News
Falcon is now 'part of the family'
Staff photo by Fred Loek
Twenty minutes after a false start yesterday with the banding project of a newly hatched brood of Peregrine falcons at the St. Lawrence Cement plant one of the fledglings decided to try his luck at flying. Luckily, it landed safely so St. Lawrence's Armando Castro was able to pick him up. Today, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources returned to the cement plant to band the bird. EMAIL PRINT REPORT TYPO
By: John Stewart
June 5, 2008 01:47 PM - A 36-day-old falcon banded this morning at the St. Lawrence Cement plant will carry the weight of 200 years of history on its feathered shoulders.
The squawling, mewling 712-gram male chick has been named Clarkson, in honour of the 200th anniversary of the village where he was hatched.
"He was extremely feisty," said St. Lawrence employee Barb Smith, who has been keeping a watchful eye on the falcons since the breed first started to nest on the cement plant six years ago. "He will now be taken up to a high spot on the roof," where his parents will likely feed him until he can fly himself, which is expected within a week.
Clarkson and a second chick, who is still in the nest, were scheduled to be banded on Wednesday by Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources biologist Mark Heaton, working in cooperation with the Canadian Peregrine Foundation.
But that attempt had to be abandoned when it was realized the chicks were about 10 days older than estimated. They are ideally banded within 24-28 days of hatching, when they're smaller.
As the Ministry crew prepared to send City of Mississauga employee John Miller down a rope line to retrieve the baby chicks, they moved to the edge of the rooftop and appeared to be preparing to jump.
Heaton said later that, had the banding effort gone ahead, it's likely the chicks would have become so frightened, they might have jumped to their deaths.
Not one hour after Canadian Peregrine Foundation executive director Mark Nash predicted that not all was lost for the banding effort, and the baby birds would fall from the rooftop as they attempted to learn to fly, Clarkson fell to the ground.
He was placed in a rescue box by 30-year St. Lawrence employee Armando Castro, who constantly monitors nest activity throughout the year and has been dubbed by plant workers the "grandfather" of the 13 chicks hatched at St. Lawrence over the years.
After being banded, Clarkson was returned to a rooftop high above the plant near the falcons' nesting site.
Smith told The News that the falcons are now "part of the family" at St. Lawrence. "We know they are endangered, but the fact is that 13 chicks have now been born here. That means we all feel better because we're that much closer to taking them off the (endangered) list."
jstewart@mississauga.net
http://mississauga.com/article/14887This is the most recent article from Mississauga on our babies here... there is a really good picture if you follow the link above.
