!!! Sadly, No hatch again this year!
May 29, 2015 - London - TD Tower
Mark Nash Reports:
May 29th - 2015
Its been a long time since we have been able to get back to the London City Centre nest site, but we can finally provide an update on what’s been happening. At the request of the building management, I was able to combine two visits today, one in London Ontario to the London City centre to gather an update on the status of the resident peregrines.
We have good new and not so good news to report.
First the good news,, in that we can confirm that there is still resident adult peregrines on the London City centre, and they are still very territorial and very protective of the nest building rooftop and still very much occupying and utilizing the old nest ledge. Upon our arrival, both adult peregrines were observed on the nest ledge. I was also able to photograph both resident adults, and can also confirm the adult male is dawning a solid Black band - (indicating that he is a Canadian produced peregrine),, and that the resident adult female is dawning a Black over Red leg band - (indicating that she is a USA produced peregrine). I was not focused at this time trying to get an identification or trying to ID their leg band numbers, but will return again in the next two weeks in an effort to get a positive identification of the two. See the attached photos of the adults.
The not so good new:
I was able to lower the new CPF wireless colour camera down from the upper roof elevation to gain a peek at the nest ledge. Sadly, it would appear that the resident pair have not been successful in producing any chicks this season. While we can not confirm if they did in fact produce any eggs this season, it was quite obvious given the recorded video footage that the camera captured that there is no eggs or hatchlings currently present on the nest ledge or in the nest tray.
Some detailed close-up footage of the nest tray clearly shows that the volume of pea-gravel in the old nest tray is almost all but gone and there isn’t much left in the nest tray for the peregrines to hollow out a nest bowl to allow them to properly incubate eggs. Remembering that this nest tray was installed sometime way back in 1995-1996 and has never been serviced or had its pea-gravel topped-up or cleaned to our knowledge. The old nest tray is also showing signs of rot and it may not be very long before its starts to fall apart.
Over the past three years, we have been involved in replacing all of the old CPF installed nest trays and nest boxes with the newer poly-composite materials that have a much longer life span and shelf life, in addition to replacing and/or topping-up the pea-gravel at each of the nest sites. Aside of the obvious, (providing new and improved materials and renewed nesting conditions), the new composite material does not delaminate or rot, their water resistant and UV protected, thus minimizes the liability of nest box and nest tray materials from rotting with pieces falling off and down to the ground where it could injure people or cause damage to automobiles at the ground level.
Most of the older nest boxes and nest trays that the CPF has manufactured and installed (now at some 19 different active peregrine sites), were originally installed way back in 1995 to 2000, and although served all quite well, these older pressure treated wood materials have succumb to rot and delamination due to the harsh Canadian weather conditions they have been exposed to for the past 15 to 20 years, and as such needed to be replaced.
We have posted some of the video footage taken of the nest ledge and old nest tray that confirms that while the resident pair of peregrines are still very much demonstrating territorial behaviour and still very active on the nest ledge, there is no evidence of eggs or hatchlings again season.
We hope to be back in the next two weeks to check out the other ledge elevations around the building just to ensure that they peregrines have not deceived us and decided to go to another ledge to produce. We know that the peregrines always have a second and third choice to nest on/in in the protected territory and want to ensure that the up and coming London City Centre events and window replacement projects will not be met with any surprises that could hamper or risk human activities.
You can see the London City Centre video footage of our nest ledge inspection at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZl7kLEEj5A
The video (and still photos taken from the camera video footage) were taken of both the left and right of the nest tray on the next ledge itself, and of the nest tray.
Sorry for the shaky video footage, but the wind was quite blustery and it was very difficult to control the camera on this day. 
Stay tuned……..
