Canadian Peregrine Foundation -- Etobicoke Archives: 1997

Wednesday, March 10

Bruce Massey heard reports, then went and confirmed it himself today: it looks like there is a new peregrine family setting up a nest in Toronto. He identified a small male and a female doing nesting/mating activities on a building in the Bloor-Islington area. I'm sure we'll hear more about this as time progresses.

March 20

Arrangements are being worked on to obtain periodic reports and photographs of this second peregrine site. Hopefully we will be able to obtain regular reports on the hatching and fledging of Toronto's second peregrine family.

Monday, March 24

At 2:00 pm this afternoon, a nesting box was installed by Andy Hagen of Environmental Conservation Branch.
-- At 4:15, the male was seen going into the nesting box tray, and remained there for about 2 minutes.
-- At 5:00, the female was seen to go in on the tray and remain there for a good 18 minutes. These observations were noted by volunteer members of the Toronto Ornithological Club, who may be keeping us posted regularly on this new peregrine family's progress in the raising of their young.

Thursday, March 27

Mark Nash spent some time at the 2nd falcon site this morning and observed a lot of coming and going to the nesting box. The peregrines (named Alberta and Toby) have evidently settled in and feel comfortable with the nesting box. Mark got off some shots from the street with his new Tamron 300mm f2.8 lens, and we should have a picture of the new parents-to-be posted early next week.

Sunday, April 20

A report from Bruce Massey today indicates that Alberta and Toby may still be laying eggs. He observed Toby come into the nest ledge from the north, and Alberta leave the nest box. Was it a changing of the guard? which means there are eggs and the parents are now incubating them? Or are they still in the process of laying eggs. It's impossible to tell from the street level just what's going up there at the moment. However, as Bruce points out, if they are still laying eggs at this time, it means at least a two-week lag before the new chicks at this site begin fledging, so we'll have a couple of weeks at least to focus on the downtown family.

Tuesday, May 20

Mark spent the day at the Falcons West site and has some interesting observations. He also took several rolls of pictures which we'll be examining over the next few days, and I'm sure there will be at least a couple to include in the Photo Gallery.
(1) Alberta was observed to remain on the nest from before 9:00 am until 4:45 pm. During that time, Toby remained "on guard" not far from the nest at any time. He seemed quite active, flitting from one location on the roof top to another, but he never left that spot throughout the entire day.
(2) At 4:00 pm, Toby finally flew off the roof top and disappeared, supposedly to hunt for some food. Neither of the adults had eaten anything all day.
(3) At 4:45, Toby returned with a headless carcass, thought to be a starling. Immediately Alberta got up from the nest, grabbed the carcass from Toby, and flew away. Toby was obliged to take over nesting duties. From the vantage point of the next building, it was not possible to see directly into the nesting box, but Mark estimates there are 3-4 eggs in the nest; this is based on his observation that it took the male almost ten minutes to settle himself down on the eggs. If Bruce Massey's estimate is correct, that the eggs were laid approximately two weeks behind the downtown peregrines, then there should be a hatching sometime this coming weekend.
(4) Mark was finally able to see the bands on both the male and female and has noted the following markings (if it is possible to get a better look at the bands in the future, then this information will be updated):
(4a) Female -- right leg: a red band with a "5" plus a "2" above it and rotated 90 degrees to the left; left leg: a silver band with either "71" or "73" inscribed.
(4b) Male -- right leg: a silver band -- markings were not readable; left leg: a black band over a red band; the black band inscribed "G?"; the red band inscribed "P2".

Thursday, May 22

Another visit to the Falcons West site this morning revealed some rather unusual behaviour in distinct contrast to the downtown peregrines. Until around 8:00 am, Toby was sitting on the nesting box, while Alberta perched three ledges away. To understand what is going on here, you have to picture what this building looks like. It is octagon-shaped, and each face is broken into three ledges on the top story. The nesting box is located at the left end of the left-most ledge on the SE face. Alberta was perched on the right end of the right-most ledge of the same SE face.
-- At 8:08, Alberta relieved Toby on the nesting box, a change that took just a few seconds to complete. The male then flew off and perched around the corner on the south face of the building, out of view of the nesting box. At 8:45, Toby flew off his perch, circled around a few times, then disappeared.
-- At 9:25, Toby returned with blood-stained toes and a very full crop. He remained on the SE face throughout the morning, changing from one ledge to another, usually on the SE face, and occasionally moving to the east face, again out of view of the nest.
-- Around 12:30, there was another change of adults on the nesting box, and Alberta moved to the right-most ledge of the SE face.
-- The contrasting behaviour here is that both adults are real home-bodies. They seldom go anywhere, but remain perched on the nesting building on one or another ledge. Today Toby brought no food in for Alberta. On Tuesday, the female remained on the nest from 9:00 am until 4:45 pm - with nothing to eat during that entire time. Again today, when Toby returned around 9:25 am, he had obviously eaten, but left Alberta to fend for herself. Very strange peregrines, this pair ...

