!!! No Sign of Eggs Yet!
March 26, 2010 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
While early last week it looked like our resident pair were about to take the next step in their courtship..things abruptly came to a halt suddenly mid week. Suddenly here was barely any sign of either falcon and if they were sighted, it was only the female usually on her own waiting for her mate. It was eerily quiet and having had reports in the area of another male and multiple falcon sightings we were a bit concerned.
On Wednesday of this week Frank and I ascended to a nearby building in order to try and get a look in the nest box as given the prior behaviour we thought surely there might be one egg. It was a beautiful day and although we couldnt’ see directly into the nestbox due to the high edges - it was obvious there weren’t any eggs as no one arrived for at least an hour. We would have expected someone to be in the vicinity in case of an intruder but we were met with silence. After awhile Jack did show up and he did call for his mate and then proceeded to stare at us staring at him and then decided we weren’t that interesting so off he went. From photos and coordinating with the TR site we were able to determine it was indeed Jack we were staring at that day so that was a relief.
The female showed up once we had descended to the ground so at least we knew both were still in the area. It’s quite possible that the recent northward migration brought new falcons into the area and perhaps they were occupied with giving them directions elsewhere for a few days.
The past two days both male and female have been onsite and today courtship seems to have resumed as if the past several days never happened. I witnessed some mating, flying together, the male brought food in for the female and both were in the nestbox several times chupping up a storm. And Jack even found time to visit his ‘other’ wife.
It is impossible to determine when or if we will see eggs given he is the male at both sites, sometimes tiercels can do this successfully and other times not so we will continue to monitor both locations and hope for the best.