Friday before Earth Day and Earth Day were spent trying to track down Birdnut's "young couple". We found them quickly on Friday but they hung around for only a few minutes before they were off and we don't know where. But Dennis did get photos and we were pretty sure about the band numbers and their identities then, but since it had been so quick and the lighting not optimal for Wowzer, we thought we would try again on Sunday (Earth Day - nicer weather forecast and quieter around HSC. At first, couldn't find anything anywhere, it was so depressing!!! Then we found the WW birds (see the WW thread), but still not so much as a peak at the HSC birds. Did get to check out the site again (we did the same thing last year) to check out possible locations for nestboxes and still no birds. Then we were off to the Radisson to clean camera lens (see the Radisson thread) and back past the HSC locations and still no birds. We were very depressed. Dennis had wonderful photos of Jules and Beau (relatively calm) and Ivy and Princess (madder than wet hens) but a big hole where the HSC birds were suppose to be. Then (you knew this was coming) we caught sight of them at a distance hunting lazily on the wing so we basically tracked them as they flew until they decided, finally, to land and eat their lunch - well, her lunch, he was supervising. Then off they went again and they turned up at one of "their spots" and canoodling commenced. And it was in the afterglow that Dennis and Wowzer were able to get more band photos that helped to confirm their identifications.
Our 2012 HSC lovebirds are Cowboy and Jolicoeur
They are doing all the right things, but no idea if they will nest however, she's not yet 2 years old. But that is old enough - Princess, Alley, Radisson, Terminator and Hurricane were all 2 the first time they nested - Holly in Brandon was 1.
