May 18, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Bruce Massey Reports:
As a part of our ADM mill tour, Tracy and I decided to stop in at the Grace Anglican Church in Brantford for a check in on Skye and Rosie, our most recently discovered young pair. The day we first located them, with huge thanks to a report from an alert resident of the area, their activity was centered around the Grace church and the commercial core near the river. When we arrived we didn’t see either bird and so we retraced the path of our last visit across Wellington, down to the river and back up to the Grace church. We looked everywhere and not a talon could be seen. That’s not to say they aren’t there. The last time that we attended Brantford the pair was mating on the church, Skye fed Rosie there and we believe they could be nesting somewhere that we have yet to discover. We jokingly talked about the pair hiding somewhere and laughing at us as we scoured the area for hours looking for signs of them. They were probably hiding in plain sight! The pair certainly are very interested in the area and were quite comfortable last visit as evidenced by the bath that Skye took in the river. We expect that they are still in town and we will continue to keep an eye out for them.
Posted on May 22, 2013 9:10 am
May 17, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:
May 17th - 2013
After more than an hour trying to get a peak at the new hatchlings, mom was not giving up much! The good news of course, it that we can confirm our suspicions and haven’t lost our touch. While the web cams really do confirm the story and provide a mountain of scientific information, (in addition to the detailed happenings going on in the nest ledge),, good old “time-in” on site observations and having detailed knowledge of the peregrines biology, tells a similar story.
After more than 17 years working with peregrines, not much escapes us.
That being said, even intense monitoring can still lead to mysteries and unknowns, and that is the case at the ICICI Don Mills nest site. During our observations, the resident adult female stayed tight down on her clutch and was not bothered at all with our presence from above. Curiously, the new resident adult male was no where to found and we had a uninterrupted observation period.
After more than an hour of observing, I can confirm that there has in fact been a hatch, and we did get a very short peak at what appeared to be at least one, if not two white fluffy squiggly balls under the brooding / incubating adult female. The easy part was being able to observe at least two un-hatched eggs, but its every early in the hatch cycle. We believe that the first hatched happened on or about the 15th or 16th of May, which would consistent to when we believe that the pair went down into full time incubation duties and actually started cooking as we say.
With a very cold damp rainy and snowy spring, most of the southern Ontario peregrine pairs went down onto full time incubation from the day the first egg was laid, and as such, we expected that hatch rate would be lower as the failure rate we documented several years ago when similar spring like conditions resulted in a low hatch rate.
So what we can confirm, is that we have a hatch for sure and our congratulations go out to Amexon Property management and all of the great folks at 150 Ferrand drive.
Stay tuned, we will be back on Tuesday after the long weekend to do further observations.
Posted on May 18, 2013 12:29 pm
May 15, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Yesterday Bruce and I had a fabulous opportunity to release a young peregrine falcon from rehabilitation back into the wild. This young bird bearing the markings of a juvenile ( now coming into its sub adult year ) was found in the Guelph area in need of assistance and was taken to rehab for rehydration and a little fattening up. Yesterday was release day and we were contacted to do the job as we are on top of where all the other peregrine sites are located and therefore could find the most suitable and safe location. We chose the Rosetta McClain Gardens park as this gave the bird great updrafts for lift, lots of food in the area and was suitably distant from nesting pairs. Bruce manned the box and I was set to get pictures of the release but “Peanut” as I affectionately called him burst out into free skies and I wasn’t ready. I did manage to get a shot or two but boy was he eager. This little peregrine male is unbanded and so his origins are unknown but he is back in the wild and happy for it!! He flew out over the water with a Red Winged blackbird escort and immediately flew west. He circled back and gained elevation as he did and passed over us going east. He circled back again a second time before finally opting to head west along the shoreline and out of view. Good luck little one and may the winds be with you!!
Posted on May 15, 2013 12:37 pm
May 14, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
For the past week, Bruce Massey and I have been watching closely at ICICI for the promise of a hatch this year and we believe that one has occurred. Last week we watched, for the most part, Chester being the only bird of the pair visible and it would seem that his unbanded lady was doing all of the egg duty. During his time out and about, Chester started to hunt more often as the week progressed and set up caches on all of the ledges of ICICI as well as several of the DeBeers ledges. On Sunday May 12th, Bruce witnessed a distinct change in behaviour as Chester opted to sit on the wall directly above the nest and didn’t move much. He kept a watchful eye on activity below and we believe that this was their first hatch on Mother’s Day. Yesterday, Bruce spent several hours watching the ledge for the telltale signs of a hatch and was not disappointed. Chester arrived with food around 3pm and it was taken by the female, into the ledge for a few minutes and then removed from the nest ledge and stored. I arrived at around 5pm and took over watching for another few hours to continue to look for changes in behaviour by the adults. Chester flew several forays around the building and each time jetted over the ledge to check up on his lady. At 7pm he finally couldn’t stand the suspense any longer; he grabbed a cache and flew to the ledge. The pair argued quite loudly for a few minutes as Chester most likely attempted to stuff the kids with food and his female sent him packing. NOT YET she said!! Chester flew off with cache in talons and around to the west side of the building where he ate it himself. He made a second attempt to enter the ledge, this time without food, to give his female a break and again they argued. Chester is young and will soon learn that at this stage the female is in charge!! We were informed by one of the staff at ICICI that there are four eggs up on that ledge and if hatching began on Sunday, there are still chicks emerging and Chester will just have to wait until she is ready to take a break.
