affordwatches

Erin’s Challenger - The Arrival of Ivy

December 13, 2015 - Toronto - King Street

Tracy Simpson Reports:

On September 12th, the raptor bird banding station at Tommy Thompson Park had a female peregrine enter their nets and the master bander shared his pictures and identification with me.  He submitted her band number to the Bird Banding Lab but had hoped I might recognize her.  She has a black 79 over green AN recovery band and a black USFW. This is significant as the use of black anodized USFW bands is something that we see on the east coast and this is the first time one has been confirmed and recorded for our province.  I checked my records and found that this bird was a 2014 hatch from the 101 Hudson Street nest site in New Jersey where they named her Ivy. This was an important observation as she was here in Ontario now as a sub-adult and most likely looking for a place to call home.  I contacted the folks in New Jersey about Ivy’s recapture, Kathy Clark, Zoologist with the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife and Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.  They were both overjoyed to hear that Ivy had been seen and recaptured here in Ontario as this young bird became a superstar last year after her foster into the 101 Hudson Street nest.

At the 101 Hudson St nest site in Jersey City, Athena and Six had been raising young together for a long, long time.  In 2013 and 2014, the pair were unable to hatch a single chick, possibly due to Athena’s advanced age.  Wearing only a silver USFW band and with only a partial read, Athena was at the very least 17 years old as of the 2014 nesting season.  Six, her mate, hatched in New York in 2003.  A plan was set in motion last year after it was evident that the nest had failed again, to foster a chick into the nest box.  The chick selected for this was one of three young birds hatched at the Ocean Gate AT&T coastal nest site that spring.  The young nestling was removed from the Ocean Gate site after the adults at Hudson had accepted the “dummy” eggs provided for them indicating that they were still in a nesting frame of mind and on May 21st, the single young female was placed in the nest box.  The foster was a complete success and Ivy successfully fledged without a hitch.  Ivy would be the last young that Athena and Six would every raise as they were both replaced this year at the 101 Hudson St nest.

After her Sept. 12th capture in the mist nets at Tommy Thompson, Ivy continued to be seen in the area.  She was obviously hunting the Spit, a shoreline that must look very much like the coastal view she grew up with in Jersey City.  She was photographed again by Charmaine Anderson at the park on Nov 8th and again by Rob Mueller at the Downsview Park located at Dufferin and Sheppard on Nov 19th.  She was on the move, getting around and making it clear she wasn’t leaving.

Between Sept. and Nov. we continued to monitor some of the most likely candidates for take over for Ivy.  First and foremost being the Hearn Plant where Peter and Angela have failed to hatch eggs the past two years.  Both Peter and Angela have been reconfirmed by several volunteers so they have managed to hold her off.  Next on the list was King Street.  Erin is now 17 years old and as noted in the previous post, is slowing down.  Close monitoring of the web camera by several of us showed who we believe to be Erin (band colors matching Erin, behavior and other signs) on the King Street nest ledge up until mid-October.  It was then that we noticed that the female seemed much more animated and active than before, not what we are used to seeing of Erin.  We have all made several visits down to King Street since those observations and as of yesterday, December 12th, Bruce has been able to confirm the presence of Ivy in the King Street area for the second time in a week.

More details to come.