2012 NESTING SEASON
Third nest in Mississauga ....
New falcon nest discovered
John Stewart @ Mississauga.com
10 April 2012
Officials from the Canadian Peregrine Foundation are hoping the annual banding of fledgling baby falcons, which has become an annual event in Mississauga over the past few years, will continue this year. Experts have recently discovered a third nesting site in Mississauga. File photo Several eggs have been found in two long-established peregrine falcon nesting sites in Mississauga this spring, and a third nest has been discovered in the city's north end.
"The good news is that we now appear to have a third pair of birds nesting in Mississauga," Mark Nash, who heads the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, told The News yesterday. Nash says the newest pair of falcons are nesting and mating on two buildings near Hwy. 401 and Hurontario St. One of them is an office tower at 55 Standish Court. At first, observers from the Peregrine Foundation thought the male falcon might be a visitor from the Mississauga Executive Centre at 2 Robert Speck Pkwy., home to the oldest regular nesting spot for the endangered birds in the Greater Toronto Area. But, Nash says, experts have recently confirmed that a new pair of birds have established the third nest. At least one of the birds was born in Canada, judging by the solid black band it sports.
Meanwhile, at least four eggs have been found in the nest at the Mississauga Executive Centre. Nash was planning to install a new high definition camera earlier this year at the site so viewers could watch the nest activity live online when he discovered the eggs. As a result, the cameras will now be installed in the fall.
A nest at the Holcim cement plant on Lake Ontario (formerly St. Lawrence Cement) has at least two eggs in its nest, and likely more, Nash said.
The Peregrine Foundation, with the assistance of the Ministry of Natural Resources, hopes to band all of the fledgling falcons in late May or early June. But, Nash says, provincial and federal budget restraints could mean that the banding may not go ahead. That could be potentially fatal to many of the newborn highly migratory falcons, who are often trapped in the United States when they cross the border. Because of an agreement between the U.S. and Canada, any birds sporting a black band showing they're protected by a Canadian effort to sustain the species must automatically be released.
"There's concern (by governments) that this is not the best place to spend the money but we think it is the best place," Nash told The News. Nash said it's important to monitor the migratory birds to trace where toxins are coming from in the environment. "They are the canaries in the mine," he said of the falcons. It's relatively easy to band the birds nesting on urban office towers, Nash said. Often the falcon chicks are banded in front of school children who are studying the species. If the birds have to be banded on cliffs in northern Ontario, where they naturally nest, helicopters have to be used, at much greater expense, Nash pointed out.
