Hamilton falcon chicks fail to hatch and there’s drama on the Sheraton ledge
Downtown Hamilton's skies will be more (or oddly less) empty this spring as the clutch of falcon eggs on the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel ledge have failed to hatch.
But don't be completely dismayed, as the cast of peregrines has otherwise grown to include a new adult, or perhaps adults.
The raptor ruckus started on May 8. While the resident adult female peregrine Lily was brooding her eggs, another adult - one that wasn't her male pair Ossie - landed on a nearby Sheraton ledge.
That day, Hamilton Community Peregrine Project falcon watchers were still hopeful that hungry newly hatched nestlings would appear on the 18th-floor ledge. On their blog, project co-ordinators had estimated that hatching day should be around May 7.
Falcon watchers identified the new arrival as a peregrine born in 2018 in Buffalo named Judson, and they wrote in a delightful turn of events," one of Judson's parents was born in 2012 in Hamilton. At the time, they suspected Ossie may have lost a territorial battle to the new raptor.
By May 15, momma bird Lily was spending less and less time caring for her eggs. Falcon watchers wrote that it was likely she accepted that they would not hatch. This is not uncommon, Lily and Ossie's eggs failed to hatch in both 2017 and 2019. But between 1995 and 2020 a total of 64 chicks fledged from the Sheraton nest.
Falcon watch co-ordinators also offered a small ray of hope" that Lily would accept Judson and they would try for a second clutch of eggs.
But things are not (yet) smooth sailing," co-ordinators wrote. A third bird was spotted spending time on the BDC building and at one point all three birds were seen flying together.
There was even more drama in the skies after a fourth peregrine was reported flying away from downtown Hamilton.
It is so far unknown if the third wheel is Ossie, making another play for his territory, or perhaps another female bird in this menage a trois.
In the 2020 season, two offspring of Lily and Ossie hatched in the Sheraton nest. The Spectator reported that female chick, Whitehern, fledged successfully, but her brother Griffin had collided with a building and was feared dead.
But later, Hamilton Community Peregrine Project received word that Griffin was spotted hopping on a cliff near Lake Ontario.
Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com