This is a rare post that isn’t directly about programming or technology, but I wanted to pay tribute to a truly fascinating web site put together by a fellow resident of our highrise in west Toronto.
Back in late March we were surprised to find that our building had become home to a couple of ornithological celebrities: two peregrine falcons. These birds are an endangered species in Canada (and many other parts of the world), nearly wiped out in the 1970s by DDT poisoning. Since they love high perches and pigeons, peregrines are not uncommon residents in large cities, and the Canadian Peregrine Foundation’s web site lists a number of nests in the Greater Toronto Area. For whatever reason, though, it is rare for these birds to choose a residential building as their nest site. Ours is the only such building in Toronto, and one of only 2 in the province. It’s our building’s biggest claim to fame since Blue Jays’ shortstop Luis Sojo lived here in the 90s.
Over the past few months we’ve enjoyed following the comings and goings (at up to 200 km/h) of our new neighbours, through bad times (they abandoned their first nest after all of the eggs failed to hatch) and good (they went 3 for 3 with the eggs in their second nest). You can follow them too, thanks to the Peregrine Falcon Zone 2008 web site set up by building resident Matthew Rossi.
When the falcon’s second batch of eggs approached their due date, Matthew began adding daily nest observations to go with the photos, including the drama of the 1st hatching (after a night of near-biblical rainfall), the 2nd later the same day and, after a tense 24 hours of watching the last egg lie unincubated, the third.
This weekend live video was added to the site. Since the nest is on the north tip of the building and the protective parents made it unadvisable to setup a camera on the roof or a nearby ledge, the video is being shot from a camera outfitted with a high zoom lens positioned inside another building. Throw in the additional challenge of compensating for the glare off the concrete building and the shadows cast by the side of the ledge, and the resulting video quality is amazing, much better than I can get with my 8×40 binoculars.
Matthew recently gave the site a graphic redesign to make it, in my humble opinion, the best peregrine falcon site on the Web. Check it out! Then come back in a few days and check again — those little suckers are growing up fast.
