June 17, 2013 - Toronto - King Street
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Attention all fledge watchers and peregrine enthusiasts! The fledge watches have started and we need your help!
June 17th - 2013
As some of you may be aware, we are currently eyeball deep in 7 different fledge watches that are now running simultaneously, and needless to say, we are incredibly stressed for manpower to cover all of the fledge watches. Never in the 17 years that we have been running fledge watches have we ever had this many fledge watches occurring all at the same time.
This in addition to having so many nest sites to deal with where the hatches have all happened within such a short period of time, thus having all of the young fledge at the same time.
While the season has only just started, we have already rescued and saved 9 fledglings from the ground and returned them back to the rooftops and nest ledges back to their parents care.
That being said, we need your support to join us in the streets at one of many nest sites here in the GTA.
You will see members of the fledge watch team in the streets at the following nest sites:
Please bear in mind that we are limited in volunteers currently at some of these sites and you may have to do some searching for us as some of these sites have vast areas to cover.
Please join us and help us help your young peregrines make it through this challenging time.
Ongoing fledge watches:
Toronto Sheraton Centre hotel nest site - downtown Toronto - Bay & Queen
MEC nest site -1 Robert Spec Parkway - Huriontario and Hwy # 403 Mississauga
225 Duncan Mill road nest site - Don Mills
ICICI nest site - Don Valley Parkway and Eglinton Ave East, Toronto
Etobicoke Sun Life centre - Bloor & Islington - Etobicoke
18 King Street nest site - Victoria Street & King Street - Downtown Toronto
Canada Square nest site - Yonge & Eglinton - Toronto
Kitchener CTV - King Street - Kitchener Ont.
William Osler Hospital - Hwy # 27 & Humber Valley Blvd - Starting June 20th
Starting end of the week: June 22nd:
Scarborough Yellow Pages - 325 Milner Ave & Progress Ave
Posted on June 18, 2013 2:27 am
June 14, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
This morning Ashley did it, she hopped the gap. This is a big step towards fledging for the young at MEC and is a precursor to first flights. It was just after 8am when Ashley took the big leap and once the first jump was successful, it was a free for all across the face of the nest building! She went from one gap to another and was doing it with ease and confidence. She stopped briefly to investigate each well for scraps and was fortunate enough to find a cache hidden in one of them. All the while that this was going on, Catherine watched from the porch of the nest box with a touch of jealousy I suspect. She screamed and howled for Ashley to come back and eventually, when Ashley did return to the nest ledge, the greeting they exchanged was quite endearing. For the next hour they felt the need to be in physical contact with one another and were completely inseparable. Ashley continued to jump the gaps and make her way around the face of the nest building and finally made it around to the northeast corner where the adults like to perch and watch the kids. Once there she was buffeted by strong winds and had trouble maintaining her balance. She quickly abandoned the corner and made her way back to her sister at the nest box. The pair settled down for the afternoon and there was a serious nap time. They slept and preened on and off for hours and it seemed as though they were never going to move off of that ledge. Supper arrived around 7pm and both girls were treated to a rather large pigeon. They quickly filled themselves and dropped down into the well, presumably to bed. I started to move my watch location back over towards my car and put some things away as I anticipated they may stay down for the night. Ashley had other plans. She came out of the well and began to ledge hop again which had me a little nervous as the winds were starting to pick up. She hopped down to the northeast corner and then in a flash, she was blown backwards off of the ledge. With her wings in an uncoordinated pinwheel, she dropped straight down for 10 stories before she got both of her wings open and symmetrical. This action grabbed the wind and she went into a glide out and around to the north then back towards the nest building. She continued to lose altitude as she swung out towards the 6 lanes of Hurontario Street and I hit the ground running. I knew it would take me a minute or so to get around to the west side of the nest ledge and so I moved it as fast as I could. As I was trotting up the MEC 1 driveway I suddenly had another runner right beside me. It was Winston! We high tailed it around the day care and heard the robins alarm calling. We began to search and found Ashley sitting pretty as a picture on the retaining wall of a raised garden. I grabbed my towel, grabbed Ashley and then she grabbed me. She was quite a roughie for her tumble down and was looking great. Not a ruffled anything except her pride. We placed her in a rescue carrier in security and gave her an hour and a half to compose herself. I checked her out for any apparent injuries and headed up to the roof for the release while Winston watched from the ground in case she flew again. I took her to a corner on the roof and opened the carrier door. Instead of coming out, she filled it up! I reached inside the door for the edge of towel and little Miss decided that my fingers were fair game to grab with both feet and then bite. Thank the stars she got the towel and not me. She came bolting out and into the corner where she turned and addressed me, almost dared me, to touch her again. We left her there on the roof with her mad face on to try again in the morning and her sister sleeping in the nest box.