Congratulations to ICICI on what we believe to be a recent hatch at the site. We will certainly be working to confirm this sometime this week and keep you informed on their progress.
Remember that the Fledge Watch will begin in approximately 37 days so mark your calendars!! We will certainly keep you informed of the formal start date of the watch and if you can join us for some time, we absolutely would love to hear from you at raptor4@peregrine-foundation.ca
Posted on May 14, 2013 12:54 pm
May 13, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
A huge thank you to Doug Smith for finding us and giving us some great observation reports that allowed us to do a follow-up on his report of territorial peregrine activity in Brantford Ontario. Thanks Doug, Well done!! Bruce and I arrived in Brantford at 5pm and headed straight for the church. As we drove into town, there were very few tall buildings in the area and this section of Brantford is a mix of commercial main street strip stores and residential. The Grace church is about .5km from the Grand River and is surrounded by houses. There is a parkette across the street and we set up there. Pulling up to this church I expected maybe Kestrels and was blown away to find a female peregrine on the back side of the church. She was roosting on a lower ledge of the bell tower that is a tall square tower. After 20 minutes she took off to the east and circled back with a male in tow. The male passed her in the air and reached the tower roof first. He had food. She took the food from him and they copulated. He took off back to the east and out of view. She flew out and back to the bell tower and ate. She has a purple USFW on her left leg and has a black over red recovery band reading 32/X. Her name is Rosie and she is a 2011 hatch from the Macomb County Building in Michigan and is daughter to Nick and Hathor at that site. I got a shot of them mating and the male had a solid black recovery band on his left leg and silver USFW on the right; Canadian born. We waited to see what Rosie would do after eating and she flew off to the east after the male. We walked east into a commercial section of town and found a few more churches and buildings that we scanned. We found the male on another church closer to the river and he was soaked. He must have taken a bath in the shallow section of the river. We were able to read his band and I photographed it. It is solid black 50/X and it is Skye, banded in 2010 at Etobicoke Sun Life and is from Angel’s last brood before O’Connor took over the site. He stayed on the church in the sun drying and we took a look for Rosie but couldn’t find her. As we were running out of light, we headed down to the river where a local resident said he saw them flying and looked around. The bridge that spans the Grand River has some amazing recessed areas that could easily be used by nesting peregrines. The Grace church bell tower is the tallest thing around but they actually can’t get into the open spaces in the tower as its chicken wired from the inside to keep birds out. The only option would be the roof of the tower. I can’t say for sure if they are nesting or not but they are definately bonded and copulating. The focus of their activity appears to be the Grace church. Bruce and I will go back for a good day of recon before things get really busy and try and figure out where they intend to end up.
Posted on May 13, 2013 1:42 pm
May 04, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Thanks to the awesome spotting of Rob, one of our amazing volunteers, we know that we indeed have a falcon back at the Mississauga North location after a lengthy void in the area. For the past week, Rob has been seeing a falcon on the west side of 5800 Hurontario St. as well as the Well Fargo sign on Standish Court. He’s been able to get some great photos of this bird confirming her presence and so Bruce and I went out last evening to see if we could find her. We started off at 5800 Hurontario and scanned all buildings in the area with no luck. We parked and walked up Avebury Rd towards the Wells Fargo building, stopping and scanning along the way. When we were almost at Standish Court, Bruce looked up and scanned the two massive cranes that were currently resting for the weekend and found a falcon roosting on top of one of them. This bird could easily be seen with the naked eye and we both agreed that this was a female. The scope view confirmed that this female was a juvenile/ subadult.
It has become quite clear through the investigations and field work of all of our volunteers this season (you are all amazing by the way!) that a couple of young birds that hatched last year may not have migrated south over the winter. They opted to stay in Ontario and now are creating havoc as the resident adults at each of these sites visited treat them as less threatening than a challenging adult intruder but by the same token don’t want them around. In most cases, they are being escorted out only to boomerang back an hour later. At two sites now they have been addressed with much more serious intent on the part of the resident adults and these young ones stand to get hurt if they don’t cut it out.
