Brampton Nest Has Failed and a New Male Discovered. Its Striker!!
May 26, 2013 - Brampton - Courthouse
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Bruce and I spent several days over the past few weeks at the Brampton nest site to check in on the resident adults and their progress towards a hatch. Our goal was to confirm two important things; whether a hatch had occurred and the identities of the resident adults. While we knew that Midnight and Milton started off this season’s nest, our watchers Toivo and Grace in Brampton have noticed odd changes in behaviour and roosting sites of the resident male Milton and so we added confirmation of identities to the checklist.
On Friday May 18th, Bruce attended the site in the afternoon to check things out. When he arrived, he had both of the resident adults in view for prolonged periods of time which is uncharacteristic of adults with young. Neither of the birds entered the nest cavity where the eggs were believed to be laid on the George St condo for more than a few minutes and clearly they were not brooding or incubating. As they had already surpassed the projected hatch date of May 15th, it looked as though the nest had failed. Their chosen perch on the condo overhang is very high and therefore confirmation of the adult’s identities would take time and effort to achieve. We had to wait for the pair to come down to a lower perch for a view and we had to hope that while they were on either the BDC building or the Canacord building that they would expose their bands for us to read. That was not meant to be on Friday and so we made plans to return on Sunday May 20th for another try.
Bruce was on site in the early morning and was getting set up in Market Square when the adults came low. While the pair were on the BDC sign and quite visible, Bruce was challenged in getting set up for a view as the long weekend activity in the square was extremely busy. Once set up, as peregrines always do (to me anyways), the pair took off of the sign and returned to the high ledge of George St where they took up roosting positions for the afternoon. I arrived by midday and found the pair right where Bruce left off seeing them on the condo. I joined Bruce in the parking lot to the east of the condo where we set up camp for a good days watch. For several hours the birds slept and preened while we sweated and hoped they would soon spring to action. We talked with many of the local residents about the pair and the community is really excited about their presence. The adults moved very little from their chosen spots on the ledge with the male occasionally trying to encourage the female into the recess next to where she laid her first clutch. She was only vaguely interested and didn’t follow him in on the several attempts that were made by him to draw her in. Finally at about 4pm, the male took off on a hunt and disappeared from view. This drew off the female and the pair was airborne. I wandered over to Market Square to take a look and found that the male was hunting over by the BDC building. He landed briefly on the sign and I was able to take a few shots of him in the hopes of catching his band in the pictures. He flew off low toward the northwest and I was able to get a single shot with legs exposed but the band was not legible. After he took off I headed back over to the parking lot where Bruce was and he told me that both adults went whipping through to the northwest on a low trajectory. I know that Midnight often hunts over at the Go Station so off I went in pursuit. I struck it lucky and found the female on a low lamp standard of the Go train platform and I raced around and up the stairs to get a view. I was able to capture several shots and can confirm that Midnight is still the resident female in downtown Brampton bearing a black over red band marked 98 over E. I couldn’t find the male and so back I went to the parking lot. We waited anxiously for the return of the adults to the territory and after several hours, we finally gave up. They both had taken off to the south out of our view and we decided that the male’s identity would have to wait for another day. We headed south on Hurontario in search of the pair but did not succeed in finding them so we closed the day with both success and work left to do.
I went back to the site on Tuesday afternoon and found the pair doing what they love to do most; roosting on the George St condo overhang. They were like a pair of bookends with one on each corner. I decided that I wasn’t going to wait out the afternoon but instead wait for at most an hour and I was rewarded for my efforts. The male came off of the condo and landed on the BDC sign! He was only there for a few minutes but enough for me to get a few pictures of him while he roosted. Again the photographs only served to confound me more than confirm his identity. He took off of the sign and flew back up to the high overhang on the condo and at that I took my leave.
We have confirmed based on the resident adults behaviour that the clutch of eggs on the George St condo has failed. Sadly it may have been due to the cold and damp weather we have experienced this past April that has caused many other sites to also have one or two eggs fail to hatch. As a first time nester Midnight is still very young and that may have contributed as well. During our time observing coupled with the reports from Toivo and Grace we can also confirm that the pair is not mating at this time and therefore a re-clutch will most likely not occur this season. The only remaining question to answer is the confirmation of the identity of the resident male.
Yesterday, May 25th, Bruce and I again headed to Brampton to confirm the male’s identity. By hook or crook I was determined to get it as this little male was vexing me now. He teased and taunted with brief looks at his legs and finally… …eureka!!! I got it!! The resident male in downtown Brampton with Midnight is none other than Striker, banded solid black 97 over Y with blue tape that is still visible, who hatched in 2011 at Yellow Pages to Linn and Rueben. We are unsure where Milton is but we hold out high hopes of his discovery elsewhere as he is a tough old guy and quite tenacious. One thing we can say is that Striker is now the resident male in the downtown core. A huge thank you to all that have assisted and watched the pair with a special thank you going out to Toivo and Grace for their time and efforts. It is greatly appreciated and we are very pleased to see this pair so well supported.