Posted on June 17, 2013 12:10 am
June 13, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Rain rain go away. We started out this morning’s watch with a misty and cold rain. It was really penetrating and was quite an uncomfortable feeling. Thank goodness for the overhang at MEC 3 or us watchers would have been soaked. Both Catherine and Ashley were on the ledge, had exited the box and were running and flapping like wild things. Ashley seem to be the more active of the two and both girls at one point had gotten themselves out into the rain just enough to enjoy their first bath. Each girl in turn got themselves nice and soaked and then retired to the nest box to preen and fix their feathers. There was a lot of napping today by both juveniles and the parents didn’t seem to mind that they were inactive on such a rainy day. By mid afternoon the rains had tapered off and they were waking up. Katherine, Shannon, Margaret and I now settled in for some action and a potential fledge. Ashley was running back and forth along the nest ledge and she was daring to jump the gap several times today. I don’t think Ashley will be long before she’s made it to the ledge next door. Unlike yesterday, mom and dad were hunting a lot more often and both girls were being fed to keep them down on the ledge. It certainly didn’t keep them from being bouncy though as they flapped, exercised and preened their feathers removing all of the last few bits of down that remained on their bodies. By the end of the day I had spoken to Bruce and he was telling me that out in Etobicoke the rains were getting really heavy and even quite torrential at times soaking both him and the birds. By that time it had actually cleared up here at MEC and at sundown there was a rainbow out to the east in behind the buildings. As I sat there enjoying the rainbow I couldn’t help but think to myself that I should tell the girls that there is a pot of pigeon at the end of that rainbow if all they would do is just FLY TO IT!! As relaxed and happy as they look right now sitting up on the nest ledge I do think that tomorrow were going to see our first flight from one of the girls. I think most likely it’s going to be Ashley as she seems to be the precocious one of the bunch up there. I would like to say a huge thank you to Katherine, Shannon, Margaret and Bruce for all of their help in keeping me awake and getting me through such a rainy cold day. Dawn to dusk fledge watches are never easy but our excellent team of volunteers at MEC are making it that much easier. Thanks again for all of your help everybody and I hope that tomorrow we have our first ledge to celebrate.
Posted on June 17, 2013 12:08 am
June 12, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Today at the MEC watch Sante and Cass pulled out all of the stops, used every trick in their arsenal, to get these girls to fly but today just wasn’t launch day. I arrived at around 9am after helping out at Etobicoke Sun Life through the wee hours to find the box empty and that Ashley, with her bloomer pantaloons, out on the nest ledge. What has drawn her down at this stage of the game is the antics of her sister Catherine who was currently playing Hide and Seek with her. Oh yes, Catherine has just discovered and is currently enjoying the fact that the ledge is a well that they can drop down into and explore. Fun for them, not for me when I am looking for them!! A moment later Ashley flops down into the well and disappears from view for a few minutes before popping back up. Wait a minute, that’s not Bloomer girl… …that’s Catherine. For the next hour it was up and down, under the box and up the other side, one then two then one then none. At this point I hadn’t seen any food delivered to the girls and they were very vocal about it. Marg arrived to help out and we set up camp at MEC 3. What’s so great about this watch point is that we get to engage a lot of the tenants at MEC 3 and by midday people were popping out and seeking us for updates. Cass and Sante are sooooo hard line. Not a morsel went into the ledge and by noon the kids were furiously screaming and running along the ledge. Both adults would fly in every 15 minutes or so and wind them up for a flight but they still were not taking the bait. At one point both parents landed on the window section to the right of the box and both disappeared into the well. Ashley, the less advanced girl, contemplated “jumping the gap” to the