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 12, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
Yellow Pages Banding - June 12th-2013
2 more healthy chicks for the Scarborough Yellow Pages Nest site!
Late this morning, 2 healthy Peregrine chicks were successfully banded by Mark Heaton of the Ministry of Natural Resources with th help of CPF volunteers, and returned back to the nest ledge to their parents.
One of CPFs long time volunteers and supporters, John Miller our Rock Climber who extracted the chicks from the nest high atop the Yellow Pages building with the help of Mark Nash who watched his back while he went over the edge and extracted the two young peregrine hatchlings for banding.
While in the lobby many people anxiously awaited the new additions to the family Linn the long standing resident adult female was busy giving John the business and her opinion of the hole matter.
When the chicks where brought down to the banding table, Dave Currie assisted Marion Nash at the banding table to record the banding data and Mark Heaton and his crew banded the chicks.
The chicks, 1 male and 1 female were weighed, sexed, and banded without much fuss from them at all because they had full crops and like a human baby that had just been fed were a little sleepy and content to accept the new bands and have their pictures taken for the family album.
The two young peregrine hatchlings were although full of energy and very feisty by the end of the banding process and clearly had their mothers attitude. Very healthy indeed!
The resident adult male father - “Ruben” was also on hand assisting his mate with her efforts to dispatch the human extraction crew on the upper roof walkway.
The young female hatchling weighed in at a whopping 1010 grams one of the heaviest this year and was named Neira. Her young brother weighing in at 690 grams was named Loki.
A huge thank you to Petra and Yellow Pages for all of their support and assistance and to the Aurora district of the Ontario Ministry of Natural resources and Mark Heaton and his crew for banding support.
What a great team!!
Photos to follow.
Stay tuned………..
Posted on June 14, 2013 12:08 pm
June 06, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 4th - 2013
We have finally been able to book and confirm a banding date for the Yellow Pages nest site.
The banding date is Wednesday June 12th at 11am in the lobby. Hope to see you all there!
Posted on June 6, 2013 9:51 am
May 24, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
May 24th - 2013
Hatch - May 17th - 2013
Congratulations Petra, you have a hatch!!
Finally able to get back to the Scarborough nest site to check up on the love-birds and I’m delighted to report that there has been a hatch!! Arrived just a right time, in the middle of a changing of the guard and was able to take a few quick photos of the resident adult female - Linn and her new hatchlings!
Although I can confirm that there has indeed been a hatch (and we can see at least two young hatchlings - aged at approx. a week old as of this date when the photos were taken), we can only see two hatchlings of them so far. As you can see in the photo where Linn is brooding her offspring, she has tucked them underneath a six plus inch overhang on the nest ledge that makes it virtually impossible to underneath it, regardless of the angle.
We know that there were four eggs, although none are visible during this visit. At this point, we can only guess just how many hatchlings there are until they get a little bigger or more mobile.. They we’re all huddled together in very tight condensed pile, all tucked inn under the overhang as you can see by the photos.
So at this point given the size of the hatchlings, they are looking to be about 8 days old as of Saturday May 25th, making a hatch date of May 17th - 2013
Enjoy,,,, more to come…….
Posted on May 26, 2013 5:25 pm
May 15, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Bruce Massey Reports:
Tracy and I went up to the Yellow Pages nest site to check in on Rueben and Linn’s progress towards hatching young this year. They have moved to a different ledge on the building this year that faces north and so we set up in the parkette just to the north of the building. We found Rueben on the peak of the building rather relaxed and enjoying the day and he spent the next 20 minutes up there preening. Linn was nowhere in sight and we believe that she was in the nest ledge incubating. Rueben took off of the top of the building and flew down into the ledge and was there for over 5 minutes. Did we miss Linn emerging? Nope. She refused to move as evidenced by the popping up of Rueben after which he flew to the next ledge over. There he sat and preened for a while and Tracy and I decided to head back over to the parking lot after Rueben’s ousting from the ledge. Just as we left the parkette and were at the corner, Rueben came off like a shot and took a pigeon right out of the parkette feet from where we were standing!! He flew out over the townhouses, circled around to the Investor’s Group “kitchen” but didn’t stop there. He flew back up to the west side of the Yellow Pages building and began to pluck. We decided to stay and see if this food was intended for the nest ledge and we watched as he ate at least half. You see, Rueben is a smart lad. How do you get big Linn to move? How was he going to get his turn? Pidgie!! That’ll do it!! He flew off of the antenna on the west side and into the nest ledge with the remainder of the package. Linn quickly waddled out of her spot on the eggs and took the food from Rueben who quickly jumped on the eggs. Ha!!! Linn took one last look at the man that foiled her plot not to share, shouted out a few choice chups at him and flew around to the same antenna on the west side that Rueben had just left. She ate every last scrap even though she already had an impressive crop!! There she stayed roosting and preening as we left.
We can say for sure that there has yet to be a hatch at Yellow Pages but we believe, based on our observations of partial incubation on April 9th, that the first young one will be coming soon. Food did not go to the ledge to feed young but rather to get Linn off the eggs so Rueben could have a turn at them. Boy, he knows her well.
Posted on May 15, 2013 12:28 pm
May 10, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Bruce Massey Reports:
I have visited Linn and Rueben at the Yellow Pages nest site a few times over the past week and have only been able to locate one of the adults at a time. This would indicate that they are still incubating eggs on the northeast side of the building and have yet to have a hatch. As this site is behind all of the others by a week or so, we expect that the first hatch will be occurring soon. I will be back today to check on their progress.
