Canadian Peregrine Foundation -- Hamilton archives 2000

The Canadian Peregrine Foundation

HAMILTON HOME PAGE ARCHIVES

2000

Friday, June 9, 2000
Milli, Oldest Peregrine Falcon Chick, Dead after Collision
Milli , short for "Millennium Falcon", died Friday night after she collided with the Standard Life building. Milli, the oldest of the four Peregrine Falcon chicks, took her first flight on the evening of Tuesday June 6th. On Friday afternoon and evening Milli made several flights, all of which were low. She was unable to gain enough altitude to successfully land on any of the tall buildings in the downtown area. After taking off from a low perch on the Copps Colliseum complex, she flew into the glass doors of the Standard Life building and died almost immediately. Sky and Solo, two of Milli's siblings have made several successful flights following their inaugural rescues on Tuesday evening and Thursday morning respectively. Peregrine falcon chicks typically attempt their first flights at between 35 and 45 days of age. "Wookie", now 44 days old, is the only chick not to have ventured away from the nest yet (addendum: he flew June 10!). Proud parents, Toledo and Percy, will continue to keep close watch on the fledglings and will be seen giving flying and hunting lessons in the weeks to come.

Tuesday May 9, 2000
Marcel Gahbauer reports: The chicks continue to grow at a rapid rate, and the time for banding them is rapidly approaching - likely to take place between May 17 and 19. Toledo and Percy have been letting the chicks spend a lot of time alone already, although presumably one or both adults is always nearby and keeping an eye on them.

Saturday April 29, 2000
Marcel Gahbauer reports: All four eggs have now hatched in Hamilton. Wookie and his/her three siblings were all seen piled together in a heap at the end of the ledge tonight as Toledo and Percy changed shifts at the nest. Watch the live nest webcam over the next six weeks to see these four chicks grow up at their nest, and get ready to take their first flights some time in early June.

Friday April 28, 2000
Marcel Gahbauer reports: A check of the CPF camera this evening revealed that there are now three chicks in the nest! The chicks have already been named by the Hamilton Naturalists' Club. The first one to hatch will be known as Millennium Falcon (or simply Milli), the two hatched today are Skywalker and Solo, and the fourth one will be called Wookie.

Thursday April 27, 2000
Marcel Gahbauer reports: Congratulations Toledo and Percy! Around noon today Hamilton's first chick hatched. After the complete failure of Toledo's clutch of eggs in 1999, we were worried that there might again not be a hatch, but thankfully those concerns appear to have been unfounded. We now eagerly await the arrival of additional chicks over the next couple of days.

Sunday April 23, 2000
Nancy Kay reports: I would like to offer my observations of the peregrine couple Percy and Toledo here in Hamilton. Last year I realized Toledo seemed to abandon the eggs far too long between shifts for them to be properly incubated. (This was my observation anyway). I have noticed that this year she and Percy are much more attentive to the eggs than last. The shift changes are only for a few minutes at the most between both and it is thrilling to get a peek at the eggs as they trade places. Maybe last year Toledo was too immature about the process of incubating the eggs to bring about live hatchlings.

I was in this Easter weekend on days with not much happening Fri. or Sat., what with the lousy rainy weather. You have to admire the birds stamina when they are incubating their eggs. It seems so lonely at times and they stay on those babies through cold, snow and rain. Amazing. Today Sunday it is gorgeously sunny out there and after a shift change off the eggs I watched Toledo take a nice long sprint in the sky and then come back to alight on the Standard Life building. I thought maybe she was having some lunch (it was around noon) So I got my binoculars to see. There is a large puddle of water on the top of the building from all the rain but no,she was having a drink and then a bath. Probably just freshening up after getting a break from her motherly duties.

Sunday April 16, 2000
Marcel Gahbauer reports: Good news on two fronts! We have confirmation that Toledo and Dad are incubating four eggs! Also, we have found a service provider in Hamilton to carry our internet signal, so the Hamilton Webcam is now up and running. For now we will keep it zoomed in close to the nest, since there is little activity except right where the eggs are. Later, we may expand to a wider view as the chicks begin to wander up and down the ledge. We certainly hope that the eggs will hatch successfully this year, unlike in 1999, and we will be monitoring the situation closely through the camera. As the eggs were laid in late March, we would be expecting a hatch near the end of April or beginning of May.

Thursday March 30, 2000
Nancy Kay reports: We have seen a carcass on the Standard Life building for the past few days. We have figured out that the carcass is a red-tailed hawk. It is larger than the peregrines. (Marcel Gahbauer comments: the Etobicoke peregrines have killed several red-tailed hawks in the past couple of years, and a red-tail also died in Hamilton during the 1998 breeding season. The dead bird on the Standard Life building may have been killed by Toledo and/or Dad, if it did not heed warnings to stay away from their territory.)

Tuesday March 28, 2000
Marcel Gahbauer reports: Toledo and Dad have been incubating the egg(s) a lot over the past few days - every time that we have tried to check for new eggs, they have been blocking our view. Given that peregrines typically lay an egg every other day, chances are there are three, if not four, eggs in the nest by now. We hope to be able to confirm this shortly.

In the meantime, we have hit a bit of a snag with our Hamilton Webcam. It is ready to go, but the Hamilton Wentworth Community Network, which has provided us with free dialup service in past years, is no longer able to offer us this service. We can't afford to divert money from our other projects for this purpose, so we are hoping that another local Internet Service Provider will be able to offer us a free connection. Any tips or suggestions on who we might contact would be greatly appreciated - please e-mail our webmaster if you can help.

Wednesday March 22, 2000
Marcel Gahbauer reports: Looking through the CPF webcam this afternoon, I noticed that Toledo was crouched down at the far end of the ledge, looking very much like she was incubating an egg. She remained in that position for well over an hour, but eventually did leave, revealing that there was indeed a single egg in a scrape at the far end of the nest ledge. Once again, Hamilton is the first active nest in Ontario (one week earlier than last year). The Hamilton Webcam has been connected, and will be broadcasting to the website as soon as we get a connection with a local Internet Service Provider.

Wednesday March 1, 2000
Marcel Gahbauer reports: While passing through downtown Hamilton today, I stopped for a short while at Jackson Square. Within a few minutes I heard the telltale call of a peregrine resonating above me, and saw Dad in a stoop attacking a crow. The crow desperately tried to avoid the attack, but Dad pursued it, hitting it on at least two occasions. Eventually Dad changed tactics and forced the crow to fly into one of the windows on the Sheraton Hotel. The crow dropped out of my sight, but it was not clear whether it was seriously injured or not. Dad then flew back up to perch on the nest ledge, triumphant in the defense of his territory. Toledo appeared a few minutes later on the Standard Life building, so it appears that both are again spending time in the traditional breeding territory.

Monday February 21, 2000
Fred Oliff reports: After an absence of a couple of years I have recently seen a Peregrine on the Canada Centre of Inland Waters property in Burlington Bay. It is a good-sized bird and may be a female though I cannot be sure because I have not seen it up close and always forget my binoculars. Just thought you'd like to know!

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