Drama on Pine Street
June 20, 2013 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
June 20th - 2013
In the last few days there were many sightings of the young falcon family, sometimes altogether on the Kings Towers, often on the aerial or the roof edge of the apartment building, on the CTV tower and also on the nest box on Union Street. Venturing further out, 3 were spotted on this morning very high in the sky over Uptown Waterloo.
Drama on Pine Street…By Michael Hilborn
After an interesting morning, I returned to the site just before 3 p.m. to see if anything had developed.
As I came out of the cemetery, I heard quite a commotion from near the tower. I quickened my pace and as I came up Pine Street, I noticed one of the adults make a food drop. Walking even faster and fumbling for my camera, I witnessed one of the youngsters drop what appeared to be a pigeon near the corner of Pine and King streets.
As I approached, a rather distraught lady said to me, “Are you one of the falcon people?” When I confirmed I was she said, “Come quickly! One of the birds is on the ground and another is attacking it. I nearly had a heart attack.” I had my doubts, but nevertheless, I hustled up to the corner and sure enough, there was one of the youngsters mantling something. As more passersby gathered, the bird abandoned the kill and flew to the roof of the adjacent building—846 King St.
Sure enough, it was a pigeon, or what was left of it. The head had been neatly severed at the thorax and the tail feathers were neatly plucked. After checking for leg bands (there were none) I reassured the bystanders it was merely a pigeon and then went to the roof of the parking garage at GRH.
I noticed the birds (particularly the youngsters) were still interested in the package, which was lying on the first step of the building right at the sidewalk. I then decided to remove it for the safety of the youngsters because of the risk from traffic and after photographing it, I tossed it onto the roof of the stairwell on the parking garage where it would be invisible to the public but in clear view of the birds. I entertained the hope if I backed off a bit they might come and get it—affording me a fantastic photo op. Alas that did not transpire.
At one point, one of the adults (I think it was Statler) flew over us at a fairly low altitude, making a great racket before retiring to her customary post on the antenna on the Kings Towers. We waited for a while, but by 5 p.m., there was no more activity so we both left. Hopefully, the falcons retrieved their meal from the roof while no one was there.
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