This posting is a little late in coming but important nonetheless. Thanks to Margaret, one of our sharp eyed MEC watchers, for the check in on Storm and Caspian at Holcim. On January 28th, she managed to catch the pair at home!! Thank you so much for the update Margaret!!!
A great sighting and photos of Jenna and Chester, the ICICI nest site resident adults, by Cathy Kerr. Thanks so much for the great news!
The first photo is of Jenna, the resident female, and the second is of Chester the resident male.
A quick update on the resident adults at the Yellow Pages nest site. I was out this morning and found both adults sitting on the ledges. They were too far in for a confirmation on their identities but I believe they are Linn and Rueben.
Clear and Cold
Cirrus and Mackenzie (band not verified)
All photos copyright of Bill McCreadie
Well, in my opinion, I would say that it appears spring preparations are underway. Cirrus and Mackenzie were both spending time in and on the next box and there was lots of chirping going on. It was definitely cold and perhaps they were trying to get out of the weather, but I’m saying that they are preparing for spring. I guess we had just missed Cirrus having a meal as her crop was just bulging.
Well Falcon lovers, I just had to share these fabulous photos of Cirrus (Mom) taken on January 22nd at the Burlington Lift Bridge. Isn’t she beautiful as she tries to wait out this horrible weather. Thanks to Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) for allowing me access to these photos. Photos copyright of PWGSC.
This image captured at 5p.m. Rhea Mae on the ledge.
It’s minus 32 today with the windchill and both O’Connor and Jack are on the ledge today enjoying what warmth they can from the sunshine. Jack perched on the nestbox for a few hours while O’Connor was on the web cam.
She must have left for a moment because suddenly he turned around and I caught this great screen capture of him flying to the web cam. When I went outside a few minutes later, he was indeed perched on the webcam and O’Connor, having returned, was perched on the ledge beneath the cam directly under Jack.
I received a recent update from Toivo that Midnight is still being seen in the Brampton area along the Hurontario corridor. While she is not always at George St. and not always seen daily, she is still making appearances in downtown Brampton and its environs. Toivo has been keeping an eye on our Brampton pair this winter and he has noted that he has not been able to get eyes on Striker since November but that Midnight is still sporadically visible. Thank you so much Toivo for the update and as we march towards spring we hope to see where Midnight settles and whether Striker returns.
A report just in from Linda. On the south side of Mount Sinai Hospital she has located a single peregrine sitting in the same position as Hunter and Ranger habitually used to sit on cold days for the morning warm up. While we cannot confirm that this is in fact Hunter, a chance exists that it is based on the birds size, behavior and roost choices . It looks like he may still be in the area and holding on to the Mount Sinai territory on his own. When the frigid weather breaks, we will be down to the territory to see if we can locate the bird and confirm whether this is indeed Hunter. Thank you so much Linda for this most important update on the Mount Sinai territory.
During my trip out to Mississauga yesterday, my destination took me very close to the Holcim nest site and so I decided to do a quick site check on Storm and Caspian. When I arrived, I found Storm up on the top of the plant preening but he didn’t stay there long. He was off like a shot into the heart of the plant chasing lunch. He returned 10 minutes later without a visible crop so I don’t think he was celebrating a successful hunt. Instead he decided to take a break in the sun and do some feather cleaning. While I was there, Caspian did not make an appearance but I feel certain that she was down by the lakeshore somewhere. Storm kept looking off towards the waterfront and occasionally would flip his head at her roosting somewhere nearby.
It was great to see Storm on site and we look forward to another successful nesting season at Holcim in 2014.
