MISC. CANADIAN NESTS ~ 2013

Matrix · **Posted:** Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:58 pm

Well Susan...It wouldn't suprise me that she would be trouble at such a young age...Maverick's female descendents are a force to contend with... I am curious to know why that is, and may never know.....But... WOW Diamond took over the N.F. site as a juvie...or subadult...depending on how one looks at it...

When Tracy gets the final confirmation there will be no suprises to me...LOL..

Thanks for posting this!!! :hapdance:

skygirlblue · **Joined:** Sun Jul 26, 2009 3:18 pm **Posts:** 64352

Tsusan · **Posted:** Fri Apr 26, 2013 9:01 pm

A Great Earth Week Event and Three Falcons at Holcim
April 23, 2013 - Mississauga - Holcim Tracy Simpson Reports:

I had the distinct honor of attending the Holcim Cement Earth Week event on Tuesday at the plant and spent time with the employees sharing the Canadian Peregrine Foundation’s passion for raptor species at risk with them. In attendance with me was Oscar the Peregrine and Alexandra the Great Horned owl; I think they were both a hit! After the event, I headed out to the parking lot and looked up to see a peregrine flying in from the west over the parking lot. I grabbed my camera and took a couple of quick shots before this female in the air moved out of range. I watched her soaring over towards Avonhead Road and so I decided to spend some time watching the resident pair, Storm and Caspian, as they continue to incubate a clutch of eggs. When I reached my watch spot, the resident female Caspian was out of my view, presumably now on the nest ledge incubating, and Storm was not in the immediate area. It wasn’t long before Storm came racing in like a shot and swung behind the silos low and out of my view. I looked to the north end of the silos to see if he would make his way back around but what now flew towards me was a female. ??????????

So who was incubating the eggs? Before I could finish that thought, Storm came screaming in from the north and met the female in the air. This was not “happiness to see you”. The two tussled in the air for a brief moment and upon release of the talon lock, Storm flipped and grabbed her right by the chest! The female howled at this contact and tried her best to make a hasty retreat to the north with Storm now hot on her tail. ???????????

Now I’m befuddled. I have lost sight of both birds and there is clearly no love lost between them. I quickly grabbed my camera to review the pictures and you’re just not going to believe this. The female I have photos of is… …a juvenile!! I know you’ve heard me tell this same story now half a dozen times but I can only tell you what I see and can prove with certainty. I stayed on site and waited for the two to return but it was Storm who came back alone, made a brief circle flight above the nest ledge and then flew to the top of the highest peak on the main plant. There he sat, for a while, until he was once again off like a shot to the southwest. I waited again for his return and he came back alright… …chasing the juvenile female through the territory and out to the east. Again he returned alone after 15 minutes and back to the peak of the plant he went. The peace lasted all of 20 minutes and boom!!!… …off goes Storm to the north and out of view. After 10 minutes he was back again and in pursuit again of the juvenile female out over Avonhead Road. This last intrusion finally brought Caspian off the nest ledge and she was furious. I now had three falcons in the air as the two adults escorted this pesky juvenile off the edge of the territory to the south. Caspian broke away from the chase and beat a hasty retreat back onto the ledge and her eggs. This time Storm stayed away from the territory for a good 30 minutes before returning to a smack down drag em out fight with a Red Tailed hawk, the hawk quickly deciding that Storm was way too enraged to mess with. He stooped and smacked this Red Tailed a half a dozen times before trying to grab it by the face. Fury times 10!! The Red Tailed moved out as fast as it could get gone and Storm finally returned to the peak of the plant where he remained in position as I finally pulled away. Phew!!!!!!!!

I have a lot of pictures to review but I can say for certain that the story of the pesky juvenile is being told at nest sites all over southern Ontario. I will be taking a very close look to see whether this juvenile has bands and if conspicuous red tape appears on her left one as it did in Port Colborne. I will also now be pulling out all of the pictures from all of the sites that a juvenile female has been seen at this year so far (William Osler, Burlington, Port Colborne, Brampton, St. Mary’s, Hearn and now at Holcim) and checking closely to see if we have a single bird working the lower province or if these are different young girls looking to make a name and a nest for themselves. In Port Colborne, we believe based on the band configuration and colours that the juvenile is Lucky Seven from the Niagara Gorge nest last year. If it is in fact her visiting all of these sites, she better take care who she chooses to challenge. We have some pretty tough resident adult females out there and the males are taking her on as well. Today Storm made his opinion abundantly clear and she was lucky that Caspian was otherwise occupied.
Posted on April 26, 2013 9:37 am
THAT'San interesting twist. If that was Lucky Seven, she is Caspian's niece, (Lucky 7's mom, Diamond, and Caspian are sisters, daughters of Maverick and Priscilla.) Coincidently, one of Caspian and Storm's juvies from their 2012 hatch, Emmalina, was injured in a fledging accident, and is still in rehab....

