December 15th - 2012
Again thank you to Nona for sending in some of the screen shots that snapped of Quest visiting her nest box.
Very nice to see Quest close-up again!
This morning when I arrived it was still kind of dark out but I could hear our resident pair chupping to each other. After a few minutes of conversation I saw the familiar white chest of Jack as he took to the air and performed some aerial displays for O’Connor.
She stood by the nestbox on the ledge and chupped to him encouragingly as he did a few donuts around the condos. An hour later I found both again - Jack on the web cam and O’connor still by the nest box.
A nice send off for me as I will be off site during the Christmas break. Wishing everyone a peaceful and joyous holiday season!
December 17th - 2012
Just to share this sighting info:
Jon had to leave mid-day of the Christmas bird count (last Sat - Dec. 15th - 2012) to proctor
an exam. As he headed home around 4pm, near Erb and Westmount, he saw 2
peregrine falcons calling loud and circling one another in a aerial
courtship display.
Cheers,
Debbie
December 19th - 2012
A huge thank you to all that attended today and helped out with the nest box install! While we are waiting for all of the photos to come in, I can tell you that the day was a huge success! The weather was very cooperative and with everyone in fine spirits we met Tony at the Sun Life security, signed in and spent some time going over the game plan, safety protocols and procedures and assigned our designated safety officer.
We all attended the shipping docks where we unloaded all of the nest box components, bags of pea-gravel, tools and safety gear and proceeded with the four loaded cargo carts to the roof.
A huge thank you to Tony and the Bentall Kennedy staff, Tracy, Tony, Dale, Lisa, Steve, Debbie, Karen and Fraser who helped us carry up the heavy loads of pea-gravel, nest box components, tools ladders and other gear up the final stairs to the roof elevation and spent the balance of the day light hours in the cold helping us put together and set up the nest box.
A great team indeed, as everything went incredibly well
Many thanks to Michelle for spotting a peregrine eating close to her place of work. Tonight I received a call that the peregrine was eating a pigeon at Action Car and Truck Accessories and quickly turned around to go to location with camera. It is now 4:45pm and getting dark fast.
Michelle was at the door waiting but unfortunately the peregrine had flown off. Went out the door to see the peregrine eating the bird across the street on a hydro pole.
Snapped a few shots but with little light didn’t hold much hope. I had one shot that showed the band 79 over H - enought to confirm that it is Centennial.
A couple of shots. Will hopefully get Centennial during daylight next time.
December 16th - 2012
Just a quickly update as we put the finishing touches on the new Sun Life nest box. Over the past two weeks, we have been putting the final touches on the Sun life nest box that will be installed on the upper roof area to accommodate Statler and Caster.
While everything has gone as planned, we have been hampered by the colder temps that has caused a delay in the stain drying time frames.
Stay tuned with updated news to follow…….
After visiting with Freddie and Voltaire at the Ambassador Bridge, Bruce and I travelled north through town to check out the area for the new pair that arrived in Windsor this spring. They did successfully produce at least two young but have since changed their site of interest. Initially their focus was on a communications tower at the Windsor CBC and so we checked that out first. Nothing. Around we go to park on Riverside Drive for a look at their other hangouts; the Hilton, the Chrysler building and Caesars. Snake eyes… …nada. Bruce and I then started a scan of the Detroit side of the river. The crossing at this point is very narrow and we were able to easily scan the buildings and rooftops of the Detroit skyline for sitting grins. We had to keep in mind that there is a nest in Detroit on Michigan Ave at the AT&T building and so we might see active grins, but not necessarily the ones we seek. This building was readily visible from our vantage point. Funny enough, the unbanded female at AT&T Detroit is paired with a male named Bud-z. He and Freddie share the same parents ( Fury and *7/X ) and share a hatch site in Ohio but from different years; Freddie was hatched in 2001 and Bud-z in 2000. I guess Freddie’s following in his older brother’s talon steps.
After 20 min Bruce picks up a flight on the Detroit side near the Millender Apartments of a single bird that could indeed be a peregrine. This bird flew south through the city towards the four Renaissance buildings and was followed by another bird. Definately peregrines. The pair circled around the four buildings and then like a shot, powered across the Detroit River and landed on the Chrysler building sign. We repositioned and found the female on the H and the male was already off and gone. After a minute or two we relocated the male at the Hilton flying around the rooftop. He located a cache on the SW side and then flew over to the Chrysler building to eat. We were able to confirm without a doubt that the male is unbanded. The female, who sat digesting her own enormous crop, was sitting back enough on the sign to hide her legs. When she stepped forward, we were able to see that she is banded with a Black over Red recovery band and a purple USFW. As the evening light was not the best, we were unable to read the recovery band clearly. What I can tell you is that this bird has very distinct streaking on her chest up into her crop area making her readily discernible from the male. The two sat together on the Chrysler sign for quite some time during the evening. The male was napping here and there but the female was watching the Detroit side of the river very intently. Even though she was cropped up, after 30 min the female flew off and decided to harass some pigeons on the neighboring buildings and we saw some great flights from her. She returned to the Chrysler building and the two sat close together for the next while. As dusk was approaching, the female began to vocalize and both her and the male took off after something right over our heads. We later discovered a very nervous Coopers hawk that had been hunting the lakeshore which was put down in a tree by the pair. Both the male and female did not return to the Chrysler and a scan of the area did not reveal their location.
This pair loves the Chrysler and Hilton buildings as evidenced by not only their presence but by the amount of whitewash on both buildings. The pair are also caching food on the Hilton, hunting the area and defending this section of the lakeshore. I look forward to learning who this new girl in town is and seeing where they decide to nest next year.
As a side note, on the Google Earth map I added direct lines of flight and the Chrysler building is 1.8km from the Detroit AT&T nest site and 2.7km from Freddie and Volaire.
Things are back to ‘normal’ here in terms of behaviors and hang outs for the past 10 days. The obsession with the Moneris sign seems to have abated…for now at least.
Both O’Connor and Jack were home yesterday enjoying the warm sunshine. O’Connor on her web cam perch and Jack on ledge 3. Almost daily now Miss O can be found either on the web cam dozing in the sun or over one ledge having brunch and Jack..well he comes and goes as usual!
I will say though that this is the most I’ve seen Jack around the nest site at this time of year compared to past years.
Bruce Massey and I went on a quest on Wednesday that took us to the Windsor area for a few days. While there, we made sure to stop by the Ambassador Bridge and check in on Freddie and Voltaire on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. When we pulled up to the nest site, we initially didn’t have any birds in view and after scanning the church, we located Voltaire on a favored spire digesting a huge crop. Freddie was on the peak of the church roosting in the afternoon sun. All of a sudden, a Kestrel came bombing in and went right for the spire where Voltaire was roosting. This action took her off of her perch in a chase around the steeple of the Kess until all of a sudden, the Kestrel swooped up and into a louvered window on the side of the main spire! Looks like Windsor may have another little falcon pair at the bridge!! Freddie had taken off out of view until we spotted a group of pigeons swirling around to the north and right in the middle of the fray was Freddie. He continued to give chase and attempted to split the flock but the pigeons stayed close together. After a few minutes, Freddie gave up the chase and returned to the church landing on a spire right beside Voltaire. There the two sat for quite some time enjoying the afternoon together. It was so nice to see the pair together and to introduce Bruce to the Windsor nest site as he had never had that opportunity before.
