!!! Incubation of at least two - (if not three eggs) observed! Wind or Ranger may be the territorial adult female!
May 27, 2009 - Toronto - Mount Sinai Hospital
Mark Nash Reports:
With a huge thank-you to Linda from the CPF for her determination in gathering logistics at the Mt. Sinai Hospital nest site, and with the support of the hospital’s operations management team, we was both alerted to the new happenings going on with Mt. Sinai’s newest residents. We able to attend the roof area to gather more detailed logistics on the peregrines activity. During the site visit, I was able to lower our wireless camera down form the roof area to the lower ledges below in an effort to get a peek into the ledges where all of the peregrine activity has been going on.
While the images being displayed on the tiny hand held wireless monitor were far from the typical National Geographic network TV stuff, (actually much like being in a small plane that has just lost its lift, and in the middle of a “stall and spin while being attacked by a F-18 jet fighter”!!! We were able to confirm that there is at least two, if not three eggs on the ledge that is currently being incubated by the attending adults.
The visit was far from an uneventful routine type of visit, as I must say that this was one of the very few occasions over the last 14 years that I actually felt concerned for my safety while working with peregrines. The attending adult female was far from happy with our visit to “HER BUILDING”. Needless to say, I was very eager to leave the roof top to seek refuge and the safety offered to me from behind closed doors. Despite my soiled underwear, drenched with sweat, and the adrenaline eating experience - (that only briefly describes the experience), I was able to get a partial band number and have a pretty good ideal of who the adult female is. The adult female dawns a Black over Red coloured band number and we suspect that she is one of two females that is well know to us. Without being able to positively confirm her identity, (but we are working on it), we believe it is either Wind or Ranger.
Both of these birds have very interesting histories. Wind was the female that was the producing female at the Toronto Sheraton Hotel for many years, and Ranger was the nesting female that spend many years at our uptown nest site on the Canadian Tire building at Yonge & Eglinton with her mate Hunter. Ranger also attempted to hatch several clutches of eggs over a two year period at Bloor & Ave. Rd on the Four Season Hotel. All three of these nest locations are documented on the CPF web site.
The adult male currently with this female at Mt. Sinai dawns a Black over Green coloured leg band, but he never gave us an opportunity to get a detailed look at the band numbers. Stay tuned, there is more to come………….
