CORRECTION!! - PUBLIC BANDING, FRIDAY JUNE 5th - click here for more banding details.
Here are clips of the morning activity, and afternoon activity at MEC on June 24th. Different birds in each one? Not sure.
Morning (9am):
Afternoon (4pm):
After the successful fostering of the chicks a few weeks ago, the activity at MEC slowed down - or so I thought. Since CPF setup the live cam prior to the banding, it’s had a cache of the last 18hrs of activity on the computer. I started checking this cache this week, and I’m not sure what to make of it. Looks like a Peregrine has been spending time coming in and out of the box. This morning, it seems there was 30 minutes of rooting around in the box. This afternoon, there was about 3hrs of sitting right next to the camera.
I’m not skilled enough to tell if they were the same bird or not, but I’m uploading some of the morning and afternoon activity to youtube. I’ll post again when it’s up and ready to view.
Until then, check out the webcam in the morning around 9am, or the afternoon around 4pm. Seems to be busy those times of day?
If you have photos of any of the CPF monitored nest sites, birds or fledglings in this exciting time, we would love to see them! If you have older photos or videos from CPF events, like the 2009 Sportsman show, we would love to see those too.
We’ve got a flickr group that you can upload photos and short videos to. If you have longer videos, upload them to youtube and tag them with cpf and peregrine and I will find them.
Example shot from the Sheraton Banding in the Flickr Pool -
We might include some of the videos or photos in our updates, or around the site. You could be famous!
Matt.
Over the weekend we were able to choose the perfect foster site for the three MEC hatchlings. With the assistance from the wonderful folks at the William Osler Health Care Centre, we were able to confirm that status of the resident peregrines. Reconfirming that the resident female was still incubating her eggs, and knowing that they beyond the hatch day and with no hope of a hatch, this stage was set for the perfect fostering condition as this is exactly the situation that was needed. The ideal foster nest site!
With the hatchlings much stronger and healthier, it was time to introduce them to their new foster parents. The three hatchlings departed the CPF raptor centre late this afternoon and arrived at the William Osler Hospital safe and sound. We were greeted by the hospital security and maintenance personal and awaited Mark’s arrival from MNR. We proceeded to the upper floors to the access hatch to the nest ledge. After re-confirming for the last time that the resident female was still incubating the eggs and that the resident male was still in attendance, the hatch door was carefully opened and the 3 remaining un-hatched eggs were removed and replaced with the three young peregrines. Despite both of the resident peregrines objection to this intrusion, the procedure went without a hitch and the access door was closed and secured.
For the next ten plus minutes we all waited and watched in anticipation that the resident adult female would accept her new foster family. She was joined by her mate and we watched both of the resident adults stare in absolute bewilderment. Seconds later, the hatchlings started to vocalize. Seconds later, both of the adults started to vocalize back to the three young peregrine hatchlings. Moments in to this scream-feast, , one of the chicks walked off out of our view down the ledge. Fearing that worst that one of the hatchlings may be on its way too close to the edge of the ledge, we preceded to ground level and to the outside the building and positioned ourselves directly under the ledge. The vocalizing from all of the peregrines was deafening even eight stories down.
What we witnessed from this vantage point was nothing shy of spectacular and amazing. Both of the resident adult peregrines were involved in this scream feast with the hatchlings, all while touching beaks together. The adult male was the most confused and made a dozen touch-and -go flights back and forth from the nest ledge to the hydro towers to the east, than back to the nest building and nest ledge. Throughout this entire time frame, - (which lasted close to a half an hour), the adult resident male also went after and chased of several gulls.
By 5:55 pm, the male finally bought in a small food package, and the adult female was quick to snatch it from him and preceded to feed her newly acquired family. For the next three hours while we watched on, the male brought in three other food packages to the ledge. Each time the adult female snatched the food packages from him and proceeded to feed the hatchlings. By the end of the day as we lost our daylight, all three hatchlings had been few several times and had huge full bulging full crops. Both adults continued to be very vocal right up to when darkness fell, and all fell silent.
By the time 9 pm rolled around and the darkness set in, the adult female had herded all three of the hatchlings back down the ledge into the nest tray behind the hospital sign where they all disappeared from our view. It couldn’t have worked out better!! Tracy joined me around 5 pm and stayed until darkness. During our visit, both of the resident adults were ID’ed and their band numbers were recorded and photographed. The resident adult male is non other than Hurricane, who was produced at the Toronto Sheraton hotel nest site in 2004, dawning a solid black band 5 over X. Hurricane has been the resident adult here at the William Osler Hospital nest site since 2006 when he arrived as a first year juvenile in full brown plumage.
