Territorial Battles at William Osler Today
March 21, 2012 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I was out in Oshawa and on a break between delivering Project School Visit to students with Alexandra our Great Horned Owl when the phone rang. It was Marion. She immediately dispatched me to the William Osler Hospital site where staff had witnessed a Peregrine falcon striking the building and the bird was now on the ground in need of help. Marion directed the staff on how to safely help the bird, called ahead to the rehab centre that I was coming and called my school to rebook them. A big thank you to Gertrude Colpus School for their understanding and I look forward to seeing you next week.
When I arrived on site, I found a male in the east hydro tower ee-chupping for the female. I took several pictures and pulled out the scope; it was Hurricane, the resident male, with a solid black recovery band marked 5/X. His eyes were half closed and he had blood on his face. I entered the hospital and sought out Ross with Environmental Services and spoke briefly with him about the incident. He reports that as he and his son Brandon were returning from lunch across the street when they saw two males come around the north side of the building. Hurricane barrel rolled into a stoop and connect with the rogue male. The two, locked in battle, collided with the building. They ran over and Hurricane was on top of the other male and had him pinned to the ground. A moment later, they broke away and the unknown rogue took off leaving Hurricane standing on the ground. He stood there stunned and looking injured while Brandon ran inside and called the CPF head office. When he returned, Hurricane had recovered himself and had taken off.
After hearing the full story, I headed outside for some recon work. I found both adults in the east tower; O’Connor in front and Hurricane three tiers over. O’Connor was whining to him and trying to entice him into the nest tray but he was busy sleeping off his battle fatigue. Within 30 minutes, both adults were flying in and out of the ledge and flying together very well. Hurricane was keeping his altitude, making all landings spot on and while at rest was roosting and balancing well. It would appear that this was a very near miss for our resident male.
Just when I thought all was well, at 3:30pm the rogue male returned and attempted to land on the nest ledge. This time it was O’Connor who had had enough and set to chase this male out of the territory. He picked the wrong girl to tick off. She had this unknown male flying as fast as he could and as O’Connor harassed the male out to the southwest, Hurricane joined in and all three birds disappeared from my sight. All I could do was wait and see who returned.
It was a full half an hour of chewing off my fingernails when finally a male returned and it was Hurricane. A few minutes later, O’Connor also returned and the pair retired to the east tower to rest. At this point all became quiet and the pair relaxed for the first time since I arrived. As I was leaving, the resident pair took off on a hunt and both looked strong and well. I will be back down tomorrow to check in on Hurricane and O’Connor and make sure that all is well and that the rogue has finally gotten the message; this pair is not amused!!
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