King Street Activity is Amazing!
April 10, 2015 - Toronto - King Street
Tracy Simpson Reports:
This past week has been odd for the pair down at 18 King Street East as the level of activity that we have been watching had slowly been reduced to nothing. At the beginning of the week, we would see Erin or Stormin briefly on the ledge but they stayed off camera more than on. Linda Woods was keeping an eye out for them and activity was quite rare. By mid week, they had dropped off camera altogether and Linda was not seeing them at all in the territory on any of the usual perches and buildings. Even local residents were wondering where the falcons had gone and why they suddenly became so quiet. Late in the day Thursday the pair finally made their first on camera appearance in days and with that I decided to go down yesterday and spend some time at the site trying to determine what was going on and confirm identities of the adults.
Well… …wow!! I was treated to some rather amazing activity. It started off in the morning with camera image captures of the pair all over the ledge. I can’t overstate that. They were in and out of the ledge, down by the camera, back in the scrape and then over at the far end. At one point the camera caught an image of the pair copulating but we were not quick enough to save it before the next refresh.
I arrived around 10am and found the female on the northern most nest ledge opening looking out and watching the bird activity. The male was in the air and patrolling back and forth up Yonge Street over by 1 King and the Scotia Tower. He went back and forth, back and forth and then… …gone, but not for long. The male came flying in over Toronto St. where I was watching from and he had food. The female came off of the nest ledge and met him in the air over Toronto and Court. He dropped the prey, she inverted and went to grab it but the prey was still very much alive. Much to her surprise the prey took off up Court Street and in an effort to evade it grabbed a window frame about 7 stories up on the Mercato building. She pursued, banked and tried to grab it off the building but it took off again this time towards St. James Cathedral. She gave up and flew back over my head about 30 feet above me and headed for home. Just spectacular. It was then that I was able to get her on the ledge and in the scope confirming her identity as Erin with a black B over red D band. She turned to face out and I could also now clearly see her black dot on the lower right side of her chest clinching the ID. The male now took off to find something else for her to eat that was more appropriate to catch in an exchange. He was back and forth again around 1 King, the Scotia Tower, behind the King Edward and over towards the Esplanade. He stayed airborne for a good 30 minutes and seemed to be just loving the day. I stayed watching Erin and at one point I watched her turn facing north, she bowed, waited and in zipped the male for copulation number 2. What was nice to see is that it was her invitation rather than seeing her allowing mating reluctantly. She may be 17 years old but she figures she’s not done nesting yet. Off he went again flying, zipping through and soaring. He came back to the ledge and landed briefly down near the camera and I was able to get him in the scope and confirm that this is Stormin with a solid black 30 over Y band. Now both adults took off and were in the territory hunting. They returned to the nest ledge for yet another mating after which Erin remained and Stormin continued to course through the territory.
While they may be behind schedule, it looks like Erin and Stormin are on track for possible eggs in the coming weeks. They are both looking amazing and are working very hard towards having a family in 2015. We look forward to more from this pair throughout spring and the possibility of young.