A Lovely Lunch at William Osler
December 22, 2012 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
For the past several weeks I have popped in here and there at William Osler to check in on Hurricane and Chessie and have left empty handed each time. Today I finally got a chance to see the pair and what a fantastic couple they are!
Upon arrival, there were no birds in sight. After turning around and starting to make my way out, Hurricane arrived from the east and landed on the nest ledge. He wasn’t there long before he started to alarm call and flew off of the ledge to the south. He was met in the air by another falcon and the two sped of towards the northeast and out of sight. I repositioned and waited.
A few minutes later, Chessie flies in from the east and she is battling the winds to make it home with her present; a huge pigeon. Hot on her tail feathers is Hurricane and the two fly up to the eastern “H” sign and land. Chessie takes a minute to re-balance and Hurricane sat watching, waiting, and anticipating. Chessie began eating as Hurricane moved to the opposite end of the sign to wait. After about 5 minutes, Hurricane could take it no longer. He put on his “I’m so super cute” face and ran like a little kid down the sign to Chessie. Did I say ran? More like waddled in the blustery winds that were battering the sign. So down he goes ( waddle, waddle, waddle ) to Chessie and is whining like a juvenile the whole way. He stops just short of reaching her and as I witnessed in Brampton with Midnight, Chessie tears off a chunk and feeds him! This chunk was sizable and I am sure that is owing to the superior begging skills of Hurricane. He really is charming and takes after his dad, Windwhistler.
After eating, Hurricane retired back to his end of the sign and Chessie continued to pick away. She really has developed into quite a beauty now that her sub-adult molt is complete. Very little signs of her young age are visible and she looks sharp!! After picking for another 5 minutes, Chessie takes the prey remains and attempts to tuck it in right against the wall at the top of the sign. Hurricane had an absolute fit and a food fight broke out. Hurricane ran over and grabbed the food from her and the pair were engaged in a pulling match. Hurricane won and ate his prize while Chessie cleaned herself up. After a few minutes, Chessie took off alarm calling at a too-close-for-comfort Red Tailed and put on quite an aerial display of prowess. Hurricane looked up once from his meal, figured “yeah, she’s got this” and back to eating he went.
It was nice to see the pair together after so many visits to no avail. While it is the peregrine off season, our non-migratory pairs are often still seen in the territory and using the nest ledge even though it is with less frequency. A great treat and an awesome way to start winter!!
