!!! Both Linn and George still the residents,, but a disturbing update!
April 02, 2016 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Mark Nash Reports:
Saturday April 2nd - 2016
Its looks like winter is back for another week, along with freezing artic temps and three separate clippers to come, all with snow about to hit us over the next 48 to 72 hours!
In an effort to get back out to do an update before the snow hits the fan and it gets really cold again, I was able to get back to the Scarborough Yellow Pages nest site to do get an update on what’s been happening.
Both resident adult Pefa’s were visible and in my view upon my arrival (on the upper rooftop of the building), but obviously no incubation was happening! Very odd indeed, given the blustery cold winds, snow flurries and wind chills!! I spent a good 30 minutes watching and observing the pair from the south eastern parking lot prior to going up to the roof. Both birds were roosting quietly on separate ledges on the east upper side of the building.
So it was back inside and up to the roof area with security to check the ledges. After checking all of the upper 8 ledges with no success (and no interest from either of the two resident adults), we decided to do a second-go-round, this time in the opposite direction to get a look at each of the 8 ledges from the left hand side. Remembering that there is a overhang that surrounds each ledge and its easy to miss something without taking a detailed look from both sides of each of the 8 ledges.
As we moved around to the south east corner ledges, we finally got a some attention by the resident adult female, (Linn who was easily identified by her Black 91 over Green V coloured leg band). Moments later, she was joined by her mate, George, (clearly identified as being George by his Black 54 over Green W coloured leg band). *See attached photos
Both birds spent some time scolding us, (along with the usual areal dive bombing) as they seems to be focusing their attention to us as we approached one of the upper eastern facing ledges. *See attached photos
A quick peek over top of the retaining wall to view down onto the ledge and the story (at least in part) unfolded. A sad story indeed!
*See attached photos
While I could speculate all day as to the potential causes, I just haven’t had the opportunity to watch the site over the past few months and without any recent history of events, it is impossible to say what has taken place and caused this net result at this point.
What I can report, is the obvious, while three eggs were clearly observed, two of the eggs were fractured with gaping holes in them, and all three eggs were dried out looking and almost pure white. There was no shine to the eggs, and they appeared to be sun bleached white. While Linn and George were quite territorial and protectant of the ledge itself,, neither birds ever attended to the ledge even after my visit.
I did spend 30 plus minutes down in the parking lot observing the birds behavior after my visit and both birds took up roosting positions on other ledge corners and did just that,, roosted. Again, neither birds showed any interests in the ledge with the eggs.
I can only hope that the eggs were from last season, and the pair have yet to lay eggs this year!
I will be back in a couple of weeks to do another site visit and hopefully will have some better news about the pair to report.
Stay tuned…………..
