First observed mating approximately half an hour ago. Lots of flying and chupping going on.
I had not seen Jack for the past week or so and was wondering when he would drop by. Apparently he’s been a busy bird!
We are aware that Jack has mated with the female at the TR site - looks like it’s going to be an interesting season!
Jack our resident male falcon has been here several times this week. He is currently outside doing some impressive flying and chupping alot to Angel. Wish I could speak Peregrine and understand what he is saying … has courtship begun or is he just complaining about the weather?!
Lunch time today and suddenly pigeons were flying in all directions, including right into each other and as I looked up there was Jack scaring them up. Angel was awaiting him at the nest box so that is both adults accounted for. I guess this is his weekly check-in, at least he’s smart enough to bring take out!
With reports of a possible skirmish between two raptors in the vicinity last evening, I decided to take a trip out to the site today to check on Angel. I found her dozing peacefuly on her usual perch. She has been visible at the site on a daily basis the past few weeks, in spite of the cold temperatures.
Her errant mate did pay a visit on Monday and there was some vocalization between them however no signs of any courtship rituals at all compared to last year at this time. He seems to be spending the bulk of his time at his other site the past few weeks and with news that the former resident male there will be extending his stay in rehab past mating season - I expect he will definitely be nesting there this year.
The question is will he attempt to nest here as well or can we expect a new mate for Angel. It is still early days and I expect in the next few weeks we should know the answer to that question as Angel is usually the first to lay her eggs in the city.
Stay tuned…
Angel and Jack are still on-site braving the cold weather and enjoying the sunshine when it comes. I have not seen any juveniles since I last saw Elena on September 18th. I suspect her departure coincided with Jack’s arrival back on the scene to renew his bond with Angel.
He was sighted daily for approximately 2 weeks at that time and I observed alot of bowing in the nest box together and heard them vocalizing to each other. The last 2 moths I’ve seen Jack visiting the nest ledge at least 2 or 3 times a week for short periods and I’ve observed them hunting the local pigeons together some mornings.
Since Fall migration has ended it has been relatively quiet on the home front and other than humans, no one is alarming the falcons much at this time of year. They are quite tolerant of the window washers and maintenance crews - although Angel does like to supervise the workers, which usually means hovering over them in the air and making them nervous enough so they know who’s territory they are in 
I”m lucky to still see Angel on a daily basis but I suspect as the temperature drops, sightings will be less frequent based on the past two winters observations.
Three falcons here this morning, Angel, Jack and Elena!! Last Thursday and Friday, Jack spent most of the days here with Angel in close proximity and no sign of any juveniles at all. Although I didn’t see any bowing and scraping myself, there was alot of time spent together on the nest ledge between them.
This morning when I arrived Elena was on the ledge beneath the ADP sign and Jack was on the sign, with Angel on the opposite side on the nest ledge. A few minutes later Jack departed to chase breakfast and Elena immediately flew to his perch on the ADP sign as if to say ‘about time you gave me back my spot!’.
Elena is now on the sign and mom is in front of the nestbox preening and no doubt Jack is off somewhere enjoying breakfast!
If anyone is out in the Port Hope area, keep your eyes peeled for a female falcon named Quest. She won’t be hard to spot as she has a transmitter on her for tracking purposes. She is daughter to Mariah and Kaver of Rochester and her location shows she has spent the past few months up in that area and even ventured into Etobicoke in the past few weeks. It would be great if someone spotted her and took some photos for all her followers!
Took me 30 minutes to get anID on Jack today in the blazing, hot sun but I’m pretty sure it’s him. Very white upper breast and the sideburns are the same shape as his - couldn’t see his feet though. I had to go into a back lane behind the retail area to get a look at the side of his head to verify as he was standing right on top of the building in the hot sun - very unusual especially as it’s 30c today - both parents were alarm calling and defending several times today that I heard about and a few times I witnessed.
11:55 today and by that point I had only seen Angel early in the morning. Suddenly she started alarm calling and flew off the ledge over the condo rooftops and Jack, who was on the roof not visible to me, came flying to join her and both took off after something. I didn’t see what the ’something’ was but pigeons were scattering everywhere.
1:00 approximately and alarm calling again, only saw 2 adult falcons in the air but no sign of intruder that I saw.
2:55 again alarm calling and male takes off northwest over the park, mom gets on top of the building and starts kacking. Once again - blinded by sunlight - and no sign of who was upsetting them.
3:30 and both Angel and Jack on the roof ledge looking around. They were both on alert for something and then finally by 4:06 pm Angel relaxed enough to go back to the nest ledge while Jack stayed up top on guard in all his glory.
No sign of Elena today I haven’t spotted her since Thursday when the jets were around and they flew all weekend so maybe she decided it was time to go, especially with both parents now back and defending the territory together!
