!!! 4 eggs at Kitchener nest site !!!
April 30, 2014 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
It has been another suspenseful and mysterious few weeks at the Kitchener nest site. On April 11, one of the peregrines was sighted by Wendy with a kill so heavy it struggled to bring it to the top of the building. Wendy also observed a lot of peregrine activity the week of April 13, flying to and fro to the top of the building several times a day.
The turkey vultures have been back in peregrine territory around the Sun Life tower. On April 16, Wendy witnessed one falcon repeatedly diving at a vulture until it was well past the Grand River Hospital. At 7:00 that night, Rudy was on a watch with spotting scope in hand and spotted one falcon, perched and preening on the signage facing Park Street. After 10 minutes, it flew around the building and landed on a parapet on the hospital side but didn’t go near the nest box. After another 10 minutes it headed north at a high speed, likely after some dinner. Rudy has not seen any hunting activity in downtown Kitchener for quite some time.
It became very quiet at the nest site. For weeks, many of the watchers have had no sightings at the nest box or on the building at all. On April 24 at noon, Karen sighted one on the left side of the nest box. She captured the 2 photos of one of the ‘grines’ posted here but wasn’t able to make an identification. On Saturday April 25, I spotted a lone falcon hunting behind Kings Towers on King Street, it swooped around the back of the building and then flew south east towards down town Kitchener.
On Sunday morning, April 26, Kelly reported seeing one flying around the rooftop and landing on the nest box at 9 a.m. It took flight again and landed on the parapet to the right of the nest box. Later on that day, a ruckus was heard. There were definitely 2 peregrines giving chase to a possible 3rd peregrine. One of the ‘grines’ did some acrobatics below one of the others and it looked like a food pass. The acrobat then returned to the rooftop. The intruder then circled high above the rooftop, while one of the ‘grines’ swooped at a lower altitude around the rooftop. While it’s hard to say whether the third bird was another peregrine or another bird of prey, these birds are definitely defending their territory!
Many of the watchers have noticed light coming through the back of the nest box in the last few weeks. Around 2:45 p.m. today, Wendy heard loud screeching coming from the area of the nest box. She quickly messaged the inside watchers to see if anyone was at the top of the building. We heard shortly thereafter, that after an inquiry from Rudy regarding sightings, Tony went up to the roof and noticed that the back door was open and a ‘grine’ was in the nest box so he left quickly. Tony reported this to Mark who instructed Tony to “get the back door shut” since it could be dangerous for both birds and eggs. Other prey could get into the rear of the nest box and wind could affect the birds and cool the eggs down. He returned with some backup and that’s when all the screeching started. In less than a minute, they latched the door shut, put a screw in the door in the bottom to ensure that it couldn’t open again and discovered that there are 4 eggs in the nest box!!! So all the speculating of whether the peregrines are nesting, or where they are nesting is done, however we still need to need to confirm which female is nesting. The last confirmed sighting of the unbanded female was by Tony on April 12. Rudy suspects that this female is a passage bird that is not yet old enough to breed which would explain her lack of interest in some of Caster’s advances. Time will only tell whether this is Statler, or the mystery female that is incubating these eggs. The mystery continues!!!
Photos courtesy of Tony Bergauer and Karen von Knobloch
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