HOSPITAL TWEETS
Offspring of rare, at-risk falcon rescued from window well at Mount Sinai,
Births at Mount Sinai Hospital are a normal occurrence — but it’s not every day that the hospital congratulates a new father with feathers.
Hunter, a 17-year-old peregrine falcon, along with his mate, welcomed three baby birds to his nest last week.
On Thursday, one of the baby falcons got stuck in a maintenance window well nearby while learning how to fly, which could have spelled death for it if not for some quick thinking.
Tracy Simpson, a volunteer with the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, retrieved the bird from the well with the help of Mark McCormick, the head of security at the hospital.
“We often go out on a limb for our patients; this is the first time we’ve had to go over the ledge for them,” McCormick said.
Peregrine falcons have called Mount Sinai home since the late 1990s, but Hunter’s kin are the first in about eight years to experience a successful birth.
They are a species at risk, and baby falcons have a natural mortality rate of 80 per cent.
That means every newborn’s care takes on a heightened importance.
The hospital is running a contest for staff to help pick a name for one of the newborn birds. (McCormick favours “Mallory.”)
“One of the old German roots of the word is war counsellor and with her dad named Hunter, I thought Mallory is a really nice name,” he said.
Hunter’s story is unusual. He mi- grated to Toronto from Ohio as an adult in 2001 (which can be determined by a band on his leg), settling at Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. For years, he failed to hatch eggs with his mate Ranger, a native of New York.
“He is 17 years old and this is the first family for him ever,” said Simpson, who added that wild falcons usually live between 10 and 12 years.
“We have not identified the (mother). She is new. I’m trying to get a photograph of her bands to confirm her identification,” Simpson said. “What I can tell you is she’s from Ontario,” which is revealed by the solid black band she wears.
Simpson has volunteered for the foundation for 20 years and she’s spent 17 of them monitoring falcons at Mount Sinai. While she does keep a pair of binoculars and a camera with her, she can pick out Hunter from his mate and children with the naked eye.
She has been on monitoring duty every day for seven weeks in a row, while also working at a farm.
Although Simpson is a falcon expert, she rarely gets close to the birds.
“I very rarely will go up to an elevation unless I absolutely have to when the young are flying because of the danger and the risk that it poses,” she said.
Simpson explains that this is because peregrine falcons have fierce parental instincts.
“Picture a stranger in your backyard,” Simpson said. “The first thing you’re going to do is get a golf club, a nine iron, out of the house and come out and say, ‘What are you doing around my children?’ That’s analogous to how they’re feeling.”
Simpson’s passion for falcons is what drove her to start her day monitoring falcons at 5 a.m. on Thursday.
“They’re amazing in so many ways and they’re really big part of this community and really important to Mount Sinai Hospital.”