Hamilton. ON. June 27, 2024. This is just one of those totally unexpected and serendipitous urban sightings. My companion and I were on a catch-up lunch, two birders with lots to share and cross-check. We were both going easy on the alcohol and neither of us had ordered a particularly large lunch, but all was well we had a shady spot in a large and open patio alongside a busy street.
I have no recollection of who was where in his story when we were simultaneously distracted by small background sounds, non-urban sounds that rose above the clatter. Almost in unison we said “Peregrine Falcon?” and looked up. Two young falcons swept low across the open sky, almost in formation and calling a scratchy “chrea chrea chrea”as they passed. Then as if to impress anyone who cared, the two banked left into a u-turn and did a low overhead fly-past. And that was it. We were impressed and thrilled while none of the other lunchtime diners showed any interest so, we kept it to ourselves, Barry said he’d do an e-Bird report and I made a mental note about this spontaneous Birds of the Day.