Bird of prey at Islington station kiss and ride

[weasie]

Yesterday around 5 pm, I was waiting for my husband to pick me up at the Islington TTC kiss and ride. It was quite a windy day and all of a sudden I noticed what I thought were small white pieces of paper blowing across the platform. The weird thing was that the white paper had black around the outside. I thought someone was burning paper in the parking lot or something.

Seconds later, another waft of these bits floated through the air. I then realised that they were small feathers. I finally found the source.

Up on one of the parking lot light standards was a medium-sized bird with grey feathers (with his/her back to me). It had a striped head. The bird would look to the left, look to the right and then his head would dip down and these feathers would come floating down. It hit me that I was watching some sort of hawk or falcon feasting on another bird ~ likely a pigeon as they congregate at that TTC station.

Any guesses as to what kind of bird of prey it was?

P.S. I'm thrilled to have found this forum!

[Rotarran]

Sounds like Peregrine falcon.

Not my picture:

[weasie]

Thank you, Rotarren. That looks like the bird I saw.

I thought it may be a falcon, but it wasn't mantling, which I thought was typical behaviour of falcons. Also, I didn't think a falcon would be in such a busy urban environment.

Great photo, even if you didn't take it.

[Irene]

The Peregrine Falcons a nest at Islington at Bloor in the tall buildings.
Check out the latest news at http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/

It has been confirmed they have 3 hatchlings-exciting news!