June 25th
June 25, 2014 - Toronto - Canada Square Building - Yonge and Eglinton
Marion Nash Reports:
A rather mixed day today, with some long periods of just sitting and watching the peregrines sitting on Canada Square. Some other periods of sitting with nothing to watch.
Then there were a couple of confused moments when there was action galore. One such was when Haven dived on a number of pigeons all in and around the old bus bays. I thought one of the fledglings was also in the mix and had come to ground. Haven was sitting on 2190 staring into the old bus bays. No such luck though. I was mistaken. Malik also gave a good show chasing more pigeons up and around the corner from Canada Square but missing.
Later on Haven went into a stoop of Rio-Can, across the north end of Canada Square to Yonge Street where she caught a pigeon. She flew up to the south west corner of Rio-Can followed by Malik and fledgling. Haven dropped the pigeon and the fledgling stayed and ate. During any activity little Chinook remained on his perch or on the floor of the north-west corner of Canada Square. Sometimes he squawked and sometimes not.
Another bit of showing off when one of the older two fledglings flew up and behind Canada Square then over the top to the antenna where Haven was sitting. He sort of bumped her and then the shenanigans began. Haven chased him over the bus bays and over Canada Square a couple of times until he sat on a cross piece of the antenna. Malik joined in and he and Haven flew circles around the youngster whilst he teetered precariously on the antenna. Earlier one of the fledglings had perched on one of the guy wires supporting the single antenna. Now THAT was precarious perching. He kept his wings open, flapped a bit and gripped tight but he gave up after a few minutes and flew off.
A lesson was introduced when all the babies had settled, two on the roof and Chinook in the same spot. Haven put on a real show for the youngsters. She flew circles around Canada Square and on top, gaining height with each circuit. She made it look so easy !!!
After this there was a short rest period until Malik went into a stoop low over the bus bays and close to the wall of the new bus bays he caught a little bird. I think it may have been a European Starling. He flew around the north end of Canada Square to gain height and then back around to the west side and down to the south west corner where he deposited the bird. There was a flurry of wings and squawks and someone got the spoils. Marion noticed that there was no squawking coming from Chinook on the north-west corner and suggested that one of the peregrines on the south end might be Chinook. He fledged properly and I missed it! What I did not miss was his second flight which was not too impressive. He flew from the east side to the west and tried his best to go up to at least the nest level but he missed his goal by two floors. He bumped a window and fluttered down and continued fluttering in a downward spiral until he disappeared from view onto a low
balcony. We waited and waited and finally he jumped up on the wall.
He was quite confused as this was all different in appearance from what he was used to. He looked around and up and down. After a while he walked along the wall a bit and then stopped, had a think, and lay down! When he was back up he walked a little more, first one way then the other and back. Then he worked up his *brave* and walked all the way along the wall to the end over the bank building. He parked himself on the light over a sign and sat and waited out the storm which hit us at about 6:05 pm. It just teemed down and he sat right out in it. Haven was on Rio-can and one of the other fledglings was sitting on the very south-west tip of the level above the balcony on Canada Square, also out in the wet. That is where they stayed and Marion and I settled for a nearby doorway which gave us great shelter and the ability to keep an eye on the birds. I think we finally packed up just before 8:00 pm. By that time Haven had moved and Chinook was out of our
sight but not out of Haven’s. We will do a search tomorrow for the little bird.