!!! Waterloo Female Identified; It’s Statler!!
June 27, 2012 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Tracy Simpson Reports:
On Wednesday June 27th, I paid a visit to the Waterloo Sun Life Financial Centre to introduce myself to the site, the staff and the peregrines. I met up with Tony Bergauer the Project Manager, Real Estate Services from Bentall Kennedy ( Canada ) LP, the company that manages the building and we stood on Union Blvd. enjoying the sight of the resident female roosting on a concrete parapet. We discussed options for viewing the adults and the 19th floor of the building seemed the ideal location as it was currently unoccupied and the adults spend a great deal of time roosting on the other side of the windows. We checked in at security and made our way upstairs. The moment we entered the office suite area of the floor, I spotted the female sitting on a balcony railing and managed to capture a few quick pictures of her leg bands. The male was much more elusive and was sitting on the top of a parapet that could not be properly viewed through the windows. Within half an hour, he had taken flight and was on a hunt over a series of apartment buildings to the east. The female had also moved off and was now sitting on the retaining wall right above the nest area. I spent almost 4 hours at the site maintaining my post on the 19th floor but was unable to see the male once he’d returned as once again he sat in a position that was not fully in view.
When I arrived home. I immediately put the pictures up on my larger screen to look at the females band number and was amazed to find a band number that I had recognized!! The female has a black over green recovery band on her left leg bearing the ID of 65 over AW and a silver USFW band on her right leg. This female is Statler from the Statler building nest site in 2010; a bird I rescued from Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto last year. The bird was trapped in a cooling tower on the roof of the centre just as the long weekend was beginning and she was very lucky to have been discovered and released. To know that she is now a mother of a single, healthy and recently banded little male is a testament to the work that we do at the CPF. I am so pleased to see that this bird not only survived her ordeal in the cooling tower but is now a parent and I am so happy to have been a part of such a positive story. Following this post is the full story of the rescue and release of this incredible female last year and it highlights the fantastic community support that the CPF has regularly celebrated over the 17 years we have been working in southern Ontario communities. A very good news story indeed! I will continue with my efforts to identify the resident male and can only confirm at this time that he has a purple USFW band on his right leg and a black over green recovery band on his left leg.
More to come!!