Tsusan · **Posted:** Fri Apr 26, 2013 9:12 pm

SPEAKING OF DIAMOND AND ONYX (Lucky Sevens parents) :
Niagara Gorge Pair On Track
April 23, 2013 - Niagara Falls Tracy Simpson Reports:

After visiting the Port Colborne nest site last Saturday April 20th, Bruce and I decided to travel over to the Niagara Gorge to look for Diamond and Onyx, the resident adult pair in the gorge. Vicki and Roger, our amazing watchers south of the border, have been monitoring the gorge from Terrapin Point and have been working hard to determine if the pair are nesting again in the powerhouse where they successfully raised young last year. The mist has been strong and the light challenging to get photo confirmation from the American side of the Niagara and they have been doing a wonderful job. In the series of photos that they have taken, one of the shots potentially showed the image of an adult lying down but the mists occluded the photo enough that it was inconclusive. In another photo, the cavity looked empty. Although we cannot see into the nest cavity from the Canadian side, we hoped that we might catch the pair moving through the territory and therefore give us a clue as to what they are up to.

We headed up the parkway to Table Rock, parked and walked down to the retaining wall directly above the powerhouse. We weren’t there but a few minutes when Diamond popped up onto the edge of the roof. She came straight up from below leading us to believe that she was roosting just out of our sights on the face of the powerhouse. I had been watching over the water and did not see the male and so we decided to wait for a while to see if we were witnessing a changeover indicating that they are nesting here or if she was just lounging on a familiar perch. Diamond didn’t stay long before she took off out over the water and banked around into town. We followed her trajectory as best as we could and finally lost her low behind some trees near the Niagara Casino. We scanned all of the buildings and rooftops for signs of her but she was not in visual range.

Given that it was now after 5pm and this time of day being traditionally the “witching hour” when one of the last hunts of the day takes place, we considered the possibility that this appearance by Diamond could possibly be a changeover. We decided to walk down to the Maid of the Mist and take a look back at the powerhouse for her return. We waited for almost an hour with no sign of her before slowly making our way back to the powerhouse retaining wall. We scanned the cityscape again and found her roosting just below the rooftop on the Hilton hotel. I decided that we were staying until we could determine where she was going to settle in for the night. It wasn’t long before she took off of her perch on the Hilton and made a bee line for the gorge. She whipped through about 20 feet above our heads and was out over the water before we could turn ourselves around! She made a few circles out over the river and then swooped back up to the roof of the powerhouse once more. There she found prey remains that she picked away at but was clearly not satisfied with. She consumed what little was left on the bird and then turned her attention north along the powerhouse wall. In seconds she was off like a shot and didn’t turn out over the water or up over the gorge wall. She just simply disappeared. Three minutes later she was back and this time with fresh dinner for herself. When she was done, she roosted briefly and then made two separate flights that looped out over the water and ended with her landing back on the powerhouse roof. We believed she was signalling Onyx to get his tail feathers out of her nest so she could get back to business. Her third and final flight out over the river started off as a run at a gull she didn’t care for (why she picked that one out of the jillions that were there is beyond me) and ended with her flying north to the end of the face of the powerhouse. There she dropped out of sight, skimmed the wall heading towards us, circled out once over the water and then flew straight at the wall. Gone. One minute. Two minutes. Three… …ee-chup, ee-chupp!!! The unbanded male that Marion and I named Onyx popped straight up from below the roof edge of the powerhouse! He sat and preened for a good 10 minutes before taking off towards the falls and disappearing from our view on the cliff face.
Bruce and I believe that when we arrived at 4:30pm we caught the first changeover that gave Diamond her break from incubating. Between 6:30-7:00pm, she returned to the eggs for the night and Onyx headed off to bed. A heartfelt and huge thank you goes out to Vicki and Roger for putting Bruce and I on the right track and monitoring from Terrapin Point; we couldn’t have done it without you. How many eggs they have is still unknown but it is great to see that they are well on their way.
Posted on April 26, 2013 9:27 am Observation for Niagara Falls

Matrix · **Posted:** Fri Apr 26, 2013 10:29 pm

DIAMOND AND ONYX!!! :loveshow:

Great of you to bring that over, TSusan...Thanks Again!!!!! She is continueing on Maverick and Priscilla in a great way!! Lucky Seven sounds like a chip of the ol eyrie!

