Nature Notes for January 20, 2012
We were standing near the mouth of the Ganaraska River
checking out the gulls roosting on the
jetties that bracket the river mouth. For no good reason, I
looked down at the ground. There beside my husband’s right toe was the carcass
of a Long-tailed Duck.
All that was left of the duck was the breast bone and the
wings, with one foot lying nearby. This was a sure sign of a Peregrine kill.
Peregrines feed almost exclusively on birds which they capture in flight.
Before eating them, they pluck the breast feathers. They typically feed by stripping
off the breast muscle.
Although we didn’t see the Peregrine that day, one had been
seen in the area the week before. It was probably the most interesting bird
seen during the Mid-winter Waterfowl Inventory on January 8.
Perhaps it will spend the winter here. There is certainly
adequate prey. Downtown Port Hope has a good supply of pigeons and there are
many ducks of a variety of species on Lake Ontario around the river mouth.
In winter 2010/2011, a satellite tagged Peregrine spent most
of the winter at Prince Edward Point, the far southeast corner of Prince Edward
County. This bird, named Quest, hatched in Rochester and was fitted with a
satellite transmitter there when she was banded.
Because of the transmitter, she could be tracked. Over the
course of several years, she made a trip to the east coast, but spent most of
her time wandering around southern Ontario. In summer 2010, she could often be
found around the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The tall buildings there
were suitable “cliffs” for hunting perches and there was some hope that she
might find a mate and nest there.
She wandered quite widely. I saw her myself on two
occasions, in June 2009 and 2010, at the Wesleyville Ontario Power Generation
property.
She had her own ideas about setting up housekeeping. In
2011, she found a mate and settled into a ledge on an office tower in North
York. The best views of the nest were from the headquarters of Harlequin
Romance novels in Don Mills. Her mate was also a young bird, nesting for the
first time, so observers on the ground were a bit anxious as to whether they
would know what to do.
This pair did nest successfully in 2011, fledging one chick.
It was named Harley (for Harlequin).
Peregrine Falcons were decimated during the middle of the
twentieth century when DDT use was common. Because they range so widely and
some winter in South American where DDT and other toxic chemicals are still
used, the recovery of this species has been quite slow.
They do not breed until they are four or five years old and
they don’t have very many young per year. This also makes for a slow population
recovery.
The natural nesting habitat of Peregrines are cliff faces.
This provides some protection from predators on the eggs and young. Humans have
provided an abundance of artificial cliffs in the form of high rise buildings.
Now this falcon is nesting in places that it didn’t ever nest historically.
Along with these artificial cliffs, urban areas often provide an abundant
supply of food in the form of pigeons.
People really like this species, so are quite willing to
volunteer to mount “fledge watches”. Newly fledged Peregrines need to practise
flying and have been known to crash onto streetcar tracks or busy roads and
need rescuing.
Perhaps the Port Hope bird will stick around and one day
find a mate and a nesting site in the area. It would be quite exciting to have
this bird present on a regular basis.
For more information about Peregrines, check out the web
site of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, www.peregrine-foundation.ca
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