Claire at Home on Hilton Garden Inn; Male Confidently Identified!!
September 03, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
The next stop on my list yesterday was to visit Claire at the Hilton Garden Inn and see whether I could identify for certain the Canadian male that she is bonded with. At first arrival, there wasn’t a bird to be found. I checked out all of her usual haunts and couldn’t find her. At this point, Bruce left for the east end of the city and I stayed on for a little while and checked out the area. Still nothing. As I was leaving and heading down the highway, I could see that a peregrine had just flown in to the Hilton!! I was already committed on my route and so I decided to stop back in on my way to the CPF Raptor Centre.
When I returned to the site, Claire was still in her favorite little corner of the Hilton and had one enormous crop going on. She was quite content to sleep and digest away the afternoon in the cubby hole and so I went on a cruise for her mate. When I reached the alt Hotel, I found him on the eastern side on top of the sign. He was facing the perfect direction for me to get an ID on him so I pulled out the scope and focussed in. He didn’t sit for very long as it was clear that he was looking for dinner. Within a few minutes, he was in the air and headed south on a mission. I can now say with a great degree of confidence that the resident male is black 35 over black Y making him Casper from Etobicoke and another offspring of Milton, our Brampton male, who has gone on to breed. I will continue to try and get photographic confirmation of this yet I am 99% assured that Casper is our man as I have seen both the 3 and the 5 on the band clearly. After about 15 minutes of being absent from the site, Casper returned to the alt Hotel and landed on the southern sign in the sunshine. Again, not staying long as his first hunt was unsuccessful, he was off this time to the east. He was clearly active around the Hilton as a huge flock of starlings that were feeding over there came in a massive cloud over to the parking gargage across from the alt Hotel looking to beat a hasty retreat. As I left, Claire was still hanging on her favorite ledge, Casper was gone from my sights and there was no sign of the single juvenile that the pair successfully raised this year. I will return again soon so check back for more updates!!
