Tuesday of this week, I was in the University Ave. and College St area and notice that the peregrines are sitting tight on the east side ledges of Mt.Sinai Hospital. One bird was there for most of the day.
CPF received a photo identification request a few weeks ago of this incredible raptor. It was taken near Banff Alberta, (Exshaw to be exact), on January 2nd 2010 by David Mitchell. Any ideas? It’s a tough one.
This photo looks like a lot of raptors, but it is actually a Gyrfalcon. As described by Mark Nash - while not common - (at least here in the east and south), the Gyrfalcon is North America’s largest falcon species. We (and you should see a few of them on migration at this time of year) as they pass down from the far north to the southern areas from wintering. You do actually have resident Gyrfalcons out in the prairie’s in your neck of the woods that hang around in the late fall and winter. They migrate back to the Canadian north for breeding season in the spring. They come in many different colour morphs from jet black to white to gray to silver in colour.
Incredible photo Dave. Thanks so much for sharing.
Photo by Dave Mitchell (copyright)
With much thanks to Lev for his quick action, he was able to snap these two photos of the resident adult female roosting on the Telus building the first week of December.
The photos clearly show that at least the resident adult female is still on territory and did not migrate south for the winter, and that food is still abundant given the size of her filled crop. Thanks Lev and Kyle for bringing these photos to our attention.
Updated to include photos!
Yesterday afternoon, around 4pm, I saw Diana on the south face of the Coats Building. She was pretty fluffed up but was looking around, not for hunting. I have no idea where Connor was, as I then passed around the Crowne but he wasn’t there.
Eve Ticknor
We were at the Lift Bridge this morning and in spite of all the working going on, both birds were visible. One was on the nest box and the other on the ledge below. With the pier being fenced off, it is difficult to get a good photo, and to tell who is who, but we were happy to see both birds. However, the pigeons seem to have been scared off. From the lake side of the pier, not 1 pigeon was visible.
Both adults have spent quite a lot of time on the Sheraton ledge and the neighbouring perches since the start of the year. I have also been seeing adults at Mount Sinai, but never all four adults at the same time. Today, at 1 p.m. as I checked the locations, two adults are on the Sheraton nest ledge and two adults are on the south louvres of Mount Sinai!
Female Pefa feeding on Rock dove on the concrete pier below the Burlington lift bridge at approximately 12:00pm EST. Was soon joined by male Pefa, which made slow approach and picked up the discarded head before flying off. Female ate the bulk of the dove and flew off with the remainder of the carcas while an adult Herring Gull chased after. After a brief chase sequence, the female landed on the overhead wires.
Female has black over green band on left leg, and reddish/purple band on right leg. At first it appeared this bird had Black K over Green I…but on further inspection, i believe the “I” is a scratch on the band. Another view has what may possibly be a (Black K Green 83)?
Male bird has black ”01″ over “V” on the left leg and a silver band on the right. There may be another digit beside the 0. Unfortunately i was not able to capture a better view before the male took flight.
Observation and Photos by Peeter Musta, on December 30th via ONTBIRD.
Incredible Photos Peeter! This kind of contribution is fantastic. Keep them coming!
Bill and I took a quick trip to Buffalo this afternoon and while driving over the Skyway, we noticed a couple of large cranes in use. I was sure that Sir and Cirrus would not be happy about this. On the way home, around 3:00 pm, we stopped by the Lift Bridge. To our surprise, the cranes had nothing to do with the work going on at the bridge but it was the Hydro, doing some work on the towers. We found one bird on the nest ledge, but we were not successful in seeing the other one.
Here’s hoping that all this work does not have an effect on the 2010 season. We will keep out eyes peeled.
The link below will take you to some video that Carol from Rochester took of Cirrus trying to retrieve her Pigeon from the lake. Great shot Carol. Unfortunately it was a sunnier day. Please come and visit again soon.
http://www.youtube.com/user/WanderingFalcon#p/a/u/0/qJtFeXpQebA