Toronto Sheraton Hotel Banding - Wednesday May 23rd - 2PM
Meet and greet at 1:30pm, banding at 2PM
Toronto King Street Banding - Wednesday May 23rd - 10AM
Banding - Burlington Lift bridge - Wednesday May 23rd - 10AM
Ely a 2008 hatch at the 18 King St nest,has 4Â chicks with her mate Dipper. They nest on the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Â Ohio. This makes 4 more “grandchicks” for Windwhistler and Erin!
Bruce Massey has been watching a pair of peregrines in the Yonge and Finch area for the past several years but they have not raised any young nor settled on a territory. It would seem that things may have changed for the pair as they have been sighted now using the Trans America building at Yonge and Sheppard with great interest as well as the North American Xerox building at Yonge and Finch. What makes this new development so interesting is that there appears to be a change in the bonded pair as the female has been identified as a banded yet unnamed 2008 hatch from the Statler Tower building in Buffalo, New York and a full sister to the female who last winter lost her territory at MEC known as Infinity. She is currently bonded to an unbanded adult male and is seen most often in the Yonge and Sheppard area.Â
To this point, the female has always been an unbanded adult and this change may herald a new interest in nesting. Bruce believes that the pair did make an attempt this spring at the North American Xerox building but it failed to produce any young. Right now Bruce is seeing only one adult at a time and will continue to work on pinning down just where the pair is showing interest.
Bruce Massey and I attended the Brampton Courthouse this afternoon and then finished our observations in downtown Brampton in an effort to sort out who is where and doing what with whom!!Â
Many excellent reports have been coming in from our Brampton watchers Toivo, Winston and Grace. Thanks so much everyone for all of your efforts in trying to sort out the pairs and places!! At the courthouse, Bruce arrived first and had the unbanded subadult female on the courthouse calling quite racously. A male flew in, much too quickly to identify, and was gone as fast as he arrived. He flew northwest toward the police station and disappeared, soon to be followed by the female. Bruce and I then met up and headed downtown where many daily observations have been made of peregrines in the George St area.
When we arrived, we found an adult male on the George St building preening away. It took a while but I was able to get a look and a picture of the black over green band of Milton, the resident male from the courthouse. After about 10 minutes, the subadult female flies in with food and joins Milton on the George St building. They both disappear into the back of the ledge and the female pigs out on the food package without sharing much. We moved to another location that allowed us a view into the ledge and I could clearly see that the subadult female was quite full and now was sleeping it off. Milton was 10 feet to her left and was snoozing as well.Â
It is clear that the pair are not nesting right now at either the courthouse or the George St building. They are not incubating any eggs currently and seem to be spending time pair bonding rather than family rearing. There is still time for nesting to occur so we will continue to watch the pair closely for a change in behaviour.
With the banding of the young having been completed on May 14th, the young nestlings are now growing in their flight feathers and gaining in confidence as they explore the world outside the box. Bruce Massey stopped in this morning and saw that two of the young, Jennifer and Skyreach, were outside of the box and were wandering the ledge. They dropped down into the window well out of sight and a few minutes later, up pops little Janet showing off her yellow tape on her USFW band.Â
Bruce left the site around 11:00am and I returned later in the afternoon to check in on a possible feeding. I must have missed it by moments when I arrived at 5:00pm as all three of the youngsters were now in the box and snoring up a storm. Sante, the resident male, was sitting on the corner keeping watch and the resident female, Rogue, was over on MEC 4 keeping a close eye as well.
The Fledge Watch for the MEC site begins this Wednesday May 23rd as Jennifer reaches 37 days of age. If you would like to help out watching the juveniles taking their first flights, please contact our head office and we would be pleased to have you attend and watch with us. Come on out and join the Fledge Watch crew as the fun is about to begin!!
Bruce Massey was down at the Holcim nest site this morning for a quick chick check and was treated to a nice view of Storm as he sat on the edge of the nest ledge watching over his young brood of 4. He sat there for about 20 minutes before taking off on a hunt and Caspian was not in view. The chicks are more mobile but are not yet ready to approach the edge of the nest ledge yet. We look forward to the days in which their little faces make their first appearance!!
It was another wonderful day in London delivering Project School Visit to local children in town. After the visits, I paid a visit to Domenic Ripepi at Sifton Property Management Group and shared and update with the folks at 1 London Place. They have been fantastic in allowing me to reach a higher elevation in a 23rd floor suite that has offered me a good look into the nest tray on 380 Wellington just beneath the TD sign. When I arrived upstairs, both of the adults were sitting on the tray in the shade. Shortly thereafter Dougal, the resident male, left the tray and Thunder, confirmed resident female, remained for another 20 minutes. I could not see any eggs in view as the angle doesn’t allow me to see down into the tray but the nest tray itself was bathed in the afternoon heat from the sun. As I was leaving the suite to head down to “the Peregrine Perch” on Wellington, Thunder had taken to the air and both adults were tandem flying just north of Dundas.
Down in the street, Frank was talking to many of the Londoners that were stopping to inquire about their peregrines and how they were doing. It wasn’t long before Thunder returned to the tray and Dougal took off with purpose as if on a hunt. I was able to get photographs that clearly show the females band colours and you can almost clearly make out the rotated 2 on top and the X on the bottom. This was confirmed without a doubt as we also were watching through our scope and had the band perfectly in view. We will continue to visit as often as we can to watch the progress of the resident pair and share the stories and adventures of these two with the local London community!! See you soon London!!
Believe it or not, a 2nd egg has been produced. It was 1st seen in the early morning of May 19th. Hopefully this 2nd clutch will be successfull and with the help of  the MNR & CPF, we will be able to band some young falcons.