Additional Observations on Holcim
May 01, 2015 - Mississauga - Holcim
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Thank you so much to Stephanie and Armando for your observations at the Holcim facility of Caspian and her bid to reclutch with the new male on site. Bruce Massey and I have been going down and doing site checks from Avonhead Road as often as we can since Storm was recovered deceased not far from the site. Here is a few of the notable observations we have witnessed.
April 7th - a new male is spotted at the Holcim facility with Caspian. He is an Ontario banded male with yellow tape on his USFW and the most distinctive feature is that he is immature. He is still donning juvenile plumage as his molt into subadult phase has yet to begin. He is seen here until Saturday April 11th.
April 18th - there is a new male on site with Caspian and he is in adult plumage. He has a silver USFW band and a solid black recovery band. Caspian is more accepting of this male and is not aggressively chasing him away. Both birds are visiting the old nest box located on an east ledge in the heart of the plant. She is entering and scraping while he has yet to enter the box. Neither bird is incubating the eggs laid while Caspian was paired with Storm.
April 20th - Caspian and the new male were witnessed copulating and there has been no further sighting of the immature male. Both are seen at the old nest box and at the most current nest ledge on the south side of the tall silos.
April 25th - Bruce Massey had the opportunity to get a partial band number off of the male. The top letter is an R and there is a double digit on the bottom. The first digit is a 4. A bird is spotted at the old nest box and it is not Caspian but an immature FEMALE. She is banded but way too distant to tell color or numbers with any certainty. The new resident adult male is stooping her and aggressively chasing her. When he broke off the attacks at the nest box and flew over to rest on the current nest ledge, the immature female attempted to join him there. Caspian (confirmed by band) came out of nowhere and actively chased her. It is the last time we have seen the immature female on site. New behavior from the male included food transfers to Caspian and defense of territory. Even though they both went into the current nest ledge on the south side of the tall silos for brief periods, neither bird was incubating or out of sight for any length of time.
April 28th - Incubation behavior has begun and a new egg was confirmed by Armando (thank you so much!). I suspected that an egg had arrived based on observations of the current nest ledge. Only one bird at a time is visible and when one adult disappears onto the ledge it is down and out of sight for extended periods. Copulation continues on this day so the clutch is in the making but not complete.
April 30th - From 11:00am to 1:30pm Caspian was down on the nest ledge incubating. The male was active but did not come close enough or long enough for a full band read. I can confirm the solid black recovery band and the R over 4 ?. The second digit remains unknown. The adult male was incredibly busy. He chased off a third peregrine that was not looking for a serious fight, brought in a pigeon for the pair to share and attacked a Turkey vulture floating through. He took over incubation for Caspian at 2pm.
It looks like there is still hope for a hatch this year at the Holcim site and we will continue to work on identifying the new male with Caspian. Again, a huge thank you to Armando and the staff at Holcim for all of their help tracking this seasons changes and progress.