Kitty over at Rfalcon caught a quick shift change at 4:25 pm and Rhea Mae and Tiago now have four eggs!
Let the incubation begin!!
At approximately 1:38 EST, Quest stepped away from the nest box and DutchEagleFan was able to capture this confirmation of 4 eggs for Quest and Kendal!
Once again a debt of thanks to DutchEagleFan for catching Erin off the eggs this morning to show her that egg #4 has arrived!!
Another stop on my rounds today was at the ICICI nest site at Don Mills and Eglinton to check in on Chester and his lovely lady. Upon arrival, Chester was sitting on the west side on top of the security camera arm and it wasn’t long before he was off. We checked in with security and waited around for Chester to return. Seeing as it looked like he was on a hunt, he would be returning soon with food for his lady and the nest ledge, if she was in fact in there, would be confirmed.
It didn’t take long before Chester returned and announced his presence before flying right into the eastern ledge into the back left corner. He emerged from there after only a moment and the female now appeared on the edge. She flew off the ledge and over to the De Beers north sign and waited for Chester for mating. At the last minute, he veered off when he realized there just wasn’t enough room for the two of them up there and he flew back over to the roof of ICICI. He was off again fairly quickly to the southwest and the female remained preening on De Beers. It would appear that if they don’t already have an egg, one is on the way. I would bet there is at least one as the female was in and out of sight for the first 30 minutes we were there.
All photos by Tracy Simpson
Yesterday I stopped down at the Hearn Generating Station to check in on the progress Peter is making with his new unbanded bride. When I arrived, Peter was on one of the rooftop pipes preening while the female was nowhere to be seen. I watched as Peter glanced down at the roof and discovered that in fact his female was lying down just to the right of his perch. The pair remained in their positions for the next 30 minutes and then Peter was off like a shot to the east. A Red Tailed hawk who had been roosting in a tree made a move to the air and Peter was on it in seconds. He put the hawk down on the ground before returning for some recon circling of the stack. After a half a dozen revolutions, Peter went into a power dive and swooped above the rooftop of the plant. This brought his female to her feet and he flew in for mating. The female remained on the roof top while Peter returned to the same elevation about 20 feet west of her. After 10 minutes he was again off like a shot, this time to the south. We tracked him until he was just over the marina and found him dive bombing a juvenile Harrier who was looking to get out of Dodge!! The Harrier inverted several times to meet Peter talon to talon and took the Red Tailed’s advice and grounded himself. Peter quickly returned to his lady and was back on the rooftop once more. What has us believing that she has at least one or two eggs on the roof is that she waddled back over to her initial position and then made the tail dipping motion indicative of an adult with eggs. She was about to lay down when… …you guessed it… …Peter was off like a shot again. This time we were unsure as to what had caught his eye but he was circling the stack for over 5 minutes before landing on one of the upper strobe lights.
Peter is absolutely on high red alert right now and doing an awesome job of it. To his credit he has recently downed two RT hawks and a Harrier. No fear here and on a mission!! The female’s choice of nest site is really poor. She is fully exposed to the elements and all aerial predators not to mention all the climbers around the plant such as raccoons and rats. Unfortunately the plant is not in any certified safe condition to allow access for installation of a box or any other nest substrate for her to use. We will continue to monitor the progress of this pair and talons crossed they will succeed in producing young this year.
All photos by Tracy Simpson
I have been struggling to write this post as it is such an unbelievable and complex story. Two sites intertwined with adults missing, moving, lost and found. Phew! What a tale. A long story but a must read. The timeline goes like this;
Fast forward to this past Thursday April 5th…
As reported earlier, I stopped in and spoke with Ross at Environmental Services and learned that the first egg was in seen the tray on Wednesday. I travelled upstairs to the monitor for a quick look and there were now two eggs. Given that the interval for egg laying is about 48 hours, that dates the first egg laid as April 2nd. Back outside, I see the male on the eastern nest ledge to the south of the sign. I report that he is babysitting and I must tell you, I resisted the temptation to compare this male to Hurricane. He was sitting in the EXACT same spot as Hurricane always did when it was his turn to watch the kids and doing the EXACT same thing, sleeping. Not wanting to dwell on the past, I ignored my instinct that told me that something was different. Still, I was back the next day, Friday, as this was nagging at me. The bird looked different ( very dark helmet head), acted different (calm, quiet) and had a familiar “feel” about him. I wanted to confirm his band number.
