!!! Milton is still holding down the fort as they say, & Courtney is still very visible!
February 19, 2012 - Brampton - Courthouse
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Sunday February 19th / 2012
No sign of any Peregrines in the morning , then around noon I found Milton on the south end of the courthouse right near last years nest ledge in the sun, very alert. Took a few pics then as I was leaving a Merlin (Pigeon hawk in my old Audubon book) came in and sat on one of the cell towers maybe 80 ft above him.
Milton sat looking up at it for about a minute. I confirmed what I saw with my bins then took one pic and headed over to get closer and a different angle to catch a pic maybe of both of them with the light behind me. Milton took off and had a slow flight into the courtyard putting up the pigeons… then headed up over the roof not really in a hurry the smaller falcon then bolted southeast.
I got only the one pic of it on the tower but you can see that it is much smaller when compared with the pic of Courtney on the tower. And no it is not a pigeon, I saw it fly in and leave and I got a good look with my bins before I picked up my camera.
There have been a lot of starlings on the building of late.
Then at 4 pm I cruised by again and Milton was on the SW corner where Truss would sit and look down at the scrape. He was very alert despite the very full crop. Again he took a short unhurried flight (45 sec.) and all the pigeons and starlings on the building were up and away, he returned to the corner to sit , in the breeze I might add.
The two short flights were almost lazy and seemed just meant to chase the other birds off the building. Territorial???
All in all it was very interesting.
Toivo
PS: - I added one pic of Courtney on the same tower so you can see the size difference
