April 28th
April 28, 2012 - Stoney Creek
Sue McCreadie Reports:
We arrived on site around 9:30am. We stopped at our usual spot down the road and had a look with our scope. Dad was in the drum and seemed a little restless. He got up a couple of times but we were not able to see any little white heads. We headed up the road and found Mom sitting down low on a railing on the roof of Taylor Steel. She was making a big fuss but we were not able to see anything that would be upsetting her. After a while she took off and for the first time, we watched her land on the Hydro tower to the North East. This is the first time we have seen them roost anywhere but on the Communications Tower. (When they leave the Tower, they are out of site in about 5 seconds and we have no idea where they go.) After about 20 minutes she returned to the drum and we witnessed a shift change. All of a sudden we saw 2 birds in the air and it was Dad being chased by an Interloper. Dad disappeared inside the drum and the other bird landed on top of the drum. As Dad went in Mom came out and the chase started. It was very aggressive with loud e-chupping with talons extended. All quieted down and Athena returned to the drum and Craig took over the watch from the Communications Tower. We did not see any hunting or food delivery during the 3 hours that we were there.
During our visit today, we spoke with a young man from Motorola who informed us that there was proposed work to be done on the Tower. He said that they had been called off as a result of the nesting peregrines.