Thursday, May 22

Talking with the security guard at the nesting building, Mark learned that this pair of falcons have evidently been nesting on this building for two years previous to this. [June 10-- In light of identifying the female now as "Alberta", if there were two peregrines here two years ago, it couldn't have been the same pair. Two years ago, Alberta was very busy growing up and learning to fly in Hamilton.] Apparently, last year the the window washer reported seeing four eggs on the ledge, about the size of small chicken eggs colored brown and white. The question remains then: why were the eggs, if they were laid, not incubated and hatched? And if the parents found this ledge unsuitable for hatching their eggs last year (and the year before?), why have they returned to the same location, the same ledge this year. Has the nesting box provided them with more security/comfort for hatching their eggs this year?

Wednesday, June 4

There are three chicks in the Falcons West nest. Mark estimates they are now 7-9 days old, which means they were hatched around May 26-28. All three are lively and healthy.
-- The nesting ledge faces directly south, thereby exposing the nest box to sunlight through most of the day. Because of the heat, something had to be done to keep the chicks shaded and cool, so Issy improvised with what she had to work with -- her wings. She spread her wings out and down over the chicks, and fanned her tail. She remained like that for a couple of hours, with the chicks occasionally poking their heads up through her wings and fanned tail to see what was going on.
-- The parents are very resourceful, it seems, in keeping the chicks happy whenever the urge comes upon them for a snack. Mark observed at least three tidbits of food in the nest box; whenever a chick "stroked" Alberta's crop, she instinctively picked up one of the morsels to offer to the chick. This behaviour was observed even though the chicks had just been fed and had very full crops.
-- Also on the very top of the condominium building next door from where Mark and a couple of members of the Toronto Ornithological Club were observing the nest, he found three more carcasses; one had obviously been left there some time ago, and another was very fresh and had probably been deposited there just before they arrived to begin their observations.

Tuesday, June 10

The female peregrine at the Bloor-Islington site has been identified as "Alberta" -- one of the birds fledged from the Hamilton nest in 1995. That year, a pair of peregrines also nested on top of the Royal Connaught Hotel in downtown Hamilton. One egg hatched -- a male named Hamilton, and two chicks from Wainwright, Alberta were introduced into the nest -- a male named Wainwright and a female named Alberta. It is interesting to note that a peregrine falcon has returned to nest at a location so near to where she originated from.

Thursday, June 12

At 8:55 am, Toby arrived with some food. Alberta took it and attempted to feed the chicks. Evidently the chicks were already full and had no interest in eating more. The food was left for later snacking.
-- A short time later, a kestrel happened by and launched a few dives on the nest site. Around 10:30, some gulls arrived in the area, and one of them harrassed the nest site for a few minutes.
-- At 10:55, Toby flew in with more food. Alberta snatched it from him aggressively and fed the chicks on the nest box. At 11:15, Toby arrived with more food, and again Alberta snatched it from him and fed the chicks. On each occasion, when Toby arrived with food, Alberta lunged at him and grabbed the food away and fed the chicks.

Wednesday, June 18

Today the three chicks were banded by the MNR. Overall, the experience didn't seem to be so traumatic for the parents. There was some divebombing, and some utterances that probably shouldn't be repeated in public, but there wasn't the same visciousness in their attacks as the downtown pair gave us. The whole process took less than an hour, and peace and tranquility returned to the nest afterward.

Name	Sex	Age (June 18)	Weight	Bands
Name	Sex	Age (June 18)	Weight	Right leg = Black	Left leg = Silver
Toby	Female	31 days	752g	4W	1807-14187
Mutual	Male	30 days	577g	04	816-818-36
Kingsway	Male	29 days	584 g	05	818-818-37

Thursday, July 3

The first chick fledged today around 5:20 in the afternoon. Contrary to expectations, the first chick to fledge -- a male -- is the youngest of the clutch.

Friday, July 4

The second chick fledged around 5:30 this morning, the second oldest and the other male.
-- About 5:30 this afternoon, the third and last check left the nest ledge for the wider world beyond. Although the oldest, the female waited until last to become airborne. She obviously wanted her brothers to do a little exploring before she ventured into the world beyond the ledge.

Tuesday, July 8

Alberta arrived about 8 am with a starling in her talons. She landed momentarily on the nest ledge where all three fledglings were waiting, then took off again, with three hungry and screaming youngsters in close pursuit. They all got a small tidbit from that meal.

Wednesday, July 9

This morning Alberta arrived on the nest ledge with a pigeon, but instead of sharing, she protected the food and consumed it all herself. It's time the kids learned to do some of the chores around here and start fending for themselves.