The resident adult female dawns a Black M over Green 87 band. We hope to have some history on her very soon. Stay tuned… More to come!
See photos in the William Osler report.
We have identified the new resident adult female that is now on territiry with the current adult male.
She dawns a Black M over a Green 83 band number. This female was named Tessie, and was hatched on April 22nd in 2007 from Cleveland Ohio USA, from the Cleveland Clinic nest site. Tessie was one of three produced at this nest site with two other brothers named Crile - (banded Black H over Green 41), and Toby - (banded Black H over Green 42). Tessie is the daughter of Flash and Liberty.
Today has been even more exciting with all three of the hatchlings alert and very animated, all interacting with one another now. All three of the hatchlings are now very mobile compared to yesterday and responding VERY WELL to fluids and food. Eating us out of house and home is an understatement!
The young male Apollo is now very alert and aggressively demanding food, but with all of the attitude that we would expect to see. He is quite willing to steel food from his other two sisters without hesitation, and is quick to voice his opinion and lash out at me after each time the feedings are completed.
Katarina, the smaller female has dramatically increased in weight again and continues to improve in leaps and bounds. She has transformed from a quiet sickly lethargic looking hatchling and become a very alert, very vocal bully herself. Energy PLUS!!
Magarina is doing just fine, and has become even more aggressive!. While she takes food willingly, she is also quick to strike out and hiss at me after the feedings are finished.
Obviously a love hate relationship! This is exactly what we want to see in their overall attitude and behavior.
I can report with all confidence that the hatchlings are all but back to healthy condition, and should be ready to leave our care soon.
A brief update from Tracy from the CPF Raptor Centre and the three hatchlings. More than a noticeable improvement from all three of the hatchlings today, as they are of this evening three very different birds compared to what they looked and acted like on Friday afternoon when they arrived at the CPF Raptor Centre. The little male hatchling named Apollo - (Black 37 over Y - with Blue tape) is now standing upright and moving freely around in the nest tray and starting to respond very well to the fluids and food being offered. His weight has increased and he is looking very alert and animated, now starting to interact with his two other siblings.
His little sister Katarina - (Black 16 over X -with red tape ) who was suffering from the more severe dehydration and malnutrition is also now responding well to the food and fluids. She has gained almost 20 grams in weight and is now consuming food faster then I can feed her.
The largest female sibling Magarida - (Black 17 over X - with Yellow tape) has obviously been one of the problems, given her huge size, dominance and strength in comparison to the other two hatchlings, as she consistently bullies the other two siblings and steels all of the food, many times from right out of their mouths before they can swallow it. Neither of the other two hatchlings seem to have the strength or the awareness to prevent the older hatchling Magarida from taking all of their food.
While this behavior is quite typical of the largest or most dominant of the hatchlings in any given nest, this situation is magnified due to the much smaller and weakened condition of the other two siblings. The much larger Magarida has been getting most of what little food packages that the resident adult male father was able to bring in to the nest.
Without a second adult helping to provide food to the hatchlings, (and in this case, with the death of the resident adult female, who is capable of CARRYING much larger food packages), it has become quite obvious that the surviving resident adult male was not able to keep up the necessary food requirements to maintain the health of all three of his offspring. The hatchlings are being fed three to four times a day and have are now consuming several hundred grams of food between the three. As of this evening, they are all casting normal formed pellets and their mutes are all starting to look normal.
Pictures will follow.
These images captured today of an adult at the nest box.
What started out to be a great banding day with sunny skies and mild temperatures, the day finished with some tragic news with a few twists. With the support of management team at Mississauga Executive Centre and Oxford Properties, the good folks at Skyreach Window washing and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, everything was ready to go for the banding of the three MEC peregrine hatchlings. With the ground floor of MEC # 1 lobby full of excited onlookers, the three young peregrine hatchlings were delivered to the banding table without a hitch for what has become an annual banding event. As the chicks were removed from the carrier to be weighed and banded, it was quite obvious that something was not quite right. While healthy in their appearance to the untrained eye, the disposition, behavior and low weights of the hatchlings were telling quite another story. After the banding was successfully completed, the final tale of the take came to light. This why the observations and nest cameras are so important for the management of the urban nest sites. During the physical extraction of the hatchlings from the nest box, it was clear that while two adult peregrines were on hand roosting on the roof edges of MEC #3 across the courtyard, neither of the adult peregrines were the slightest bit interested in defending or objecting to the window washers swing stage and the humans presence at the nest box. (This despite the fact that both adult peregrines were VERY AGGRESSIVELY defending and objecting to the window washing activities last week when they were on the roof top of the nest building while making ready and setting up the window washing swing stage to prepare it for today’s banding event).
