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Second Pair in Windsor Cross Border Shopping!
December 15, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
After visiting with Freddie and Voltaire at the Ambassador Bridge, Bruce and I travelled north through town to check out the area for the new pair that arrived in Windsor this spring. They did successfully produce at least two young but have since changed their site of interest. Initially their focus was on a communications tower at the Windsor CBC and so we checked that out first. Nothing. Around we go to park on Riverside Drive for a look at their other hangouts; the Hilton, the Chrysler building and Caesars. Snake eyes… …nada. Bruce and I then started a scan of the Detroit side of the river. The crossing at this point is very narrow and we were able to easily scan the buildings and rooftops of the Detroit skyline for sitting grins. We had to keep in mind that there is a nest in Detroit on Michigan Ave at the AT&T building and so we might see active grins, but not necessarily the ones we seek. This building was readily visible from our vantage point. Funny enough, the unbanded female at AT&T Detroit is paired with a male named Bud-z. He and Freddie share the same parents ( Fury and Baltimore ) and share a hatch site in Ohio but from different years; Freddie was hatched in 2001 and Bud-z in 2000. I guess Freddie’s following in his older brother’s talon steps.
After 20 min Bruce picks up a flight on the Detroit side near the Millender Apartments of a single bird that could indeed be a peregrine. This bird flew south through the city towards the four Renaissance buildings and was followed by another bird. Definately peregrines. The pair circled around the four buildings and then like a shot, powered across the Detroit River and landed on the Chrysler building sign. We repositioned and found the female on the H and the male was already off and gone. After a minute or two we relocated the male at the Hilton flying around the rooftop. He located a cache on the SW side and then flew over to the Chrysler building to eat. We were able to confirm without a doubt that the male is unbanded. The female, who sat digesting her own enormous crop, was sitting back enough on the sign to hide her legs. When she stepped forward, we were able to see that she is banded with a Black over Red recovery band and a purple USFW. As the evening light was not the best, we were unable to read the recovery band clearly. What I can tell you is that this bird has very distinct streaking on her chest up into her crop area making her readily discernible from the male. The two sat together on the Chrysler sign for quite some time during the evening. The male was napping here and there but the female was watching the Detroit side of the river very intently. Even though she was cropped up, after 30 min the female flew off and decided to harass some pigeons on the neighboring buildings and we saw some great flights from her. She returned to the Chrysler building and the two sat close together for the next while. As dusk was approaching, the female began to vocalize and both her and the male took off after something right over our heads. We later discovered a very nervous Coopers hawk that had been hunting the lakeshore which was put down in a tree by the pair. Both the male and female did not return to the Chrysler and a scan of the area did not reveal their location.
This pair loves the Chrysler and Hilton buildings as evidenced by not only their presence but by the amount of whitewash on both buildings. The pair are also caching food on the Hilton, hunting the area and defending this section of the lakeshore. I look forward to learning who this new girl in town is and seeing where they decide to nest next year.
As a side note, on the Google Earth map I added direct lines of flight and the Chrysler building is 1.8km from the Detroit AT&T nest site and 2.7km from Freddie and Volaire.
http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/w/2012/12/sightings/second-pair-in-windsor-cross-border-shopping/ pics here
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