!!! Banding Day at the Toronto Sheraton
June 16, 2013 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Banding Day - June 4th - 2013
On Tuesday June 4th, we had the honour of banding the three young ones produced by Rhea Mae and Tiago at the Toronto Sheraton Hotel. Normally this banding is quite an affair with lots of visitors, dignitaries and press but this year was to be different. The hotel was packed, all rooms busy and all of this concurrent with a major upgrade project going on. But still Starwood was amazing and quite excited to have their youngsters banded. The support from the Toronto Sheraton Hotel has been nothing short of outstanding and they are such amazing hosts. The three chicks were extracted and brought down to a suite for banding amongst an intimate crowd of hotel staff, OMNR Economy division staff and CPF volunteers. Mark Heaton of the Aurora District OMNR banded each chick in turn and what a feisty bunch they were!! All three take after their parents and were ferocious little things even at their tender ages and gave us all a run for our money. Apparently Felix tried to beat everyone up during extraction and Welcome and Gerty were a fistful of “Don’t do that!! Cut it out!!” Your Toronto Sheraton family this year is;
Welcome 625 gram male 24 days old W/63 Green
Gerty 890 gram female 24 days old Y/66 Yellow
Felix 655 gram male 26 days old W/64 White
The CPF was so pleased to be able to band these young at the Toronto Sheraton again this year and we heartily thank Starwood and the Toronto Sheraton Hotel for the opportunity to do so. We would also like to thank Mark Heaton of the Aurora District OMNR for banding the threesome as well as the staff from the OMNR Economy Division for attending and assisting us. This thank you would not be complete without acknowledging the hard work and dedication of the CPF volunteers who helped pull it all together and will look after these young once they reach flight age. The folks include Mark, Marion, Linda, Harry, Bruce, Rosalind, Zoe and the local community supporters. Thank you to everyone for another great banding and another successful nesting season!
Pictures to follow.
Rheamae stood her ground and had to be nudged off the tray in order to collect the chicks for banding but all 3 were collected By Mark Nash of the CPF and Mark Heaton from The Ministry of Natural Resources without incident.
The 3 chicks were weighed and banded and given back to mom within 30 minutes. Mom was completely calm as the first chick was placed back on the nest, made no move at all as the second was given back to her and still sat quiet as the last chick was sat in front of her then she made her move and rushed the hatch as if she knew all 3 were back and now it was time for a little pay back. Mark Nash quickly shut the hatch just in time and it was done. Mom sat there glaring at the hatch door for a few more minutes before she went back to her chicks and checked them over, satisfied all was well everything went back to normal.
