Im Back..an update

[BIGFRANK]

Sub-heading this "More never dull moments in Frank and Tracys world." We got out again this Sunday, to check a few Peregrine nestsites. We started at Holcim and confirmed that both adults were on site and that the male had a black band. This tells us he is Canadian. We then stopped off at Humber Bay Park and viewed ducks. We found many species in relatively close, a great feature of this park. Redheads, a Merganser, Ruddy Ducks, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead among others were seen.(photos are a Redhead Duck and a Merganser). After going quackers trying to take photos of swift swimming ducks, we went to the King St Peregrine  nest, where we found sitting in the corner pizza place with a good view out the window to the ledge preferable to freezing outside. We confirmed again that the male has a black band, and interestingly on his right foot. Thats bass ackwards,so that narrows considerably the possibilities and has us leaning one direction. More to come from King St soon.
 

[BIGFRANK]

More Never Dull Moments In Frank and Tracys World Part Deux: Monday the main road in our little town of Schomberg Ontario, oddly called Main Street! was shut down while a pilot for a television show was being filmed. It has many Omish characters in it, so the street was full of beards, buggies and boo boos from horses! I popped outside and stole a few pictures as filming was right outside of our driveway. The film is based on a book and is called Sworn To Silence. I searched it and the story sounds interesting. Its for the channel Lifetime.  Filming has Schomberg subbing in for small town Ohio. I laughed when I zoomed on one of the many vehicles with OHIO plates on the street. The plate was held on with paperclips, just stuck over a one from Ontario. No wonder Canadian productions are so much cheaper!!  Something different for a sleepy little town.

[BIGFRANK]

More Never Dull Moments In Frank and Tracys World Part Trois: One clear night at the barn I was able to take photos of 2 planets,even with my little camera. Venus is the smaller one,it was quite far away, relative to Jupiter. The shot of Jupiter I was quite happy with as it showed as more that just a light in the sky. By far they were the largest and brightest "stars" in the sky. Never know what we are gonna see when we look around! From tv stars to planetary stars! Aint life grand!

[MAK]

  BF as they say parts is parts! Thanks for sharing yours! 

[Donna]

Impressive BF...imagine if you had a long lens!!! Pretty cool photos!! Thanks.

[Shaky]

We confirmed again that the male has a black band, and interestingly on his right foot. Thats bass ackwards,so that narrows considerably the possibilities and has us leaning one direction.

What color band is on his left leg?

Up until 2004, Mike Allen was putting black USFWS bands on falcons' right legs and black/red bands on the left legs. In 2004 he switched to the familiar silver USFWS bands.

So if the male has a black band on the right leg and a black/red band on the left, it could be a pre-2004 falcon from NY.

[BIGFRANK]

Thanks for that info Shaky,thats something for the memory bank. Id imagine Tracy is aware of the info Uve sent,I will let her know anyway. Will be good and sure before we say who it is that we are 100% sure.

[BIGFRANK]

HI gang,had another busy birding weekend. Hard to top Carol's Snowy Owl in downtown Rochester! Saturday Tracy and I met our friends Skip and Ann,to take some photos of ducks. It was alot of fun and we found enough to keep the cameras rolling. The best finds were a Northern Pintail and a Northern Shovellor. Over 30 Ruddy Ducks were seen too. We tried to find a Screech Owl but it stayed hidden from us.
  Sunday we decided to go to Nanticoke Power Plant at Lake Erie(canadian side), where Bald Eagles overwinter. We saw a dozen. 9 thirlled us when they circled together, soaring about. A few did some talon touching! We watched them circle and heard them call alot,that was quite exciting!!  We had a great time and will likely head back there Sat or Sun next week,with Ann and Skip.
  Something abit special for me was that purely by chance we ran into my "Raptor Mentor" Colin. He,his wife and a mutual buddy of ours were standing by the road watching one of the Bald Eagles through a scope. Colin taught me sooo much of what I know about raptor identification. He (as it were) took me under his wing when I started hawk watching back in 2002. I owe him a great deal. Ive done and experienced things that I never would have without his tutoring! Colin is close to 80 now and just finished 2 rounds of cancer treatments,so it was great to see him up and out and about doing what he so loves. Back when he passed alot of his knowledge on to me( he is one of THE BEST at raptor ID in our province and always joked "I may have taught U everything U know,but not everything I know!") he told me he would teach me all he could, the only condition was that I had to pass it on. Ive tried to honour that, through my own fall migration Raptor Watch I started in 2004 and of course my work with CPF.  I feel Ive done a good job, turning otherwise ordinary folks into raptorholics.  Back in November on my raptor watch blog, I posted a story that was run about Colin and his gang at Hawk Cliff. page down abit to find the story  http://raptorwatch.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-12-04T13:23:00-05:00

[Carol P.]

So nice that you ran into your friend and mentor, Big Frank.   

Love the pics of the Eagles.  Thanks of sharing!

[Kris G.]

Beautiful pics and LOTS of Eagles!  Thanks for sharing, BF!

[BIGFRANK]

Its been abit quiet birdwise lately,but it doesnt mean its been boring around here! We are busy planning and getting ready for the Ottawa Sportsmans Show. Tracy,myself and 2 other volunteers Kyle and Lev, gathered up the heavy materials we'll take to the show and organized it so it can be loaded easily into the rental truck. Bruce,Kathy,Marion and I will leave Tuesday,do set up Wednesday and show starts Thurs, running through Sunday. That will be quite the adventure Im sure. Its CPFs first time to the Ottawa show. We will take 6 of our educational birds, including Alexandra the Great Horned Owl,Kyla the American Kestrel, Seamus the Barn Owl, Oscar the Peregrine Falcon, Nova or Cheyenne both Peregrine Falcons and making his show debut Tomahawk(Tommy) the Redtailed Hawk.  Bruce and I hope to fit in some general birding as the Ottawa area has some different birds more commonly that arent as easily seen as in Toronto. I hope to add Barrow's Goldeneye to my lifelist for one. We are also going to visit the 2 Peregrine nesting sites in Ottawa. Of course I will give a full report of the Ottawa Adventure.
 We hope to get out with friends Rob and Angie between now and Tuesday,as well as spending Saturday with some friends from a not so far away place,whom you all may know. Watch this space late Saturday for more on that! 
On a personal note, I was to the dietician again and lost another 8 pounds bringing the total to 82 since June and 162 pounds down from my highest weight ever. Ive got almost that much to go still,but I'll get there. Im feeling better than ever and determined never to go back to my old ways. 

[Donna]

You go BF,  keep up the good work!! No more cake for me, (for breakfast), and lunch!

Your going to have to change your name soon!! 

[Bobbie Ireland]

"On a personal note, I was to the dietician again and lost another 8 pounds bringing the total to 82 since June and 162 pounds down from my highest weight ever. Ive got almost that much to go still,but I'll get there. Im feeling better than ever and determined never to go back to my old ways."

Frank!!! WHAT an accomplishment!!! Ask me - I have lost the approximate weight of five 6-year-olds in my life... unfortunately, not all at the same time...

[MAK]

Excellent Frank! Can't wait to see you on Saturday! We will have a great time I'm sure!!! 

[BIGFRANK]

Well, Im off tomorrow until very late Sunday or very early Monday morning to Ottawa with a group of 3 other CPF folks, bound for The Ottawa Sportsmans Show. It runs Thurs-Sun. Should be quite the adventure as its our first time there for the show. We hope to do some general birding. We plan on going to 2 Peregrine Falcon nests that are in Ottawa to check up on their pairs. Will have pics and videos on my return and plenty to post on CPFs page!