!!! New Male at Canada Square and Weekend Tragedy for a Peregrine Named Irving; Black over Green B/44
May 25, 2011 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Tracy Simpson Reports:
We received a call at the CPF head office on Saturday May 21st from a gentleman in the Eglinton and Mount Pleasant area that he had witnessed a peregrine falcon, in a stoop, make contact with a wire and then fall to the ground dying instantaneously. The gentleman noticed that the bird was banded, preserved it in his freezer and contacted the CPF. We unfortunately were not able to get the call that day as we were attneding the Port Colbourne nest site and almost a dozen other nest sites over the long weekend. We responded to the call on Tuesday and found that the bird had been retrieved by Toronto Animal Services. We placed a call to them immediately as we had a sinking feeling that this bird was the resident male at the Canada Square nest site. They had indeed picked the bird up from the gentleman and they were awaiting my arrival to retrieve the bird from them for identification. My time spent at the Canada Square site to date had only given me partial glances of a band number on the male, but enough information to confirm that this was in fact the resident male from the Canada Square nest site. The CPF then simultaneously launched an investigation into the state of the nest site at the Canada Square building and confirming the identity of the deceased bird.
The bird was a 2007 hatch from the Uptown Theatre in Chicago, Illinois and his name was Irving. He was easily visually identified at the Canada Square nest site last year by a noticeable kink in his wing that would not allow him to fully extend it in a soar. Looking at the records for the Uptown Theatre in Chicago during 2007, it was noted that the fledgling Black over Green B/44 was grounded after 4 weeks of post fledge experience and was taken to rehab with a broken wing. He was later released and has gone on to produce young in 2010 and 2011 in Uptown Toronto at the Canada Square nest site. We are happy to see that through the monitoring of fledgling peregrine falcons in streets of Chicago, as the CPF does here in southern Ontario, that Irving was found and given a second chance through rehabilitation. We are pleased that he chose Toronto to nest in and he will be missed.
Back at the Canada Square nest site, the female was now charged with the task of taking care of not just two, but now three young chicks. The third egg hatched on Thursday May 19 as reported by Neil Armstrong and his excellent staff at Northern Realty Advisors Ltd. that manage the Canada Square building. Upon my arrival at the site, I met with Neil to discuss the news about the male and he was able to confirm that there was without a doubt two falcons on-site at that very moment. It would seem that a rival for Irving’s territory had arrived and was making all attempts at interacting with the resident female. I raced up to the observation suite to check on the young to find the three chicks on the ledge and the two adults tandem soaring over Eglinton Avenue.
I must say that where a peregrine needs us, we show up in droves!! I was in the observation suite, Bruce and Lyn were in the streets and Mark and Marion were on the way!! Bruce and I were on the phone communicating locations and vantage points of the adults and through our observations of their behavior we have determined that the resident female has accepted this new male into the territory but is not allowing him to the nest ledge just yet. The resident female showed a moment of trust by allowing the new male the opportunity to defend the site from a crow that wandered through; a job that he accomplished quite quickly and I am sure in the hopes of convincing her that he would be an appropriate mate. We have observed no aggressiveness by either the resident female or the new male in the territory towards one another and they have cooperatively participated in vanquishing a window washer from his duties. We are now and will continue to be in the streets and on-site each day at the Canada Square nest to monitor the resident pair, attempt to identify the new male and gather detailed observations on the progress of this change in the resident male adult.
I have included photos of Irving as well as the latest member of the Canada Square family of falcons. There is a noticeable difference in size and age of the last chick of this brood in comparison with the first hatched. A trend we are observing throughout southern Ontario in at least three nest sites so far.
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