On Friday, things took a turn for the bizarre. I found the male at 4pm on the edge of the nest tray facing south and sleeping. Boy did this ever remind me of Hurricane. Chessie was on the southern “H” and had just finished eating. She flew up to the southeast corner of the rooftop and was poking around up there for a good 10 minutes. She then took to the air and landed on the southeast corner of the nest ledge. The male was off the tray and flew in to mate with her. The pair then took to the air and spent the next 20 minutes in aerial courtship. What? Aren’t we past this? We’re doing the egg thing now. Bonds are set. Watching the flights of the male, he is clearly not Casper. This male was flying around the building at mach 10 with incredible control and when he hit the winds, not even the slightest wing quiver could be seen. This guy was seasoned. He took off on a hunt and was back in 10 minutes with food. Even though Chessie was full, she still chased him around the building and he was easily outflying her. He drew her in to the northern “H” with food and the pair sat on the sign together for a few minutes. Chessie then returned to the southeast corner and the male cached the food and was back on the tray. She sat staring at him on the edge of that tray for over 40 minutes. He made no move to incubate or attend to the eggs in the tray at all and she just sat and stared. She was not aggressive nor concerned, I would say more confused than anything. He flew off the tray around 7pm with her following and again, another incredible tandem flight display of soaring, dives and chases. He landed on the northern “H” to eat and Chessie bombed into the nest tray to lay down on the eggs. As the male ate, I snapped pictures. Although not completely clear, I could see a familiar line that we only see on three character recovery bands. These bands are older indicating that this was an older bird. Fits with what I’d been seeing of his flights. I could almost make out the 5 on top and the X on the bottom but before I could tell the world what I knew in my heart, I had to confirm this 100%. Bruce was dispatched that night to attend Saturday morning with me and we weren’t leaving without full confirmation.
Yesterday, the pair were in fine form together. The male was in the east tower and Chessie was in the nest tray. Bruce was able to confirm through scope view that indeed the bottom letter of the band was a singular X and that a line appeared above it. I wanted to be doubly sure and so we kept watching. Chessie came howling out of the tray to the southeast after a Red Tailed hawk that was wandering too close while the male flew recon around the hospital. This is the second time that the pair defended against another raptor that morning and the male was in full support of her. She returned to one of the antennas on the top of the building and he flew in to mate with her. It was like watching courtship all over again. He hunted for her, flew with her, mated with her and was clearly bonding with her. This male, without any doubt as the band was now clearly read as a solid black three character band with 5 over X, is Hurricane.
When this change happened, I can’t say. It is recent though. Casper was last seen on March 27th and photographed at that time. Where is he now? Where has Hurricane been? Migration is not likely as he has never done it before and starting now doesn’t make sense. The idea that a territorial male, who was now without a female and less than 5km away, came and challenged Hurricane for his site and won the day a few months ago makes some sense of this. Its possible that an injury kept him away for the past three months while he healed.
Bruce and I will continue to look out for Casper in the hopes of finding him well. With a mixture of elation at what we’ve found and the sadness of what we’ve lost all rolled up into a ball of “What on earth is going on???” we welcome you home Hurricane. Now quit messing with me old man!!!!
About 630pm Kendal brought in a snack for Quest and this allowed a view of all 3 of their eggs!
Getting a nice clear view of three eggs this morning for Rhea Mae and Tiago!!
April 5th -2013
It might appear that Madame-X (and her mate Surge) are finally getting much closer to producing their first egg at the Hamilton Sheraton Hotel!
Reports streaming in would suggest that she is remained much closer to her scrape and nest bowl and that would suggest that she is egg bound.
Stay tuned for updated news……
Thanks to the ‘eagle’ eye of Dutch Eagle Fan who caught this capture at 6:22 am of three eggs at King St!
It’s been a challenge due to the weather to try and get egg counts!
