!!! Fledge time is very close!! Resident adult female identified with a Black 8 over a Red D coloured band and a purple coloured USFW band!
June 19, 2011 - Toronto - King Street
Mark Nash Reports:
I spent the better part of the day today on site in an unofficial start to the King Street nest site fledge watch and had a very enjoyable day indeed. Sakura and Kenya spent most of the day playing together on the nest ledge with allot of laying down to escape the hot day sun and a lot of running up and down the nest ledge in between the sleeping and screaming at mom and dad for food . Not a hole lot of flapping, but they still have a full head of fluffy white down. Mom brought in food at 4pm and despite Kenya’s smaller size in comparison to his much bigger sister, he snatched it from mom and ran over to the corner, mantled over it and proceeded to eat it.
While big sister made several attempts to get a few bites, Kenya would have having nothing of it. After Kenya finished the small offering, Sakura made every effort to pick what was left off the bones was still interested to snuggle up with her piggy brother and the two them layed down together for the balance of th afternoon. I spent the balance of the day doing my best to photograph the resident adults with some success at least with the resident adult female.
She did most of the hunting throughout the day with several birds having been caught and all but two of the catches were actually eaten by mom well of sight of the hatchlings view. I watched her stash at least three freshly caught birds. The good news is that I was able to photograph the resident adult female on several occasions as she flew around over my head. On two occasions, she flew over to my location to get a closer look at what I was doing, and on a second occasion she landed less than 60 feet from my observation position allowing me to get some good close-up shots of her band number. She dawns a Black sideways 8 over a Red sideways D - (both rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise)
The resident adult male was spent most of his day going after other avian intruders including any that just happen to fly by or near the nest ledge. At one point he jumped off the roof of the nest building and dropped straight down the building wall in an incredible dive on an unsuspecting gull that just happened to fly by the nest building. The resident adult male dove so quickly, I was unable to keep the camera trained on him!! He literally chased the gull south so fast I could hardly get a site line on him, let alone keep the camera trained on him.
All I can say about the resident adult male, is that he has what appears to be a solid Black band - (that would suggest that he is a locally produced bird). At 8:30pm, the resident adult female brought in food to the nest ledge and both hatchlings shared in the offering without any squabbling. They were fed by the adult female in a very tender family moment for close to 30 minutes. By 9pm, both hatchlings were once again lying down together side by side and obviously down for the evening.
I got some great photos that I have attached with this posting. Later in the evening I met with Linda at the Toronto Sheraton watch and finished the evening with them and departed for home at dark.
Stay tuned, back again tomorrow……
