I've been meaning to post about this site. It was previously called the Sun Life Building but new ownership has renamed it the Bloor Islington Center.
This new management have removed almost every bit of greenery on the property, paid for pigeons to be removed from the site and netted off any area where a small or medium sized bird would nest. They have also embarked on massive reconstruction to utilize every single speck of space and turn it into a rental space.
Last year they started construction on the towers mid August before the offspring of O'Connor and Lucky had dispersed resulting in early dispersal and the disappearance of O'Connor. She was never one to tolerate human presence in her space and was constantly stressed out and upset and the last time I saw her she was attacking the workmen and then suddenly - poof into thin air she vanished.
A little while later an 18 month old sub adult appeared on site - she was the grand daughter of Angel and Jack, our previous pair and we were excited to have her on site. She seemed to tolerate the workers just fine at first and we were hopeful for a new start.
In February the workers again resumed work on the nest tower and continued right through what would have been courtship and mating in March - needless to say Aria - perhaps due to her inexperience was not comfortable with them in her face all the time. And in fact they were on all three towers which left the falcons no place to do their business. Then came the cold weather and the ice storm which at least drove the workers off the tower.
In mid April we saw hopeful signs that things might be getting on track when a large female came in and displaced Aria. This new female is the largest female we've ever had on site and in short order she laid 2 eggs. Two weeks later one of the eggs collapsed and she consumed it. The last egg looked like it might be good as she brought food into the nest to feed it and all signs pointed to an imminent hatch. Then the humidex hit the mid 40's right at that time and I suspect the chick perished due to the heat - it was 44 to 46 c with the humidex so I imagine trying to peck your way out of an egg in that heat may have been too much for the little one.
So for the first time in 20 years we have a failed nest. We'll see what next year brings but I"m not optimistic. The entire area surrounding us is now under construction with several 35 to 45 story condos going up across the street so it will be interesting to see if this nest continues or they move on to somewhere better.