Posted on May 14, 2013 10:32 am
May 09, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Tracy Simpson Reports:
With nest sites throughout southern Ontario all hatching eggs this week the Fledge Watch program will be in full swing throughout June at multiple sites and all at the same time this year. This critical positive intervention program that was pioneered by the CPF in Ontario has been in operation since 1996 and each year has supported the offspring of nesting pairs with resounding success. Were it not for the stewardship efforts and the gift of time from all of our volunteers, many of the Ontario hatched resident adults that are currently producing young of their own would not be alive today. This message is a call to you to join us in June for one of the most incredible things we get to experience supporting this species at risk.
What do you need to be a Fledge Watch volunteer? Well, I’m glad you asked; two things. The first would be the generous gift of your time during the month of June for which we are all so grateful. Whether you can spare an hour, a day, a week or every waking moment, it all contributes to the success of the program, the survival of the inexperienced peregrine offspring and the ongoing monitoring efforts of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation. The second thing that you will need is the sincere desire to be a part of something so amazing that it will be one of those memorable experiences that you will never forget. I won’t tell you tales here, there are days that are slow. These are the days that are filled with learning more about the birds, stories, camaraderie, training and connecting with the local community; all rewarding in their own right. There are also days where its absolute pandemonium and we all wish the fledglings would just stop moving for all of one second so we can count heads and catch our breath. Regardless of the type of day it is, I can say this from my personal experience and it is a sentiment that all of our watchers both new and seasoned share. You will go home knowing that you helped make a difference in the life of a species at risk in Ontario and that you have given each and every juvenile at your chosen watch site a chance at survival that they otherwise wouldn’t have. It is incredibly rewarding knowing that your presence made all the difference in the world.
Last year the Fledge Watch teams collectively rescued 21 juvenile peregrine falcons from imminent mortality and gave them a second chance at life. If you would like to be a part of one of these critical support teams this June, we would love to hear from you. Please send us an email to raptor4@peregrine-foundation.ca with your name, a contact number, your site of interest and a general indication of the time you can share. We will be following up with you with further details about the site you are going to attend and the expected start date for that watch. Fasten your seatbelts and return your trays to the upright position for lift off in June!! As always it promises to be one amazing flight after another!!!
Posted on May 9, 2013 1:24 pm
April 16, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Tracy Simpson Reports:
With this year’s egg production underway, I promised pictures of the dynamic duo. Here are just a few to get you started!! Soggy Rueben Sandwich and Big Linn Extreme Yoga!
Posted on April 17, 2013 7:31 am
April 12, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Marion Nash Reports:
I stopped in at Yellow Pages earlier this week and tried to find Linn and Rueben’s nest location this year. Kathy and I checked all of the ledges and although we found scrapes everywhere, there was no sign of the elusive incubating adult. Yesterday, we stopped by again for a check and found Rueben on duty definately incubating an undisclosed number of eggs. He was one wet little male but never gave up his post. Great job Rueben. I have posted an image of where the pair are incubating this year rather than try and describe the location as the building has a different configuration that is hard to describe. If I were to try and describe it, it is on the north side of the building, facing Milner Ave., on the northeast corner on the west “shoulder”. See what I mean!! Hopefully the map will help to clarify things.
Check back very soon as pictures are to follow!!
Posted on April 13, 2013 11:51 am
April 03, 2013 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
CPF Postmaster Reports:
April 3rd-2013
A site visit produced some interesting news and mixed results today, in that it would appear that although a nest ledge has not yet been selected - (and there are no eggs present as yet), the peregrines interests seemed to be focussed on a different ledge on the Yellow pages building from the one that they used last year.
A detailed inspection of each of the 8 available nest ledges showed that there were at least one, if not two different scrapes on all of the available eight ledges! So much to choose from!!
It would appear that the pair have been very active indeed scraping out fresh nest bowls on many of the ledges and have not yet decided what ledge they (or should I say what ledge “SHE” has decided on). You could almost see the frustration in the resident males body language and behaviours as it would have appeared that he tooooo had given up trying to coax his mate to a nesting ledge, and was now simply waiting for her to make a decision! Clearly he has been frantically scraping out nest bowls everywhere in an effort to accommodate her!
From my observations and the location of the female, it would appear that she may have interests in a ledge on the south side of the building this season, (facing due south facing out onto the parking lot), which is south of the Yellow pages building. It would be on the top of the south west column, (to the left of building entrance), and the south east (right side) facing ledge on this column. Its very difficult to describe as the building has 8 different ledges, with two ledges atop of each of the four corner/columns, each facing a different direction.
After reviewing the photos I was able to take, it would appear that the purple USFW band with the combination of the second Black over Green band on the resident adult male is consistent to that of Ruben who has been the long standing resident territorial adult male at the Yellow Pages nest site. Sadly, I was unable to get a photo of the resident female who just wouldn’t stay stationary long enough for me to get a photo of her or verify by seeing any of her leg band numbers. Given her posturing and behaviour, I suspect that the resident adult female may still be Linn from Rochester N.Y. who has also been the resident adult female at Yellow Pages for some time.
Sadly, in my haste, I accidentally deleted the photos of the adult male and have nothing to post with this report.
Stay tuned …………
Posted on April 4, 2013 1:16 pm