Tsusan · **Posted:** Thu May 02, 2013 4:57 pm

Carly! You beat me to it! I find it pretty amazing how Canton, OH hatched falcons and their relatives keep making a name for themselves up in Canada! Sounds like Lucky Seven is making her own luck!

skygirlblue · **Joined:** Sun Jul 26, 2009 3:18 pm **Posts:** 64352

I'm not sure if this has been posted anywhere...but, this article is about Majesty, 2002 Toronto hatch~didn't say which nest.

Flint, Michigan

FLINT, MI -- Two peregrine falcons have been spotted nesting at University of Michigan's Northbank Center building, the same location of a nest last year where three falcon chicks hatched.

It's likely the falcons are Majesty and Barry, two peregrines who have made Flint their home since 2003, said Christine Becher, Southeast Michigan peregrine falcon nesting coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division.

Becher said she saw the falcons on Tuesday, April 23, but hasn't completely verified their identity yet.

There are four eggs that were laid probably around a week and a half ago, Becher said. There were four eggs laid there last year as well, but they didn't all hatch.

"We can hope for four (to hatch). Last year, we had three hatch," Becher said.

Linda Moxam has been told not to be surprised if she finds bird heads on her windowsill. They're just leftovers from the falcons' feeding.

Moxam has worked on the building's 10th floor since February as executive director of development and alumni relations.

She sees the falcons flying around now and then.

"They're just incredible," she said.

"They really get me excited. I think they're awesome," Moxam said.

Peregrine falcons are known as the fastest animal on earth. They have an average cruising speed of 40 miles per hour but can reach more than 200 miles per hour during their high-speed dive for prey.

Mary Joan Dunlap, building manager at Northbank, has seen the birds in action.

"When they're diving, they're fast," Dunlap said. "You see them diving, flying through the air at the fast speed."

t takes roughly 33 days for an egg to hatch after being laid, Becher said. That means they would be expected to hatch this year around mid-May.

The birds originally made a nest near the roof of the Mott Foundation building where one egg was laid, but abandoned that nest, Becher said, perhaps because of the heavy rains.

Billy Powell, building operations supervisor at the Mott Foundation building, said he's seen the falcons near the building and first saw their egg about three weeks ago.

"They've laid eggs here before and they've never hatched," Powell said.

t's similar to the birds' activity last year, when they abandoned a Mott Foundation nest for the Northbank Center after a serious downpour in early May.

Majesty was one of five chicks hatched in 2002 in Toronto, the city's first recorded nesting peregrines in 100 years, according to records.

The father was found dead and the mother disappeared a few weeks after the hatch. The five orphan chicks – Majesty, Viking, Spirit, Hope and Valor -- were rescued by Canadian Peregrine Foundation volunteers and raised in Richmond Hill, Ont. Majesty the last known survivor of the five chicks.

She was first seen in Flint in 2003. In 2009, she was reported nesting on the Durant Hotel.

Barry hatched in 2001 from the I-90 overpass on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland.

In 2010, Majesty and Barry's nest was lost in a rainstorm and their only chick drowned.

In 2011, the pair hatched two chicks, Mr. Mott and Elle.

The peregrine as once found all across North America, but completely eliminated in Michigan by the mid-1960s. The last nesting pair was recorded in 1957 near Fayette on the northern Lake Michigan shoreline.

Their disappearance is attributed to DDT, a pesticide that led to eggs with shells so thin they were crushed under the weight of the mother.

The birds have been making a slow comeback since the 1972 DDT ban.

As of 1999, the bird was no longer a federal endangered species but remains protected under Michigan's Endangered Species Act as well as the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

There are roughly a dozen known nesting sites in Southeast Michigan, Becher said.

Article with pics

Tsusan · **Posted:** Sat May 04, 2013 10:56 pm

Very interesting story! Thanks for including that on the forum! :spring1:

Tsusan · **Posted:** Sat May 11, 2013 7:38 pm

carly wrote:

Three Wee Ones for Caspian and Storm at Holcim!!
May 10, 2013 - Mississauga - Holcim
CPF Volunteer Reports:

We just received word from the great staff at Holcim that Caspian and Storm are the parents of three little ones with one to go!! This is excellent news and we look forward to the hatching of the final egg. Congratulations Holcim for another fantastic spring hatch!!!

YAY!! Thanks Carly! Love reading about our Ohio birds in Canada!

