!!! Battle Royale for Resident Female
February 17, 2012 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill
Doug Garbutt Reports:
Today as I was leaving work at 3:30 pm I glanced at our monitor in the lunch room & noticed there were 3 adult falcons bent down facing each other squawking (1 female, 2 males). This went on for a few minutes until Trillium (our resident female) sort of backed away & the 2 males got aggressive towards each other. I’m not sure which one, but I think the resident male Buffalo Bill 68 over R chased the intruding male from the box. We thought the confrontation was over however the intruder returned. The tiercels then went at each other locking talons & pecking viciously at each other with their beaks. During the conflict, one of the birds got a talon hooked into the band of the other & they could not free themselves. The circumstance accelerated the animosity towards each other and they got even more aggressive. This went on for what seemed to be a very long time (I’m guessing 5 minutes). All the time pecking at each other. At one point, they made their way perilously close to the edge of the nest box with a sheer drop of at least 150 feet! Thankfully they did not go over the edge. The birds were becoming exhausted & at one point we thought that one was dead or severely injured as it was flat on it’s back with the other pecking at it. The bird somehow got back up and as if a miracle the talon became free and he fled the box. This was a little too much action for me because I thought that perhaps there could be serious injury to Buffalo Bill. I’m pretty sure that he was the victor but I haven’t positively ID’d him since. I think he’s OK though because the following day there were 2 falcons in the nest box for most of the day (but I couldn’t see the band colour). I’m pretty sure it’s Buffalo Bill.