Rob checked the chicks at Etobicoke General William Osler today and found all 4 high and safe. two on the Main Hospital and two on Etobicoke Wellness Centre.
Some good news today on several fronts! I visited Wiliam Osler Hospital today for two reasons,, the first was to finally be able to do a factory reset the live CPF nest cam so we canmove forward with getting you all with a live cam update on the nest broadcast to the CPF web site.
As many were unaware, we have had a live-streaming nest camera viewing the William Osler nest site for many years, but the live real-time streaming video image was only viewable on the colour monitor within the maintenance area at the hospital, primarily for live internal viewing to help us and the hospital manage the nest. Today, Scott and I were able to factory reset the camera that will allow us to reprogram it and get it broadcasting to the www. With the support of their ITT folks, we should be able to get the live streaming nest images out to the CPF website and viewable to the worldwide audience. While I know that we will missed seeing the complete nesting season (this season),, our expectations is that we well finally have the nest camera broadcasting live soon!
On another note, the four peregrine hatchlings have very little white down fluff visible now and we can expect that they should be fledging sometime this weekend. While there was two males and two females, they all look ready to go very soon! All four hatchling (now completely all brown with their juvenile feathering) were way down on the furthest south east corner of the nest ledge (furthest from the nest tray).
This was the only way we could have dealt with the camera, as we needed the hatchlings all mobile and out of the nest tray before we dared to open the hatch directely behind the nest tray were the camera is installed.
All in all, a sucessful endeviour,, with a successful factory reset of the colour camera, Scott was able to access the real-time colour live streaming nest image on his internal computer down at his office. No longer will they have to go up floors to the mechancial area to see when there are eggs, incubation and hatches. Hopefully soon, we’ll all be ableto see the live nest images fromyour home computers via the www!!
4 chicks all healthy. There were 2 boys and 2 girls the females have band number C 21 and C23 red tape on one and Green on the other, the 2 boys bands are C22 and C24 with Yellow on the first and Blue on the other.
The Hospital is running a name the chick contest among the staff so we will announce their names once we have them.
Thanks to Scott Payne at the hospital for setting this banding up and for keeping an eye on the camera for the hatch. We are working with them to try to get the camera images up on our web site and I will keep you posted when it becomes available.
Also thanks to Mark Heaton, Mark Nash and Cathy Smith who were our banders today great job!
Etobicoke General Hospital has 3 chicks as of April 24th.
Resident female laying down in nest tray today likely on eggs
WILLIAM OSLER WATCH - It started without me. Of the four chicks on the ledge, at least two are boys and they were out the gate before the watch officially began!! We were so busy with Amanda and Drago that we were struggling to get out to Osler and so Rob stopped in for us to take a looksee. Oh boy. One on the roof of the hospital already and he wasn’t really sure about the other three. So on Wednesday evening I went down to check it out and for sure not one but two of the kids had successfully fledged. Not only were they both on the roof but they were in and out of the tower, in and out of the ledge and in general all over the place. A checkmark for both of them. I found the other two still on the ledge and clearly unfledged. I stayed until dark and all had settled. Last night I pulled in to find the same situation. Two on the roof and two on the ledge. I believe the two on the ledge are females. Suddenly one of the girls gets it into their head that flying looks like fun and takes off. The flight was excellent and even though they had to all but throw themselves onto the roof to come to a landing, they were up high safe and sound. Another flight by the newly fledged female and this time it ended with the young one doing the “bat”, hanging on the concrete wall just below the roofline. Chessie came over and helped out by swooping up repeatedly beside the fledgling to encourage her up. So up the wall she crawled to the rooftop. Her third flight just before dark ended up with her halfway up the tower on a thin rail she had a hard time balancing on. That’s where she stayed for the night. Rob was in this morning and not only had she gotten up to the roof, so had the final young one! All four have now fledged and its a matter of making sure the two females are up to snuff with their landings and flights. Great news so far!
OSLER UPDATE - a quick check before heading to MEC for Amanda’s release. By tomorrow night all 4 juveniles will be check marks and watch will be scaled back is my prediction. Amazing.
WILLIAM OSLER UPDATE - I was going to write this last night and fell asleep about three sentences in so thought it best to write this today. I can happily say that the William Osler fledge watch is officially scaled back to spot checks now. All four juveniles were out and about yesterday and the two recent fledges were all over the map. They were elated to finally be in the air with their brothers and were going from building to building, rooftop to tower, tower to ledge…like I said, everywhere!! Landings are still being perfected as we speak but the danger of coming down looks to have passed. Thank you William Osler Hospital for being such great hosts for the peregrine family! Also, thank you so much to security for being so helpful and accommodating as well as the staff of this great site. Another great year for Chessie and Casper!!
Unfortunately we were not able to safely extract the chicks from the ledge for banding today. Mom had brought in food and coaxed the chicks out of the nest and down the ledge to be fed. They were just too far down the ledge for us to reach and the slanted ledge is not safe for us to climb out onto to grab them.
We will have to band chicks if and when they come to ground at fledge time.
We know Malik the adult male at Canada Square 2200 Yonge St. was found dead on the roof so who is the new male? Security was finally able to get a band number on the new male Y over 31 and it is none other than Shadow produced at the William Osler Hospital in Etobicoke in 2017. Glad to see it’s a Canadian produced bird. photos to come.
Banding day for the William Osler Hospital Peregrine chicks is set for June 3rd. at 10:00 AM. Photos and banding information to follow.
March 25th - 2019
Yes, spring is finally here and despite the chilly temps that persist, our southern Ontario peregrines all have the same thing on their minds 
as eggs are popping up all over!! We have confirmation from our friends at the Etobicoke general that at least one egg is present in the nest tray with both residents adults on site and very visible indeed!
The live colour image being produced from the in-house video nest camera that we installed several seasons ago is producing a fantastic real-time live behind the scenes view of the peregrines nesting activities, and incubation has begun!