Saturday April 11th at Holcim
April 12, 2015 - Mississauga - Holcim
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I arrived at Avonhead Road in the morning and found Caspian and the young male flying through the centre of the plant. It was clear that the chases going on were not entirely aggressive nor were they friendly. It seemed as though they were getting to know each other and setting some boundaries. Caspian broke away from the aerial chase and landed on the southeast corner of the nest ledge but made no move to enter and cover the eggs. The male landed on the main building in the plant on the southeast corner. The pair stared at each other from their respective perches for almost 20 minutes and then the male took off. All of his flights for the next 10 minutes were around the main building in the plant which he circled half a dozen times before landing again on the top of the structure. Caspian flew over and landed on the corner of the main building that the male had just left and he began stooping her as she sat. She didn’t move for quite some time until the male decided to find a perch of his own. He circled for about 5 minutes and finally landed on a light half way up the tallest stack in the plant. He stayed there for about 5 minutes and then was off in a stoop to the north. Caspian followed and the two disappeared from my sight.
Caspian returned to the main plant area but this time to a spot I did not anticipate; the old nest box on the east side of the main building. She entered the box and vocalized drawing the male in to investigate. He landed on top of the nest box and the two were vocalizing back and forth for a few minutes. He was the first to take off and she bolted out of the box in pursuit. It was an aggressive gesture but she did not make contact, just drove him out. She flew back and landed on the southeast corner of the main building and he continued to circle, stoop and finally decided to soar above the plant. And soar he did. It took him about 10 minutes of soaring and circling but he succeeded in reaching his goal… …the very top of the tall stack in the heart of the plant. Just below the opening at the top of the stack is an enormous steel ring (for lack of a better description) and he landed neatly on the top lip of that ring. Impressive. He stayed for about 15 minutes and was off again to the main building stooping her on her corner. He gave up trying to drive her off and into the air and flew over to the Avonhead side of the plant landing on the nest ledge. Caspian was off like a shot and landed right in front of him. She aggressively drove him off of the ledge and he disappeared from view. She stayed on the nest ledge for about 30 minutes before taking off again and at no time did she step back onto the ledge to the eggs. She flew back over to the old nest box and once again entered. She stayed for almost 20 minutes; in and scraping then out on the porch roosting. He didn’t visit her there this time but instead continued his flights around the main structure. After about 3 hours I left these two to continue to sort things out.
One thing I can say for sure is that in the three hours I was there that Caspian is still on site and I once again confirmed that it was her. She has abandoned the clutch of four eggs she was incubating, most likely during the intense rainfall we had on Thursday night. The young immature male is still very much in the territory and I again confirmed his age through plumage. I am also fully confident that he is the male I saw on April 7th with a solid black recovery band and yellow tape over his USFW band as I was able to see these features as well. All of their attention is focused on each other and working out their partnership in the territory. Several Turkey vultures, Red tailed hawks and one Harrier came right through the plant and drew no attention from either bird; they were fixated on each other. Bruce Massey will be going down today (Sunday) to continue the observations of the pair and attempt to read the band on the immature male if he comes close enough.
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