!!! Brampton Courthouse falcon fledglings!
June 09, 2016 - Brampton - Courthouse
Mark Nash Reports:
June 9th - 2106
Sorry for the late posting as we have been very busy in the streets on the various fledge watches and at the banding tables again this year and as a result, there is lots of backlog posts that we’re all still trying to catch up on. Sadly, the long days in the streets are not giving us much time in the office, let alone time on the computers.
A big thank you to Nadine Peart who both called us and send in some of her photos fearing that the Brampton Courthouse peregrines had produced babies, as there were falcon fledglings being observed and lots of activity happening around the courthouse!
The bad news is of course is that the resident Brampton peregrines did not produce this season. The good news is that the local American Kestrels did produce fledglings, and there were American Kestrel fledglings terrorizing the courthouse staff! American Kestrels are true falcons,, (just not peregrine falcons).
With a noticeable decrease of American Kestrels around the province, it is nice to see that there is at least one family of Kestrels were very visible, and that they have in fact successfully produced offspring this spring!!
The dramatic decrease and absence of American Kestrels over the past few years both here in Ontario and many other parts of the continent is suspect in part to the ongoing poisoning of our environment with the use of Neonics
Scientific evidence is now pointing to Neonics for the decline of our global honey bee populations, in addition to many other species around the globe!
Neonics are systemic pesticides applied to the plants. Unlike these contact pesticides, which remain on the surface of the treated foliage, systemics are taken up by the plant and transported to all the tissues (leaves, flowers, roots and stems, as well as pollen and nectar). The actual seeds are treated!!! Neonicotinoids are a relatively new class of insecticides that share a common mode of action that affect the central nervous system of insects, resulting in paralysis and death. They include imidacloprid, acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, nithiazine, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam.
Unfortunately, American Kestrels eat a large volume of insects, especially in the rural areas, and of course, the smaller birds that American Kestrels also eat, feed on both the insects that also feed on the plants!
Our honey bees have been dying off at alarming rates, all over the globe!!!, and neonicotinoid pesticides are being directly implicated in this global honey bee decline. Sadly, bees and birds aren’t the only victims as “Neonic” pesticides may also harm the human brain, nervous system and our hormonal systems.
The better news, as we are starting to realize, is that our urban nesting and resident raptors, (this includes the peregrines) are for the most parts protected from many of these nasty poisons, as they live their entire lives here in the cities where many of these poisons are not being used at all.
Most all of our resident territorial adult peregrines here in southern Ontario don’t actually migrate in the winter and many of these same resident adults can be seen wintering over and hanging around on the urban nest ledges.
Their food sources are also safe, as the very birds that they eat also live and feed here in the cities. Again, one of the reasons that it is believed that the “urban Kestrel populations” have remained somewhat more stable than their non-urban counterparts that feed from these poisoned toxic environments.
It is still mind blowing that most humans still remain delusional and in denial that the poisons that we spray and apply to our food sources and later consume won’t sooner or later have some very negative health affects on us. How much poison can we tolerate?
