Wandering falcons
July 15, 2015 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
For the last few weeks, the juveniles have made their way safely to the top of the Sun Life tower. The fledge watch team have finally been able to relax and get their lives back to normal as the juveniles are doing well and have learned how to maneuver around this tall building. Often, one or two can be seen perched on various parts of the parapets of the tower and on top of the King Street sign. The ‘grines’ have been very active around the tower on most days and many employees have seen and heard the increased activity. With sunny days and good winds, on most days at around 2:00 p.m., at least one peregrine flies around the tower. Janice usually sees a single peregrine 3 or 4 times in an afternoon. They tend to come towards the Caroline Street side of the tower and ride the air currents up to the roof.
Learning to fly at lower buildings like Kings Towers and Grand River hospital has paid off. Their flights are strong, and they’ve put on many acrobatic performances around the top floors of the Sun Life building to the delight of employees inside. Caster and Mystery have taught them well! Last week, one flew by the 18th floor with a pigeon in it’s talons and a few minutes later, a rain of feathers fell down from the roof. Another morning, Janice was getting her coffee and a ‘grine’ glided belly first by the window right in front of her almost making her drop her coffee! A lot of the sightings are fast and unexpected and no confirmed identifications have been able to be made to see whose who. On another occasion, Janice was hosting a morning meeting on the 19th floor on the King Street side. The meeting was disrupted from all the screeching and carrying on.
On my way to and from work, the sightings are less often at Grand River Hospital and Kings towers and more so on the Sun Life tower. However, on July 15, I did see 2 circling Kitchener Collegiate Institute and over the parking lot at Central Fresh Mart. They circled around and around at these lower rooftops and then flew to Kings Towers with lots of screeching. The one in the lead was much larger and had a lumbering flight than the 2nd one following. I was pretty sure it was Chroma and possibly Reggie but can’t say for sure. When Chroma was released it was Reggie who was most delighted to see her back in the air and kept on flying to her, encouraging her to get back up to the nest box. They seem to have a special bond. The ‘grines’ were very active that day, with Janice seeing at least 3 in the air together around the same time. At the same time, these 2 landed, I could see one circling the Sun Life building tower. I have not seen any at the hospital or on the CTV tower but heard one yesterday around the station but could not locate it. It could have been on top of one of the rooftops out of sight. I did see one circling high up in the sky but it drifted out of sight quickly and was too far off to be the one vocalizing. This family of peregrines seems to own this city. Janice saw one circling above the neighbourhood across from the SuperStore at Fisher-Hallman and Highland on July 13th. They are called wandering (peregrine) falcons for a very good reason. It is becoming much harder to keep track of them as they start to increase their range and wander out of our sight.
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