Falcon is looking for love
Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator.
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Dundas the falcon is looking for love
By Rob Faulkner
The Hamilton Spectator
(Mar 26, 2007)
Dundas -- the one-legged peregrine falcon born on the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel ledge -- is back, with a healthy case of spring fever.
Local birder Tom Thomas spotted the three-year-old raptor at the Burlington Lift Bridge, the first local sighting of Dundas since early 2006.
He was trying to entice a female falcon to nest -- a randy move, considering his amputated limb had nearly spelled certain doom for the bird of prey.
"He's hell-bent on nesting," said Audrey Gamble, monitor for the Hamilton Community Peregrine Project. "His hormones are in the right place."
Dundas was born with three sisters on the Sheraton in 2004, to longtime resident Madame X.
A rascal, he loved diving low into narrow spots, emerging unscathed. But in fall 2004, he was seen with a stump for a leg. It seemed a death sentence.
Falcons need both feet to mate, fight and hunt and live to age 12.
But Dundas was resourceful.
By 2005 he was living in the Old Navy sign at Lime Ridge Mall, perfecting a technique that saw him chase pigeons into the glass, then balance on one foot to tear them into bite-sized pieces.
Thomas, a retired realtor from Carlisle, hopes the blue-grey raptor has taken up residence at the bridge for nesting. His photographs of Dundas there have excited the birding community. The last notable Dundas sighting was in Kitchener last June, when he had a female companion.
Dundas hasn't been able to start a nest, leading some to wonder if he, or his mates, are infertile.
"Everything else seems to be right on track, except for the foot," Gamble says. She speculates that Dundas may have explored a farmer's leghold trap too closely, but it's uncertain.
Now he's ready to nest. Unlike songbirds, peregrines don't build fancy nests. They find a flat spot, like a bridge girder or a gravel bed scrape.
This winter, several peregrine falcons have been flirting at the Lift Bridge.
It's a common spot for falcons coming back north, like a man-made cliff ledge.
"The timing is right on par. The birds downtown have been mating and we are expecting an egg anytime now," said Gamble.
The first egg last year was spotted March 29 and the first chicks are hatched around Mother's Day.
If Dundas the one-legged lover was successful in mating, an egg would appear in two weeks. But the trick, Gamble says, is whether he can balance on the female to get the job done.
"With only one foot, I wonder how he's going to do that. One biologist said the process is so quick. I think he'll be able to manage."
rfaulkner@thespec.com
905-526-2468
HOW TO SPOT A RAPTOR
* Long, pointed wings. Strong flying ability with speeds up to 320 km/h * Prefer tall perches and ledges. Have a piercing call * Head feathers look like a dark hood with chinstraps. Dark blue-grey back and rump but white under throat, wings and chest * Young hatchlings fluffy and white * Attack prey in mid-air. Eat gulls, pigeons, doves, waterfowl, shore birds, sometimes songbirds * See Sheraton nest live at hamiltonnature.org/hamfalcam.html
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Photo- Falcon sitting on a cable at the lift Bridge, not the best picture but can see that it does have only one leg. Another great article from Rob Faulkner.
(To view the full photo, place cursor over openned picture, then click on the expand icon that will appear on the bottom right.)