The snowbirds are practicing for their weekend air show it seems. They usually dont’ practice their flying so close to our complex but for the past few hours they have been delighting people and scaring birds of all species. At one point they flew so low on top of our building we were deafened by the sound and if you were outside you could read the letters on their jets - that’s how low they got.
As soon as the rumbling started and I saw birds panicking and flying in all directions outside the windows I went out to check on our guys. Elena was on the ADP sign apparently not in the least intimidated…kids =p And then I went around the back of the building and saw 2 peregrine falcons on the same ledge about a wing span apart. My first thought was wow..Elena flies fast but quickly realized that one of those falcons was alot bigger than the other and both were black and white and not brown! Both heads were swiveling back and forth and both were facing inwards towards the wall. Interestingly there are workmen on the condo next door and normally Angel would at least be kacking to let them know she’s not impressed however no one is even moving from the ledge right now. I watched them for a good 15 minutes and I’m pretty sure one was our resident male unless mom has something she’d like to share with me
The noise is still ongoing and expected to last until 4:30 pm both today and tomorrow. I just went out to do another check and only Angel is out back now, no sign of Elena or Jack at all. Mom flew around in a circle for me but the planes start coming back and she immediately landed on the ledge again. I will check on them when I leave the office.
At least I know what to do the next time I’m worried Jack is missing, I’ll just call out the army (sorry Mel)!
What a sight this morning, Angel on the corner of the East Tower and Elena on the corner of the West Tower. I could see them from two blocks away - these two large females both in exactly the same positions facing each other across the towers!
Yesterday morning both of them were on the sign perched together eating breakfast and then Angel flew off to her cam eventually and Elena flew to a ledge on the back of the nest site building to get some shade.
From my point of view, it’s been an absolute delight to watch both Angel and Elena still interacting at this late date. It’s like they are sisters hanging out together. Last year the juvies were dispered by this time with occassional sightings every few weeks but this is the first time I’ve seen one stay so close to home. More interesting is that Angel is not only tolerating her presence but seems to be enjoying it. Perhaps because Jack has not been around, she appreciates having an extra pair of talons to protect her site or perhaps this type of behaviour goes on more than we think in urban settings. I know at certain nest sites in Europe, juveniles returning the next Spring were not only tolerated but in one case in the UK - the previous years female offspring was actually allowed to help in the feeding of mom’s current offspring which previously had been unheard of! I expect Elena will leave soon though in order to migrate..we’ll have to see and if she does, she will certainly benefit from this additional time spent with Angel learning to hone her skills.
I had a report late last night that someone has spotted Jack, our resident male over the past 4-5 days near the residential site. Perhaps given that it’s migration season he’s positioned himself between his two territories so he can ensure that no other falcon wandering through the area gets any ideas about trying for one of his sites! As I mentioned before he has apparently bonded with the female at a private site this summer after her mate was seriously injured during nesting season.
I have done some research on ‘bigamous’ male falcons and have found a few interesting papers written by US biologists and it seems it has to do with ‘territory’ and nothing to do with wanting two mates! In all cases reported - a male at an adjoining site had been injured and/or disappeared and the male at the adjoining nest site saw it as an opportunity to either expand his territory or reclaim what had originally been part of his existing territory. Unfortunately the rate of success for maintaining two nest sites and successfully raising two sets of eyases is not very good and those that have succeeded had only done so with the assistance of humans.
It will be interesting to see whether or not he can keep both sites and if he does - what will happen next Spring if the residential male is recovered and released. Never a dull moment in the Falcon World!
Jack (the resident male) has not been seen at all since the violent storm and tornado’s we had. Although sightings of him had been infrequent prior to the storm, he was usually around after bad weather and would spend a few days at this nest site.
In another interesting turn of events, Elena - our female juvenile can now be seen almost daily since the storm perching on Jack’s usual spot. Early mornings usually finds her and Angel having breakfast together or sitting quietly together. Both male juveniles have been gone for a few weeks now, out exploring the world no doubt and I had assumed that Elena had gone with them but she turned up the morning after the storm and has been seen daily since then.
Angel has been out hunting and defending the territory on her own lately. The other day I witnessed her attacking a very large bird - they were both too far up for me to identify the possible predator without binoculars - but the other bird didn’t even flinch when she started diving at it. She did succeed in driving it out however it was more like he just leisurely flew out as she kacked and attacked. The other bird was much larger than she was.
I have also observed that she has been having some difficulty maintaining her balance lately - I’m not sure if she has injured one of her talons but even when she lands on the cam, she has trouble securing herself and yesterday spent several minutes trying to get herself into place.
This morning Angel is nowhere to be seen as of yet, out getting breakfast no doubt and Elena is on Jack’s usual perch.