Monday, July 14

All three fledglings are reported to be flying well; there have no "incidents" so far, and we're all keeping our fingers crossed.
-- Some background on the names: "Kingsway" was named after the condominium building next to the nesting building; it was this building that the youngest and first chick to fledge flew to. "Mutual" is named after the Mutual Group, the primary tenants of the nesting building. "Toby", the only female, is named after Etobicoke, the city in which they were born.
-- The adult male has been partially identified as coming from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Two chicks were hatched by a falconer in the area, and then hacked on June 7, 1993 in Williamsport. We're still waiting to learn of the specific identity of our male, and whether or not he has a name.

Friday, August 8

Apparently Kingsway has run into a mishap of some sort. He was found walking on a sidewalk in Etobicoke early Friday afternoon, by the Toronto Humane Society who placed him in a box. OMNR staff were contacted around 1:15 pm and Stacy Withrow picked him up around 2:30 pm. By 5:00 pm, Kingsway and Mark Heaton were on route to the Wild Bird Clinic at the University of Guelph. It was suspected he had a broken wing.
-- He was radiographed Friday evening which revealed no fractures, and the vet reported Saturday that they believe he has some soft tissue damage. He is receiving antibiotics and has been placed in an observation cage for the week. He will be examined daily and radiographs will be taken again on Friday. Hopefully, he'll return to Etobicoke by the 25th of August.

Tuesday, September 23

Kingsway has been returned home today after a 6-week stay at the Wild Bird Clinic in Guelph. Although the initial prognosis found there was no fracture, evidently there was a green fracture in the left wing (the alula, to be precise). The outside of the bone was not broken, but the internal portion was. The fracture mended quickly, but has left a permanent disfigurement in that one primary feather now protrudes from the others and is visibly noticeable even from the ground as he is flying around.
-- Has the fracture impeded Kingsway's flight? Apparently not. When Mark Heaton (MNR) arrived at the condo, he and Mark Nash went to the roof with the box. As soon as the box was opened, Kingsway flew away, did a couple of circles, flew to the nest ledge for a while, and finally perched on a television antenna on a neighbouring building. He then made several flights from and to that antenna, spending some time in the air. Despite strong winds, his flight was strong.
-- Kingsway was welcomed home by Alberta who made a couple of dives/stoops at him before she returned to the nest ledge. The two of them had a lengthy mother-son talk on the nest ledge before getting on with their normal daily routines. During the entire time the observers were keeping an eye on things, there was no sign of Toby (Dad) or the other two chicks (who may have already left for the sunny south).

Wednesday, September 24

A member of the Toronto Ornithological Club spent some time at the Etobicoke site today to have a look at Kingway's progress. During the couple of hours he was there, he saw no sign of Kingsway, but both Alberta and Toby were around. It's not likely that Kingsway would have headed south so soon after getting back home, but from our observations of all these peregrines over the past three years, one thing we've learned is that there is no such thing as predictability or consistency with them. So who knows? Perhaps Kingsway was just off somewhere else pursuing an eligible young pigeon to take to lunch.

Tuesday, November 4

An observer has reported seeing a peregrine falcon on the window ledge of his office in the Mutual Building (location of the nest site). Although the bands were not visible, the colouring suggests it was Toby, but there's a possibility that Alberta may have acquired her mature colouring by now. The implication is, of course, that our Etobicoke adults may have chosen to spend the winter months with us, just as the downtown Toronto adults have. More reports over the next couple of months will of course confirm this....

Wednesday, November 5

This afternoon, a peregrine falcon landed on an associate's window ledge and had its legs fully exposed. I quickly wrote down the colours of the bands and headed back to my PC for the web site. It proved to be Alberta... right leg red band, left leg silver. Before long, there was another falcon buzzing around her, quite a bit smaller. She didn't like that very much and wouldn't allow him to land. I did notice that his bands were black and silver, but that matches Toby and the three youngsters, so I didn't make a positive on that one. It didn't appear to be young though (no apparent speckles on the chest), just much smaller than Alberta.
In the afternoon, Alberta was spending time on another ledge when Toby decided to join her quite a ways away from her. Alberta didn't like that very much. He didn't seem to be aggressive at all towards her (sexually or otherwise) but she unfolded her wings, hunched her back and hopped over towards him until he was forced off the ledge. The funny part was when she turned back around you could tell that she was looking at her own reflection in the window and did the same thing. She hit the window and looked kind of embarrassed. I guess being on top of the food chain doesn't automatically give you brains.

Thursday, November 6

This morning, when I got into work, Alberta was on my window ledge. She was a little alarmed at seeing me, but she calmed down when my movements did as well. To this second I am kicking myself for not bringing in my camera. Two feet away from her for about half an hour and I think we were both mesmerized.
Toby showed up and buzzed her until she left the ledge and that is the last I have seen either all day.

The Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Etobicoke

Name

Sex

Age (June 18)

Weight

Bands

Right leg = Black

Left leg = Silver

Age
(June 18)

Right leg
= Black

Left leg
= Silver