We have confirmed who's at the Radisson - thanks to Dennis and Wowzer's cousin. Our 2012 Radisson pair is (drum roll) Ivy and Princess. And to answer your next question, no we didn't misidentify Princess as Miss Hanky-Panky, the plumage patterns are just too different. Ivy has been here all the time though, so he was Mr Hanky-Panky. So now the question is who was Miss Hanky-Panky? I'm afraid I don't know - the bird's breast was much lighter in colour than other photos we have of Sandy so despite Sandy's track-record at this site (and that Ivy was so hot to trot right from the get-go). The band colour combination was right for Sandy but that bird just had too much white on its breast/belly though birds do lighten over the years. Without the band number I just don't know. And we may never know.
Something we do suspect however is that there may have been a bit of a knock-down drag-out fight in the nestbox. When we were clearing out the nestbox today, I noticed that on the front-of-box camera, there appears to be quite a bit of blood on/around the camera itself. This could be blood from prey, but we have never found blood in the nestboxes before or it could be blood from an injured rival. No sign of a bird near the nestbox or ledges and nothing at HSC or the crow's nest. We did have a report of a bird down at the Grace Hospital site on the 18th which could have been when Princess came home and the barney occurred. Jules was already back so a supplanted female would have needed to move out of occupied territory, and the Grace Hospital territory is definitely unoccupied territory at the moment.
Going to make sure that the rehab folks are aware of our suspicions in case a bird comes in with matching wounds. Or if a bird turns up dead in the next little while. Either way, if the band combination fits, we may yet find out who turned up first this spring.
