ON / Mississauga - Executive Centre - 2008-20

[Liz]

That's sad.     Poor girl. 

[Loriann]

http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/tops/missmec.html

updates on our babies here...

[free5ia]

Thanks for that information!  I will keep my eyes to the skies when I am home and check out some of their "haunts" that you mentioned!  Thanks for your help

[Loriann]

No you can't get into the plant if you are a member of the public. I have access thru my work, but there is a doggie leash free park directly across the road ( Lakeshore ) and you can see them from there if they are flying around.

Once you spot them you can follow them visually back to the towers.

I have more luck seeing the Square one pair.  and you are right.. the fields are rapidly disappearing.  I have seen them at the corner of Burnhamthorpe and Central Parkway in the CN railway track of land.  They used to nest on the top of the medical building at this corner, which was truely scary, its not that high, but two  years ago there were no less than five birds air-borne .. so they managed just fine..

a little bit of a visual distraction when driving however.. lol

also,, if you are in the track of land by the Credit River, near the bridge on burnhamthorpe, you can often see one or both adults on top of the really high light poles that line the bridge.

[free5ia]

Thanks Lori!  Will check them out next month - and try the web search.

The North Miss. ones will not have too many fields left up near Square One soon! 

Can the public get on to the grounds of the cement plant or do you have to have an "in" with the employees?  I know a lot of the buildings/plants have pretty high security around there - not sure if the cement plant is the same.

[Loriann]

Yup its a regular birdie buffet for the St Lawrence pair.  Being right on the lake provides a huge array of choices... yum !.

I live near the Mississauga Executive Centre, and you can see the parents right up until the fall hunting the fields near Square One shopping mall ( Burnhamthorpe and Highway 10 ( hurontario street )).

When the babies fledge, you can often see all of them in the roof tops around the mall if you look carefully.  They seem to like the taller condos on Robert Speck parkway, but there is currently a lot of construction ongoing.. even more tall condos, so not sure if they will hang around there for any length of time this year.

The St Lawrence Pair is harder to spot unless you are on the grounds of the cement plant.  Too many trees and places to hide along the water front to get a clear shot of them.

I was at the plant yesterday ( Monday), but no sign of them.. but it was hot and humid as anything, so if they were smart they were laying up somewhere in the shade.  I find the best time to spot any of them is later in the afternoon, early evening just before the sun goes down.


We had more wild weather last night, and more today, so hopefully everyone is tucked in tight.

I'll keep an eye on them here.. and post any thing I see .

if you go to the Mississauga News web site , they often post things about the birds too.

mississauga.com and follow the links to the news department.  If you go into the search field at the top of the page, and search the site ( not the web) using the words falcons, and executive centre or  st lawrence cement, you will see all the previous stories.

make sure to add st lawrence or executive centre to your search or you will get the MIssissauga Falcons Soccer Team come up.

take care..
Lori.
 

[free5ia]

Thank you for the update!  Please let me know if you see anything of them (other than the seagull heads!) today/tomorrow.  That was one horrible storm yesterday - and here in Southwestern Ontario we are hunkered down waiting for another to hit

I'll be back in Mississauga in July so I'll have to go to both sites and see if I can catch a glimpse of them ... I'm just learning about the Peregrines ... any idea how much longer they will be there, if they are that much older than our Winnipeg family was?

That is so wonderful to know the St. Lawrence cement security cameras are on them - everything I have read about them seems to point to a lot of care and concern by the employees which is great to know!

Thanks for the updates!  They have great meal possibilities with all the seagulls along the lake - smart birds!

[Loriann]

I have not heard or seen anything.. but i know the babies at St. Lawrence are much older, and nearly ready to fledge.  That was some storm that blew thru here last night ( sunday ).  The nest at the cement plant is actually fairly well protected from the elements, so hopefully they are fine.  The cement plant watches the birds on their security cameras, and there is an entire plant of people that keep an eye out for the birds, so they are in great hands. The decapitated seagull heads are always a pleasant sight in the parking lots.. yumm !

I will be down there later today, so i'll check in on them.

I saw the female from the Mississauga Executive Centre nest early yesterday evening, before the storms really rolled in, but have not been up to see the babies in a few days. They are ready to fledge too, so keeping fingers crossed for some nicer weather.  It's still hot, but thats okay..   their nest box is slightly more exposed, but we didn't really get the  wind around the executive centre that some areas did.

