baby come down to roof level and the parents came over to protect him. 

I left the Watch with Ben on the chimney being watched by Bruce, Randy and the parents and Len safely tucked away in a rescue carrier.  Bruce will do the release tonigh and hopefully Len will have learned to stay high!!  A big thank you to security and building management of ICICI, the nest building, for helping out Len once again!!

 

[jeanne]

Fledge Watch Begins at the new Don Mills Nest Site!!
July 11, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Kathy Smith Reports:

I arrive 5:50am and Randy (neighbourhood volunteer) was already there. He had spotted one baby on the 5th floor window ledge of the ICICI building and the other was nowhere to be seen. The female was south on the apartments screaming away so I patrolled the grounds around both complexes with no site of Ben ( blue tape ). While watching Len ( yellow tape )  Irma and her husband Dick had joined us. We look up and there’s the lil brat Ben on the chimney of apartments!!

By 8 am Ben on the chimney gets food and by 8:30 am, Len who had been hanging out on the 5th floor window comes down to the but not before circling both buildings. I take Len in to security and we place him in a rescue carrier and lock him in the security room. By the afternoon, the parents, both confirmed as unbanded adults, are now flying by Ben on the chimney with food.  Ben was content to stay on the chimney and scream but refused to fly for it.  No takers!!

  Bruce arrives and shortly after the adults buzz Ben several times in a effort to get him off of the chimney.  There was work being conducted on the roof area of the apartment building so I obtained the managers phone number just in case.  Bruce went over and was able to catch a couple of workers coming down for a break and gave them the heads up or should I say “HEADS UPâ€�; a little friendly warning in case baby come down to roof level and the parents came over to protect him. 

I left the Watch with Ben on the chimney being watched by Bruce, Randy and the parents and Len safely tucked away in a rescue carrier.  Bruce will do the release tonigh and hopefully Len will have learned to stay high!!  A big thank you to security and building management of ICICI, the nest building, for helping out Len once again!!

 

?????

[Donna]

Unknown female at Don Mills 2 By Ann

This nest is 15 minutes away from the Questals, the other end of Don Mills, so they should be OK. 2 just fledged.

Mom and Ben.



Adult flying over juvenile. Trying to get him up and flying. By the size of the crop he is going nowhere

Ben & Len  

Brothers



Food it is my food - take out order

takeout order - chicken delivered

Hello-Goodbye

Stepping on adults head to get food!

[nwfloridafalconfan]

This nest is 15 minutes away from the Questals, the other end of Don Mills, so they should be OK. 2 just fledged.

Toronto falcons seem to be much more tolerant of others than Rochester falcons.

[Donna]

Don Mills Watch Going Very Well
July 14, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Kathy Smith Reports:

As of today, both the juvenile males, Ben and Len, have returned to the nest building roof which is a great sign of strong flights and good coordination.  At 5:45am, Bruce dropped by for a quick look and found Ben & Len on nest building and Dad on De Beers before he was off to William Osler to start the watch there.  I arrived at 7:00am to find Ben on the DeBeers building and Len still on nest building. Shortly after arriving, the was a feeding in to the young ones and all seemed well.  By 8:00am, Anne and Donna arrive and watch Ben flying well back and forth between buildings but Len had yet to leave the nest building . It would seem that between the heat, humidity and his adventure on the TSM building yesterday that he is quite happy to stay where he is for now, especially when food keeps coming in!!  The resident adult female here is quite the huntress as she regularly brings in pigeons for the juveniles and flies up to the top of the building with this large package with more ease than not.  We will continue to watch as Len gains more confidence and catches up to Ben in his flight training. 

A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who have come out in support of this nest site on such short notice as we are all still on other watches in Waterloo and Etobicoke.  Thanks to Randy, Winnie and Alan, Kathy, Bruce, Cathy from Foresters, Ann, Donna, Patty, Murray and Irma.  Sorry if I have missed anyone.  Please know that we are so grateful for all of your support!!

All these guys do is eat!

Food

Food

Food drop

  Ben & Len

Pics by Ann

[MAK]

 

[carly]

!!! Waterloo Sun Life Male Has Been Identified!!!
July 16, 2012 - Kitchener - Sun Life Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:

With a huge thanks to Tony Bergauer of Bentall Kennedy for snapping a confirmation photo, the resident male at the Waterloo Sun Life nest site has been identified and confirmed!!  The male has a black over red recovery band on his left leg bearing the markings 16 over B and a purple USFW band on the right leg.  This male, hatched in 2010,  is known as Caster from the LTV Mittal Steel nest site in Cleveland, Ohio and is son to Flash and Jersey.  Thanks again to all the watchers that have worked so hard to get this band number and put a name to a face!!

[carly]

Juanita made a nice post about Caster I thought you might find his history interesting on CMNH - another branch to add to the family tree !:

Memory refresher from Alison:

Beauty (81/Y) is the daughter of the great Dorothy (5/*A) and Erie (*T/W) at the Cathedral of Learning nest in Pittsburgh. Her grandparents on her father's side are Bandit and Aurora of the Rhodes Tower in Columbus. On her mother's side, her grandparents are Bill (94T) and and another very famous falcon, Sibella (20V).


When I saw these photos posted July 5 on CPF's website, (from Sun Life July 2) I thought this male has a helmet just like Bandit! No wonder - Caster is Bandit's great grandson.

Caster's father Flash is the son of Roosevelt & Freedom (Roosevelt being the son of Bandit and Aurora - the first nesting pair in Columbus).