Mississauga North Male Positively Identified
August 11, 2013 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Well… …um… Ok. That’s how we are all feeling these days about the Hurontario corridor. While right now we can expect that migrating adults, subadults and juveniles will be moving through shortly and that things won’t settle until next spring we are determined to at least try and understand who the local players in the game are. Note that I said TRY!!
Yesterday, Bruce arrived at the Mississauga North location and did a full walk of the territory to little avail. Sue and Bill joined him in the morning for some observation and there was one thing that they could positively ascertain and that was that the female roosting on the Revenue Canada building was confirmed again as Black 98 over Red E who is Midnight from the Brampton North territory. There was no sign of the male during their visit and he did not make an appearance until about 1pm in the afternoon. I started around the lunch hour at MEC, checking all of the buildings, rooftops, antennas and hideaways that I could and found no peregrines whatsoever. I headed north and continued to scan the buildings for signs of a peregrine and continued to come up empty. When I reached Bruce’s location on Avebury, he had Midnight now sitting on the Oracle building on the north side. We bundled into my car and did a serious drive about of the territory to the east and although we found some interesting high points where these birds could be sitting, we didn’t find a single peregrine. Back to Revenue Canada we went. When we arrived the female, Midnight, came in and landed on the southeast corner of the building where she roosted and preened for a while. The male came in shortly thereafter and the pair then took off around the building and north out of view. We walked aroud the building and found the female on the northeast corner but the male’s whereabouts were unknown. He came in shortly thereafter from the southeast to the northeast corner and landed about 15 feet away from Midnight. It was then that I was able to get a view of both his band and his tracking tape and identify this male. The band number on this bird is confirmed as solid black O over 8 and is a three character band. These bands that have a line dividing the upper and lower characters have not been used in a long time but last year, 2012, one was applied to a male chick at the William Osler Hospital and yellow tape was placed over the USFW band. This is Ossie from the 2012 nesting season of Hurricane and Chessie at William Osler!
He sat on the corner for a few minutes and then excitedly ran down the ledge towards Midnight who currently had her back to him. Her reaction was not “happiness to see you” as she raised her hackles and mantled. Ossie slowed his approach and stopped about 5 feet from her. Good choice. Midnight was very uneasy and unsure what Ossie’s intentions were and she turned to place herself in a launch position should things get serious. With Ossie now relaxed, preening and nodding off to sleep Midnight also relaxed and dozed a bit herself. These were the only two birds to be seen and the elusive Black over Green female was not sighted.
At this point, Bruce headed up to Midnight’s old territory at George Street in Brampton to see whether we now had a void there. Oh no we don’t!! Bruce found a male roosting on the overhang of the George Street condo and could confirm a silver USFW band on his right leg. Moments after our phone conversation, both Midnight and Ossie took off and I left to join Bruce in Brampton. Both Bruce and I scoured the downtown Brampton area and the only located peregrine was at George Street. We set up to watch the male on the overhang in the hopes of a peek at the recovery band. He was so high up and completely unwilling to share his identity but we maintained our position regardless. All of a sudden he began to bow and vocalize and in plops a female to the ledge!! She disappeared into the “cavity” on the ledge that was used this year to lay eggs (they failed to hatch) and out of view. After about 15 minutes of on and off vocalization by the male, he took off of the ledge and was soaring in lazy circles high above the territory. The female walked forward and I was able to get band colours only. Black over Red on her left and purple USFW on her right. ?????????? She was way too high up for a read of the numbers and so I cannot confirm who this was. I would just have to wait until she came down lower. The male joined her once again for another raucous chit chat before stooping off to the east and swooping up to the low BDC sign. Gotcha, I thought. I thought.
I grabbed my gear and scrambled over to the Market Square in the hopes of identifying the male. Nope. He was sitting too far back on the sign to see his leg. Grrrrr. I waited him out and got one fast look at his legs during a stretch. He definitely has a silver USFW on his right leg and a solid black band on his left with the lower letter being a Y. Is this Striker? I couldn’t say for sure.
So… here is what we know for sure… …Ossie and Midnight were seen at the Mississauga North location and both ID’s are confirmed. A black over red banded female and a solid black banded male were seen at George Street in downtown Brampton almost 10km away to the north. The black over green female was not seen today at either location.
While this will most definately settle out next spring but it is an interesting mystery in front of us nonetheless . It will be very interesting to see who sticks around after migration is over and the winter settles in. Those will be our early spring contenders!!