Okay, looks like we have identities on our birds in Brandon ....
male is Zeus - 1995 wild-hatch from the McKenzie Seeds Building; resident male since 2002, two sabbatical years - 2003 & 2007. He has had three mates - I/*T (2002), Holly (2004-2008) - 10 chicks total todate = Donna (2008 nested in Saskatoon) & Terminator (2008-09 nesting in Grand Forks) are nesting, Obi-Wan spent the summer of 2006 in West Winnipeg with Lucy (2005 Radisson chick) but did not nest.
female is new - and a total surprise - its Hurricane from the 2007 wild-hatch at the Radisson and who was observed in Grand Forks this spring at the nest site of Brandon's Terminator. When we measured Hurricane's legs during banding, she measured as male, so we attached male bands. Appears that Mistral was tiny but a female and that Hurricane was too was female but that she was small and so were her legs! We were sure we had two males and a female that year, but it may be that we had one male (Chinook) and one small female (Hurricane) and one tiny female (Mistral). Taku was found to be a female during her necropsy but we couldn't sex her because she died before banding - and you can see how much our female this year has grown in comparison with her brothers! Also possible that 2007 was an all female year - three small females and one tiny female. All we need is for Chinook to turn up somewhere and we will know for sure!