ledge where her parents had disappeared into just to see what they were doing but thankfully never made the attempt a reality. She’s a few days from ready. By lunchtime both girls gave up their attempt at screaming pigeons down out of the air and went to the box for a nap. Once they were sound asleep, Sante flew over to the nest ledge as quite as could be, crept along the ledge and then BAM, jumped up on to the nest box landing platform and scared the girls awake! He darted off as fast as he could hoping that one would follow but nope, not going to fall for that! Katherine from MEC 3 joined us and the antics continued throughout the afternoon. Still no food. Lots of teasing, fly bys, land and go tactics and perching just out of reach. Oh yeah, and lots of screaming! An Osprey dared to fly through at around 1pm and was promptly seen off by Cass and all settled again for a while. By the evening, still no food. I was quite prepared to fly up there and feed them myself if it settled them down as I could hear them howling at the parents from a block away over rush hour traffic. Sheesh. At 6pm, Cass did a fly by of the nest box at ledge level which drew Catherine out like a dart. In her fury she grabbed a fist full of feathers and debris from the nest box and as Cass passed the box, Catherine released what she had in her foot looking as if she had just flung gack at her mother in a total rage about the lack of food service. At 8pm, Cass flew over to MEC 2 and began to whine. Having watched her for a while now, Cass gets whining like that when Sante has made a kill. Food was coming. Sante arrived 10 minutes later with a medium sized package and flew directly to the nest box. Cass flew over right behind him screaming, Ashley was on the platform and met Dad screaming, Catherine was in the box screaming and when Sante landed, well all broke loose. Ashley grabbed the food from Sante and ran into the box. She ran into a brick wall named Catherine who took the food off of her and began to eat. Cass bumped Sante off of the nest box and the two adults were airborne over MEC 3 while the two girls battled over the food. Thank the stars that 5 minutes later, the entire family went to sleep.
Posted on June 16, 2013 6:04 am
June 15, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Ashley was flapping up a storm and jumping the gap late last night and was caught by a cross wind that pulled her off of the building in an oops flight. She did very well opening her wings and gliding to the ground at the back of MEC 1. She was rescued and checked out more than OK. She was released to the roof of the nest building at dusk. Full story to follow.
Posted on June 15, 2013 5:27 am
June 12, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I arrived on site to find two little girls sitting quite pretty on the landing platform of the nest box. Earlier I checked the web camera and both girls were out of sight of the camera and seem to be spending much of their time at the front of the box or on the platform itself. Now yesterday, Catherine the Brave jumped off of the platform to the nest ledge and was quite proud of that feat, but she was back in the box with her sister Ashley pretty quickly. These two seem to like to stick together and although Catherine is advanced enough to venture out, she’s not leaving without Ashley. This evening the girls spent their time lounging on the porch and preening one another until Cass made a beautiful fly by. She circled the building twice and stopped to kite in front of the girls. This is the first tease flight I have seen from one of the parents. Cass circled one last time to a chorus of screams from the juveniles and then was off to the west on a hunt. Both girls sat cheek to cheek and cheered mommy on to a good hunt before disappearing back into the box and out of view. Females most definitely take longer to fledge than the males and our oldest female, Catherine, is now at 39 days of age as of today. Without a little brother to spur them on, they are quite content to take it slow and yet Sante is already taking up his pre fledge position on the northeast corner of the nest building. At around 7:30pm, Catherine decided to make another foray out to the nest ledge next to the box and Ashley was quite wound up about it. She flapped as hard as she could, jealous of her big sister on the ledge, and yet stayed on the porch vowing to take her turn soon enough.
Pictures to follow.
