Was just talking to Tim down in Grand Forks about the "new" bird. Thought is it is one of ours and likely a younger female as her feathers still show a bit brown - maybe old enough to breed, maybe not. Not sure if she is passing through or likes the look of the place. She and Marv had some interaction in the nestbox and overhead but "hi, who are you" kind of interactions rather than "hey sailor, got a light" kind of interactions. Terminator doesn't usually return until the beginning of April according to Tim, so even if this female hangs out, she may get a rude greeting from T2 when/if she returns home. Tim wasn't sure she was still around this morning ... he'll let us know if she is though.
Note, Marv and Smiley are related and Smiley is more than a little bit of a flirt, but when Princess returns, he stops flirting with other women immediately. Maybe Marv is/will be the same way ... only time will tell.
And yes, I'm watching our cams in case the Grand Forks female is actually on her way here. Not the first time we have had a Manitoba bird stop-over - Hurricane did the same thing first year she returned (2009) - hung out at the Smiley Tower (when it was still standing) with Roosevelt I believe for a day, maybe two, then a week later she was in Brandon with Zeus at the nestbox. Juliet from West Winnipeg spent a summer west of Grand Forks at a large wetland complex and was photographed by Dave then too. Dave is checking his photos for band numbers - new female has a black band but on the opposite leg from T2 so a) likely one of ours and b) easier to identify when/if T2 does return. And Tim is keeping an eye on the nestbox to see if T2 should turn up or if new female gets comfy.
If I had to speculate wildly based on not much information, I'd wonder if this newcomer, if she is one of ours, is one of our West Winnipeg chicks just because neither Tim nor Dave remarked that the bird looked noticeably smaller than Terminator who is a large female. Now that could just be that they didn't get a great look at her but she was in and out of the nestbox and they both know T2 rather well. Our West Winnipeg chicks are just a bit bigger than the majority of our other chicks so that might be the reason it wasn't noticed. Or not ...
Going to keep my fingers crossed that someone manages to get even a lousy photo of a band number ...