Thank you to SGB over at BCAW for catching these great photos..we have had a hatch this morning at MEC !!!
Attached are two screen caps of the new baby and proud parents!
Wednesday April 2rd - 2014 - 12 Noon Update
A quickly look-in at the T & RM to see if they have any eggs. Nothing spotted yet as of 12:50pm this afternoon. While both resident adults were observed on the nest ledge and RM poised in the nest tray itself, moments after snapping these photos, both birds took flight giving us a close-up view of the nest tray.
No eggs, as yet.
Stay tuned………
Heh..well better late than never. Egg #3 has just arrived in the past 15 minutes!
The past 2 days O’Connor and Jack seem to be sitting tight on their 2 eggs during the day but overnight and in the early mornings no one has been on the eggs. I am still only seeing 2 eggs in the nest box and given their behaviour I”m inclined to think there really are only 2.
After consulting with our CPF expert, she suggested they may be delaying due to the weather. As I came in a few minutes ago, Jack had just arrived and I observed some mating on the condo tower. So we wait. It really has been a cold Spring and the temperature fluctuations will no doubt affect all our nest sites this year.
March 31st - 2014
I was able to spend several hours down at the Hearn plant on Unwin Ave this evening and spotted both the resident adults on site moments after my arrival. For the next several hours, (until 8pm and my light faded), both birds were in full view for the most parts in their usual roosting spots with multiple computations observed.
While I was unable to identify leg band numbers or colours due to the distances involved, I was able to confirm that the resident adult female is NOT banded. Sadly, the resident adult male never came lower than the mid elevation of the superstructure, and due to the poor lighting conditions, there was no way of getting close enough to him even with a 75 power spotting scope eyepiece to see if he was banded, let alone actually identifying any leg band digits.
As you can see by the attached photos of the resident adult female, both of her legs are void of any leg bands. The resident adult male of the last few years at Hearn was a Black Banded male named Peter that was produced in Hamilton Ontario, at the Hamilton Sheraton Hotel nest site. We are looking to confirm his leg band number to see if it is still Peter. He dawns a solid Black recovery band on one leg and the usual Silver USFW band on the other leg.
Throughout my observations, the resident adult male went on several hunts, and was successful on two occasions in his efforts in capturing and killing food. He brought food into the female and dined on the second kill himself.
Even after a big meal and several copulations, the female did not give up the location where she intends to lay her eggs as she was visible throughout my entire observation period.
Its going to take a few more visits and some very close observations to find out where she has decided to lay her eggs!
Egg production is close, as they are busy copulating and egg fertilization and egg laying is very close!
Looking for any and all assistance if you are down at the Hearn location to do some observations and let us know what you are seeing…..
Stay tuned, more to come………..
Tiago and Rhea Mae on the Sheraton tray at 09:15 this morning.
Sometime between 4 pm yesterday and this morning, one egg seems to have been disposed of by our resident pair. As of this morning, we have 2 eggs at MEC. Thank you to DEF from BCAW for alerting me to this development.