Posted on June 14, 2013 12:10 am
June 10, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Today we started the MEC Fledge Watch with a short shift on the site to check on the progress that Catherine and Ashley are making towards first flights. When I arrived the rain was sprinkling down and kept the two girls in the nest box out of sight. The parents, Cass and Sante, were not on site and I presumed were out hunting. A brave little Catherine made a brief foray out of the box to the nest ledge where she sat oh so proud of herself. But as soon as Mr. Rain touched Mr. Feathers she was back into the confines of the box like a shot. Just after 11:00am, Sante came flying in with a screaming Cass on his tail. I think that she assumed he had food and she was looking to take it off of him. He landed on the platform of the nest box and Cass flew right in and landed on top of him. Seeing as he had no food with him, she diverted her path and flew over to MEC 3 on the southwest corner. Sante briefly entered the nest box and checked on the girls before flying over to MEC 3 and tucked in under the Desjardins symbol on the west side. Cass has a hard time squeezing herself in there and so Sante will often use this spot as his hidey hole. Cass then flew over to the nest box and checked on the girls herself, entering the box briefly for a little chat and then she was back over to MEC 3 for a roost on the S in Desjardins, one of her favourite letters. At 1pm I met up with Shannon and Marg to do some Fledge Watch training and go over the protocol for rescues. We are so pleased to have you ladies on board as well as Katherine and it will be an enormous help to the watchers who are the ”dawn to duskers”. Neither of the two girls have made the all important leap to the next ledge or tried to fly up to the top of the box. That will come as their confidence builds but they are edging out for sure!!
If anyone would like to help support Catherine and Ashley, our two beautiful girls at MEC, as they take their first precarious flights, please send us an email at raptor4@peregrine-foundation.ca .
Posted on June 12, 2013 11:49 pm
May 29, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
On May 29th, the two Mississauga Executive Centre chicks were banded and named in front of a great crowd of onlookers. Two females were weighed and introduced to the community and they are;
Catherine 24 day old female 935 grams S over 37 yellow tape
Ashley 25 day old female 975 grams S over 36 red tape
Meanwhile Cass and Sante, the resident adults, were outside dealing with the swing stage operators and extractionist. Cass positioned herself on the Dejardins sign and gave those on her ledge a good talking to. Sante was on MEC 2 and waited for Cass to spring to action but you could see she was unsure just how to attack this long metal thing at her ledge. This is Cass’s first nest and first year at this site so she was sizing things up before launching. Sante took off over to MEC 3 and pushed Cass off of the sign and the parents did a great job thereafter of letting the operators on the stage know how they felt about it. After the banding was complete and the two girls were back home, Sante flew over and checked on the kids while Cass sat on MEC 2 and waited for Sante to return and report. As we left, the family had settled back into “peregrine normal” and all was well. A job well done by the resident adults!
Many thanks must go out to the Mississauga Executive Centre falcon supporters and the list is long! We would like to thank Colliers International property management group for their continued support of the pair, MEC building management staff Sante, Manny and Marco for all of their efforts, Garda Security staff, the tenants at the MEC complex of buildings, Mark Heaton and the OMNR, and the local volunteer supporters in the community. To the Skyreach Window Washers and CPF staff Kathy Smith we must also heartily thank you for putting together such a successful extraction, monitoring of the adults and return of Catherine and Ashley to their home at MEC 1. This is the 13th year since MEC 1 was first colonized and there are so many success stories that we have shared about this peregrine site with the world. Today’s banding event was another chapter in the continuing story of that success and we are grateful to all that made it possible.
The fun begins on June 10th as the Fledge Watch for Catherine and Ashley will begin. If you are interested in supporting these two lovely ladies as they take to the air for the first time, please send us an email at raptor4@peregrine-foundation.ca.
Posted on June 6, 2013 10:04 am
May 29, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
May 29th - 2013
Banding Day!
The banding at the Mississauga Executive Centre today was a huge success with the two chicks being given their bands and official names. Help us in welcoming Catherine and Ashley to Mississauga!!
Details and photos will follow shortly. Congratulations MEC!
Posted on May 30, 2013 12:28 am
May 27, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Come one, come all to the Mississauga Executive Centre at 1 Robert Speck Parkway to witness the banding of Cass and Sante’s two healthy young chicks in the lobby of building one at 10:00am this Wednesday May 29th. We look very forward to seeing you there and we are so excited to see the resident pair have such a successful spring together. This is Cass’s first nesting season and what a mother she has been so far. Congratulations MEC and we’ll see you Wednesday!!!
Posted on May 27, 2013 4:10 pm
