Sunday June 15th at Etobicoke Sun Life. O’Connor Under Attack.
June 15, 2014 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
This past Sunday Baylie started the morning shift and noted that there was a lot of flapping on the ledge from both Sunni and Pierre and we expected that we might have a flight today. Jack arrived at 7am with a small package of food which he just dropped on the ledge and left for the kids to work out. About 15 minutes later, O’Connor flew in and began beak feeding each nestling in turn filling their crops. Kathy arrived shortly after 9am and we settled in for a long day of watching. From 7:30am until about 11:30am there was much frantic flapping on the ledge by all four little ones and it was around this time that O’Connor brought in another larger package of food. As if they now needed it, Jack flew in 15 minutes later with food and dropped for the chicks to sort out. We were joined by Rob and Angie and we all watched as the chicks worked off much of their new found energy flapping like mad. By 1pm they were spent. O’Connor flew in and landed on top of the web camera housing which now put all four chicks into nap mode. The five of them all slept the afternoon away until just before 2pm.
Just before 2pm Kathy and I were chatting away while the family slept when suddenly we heard alarm calling by O’Connor and she went after something just below her on the ledge. Before we could get binoculars up to our eyes she was in the air and after a male in aggressive pursuit. At first we thought that it was Jack who had arrived and landed on the ledge but given the behaviour that Kathy and I were now seeing, we were sure we had an intruder. What made this most unusual is that the male was pursing O’Connor with ferocity. He made a pass at the ledge and she went absolutely crazy on this male. The two of them spent almost an hour in the air stooping and diving, most often initiated by the male. After reviewing many, many photos of the incident I could see that this bird has a solid black recovery band on his left leg and a silver USFW band on the right. This is contrary to Jack as he is banded backwards which is always the first clue we look for when confirming Jack’s identity. This bird was not Jack. After 3pm O’Connor had finally had enough of this male and chased him way off to the southeast and out of the territory for good… …at least for now.
By 4:30pm Jack had flown in to the retaining wall above the nest ledge (his ID was confirmed) and he was looking off to the southeast with serious intent. He was stretched up, slicked down and neck craned in the direction that O’Connor had chased the intruding male and we believe that he could see him. At this point O’Connor was in the ledge to the right of the nest ledge and once Jack arrived, she relaxed for the first time in hours. Jack retrieved a cache which he took to the ledge and left for the kids after which he flew a circuit around the nest building and landed on the next ledge to the right of O’Connor. Unlike Jack’s behaviour as of late, he stayed and let O’Connor rest for over 20 minutes before taking off and stooping the Kingsway tower rooftop. He was able to grab a small bird that he then cached it before taking off and out of sight to the north. All was calm again at the nest ledge and by 6pm Jack had once again returned. He spent most of his time doing recon flights around all three towers before once again disappearing north. The rest of the evening was spent watching the chicks flapping like mad as O’Connor went shopping for the evening meal that she beak fed to the young ones before putting them to bed.
Thank you to all that came out today to help watching the Etobicoke Sun Life family. You are the best team for the job and this couldn’t be such a positive watch without you. A special thanks to Baylie for her early morning checks, Rob and Angie for joining us and feeding us, Jim for checking in with his wife, Kathy who is the backbone of the watch and Bob for his check ins as well.
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