Peregrine Banding - Toronto Sheraton Centre

 Peregrine Falcons Rhea Mae and Tiago have nested at the Toronto Sheraton Centre Hotel for the past 7 years and have returned again this year to the hustle and bustle of the downtown core to raise their young. This year's eyases were banded by the MNR and the Canadian Peregrine Fundation on Wed May the 23rd. There were four chicks  Marlee a 595g male, Journey an 850g female , Cosmo the runt at 535g male and finally Fef a 815g female. The sex of the young are determined by weight and you can see that the females weigh a lot more than the males.

 Two bands are installed one on each leg, one from the Canadian Wildlife Services the other from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services from south of the border. A temporary piece of  tape, a different color for each chick is applied over the US tag which allows the fledge watchers an easy way to identify each bird and keep track as they leave the nest usually 40days after hatching. Fledge watch starts this week 04-Jun-2012.

 I've attended this event twice now and this year was special as I was able to see the chicks being extracted from the nest. A small access panel located at one of the 43rd floor ledge allows the MNR biologist to snatch the chicks from their protective parents. The technician had to use a broom with one hand to hold back mom, while using the other to collect the better than handful sized bundles of beaks and claws. I managed to shoot over the shoulder of the MNR tech and watched through the Hotel's mechanical room window as the parents circle looking for their family. I was told that this is the only site that allows the chicks to be banded without a tech being left behind to distract the parents. The banding is rather quick and the stress on the young is controlled by spraying water into their mouths, which happens to be the only water they consume for the rest of the life.

I must thank the Canadian Peregrine Foundation and the Sheraton Centre Hotel for allowing us access and for their hospitality to witness this very special event. I recommend this event to anyone who is interested in birds or nature, and I hope to witness Rhea Mae and Tiago's young being banded again next year...

Sheraton Centre Peregrines

On May 28th the Canadian Peregrine Foundation hosted a public viewing of the Peregrine Falcon banding of this year's chicks at the Toronto Sheraton Centre.  Members of the Ministry of Natural resources brought the chicks in off the 43rd floor ledge where they call home to be banded. They installed two bands one on each leg they consist of both Canadian Wild Life Service and U.S. Fish & Wild Life bands.

There were three young this year all males which are identified by their weight. The males will weigh less than the females and both will be larger than their parents come fledge time, baby fat.

To calm the chicks down a young volunteer would spray a shot of water into their mouths, an old falconer's trick. This may be to only the water these birds will consume during their life, if you see a falcon drinking water they are often sick. The three males were named  Star-Scribe,  Lorenzo  and Legacy each had different colored tape added to their bands so they could quickly be identified when the fledged. Legacy was named by the some ladies who were in attendance from Rochester NY. Legacy's mom Rhea Mae was an offspring of a Rochester Falcon Mariah.

Star-Scibe,Legacy and Lorenzo (L-R) being held by MPP Glenn Murray, Sheraton Ctr representative, volunteer.

I would like to thank the Canadian Peregrine Foundation and the Toronto Sheraton Centre Hotel for this opportunity to see and photograph these majestic birds up close.

Small Bird Photography

Small birds are always a challenge to photograph, they rarely spend more than a few moments in one place and often seek shelter in thick brush. Some birds can be lured out into the open with feeders, but even then it's hard to get clean natural looking images. If you're like myself and live in a large city, you may not have access to a yard where you can set up a permanent feeder. A simple and effective solution is to use a portable feeder station / stage which can be easily transported and setup in any local park.

The set up consist of a few common photography items you may already own, or could use anyway:

• Light Stand: Any light stand can be used, if you do not already own a stand I'd suggest using the Manfrotto 5001b. Cheaper stands can be found, but none fold up smaller than this model. The 5001B folds down to 19", weighs only a couple of pounds, extends to 7' which is plenty. 
• Clamps: Which are used to mount perching branches or other props you wish to include in your stage. I found that a 'Superclamp' in combination with a few background clamps work well. Cheap 'A' clamps found in any hardware store can also be used here.
• Small container used to hold the attractor: seed , orange slice, grape jelly etc.. Size is important, you want the container small enough to allow only one bird to feed at a time. This forces other birds to wait on your near by perching branch, right where you want them. You can use any small plastic jar lid with a hole drilled in it to accept the light stand's threaded stud. I use a 1/4" wing nut to secure it to the stand.
• Perching branch: Any branch can be used, however look for one with moss, lichens or interesting bark. Ideally you want one main branch with only a few sprigs. If you must remove some sprigs, try to remove them so the broken stub will not show in your image. Also do not break boughs from living plants, there are plenty available on the forest floor, and these often have more interesting details anyways.

 When using this setup place it in an area where your subjects are already active. Start out by placing the light stand near natural cover until the birds become use to it, then slowly walk the stand out into a clear area that offers cleaner backgrounds for your images. Birds like Nuthatches, Chickadees and Gold Finches will soon be swarming all over your feeder and will provide many great opportunities for natural looking images.

 The main advantage with using this portable staging method is control, you can control:

• Where the subject is likely to perch.
• The background, which can be changed simply by moving the stand left/right, or raising/lowering the stand height.
• The light on your subject. You can easily move the stand so that your subject is always front lit adjusting the location as the sun tracks across the sky.
  
• The elements in the image. Interesting looking branches can be used and quickly swapped out to give variety to you images.
• Pests, squirrels will be attracted to seed placed in an accessible area. The light stand restricts their access.

 Before you use this method, ensure the park bylaws do not restrict feeding wildlife. And remember please do not remove any branches from living plants. Take great images, and leave only footprints.