Bruce and I decided to make camp and hang in to find out if this one was banded. So far we have photographic evidence of one of the juv / subadult birds that has been witnessed disrupting at nest sites and she is banded with a USFW on her left leg bearing red tape. Time to find out who this girl was. Is it her? We set up the scopes and I have to tell you, this bird could easily have passed for a small Red Tail given how dark she is. She is barred right up to her chin and really heavily streaked. As she sat on the crane, she was roosting on her left leg and occasionally stretched out her right one which we both confirmed carries a silver USFW. Now on to the left leg. Do you think she would show us the jewelry???? No!!! Each time it looked as though she was going to reveal, she faked us out. She stayed on top of the crane until almost dusk when she took off on a mission to the west. We could see her stooping and attacking something but it was off in the distance and blocked partial by buildings. A few minutes later, she flew past us to the southeast and out of view behind the Purolator building. I headed over for a look and there she was on 5800 Hurontario St. asleep for the night.
Well, great catch Rob and excellent work by Bruce to spot her! We will stay on this as best as we can to try and get an ID on the bird. This will certainly help track her activities should she continue to stick her beak in other birds business! Considering that she now sits in between two active territories, we want to stay on top of this situation as it develops.
Pictures soon to follow.
Posted on May 5, 2013 8:25 am
March 26, 2013 - International, National and Local News
CPF Postmaster Reports:
April 26 & 28th - 2013
A huge thank you to Jared who has only just found us after his mom brought the CPF web site to his attention. He was kind enough to send in some photos that he was able to capture in March 2013. He’s been seeing a raptor flying around since his arrival at this location and though it was just a hawk until he got a closer look and able to do a little research.
Good photos Jared, thank you much!
Jared writes:
Hello CPF,
I started working in the ICICI building in January on the 9th floor , facing the DeBeers building. I have noticed Chester flying around for a while… Thought he was just a hawk or something (not too well versed with the birds) . But I told my mom about it and she quickly forwarded me to your site. Its very cool that I get to see these birds everyday.
Anyways, some photos are attached. There’s a couple of the adult peregrine eating (he was quite a distance away so it’s a little out of focus).
And then there is a couple of shots where he is right under the camera that is on the roof.
I know these aren’t professional shots but I thought maybe you guys would be interested.
PS: I got these cause I work for a security integrator company and we have a camera on the roof to show clients.
Sincerely
Jared
Posted on April 24, 2013 9:15 pm
April 16, 2013 - International, National and Local News
CPF Volunteer Reports:
I stopped in on my way through a few days ago for a quick check in on Chester and his female. Not a bird in sight but lots of evidence of their presence. White wash and food remains are around the area and it looks like the ledge of choice is the east facing corner of the ICICI building. We will keep you updated as we are quite sure that the female is incubating an undisclosed number of eggs.
Posted on April 19, 2013 1:51 pm
April 13, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I wanted to share this picture that was posted a few days ago of a female incubating eggs in Minneapolis / St. Paul as the image is quite unbelievable. We have all been watchful of our southern Ontario peregrine pairs throughout this ( hopefully ) last blast of winter like weather. In Ontario, it brought us wet slush, lots of rain, ice pellets and 1 cm thick freezing rain. We weren’t the only ones to be saturated by this storm front and there are some awesome and committed adults out there doing their best. Myself, Mark, Kathy, Bruce, Marion and many other CPF site monitors have been out checking up on our pairs and all is progessing very well. This shot was taken through an office window in the midwest. Check out this female!!
Posted on April 13, 2013 12:17 pm
April 07, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Bruce Massey Reports:
Another stop on my rounds today was at the ICICI nest site at Don Mills and Eglinton to check in on Chester and his lovely lady. Upon arrival, Chester was sitting on the west side on top of the security camera arm and it wasn’t long before he was off. We checked in with security and waited around for Chester to return. Seeing as it looked like he was on a hunt, he would be returning soon with food for his lady and the nest ledge, if she was in fact in there, would be confirmed.
It didn’t take long before Chester returned and announced his presence before flying right into the eastern ledge into the back left corner. He emerged from there after only a moment and the female now appeared on the edge. She flew off the ledge and over to the De Beers north sign and waited for Chester for mating. At the last minute, he veered off when he realized there just wasn’t enough room for the two of them up there and he flew back over to the roof of ICICI. He was off again fairly quickly to the southwest and the female remained preening on De Beers. It would appear that if they don’t already have an egg, one is on the way. I would bet there is at least one as the female was in and out of sight for the first 30 minutes we were there.
All photos by Tracy Simpson
Posted on April 7, 2013 5:19 pm
