I have always known the resident female at this site as Miep, not VV. She was named Miep soon after she arrived at the nest. Miep is a Dutch diminutive of Maria.
Someone at another site named her VV. VV stands for "Vreemde vrouw", or "unknown woman". Miep is unbanded, so it will never be known where she came from.
Pa and Miep currently have four eggs in the nest.
However, there have been territorial battles at the nest yesterday and today, and the great tiercel Pa has been displaced by an intruder.
The intruder has been seen today in the nest box and on top of the nest box. Miep, meanwhile, has continued to incubate.
People from the Dutch forum have been on site searching for Pa. They have reported back that in their opinion Pa is alive and is okay. They think that he is staying away from the nest since he feels that he could not win a battle against this extremely aggressive intruder. Pa may also have a leg injury. I would also suggest that Pa would stay away from the nest in order to keep the eggs safe, and to prevent the intruder from coming into the nest box to continue the fight.
It is not known how old Pa is, but he is far from young. He is somewhere in the range of 13 to 20 years old. When most of his band numbers were read last year, the information was sent to an expert, and he commented that Pa was "very old" because of the type of bands he has. Pa first arrived at this nest in 2005; this is his eleventh year at de Mortel.
I don't know what will happen next, but I am hoping for the best.
