Other Peregrine Projects > Canadian Peregrines
ON / Mississauga - Executive Centre - 2008-20
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. :D
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.
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