I'll post any updates if I have them.

Lori.   

[free5ia]

Any news on how this peregrine family made out in the storms today?  I hear there was a lot of lightning seen in the direction of the cement plant.

[Loriann]

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/14887

This is the most recent article from Mississauga on our babies here... there is a  really good picture if you follow the link above.

[Loriann]

This is the camera located at the Mississauga Executive centre, near Square one shopping mall, in 'downtown' Misssissauga.

There has been no camera all year, and no updates.  THe chicks are about a week away from fledging, not sure what the hold up is or was.  Last year we had a live feed, and updated pictures.

As i mentioned once before, we live really close to this, and see the birds daily. 

The banding has gone ahead ( finally )... so we expect that we'll see all of them zipping around soon enough.  four babies this year !

Last year there were three, but one died when it crashed to the ground on its first flight.

Hopefully this years batch will fare better.

I'll keep checking for updates or pictures in the paper and post them here.

Lori.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Mississauga Executive Centre
Mississauga, Ontario

webcam: www.peregrine-foundation.ca/Web_Cams/Mississauga/index.htm

website: Mississauga Executive Centre Home Page

This site is partnership between the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, Oxford Properties, Panasonic Canada, kyreach Window Cleaning Inc., D.G. Consulting Co. and Dan Gill.

Resident Pairs & Offspring

• info hopefully coming soon

[Loriann]

2008 NESTING SEASON

Banding delayed for falcon babies
 
Staff photo by Fred Loek
The St. Lawrence Cement Peregrine Falcons have hatched and the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, as well the Ministry of Natural Resources, came to band the "baby birds" today — only trouble was, these birds were babies no longer as they were out of the nest.         
 
By: John Stewart
 
June 4, 2008 05:19 PM - An attempt to band two baby peregrine falcons this afternoon at the St. Lawrence Cement plant had to be abandoned because there was a danger that the frightened chicks might jump to their deaths.

"The chicks look to be about 35 days old, which is about a week past the time they should be banded," Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources biologist Mark Heaton said after the attempt was truncated. "We had to abandon for the safety of the birds.

"The ideal time to band the birds is between the time they are 24-28 days old," Heaton continued. "Once you get beyond 32 days, there's high risk. They are fledging, but they are not ready to fly yet. If we had proceeded, the eldest bird likely would have jumped and died."

The Ministry and the Canadian Peregrine Foundation band the birds so they can track their movements and identify them in future.

"It's disappointing, but the safety of the birds must come first," said Barb Smith, an employee of St. Lawrence who has kept a keen eye on the falcons since they first began nesting at the Clarkson cement plant six years ago.

Just because today's attempt failed does not mean that the birds will not be banded, however.

Canadian Peregrine Foundation co-founder and executive director Mark Nash explained that the chicks will likely fall to the ground at least once or twice in the next 10 days as they try to learn to fly.

"It's not a matter of if they will fall, it's a matter of when," he said.

His words proved prophetic two hours later, when one of the chicks fell. It was placed in a rescue box. Heaton will return to the plant tomorrow morning to band the bird, which will be named Clarkson in honour of the village's 200th anniversary.

Smith said that all 200 employees of the cement plant have embraced the birds. "They're part of the family now," said the Mississauga native. "We know they are endangered, but the fact is that 13 chicks have now been born here. That means we're that much closer to taking them off the (endangered) list."

Earlier in the day, at the city's other falcon-nesting site, the Mississauga Executive Centre at 1 Robert Speck Pkwy., four peregrine chicks were successfully banded — but not until after a major equipment problem was resolved.

Students from Sts. Peter and Paul Elementary School walked to the MEC to witness the banding in what has become an annual tradition. It almost had to be cancelled as well when the motor of the window-washing swing-stage used to remove the chicks from their rooftop nest failed to work. After a 90-minute wait, the motor was fixed and the banding completed.


** from our local paper... St Lawrence Cement has cameras, but are only accessable via their security systems.

The plant is located right on the shore of Lake Ontario, and the falcons dine on seagulls, often leaving only the decapitated heads in the parking lot of the employees.  THere is a picture on this article, and the babies are HUGE.. ( compared to the manitoba ones ).

link to source: http://www.mississauga.com/news_home