Tsusan · **Posted:** Mon May 13, 2013 10:14 pm

carly wrote:

!!! A great photo of Holcim’s new family members!
May 13, 2013 - Mississauga - Holcim
Mark Nash Reports:

May 13th - 2013
A huge thank you to Armando for sending us these most recent photos of Holcim’s newest family members.
While I have been away in northern Ontario for the past 9 nine weeks, allot has been happening during my absence.
Some great shots arrived this morning that tell the story.
Armando writes:
Hi Mark,
Just a quick note to confirm (I think) from this image that we have 4 chicks. From the best that I can see in the pic looks like 4 little bodies. :-)

We are monitoring them daily.

Enjoy
Armando

http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/w/2013/05/sightings/a-great-photo-of-holcims-new-family-members/

YAY! 4 BABIES FOR CASPIAN AND STORM! :loveshow:

Thanks, Carly!

Tsusan · **Posted:** Wed May 15, 2013 5:08 pm

WOW! What a Great nestbox for Statler and Caster! Will you have to do anything to entice them in? Or will they automatically understand what its for?

bev. · **Posted:** Sun May 26, 2013 11:28 pm

well , this is not happy for me. I like Milton.

Sure hope he is O.K.

Tsusan · **Posted:** Mon May 27, 2013 12:19 pm

Yes, I hope Milton is ok - I think Tracey thought he might have gone to his other mates nest? Thanks Carly for keeping us up on news affecting Midnight. Next year ! :girlyes:

Tsusan · **Posted:** Mon May 27, 2013 12:34 pm

Thanks for bringing that over, Carly- I think the situation (They built a big, beautiful nest box for Caster and Statler, and instead they nest in a communication drum) is pretty funny, but then as usual, Tracey puts her comical spin on it and the story becomes quite hilarious!! I encourage everyone to read the entire article on CPF...
Just a reminder for some, Caster fledged from the Arcellor Mittal steel plant near Cleveland OH, the son of Jersey and Flash.

Tsusan · **Posted:** Mon May 27, 2013 8:38 pm

Carly, Im so sorry to hear this about Frank Butson. I always enjoyed reading his accounts of bird spotting, and could sense his passion about them.

kittenface · **Posted:** Wed May 29, 2013 4:51 pm

Peregrine youngsters at lift bridge to be tracked
3 girls 1 boy :clap:

Video & article here:

kittenface · **Posted:** Thu May 30, 2013 10:52 pm

High above CTV Kitchener, peregrine falcons find a home
Mother Statler from Buffalo & Caster from Ohio

2 males Big Al & Arney
1 female Miss Fran
There are 4 great video also

Tsusan · **Posted:** Thu May 30, 2013 11:35 pm

Thankyou Kittenface ! Love the names!!

skygirlblue · **Joined:** Sun Jul 26, 2009 3:18 pm **Posts:** 64352

Well, it appears Miss Hadfield (from your post above, KF) got herself into some trouble!!!

Hadfield, the falcon, avoids near miss on Burlington Lift Bridge

Hadfield, a 39-day old female Peregrine falcon, fell out of a nest box on top of the Burlington Lift Bridge, as it tried to take its first flight earlier this morning.

The near ill-fated flight around 9 a.m. was one of three attempts to fly – the first attempt happened Tuesday -- said Canadian Peregrine Foundation (CPF) volunteer, Bill McCreadie said.

"We got permission to go onto to the bridge and we rescued her this morning. She's not injured," he said. "The CPF will check her thoroughly then head up to the top of the bridge later tonight and set her free."

Hadfield, weighing a mere 1000 grams, made her very first attempt to spread her wings early Tuesday morning but fell onto a beam, eight foot by three foot, opposite the nest box just above traffic. As it tried to regain its composure, the falcon fell inside one of the bridge beams and became stuck there until Thursday afternoon.

"She was there for almost two days." McCreadie said. "Then we called in an elevated work platform, but as it turned out we didn't need it. She fell through the beam on her own, to the road below inches from traffic, but she's ok."

The nest consists of six falcons, two adults McKenzie from Etobicoke (hatched in 2009) and Cirrus from Dayton Ohio (hatched in 2006), and four chicks: Lancaster, Isabelle, Sarah and Hadfield, named after the Canadian astronaut.

Barry Cherriere said most falcons don't live through their first year.

"This is normal. The first few flights are always dangerous for these falcons," he said. "Tonight they are launching her from the top again."

kittenface · **Posted:** Sat Jun 08, 2013 12:40 am

Young Falcons Fledge (With video)
The Peregrine falcon pair, Freddie and Voltaire have been busy with their three offspring Hercules, Tecumseh and Gwenis. Windsor Star photographer Jason Kryk took some photos today, Friday June 7, 2013.
Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario on June 7, 2013. Hercules is the first of three chicks to leave the nest.
Pictures, video & article here:

Bird Cams Around the World

MISC. CANADIAN NESTS ~ 2013

Who is online