A Different Male With Quest
May 17, 2016 - Toronto - Don Mills
Bruce Massey Reports:
Off and on for the past few weeks there have been observations of a third bird in the territory harassing Skye and Quest. Following up on observations of our watchers there I decided to spend some time checking in and reconfirming the adults identity. There seems to have been a change.
Monday May 16
I arrived at about 10:40 and saw a bird I believed to be the male on the nest box landing platform. When I came back from parking the car it was not there and had disappeared for 20 minutes or so. The male returned to the same position after about 30 minutes of being absent however I was quite surprised when I saw it its had red tape on its USFW band. With the weather and strong wind that was causing my scope to shake and my eyes to water I struggled for a band read yet I did manage to get a partial band number. The solid black recovery band was W over 7 something. Those two alpha numerics along with the red tape that was clearly visible were enough to conclude that this was most likely McKinney, the bird I had seen on this territory in December. Even though I was at the rear of the building, it was quite evident that when the female showed up the males behavior changed quite dramatically. His body language was much more tense and he began to bow and vocalize at the female sitting on top of the Harlequin building. As I walked up to the front the female flew off the northeast corner of the Harlequin building with the male following shortly. I was able to get a partial read of the female’s black over green band and am confident that this is Quest. The other thing I observed were that the chicks were very well fed. One of them was so cropped up that it looked like it would burst. Some further observation will be required to see how Quest is taking to this new mate and how the family dynamics are. Unfortunately there was no sign or indication that Skye was in the area.
Tuesday May 17
I spent around 3 hrs. at the Duncan Mill nest site today watching the dynamics between the adults and confirming that the chicks were being well fed. When I arrived Quest was at the nest ledge and the chicks were all sleeping in the rear of the nest box. Saying that , one of the chicks walked up to the edge of the nest box much to the surprise of Quest as they are now getting much more mobile. Around half an hour later a male brought in some food. It was the male I identified yesterday as McKinney with the red tape over his USFW band. The food was accepted by Quest, taken in and fed to the chicks. He then approached the nest box but didn’t go in or on the landing platform. In fact in the 2 days I’ve watched him he has been everywhere on the nest ledge with the exception of actually going inside the nest box. He is also closely watched by Quest. At times I couldn’t see her up on the Harlequin building but I could readily hear her vocalizing nearby. After she left the ledge, there was about an hour or so where the chicks were alone. McKinney dropped in a couple of times and also went over to the Thales building and was seen hunting the valley. I found Quest nearby on the roof of 240 keeping a watchful eye over all his movements. As I left, Quest was on the nest ledge and McKinney was hunting off the Thales Building.
Despite all of these changes Quest is taking incredible care of the chicks. They are well fed and looked after as witnessed during my two visits there. Again there was no sign of Skye in the area but we have put out the word and are keeping an eye out for him.