Site Check at Hearn; New Unidentified Adult Female is Spotted!
July 22, 2012 - Toronto - Hearn Power Station
Bruce Massey Reports:
The last stop on my east end sweep of nest site checks on Sunday brought me down to the Hearn Generating Station for a check on Peter and his three young ones. As you may recall, this site is now a single parent family with the loss of the unbanded resident adult female to an injury. We have been watching Peter closely and he has been a super dad. He has kept up with the feeding schedule and has successfully brought all three of his young, Tiny, Dolly and Dark One, to fledge stage. He is an awesome male and no wonder given that he is the son of Surge who was hatched at the Etobicoke Sun Life centre and has been a successful father himself for many years now!!
As I approached the site, I found one peregrine on the plant directly east of Hearn eating and Peter on top of the roof of the nest building. I scanned the gridwork and rooftop for other peregrines and when I panned back to the plant to the east, in the scope with the light just right I was able to positively identify the peregrine on that roof as an adult female. It would seem that with his territory void of a resident female, that Peter has been able to attract a new girl to his site. I was unable to determine if she is banded as she took off fairly quickly and disappeared behind the eastern power plant. Shortly afterwards, a juvenile female came in from the east and flew over towards Hearn but instead landed on the eastern plant as well. As I left the site, I could confirm the presence of two adult peregrines and one juvenile female. I will be back to visit the site again to check on the status of the adults and try to confirm the new female’s identity.