Recognizing that this very different and unusual behavior on behalf of the two adult peregrines that were clearly in view, roosting on the roof top edges of MEC building # 3, further warranted a more detailed investigation during the extraction of the hatchlings from the nest box.
A detailed look in and around the nest ledge resulted in finding the lifeless dead body of the original resident adult female on the nest ledge several feet away from the nest box!
It became quite apparent that a original resident adult female (the hatchlings paternal mother) ws dead and had likely had been killed in a territorial battle with another adult female peregrine. It was also quite evident that a new adult female was the female currently in view on the building rooftop at MEC #3, and had absolutely no interest in the extraction team at the nest ledge, nor interested in protecting the three hatchlings in the nest box. The resident adult male (confirmed by his leg bands) was also not interested in the slightest in defending the hatchlings during their extraction from the nest box.
The odd behavior and underweight hatchlings provided yet another part of the puzzle. Two of the three hatchlings were underweight for their age and sex, and appeared listless and undernourished. The much smaller and younger male hatchling also appeared to be suffering from dehydration.
All of the hatchlings were disturbingly very quiet and lethargic at the banding table. Quick review of the recorded archived camera footage revealed additional pieces of the puzzle. The last observed feeding by any adult female was on May 27th. Subsequent feedings were being done by an adult male only.
A more detailed review of the observation records and the recorded camera footage also revealed that the food packages that the adult male was bringing in to the nest box were very small, and had become fewer and further between.
Given these combined observations, the decision was made by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, not to put the hatchlings back into the nest box, and seek emergency medical attention for the hatchlings from an avian vet. All three hatchlings were immediately transported by team members of the CPF to a nearby avian veterinary hospital where they were treated for severe dehydration and malnutrition. The three young hatchlings were then taken to the CPF raptor centre were they will be provided with around the clock critical care until they have regained their health, and can be returned to the wild.
Given the fact that the hatchlings mother has been killed, and with the current new adult female at the MEC nest site has no interest in providing care or protection for the chicks; this combined with the fact that the adult male has not been able to provide the chicks with enough food to keep them healthy, it is unlikely that the hatchlings will be returned to the MEC nest site.
There remains a further risk that if the hatchlings were returned to the MEC nest box, and did manage to survive, that the new adult female would likely kill the chicks or drive the young birds out of the territory at fledging time. Remembering that this is now “her territory” and not her own offspring. This action will likely cause the immediate death of the hatchlings and/or lead to them eventually starving to death while on their own at this very young age,, and / or finally falling victim to other avian predators.
Territorial Red-tailed hawks or Great Honed owls (among many other avian predators) would find these defenseless, inexperienced and naive juveniles a very easy prey should they wander into these occupied territoies. We know after more than 14 years of close monitoring of the urban nest sites, that the fledgling juveniles are solely dependent on their parents for both their food and protection, sometimes as long as 60 days after they take their first flights.
Clearly documented over the years as seen via the many CPF nest web cameras, we continue to see the fledglings return to the nest boxes and nest ledges each night for protection and food from their parents until they are self sufficient and hunting successfully on their own .
During the time after fledging, the juveniles still have much to learn from their parents, while building muscle mass and gaining confidence long before they are proficient in their flight let alone being able to hunt down and successfully catch their own food.
A number of different options are being discussed to ensure that these birds remain wild and free. There are no plans being considered to have these birds remain in captivity any longer than necessary.
One of the options being considered is to place the hatchlings into another active nest site that is currently occupied by two resident adult peregrines that are still in nesting mode as we say. This type of fostering has been very successfully throughout Canada and the United States where this method was used as part of the recovery strategy for the species in both countries . It was not too long ago that the CPF was involved in several fostering here in Ontario several years back at the Hamilton and Ottawa nest sites where we were successful in fostering young peregrine hatchlings into these active nest sites. (see archival references and history of these fosters on the CPF website in 1999 and 2000 with two successful years of fostering at the Ottawa nest site, and another at the Hamilton nest site).
The procedure adding additional hatchlings to a nest where there are already hatchlings of similar age is a tried, tested and proven method of fostering . The new hatchlings will receive the benefit and care from both of the resident adults. While this is only one of several plans being considered, the first step is ensure that the hatchlings are able to make a full recovery and regain their health.
Stay tuned……..more to come!
Seems Frank and I were thinking the same thing this morning.
Two quick videos to share. The first video shows the little peregrines still sleeping as their mother arrives with breakfast (around the 2:45 mark). The second, shows them finishing up breakfast, then some blank stares, then a stretch, and some walking around.
Enjoy.