!!! Maybe flying, BUT, the fledglings are still inexperienced and get into trouble needing your help!
June 25, 2016 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Mark Nash Reports:
June 25th - 2016
The question has been asked of us repeatedly over the past 20 years and most forget the answers.
As fledglings, the young peregrines become flighted around 40 days old and often have to be rescued from the ground (among many other things, including garbage dumpsters, mechanical rooms, air conditioning chillers pools to name only just a few) and unable to get free and back into the air.
Inexperienced, heavy and over weight - laden with all of that excessive very heavy baby fat,, and basically lacking the confidence (and experience) to hold their altitude and stay aloft!
That being said, even after they have become flighted, there is still much to learn for the fledglings to be able to hold their altitude and actually stay aloft! Windows are a constant threat until they learn what they are, and able to recover from collisions and bumps into the office tower windows,, (this is of course if they don’t kill or severely injure themselves after these collisions). The good news, if they collide and survive,, they do learn and avoid these dangers down the road!! 
For those young fledglings that actually survive these window (and concrete collisions) uninjured, it really shakes the confidence out of them, and it usually takes them a period of time before they attempt another flight. Not all of them are eager to get back on the horse as they say!
Then there is the glass balcony’s that many of the fledglings get stuck behind (even after they are flighted, sometime weeks after they have actually fledged)!!
The good news is that we get allot of the calls from concerned folks and able to respond to do the balcony rescues. Some, as in this case,, (Pictured is Quasar from the Canada Square nest site at Yonge & Eglinton today) that has just spent over an hour trapped on a balcony behind the glass.
Sadly, the little fledglings don’t understand why they simply can’t fly through the glass and get free and airborne again! They do although eventually learn what glass is, but its a trial and error and learning experience that their parents really can’t teach them. They must learn many of these life lessons of survival themselves through trial and error!
In this case, Quasar finally figured out that if you use the chair arm to get higher, you maybe able to reach the balcony rail above the glass and get airborne again. And in this case, the owner / occupant of the condo unit was home (who took the photos),, and called the TWC, who called the CPF.
Quasar did get free all on his own!! No rescue needed on this one!
Unfortunately, this situation does not always have a happy ending like this one. While we have successfully completed many glass balcony rescues over the years,, (seems like we do several each year these days as so many more condo balcony’s are now glass, and so many hi-rise condos now) - before and long after the organized fledge watches,, some of the fledglings were trapped behind the glass balconies where the owner/occupant was away on vacation for weeks, and we obviously didn’t see the fledgling get trapped in the first place and no one was home to call!
Remember that even long after the young peregrines have fledged and holding their altitude,, they can (and do) still become trapped behind glass balconies weeks after we have finished the organized street fledge watches.
Some of these balconies didn’t have furniture that the young fledglings could use to help them get above the glass and off the balcony. In several cases, the adult parents didn’t see them either, and on two occasions, these young fledglings simply starved to death while being trapped behind the glass.
What a terrible way to die,, alone and starved to death! 
So, while the organized fledge watch maybe completed, (we can only stay so long and do so much),, the fledglings are still very vulnerable and we need everyone’s support to keep an eye out for them. Remember, they are just like young kids, with MUCH to learn,, and their parents can only do so much!!
A big thank you to Julia at the TWC and the owner/occupant who called in to report this (and for the great photos) that highlighted the situation!!
