ON / Burlington - Lift Bridge - 2009-13

[Alison]

An update on Maple, one of the juvies, dated July 9:

Sue McCreadie Reports:

Bill arrived at the bridge around 8:30am and was greeted by Barry who was already on site.  Over the last couple of days, Barry had noticed that Maple did not appear well.  She had a very large crop and was refusing food from Cirrus.  You could see her trying to vocalize, but there was no sound.  The Bridge Workers advised them that Maple was sitting on top of the Control Tower.  After three attempts of walking and flopping her wings, she managed to get to the top of the bridge where she remained until approximately 3:00 pm.  We watched her and she appeared disheveled and slept most of the time.  She made a feeble flight and landed on the top rail of the bridge on the lake side and then again to the Burlington Tower.  She spotted Cirrus at the Play Pen and managed a flight to her with a difficult landing.  Cirrus shortly thereafter appeared with a meal which she took the bridge abutment above the boat parking lot.  Maple, tried to follow but could not gain the height she needed and came to the ground landing on a parked car of some fishermen.  An attempt was made to pick her up but she took off again, heading for the canal and this time landed on top of another vehicle that was parked by the canal.  This time the rescue was successful by John and Barry and Bill with the rescue box.  She was wrapped in a towel and immediately transported to the Toronto Wildlife Centre by Bruce Massey.  Bruce had arrived about 10 minutes before the whole melee started.  We are grateful that Bruce was on site so that we didn’t have to wait for him to get through Toronto QEW traffic.  We are anxiously waiting to hear about “our” girl.  Thanks to everyone who was involved in the rescue.  Boy, Falcon Watching can  ure be stressful.

There are no further updates on the CPF site, but I just found this on the Kodak board, also from Sue McCreadie:

Thanks so much for everyone's concern about "Dear Sweet Maple". Unfortunately, she did not survive. We haven't been informed of any of the details. All we have been told is that she died. It was very difficult for us to watch. We knew she was in trouble and there was absolutely nothing we could do until she came to the ground. We were hoping that we would get to her in time.

Poor little Maple. I wish they had been able to help her.

 

[Liz]

Yes, thanks carly.  Sorry - I was busy passing the info on to my nieces in Burlington and Hamilton, and for get to say thanks. 
And allikat, it is a fabulous photo.

[allikat]

Great and exciting news!!!
And that is a stunning picture of Cirrus!  That should be used somewhere to promote the peregrine falcon! 
I love love love love love Trey and Princess, Jules and Ivy and other famous pairs of falcons...but that is a remarkable photo.

[carly]

Sue McCreadie Reports:

I’m happy to report that we have 3 healthy female chicks at the Lift Bridge.  The birds were banded by this morning by Anne Yagi from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) who reports that all birds are healthy, strong and that they were in good voice.  The birds are:

Berl weighing in at 941 grams – red band – 34/X - 31 days old

Maple – 890 grams – yellow band – 35/X - 26 days old

Truss – 935 grams – green band – 36/X - 30 days old

[birdcamfan]

What a beautiful picture of a beautiful falcon, it almost looks posed!

[The Peregrine Chick]

Sometimes we are just pathetic at naming full nests of chicks ... Cirrus is the best name of the lot though!

[Alison]

Cirrus has three siblings. They are:

Cumulus, band black/green K/82
Nimbus, band black/green B/01
Stratus, band black/green B/02

[Alison]

Allison, was just checking the database and there is no reference to the identity of the parents of Cirrus, are you sure of those identities?  I like to make notes in my records when info is missing from the database ....

Yes, TPC, I am sure of those identities. The database is good, but it is not complete. I am always trying to find IDs for partial band numbers, so I spend quite a bit of time in the database.

Mercury was born in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, on 06/05/1990. His band was all black, 21X. He orginally nested at the Lazarus Building in Dayton with his mate, 66R; his next mate was Baltimore, 7/D. In 2002 he moved to the AT&T Building with his new mate Snowball. Snowball was born in 2000 at the Bohn Building nest in Cleveland. Her band was black/green, 3/*B.

Cirrus is a beauty:

[The Peregrine Chick]

Allison, was just checking the database and there is no reference to the identity of the parents of Cirrus, are you sure of those identities?  I like to make notes in my records when info is missing from the database ....

[bev.]

Thanks CArly. They did have quite the spring down there. I am glad there are 3 hatches.
I remember the year Snowball disappeared, Allison. . It was the same year S2 took over in the Netherlands. A lot of upsets that year. but both males , de  Mortel and Mercury , were fathers of the year. I almost quit watchng the cams that year. the eagle world and the falcon world were delivered many blows.

but I then realized that the more cams you watch the more chance you have at seeing the downsides.

Have a great viewing day everyone

[carly]

Apparentely they do have 3 hatches here.  I think there was alot of confusion during the territorial battles and I've noticed some of the earlier posts have vanished.  I think what may have happened is that they posted the updates from Port Colbourne under Burlington Lift Bridge by accident a few times and as there were battles going on at both places and both sites have new couples..well things got crazy!!!.  That's how I got confused too just reading them...lol 

.

[carly]

Thank you Alison for the background on Cirrus, obviously her papa brought her up very well!  I've made up my own ending for Mercury after reading your story. 

After losing his beloved snowball and expending so much energy raising their children, Mercury thought to himself...do I really want to do this all over again at my age?  Maybe I will go south this year and find myself a nice place somewhere in the tropics where I can roost just like snowball and I had talked about doing someday when the kids were grown, where the food is plentiful and the view of the ocean is peaceful and where I can fly free 

[Liz]

Ah, the Burlington Bridge.  I took drivng lessons in the winter, and one thing we did repeatedly was drive over that icy, wet bridge.  Good practice for Winnipeg winters!  I can see the structure being perfect for PFs, but never understand why they'd want to nest in a place with so much human traffic.   

I hope all is okay with them. 

[Alison]

With a huge thank you once again to Juanita, we have some history on the new adult female at the Burlington Bridge nest site..  Black K over Green 83 was hatched in Dayton Ohio USA in 2006 from a nest site on the At&T building.  Her name is Cirrus.

No information is given on her parents, but if she was hatched at the AT&T building in Dayton in 2006 her parents would have been Mercury, much loved Dayton patriarch, and his mate Snowball. We lost Snowball on May 19, 2007, when she and Mercury had three chicks in the nest ranging in age from 8-10 days. She was never found. Mercury, already seventeen years old, continued raising the three chicks on his own; they all fledged successfully. Sadly, Mercury did not return in 2008.

[bev.]

do they think they will renest or is ti too late???
thanks Carly. I have been looking for info on this site.