!!! Despite the bitter cold, home is still home!
February 20, 2015 - Toronto - King Street
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Friday February 20th - 2015
A quick peek at the web cams this morning and we found the Toronto King street nest ledge active with both resident adult peregrines hanging out on the nest ledge despite the bitter cold temps that we’re been experiencing here in southern Ontario. With daily high temps only reaching -22, and with the blustery winds bringing the temps down to the -30’s, I can’t understand why our resident urban peregrines aren’t flying south to some warmer temps, (at least not for a short holiday until the cold artic air loosens it grip on us). We have already broken record low temps here in southern Ontario that date back to the 1930’s in addition to the several sustained cold temps for days (weeks) at a time!!
Well, I guess home is still always home regardless,, a safe place to be, and the peregrines see it the same way! Spring is in the air despite the cold, as the days are getting longer, with longer periods of light, and we will soon see some intense pair bonding between the adults.
With that being said, we have not been able to confirm who the resident adult is at the Toronto King Street nest site this year, with earlier reports of Windwhistler having been replaced by another adult male. Windwhistler, (a.k.a. Spike) who was produced at the Etobicoke Bloor & Islington nest site back in 1998, some 16 years ago, is / was the longest standing resident adult male on any occupied nest site here in Ontario. He is also the oldest resident adult male peregrine occupying a nest site that we have on record.
It is also interesting, that CPF’s original video / DVD presentation, “Life on the Ledge” that features the life of a peregrine family raising offspring on an urban hi-rise ledge was filmed via the CPF web camera the same year that Windwhistler was produced. We see him as young nestling growing up on camera. This is the same video presentation that we use and distribute to all of the schools for our Project School Visit program.
In any case, only time will tell as we get closer to spring, when both resident adults will be spending far more time on the nest ledge and we may be able to get a band ID to identify the Who’s Who’s at the nest!
