MEC; One Step Closer to Unravelling the Mystery
August 01, 2012 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Yesterday I attended the Mississauga Executive Centre nest site to confirm the resident adults identities. When I arrived, I found the adult female on the northeast corner of MEC 2 digesting a rather large crop. I was able to confirm right away that this female has a purple USFW band on her right leg and a black over green recovery band on her left. She is the new resident female at the MEC site and this is her domain. My next challenge was to try and read her recovery band and put a name to a face. I left MEC 2 for a higher elevation and sat watching her for several hours. She remained on her perch at MEC 2 and Sante, the unbanded resident male, spent the entire time over at the nest building to the side of the nest box. Periodically, she would look my way to see what I was up to but was undisturbed that I had gained some altitude. Occasionally she would whine at Sante but stayed unmoved from her perch. I stayed until I felt like I’d blown a retina staring at her through the scope but not once did she give me even a hint of who she is. Every time she stretched her recovery band forward, she would immediately bend down to preen her leg feathers and obscure the view. By 8:45pm, I left the resident adults to their evening preen and headed off north on Hurontario to see if I could catch a glimpse of the adult female hanging around at the Eglinton condo complex. I was able to confirm the other day that she is in fact a different female with a black over red recovery band on her left leg. I took a quick swing by the condos for a fast look but was unable to find her in the maze of ledges that each building contains.
From there I headed further north to Brittania Rd and Hurontario…. …but that’s another story!!!