MN / Elk River - 2008-22

[eagle63_1999]

I check but most time the surroundings are no descriptive but I did see the back of a falcon sitting on the bars outside the box lol

[Liz]

I have yet to see anything.  Except the cars going by in the background, of course.  harumph!

[allikat]

I watched the video of that fight...I can't believe that they both got out of that one alive 

It was a pretty brutal fight but it just shows us (humans) what raptors are all about.  This is their way of life and this is instinct to protect their territory and themselves.  I haven't seen any activity in the nestbox since the fight so I don't know what's going on.  Anyone else know of anything?

As per the The Elk River nestbox, I also haven't see any activity aside from the starlings dropping by.  I have seen the falcon come by for long visits but I have yet to see two of them together.

[maggieblue]

I checked in quite a few times today and only saw Mom once in the morning however this afternoon I did hear peregrine sounds in the distance so perhaps Mr. Right has come along.  The cheery little black birds have been around off and on all day.  I think that Carly is right that they are starlings.  They don't seem to have any fear of the falcons which is pretty funny as I believe that they are on the Peregrine "menu". 

[The Peregrine Chick]

As for territorial disputes...
alot (not all or not all the time) is sound and fury, dominance displays if you like.  If one doesn't back down, then it gets a bit hairy and there is spitting and talons etc.  And yes some disputes are to the death.  They are also gender specific - females fight females, males fight males.

I have always read that territorial battles are gender specific, but it seems that at the Brighton, England nest yesterday there was a territorial battle between the resident female and a new male (who was actually born at that nest two years ago). There have already been changes at the nest this year - last year's unbanded male did not return, and a new banded male from Chichester, born 2005, moved in.

TPC, I'd be very interested in your comments on this battle - it seems unusual for a female and a male to fight. There is a video on the Diary page of the site:

http://www.regencybrighton.com/birds/

Fights between females & males are territorial, its one bird driving off an unwanted suitor.  Last year, Ivy hung out at the Radisson and Princess (his Mom) didn't drive him off but wouldn't go anywhere near him or let him anywhere near her.  When Trey arrived, Ivy beat a hasty retreat and exited the territory before there was a problem (smart kid).  Because males are smaller than females, they tend to avoid antagonistic situations with them - also, for a male to attack a female or vice versa is counter-productive from a genetic perspective, you may be evicting/injuring/killing a potential mate.  Driving off an unwanted suitor is something else however ... 

From the video, I suspect that the new male got himself into trouble by entering the nestbox when the resident female was there, no way she would give it up, regardless of the gender of the intruder.  I'm surprised that such an experienced male would put himself at risk like that ... and that was a true knock-down-drag-out fight, surprised everyone (so far) has survived.  Hopefully he won't be back ...

[carly]

Alison:  They posted an update on the big fight in Sussex and turns out they were wrong about it's identity.  The old tiercel who had been there for 9 or 10 years and was found injured back in February and placed in rehab flew right home on his release and tried to get his site back and failed.

Poor guy, but he has survived and hopefully wont' try to come back for round 2.  And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you were right, this obviously was not the same female from last year - or would she fight her old mate ?   

What an odd situation although last year at Port Colbourne the resident female did attack an intruding tiercel but only after he had injured her mate.  Can't wait to hear TPC's take on this one.

[carly]

Maggie your description of the fight is right on.  I did turn the cam off for a minute or two but because I was worried for 30b - I quickly turned it back on and caught the end as well.  I would say I only missed a few minutes.  I did see some attempted pecking at the start but they were both pretty good dodgers. 

I too got the impression that they didn't want to hurt each other, I think TPC hit the nail on the head - it was more of a 'dominance display' and I would like to think it was an escort out. 

I think 30b is alive - call it a gut feeling but after reading about Stelco coming back then I am going to believe we haven't seen the last of her.  Given she survived being displaced at Sherco, she is probably smart enough to know when to back down.

[maggieblue]

Did anyone manage to save any pics of the territorial battle a couple of days ago? I missed it, of course, and I'd really like to know which falcons were involved. It sounds as if 30/B has been displaced? I hope not - she has had enough difficulties in her life already, and she can't really go back to Sherco, since there is a pair at that nest now.

I have been kicking myself that I haven't learned yet how to capture pictures or video from the cams.  (Perhaps someone can give some advice in the technical section).  I can give you a bit more information about the confrontation that perhaps Carly can confirm or correct.  I happened to have the cam open while I was doing something else and caught some movement out of the corner of my eye.  This turned out to be 2 birds in the box moving towards each other and then all you know what broke loose.  Initially I thought that this would be a short confrontation but as it went on I decided to post to the forum to alert other people and therfore missed some of what happened.  When I got there Carly had already posted and said that she wasn't going to watch.  I wanted to know what the outcome would be and when I got back to Elk River the two falcons were locked together facing each other in an upright position.  Each had their talons wrapped around the other birds legs so they were having to support themselves on their tail and wings.  Carly described this as a screamfest and that is a great description. Take the worst sounds from the Brighton fight and multiply that by two.  The banded bird which I think was 30B was backed up against the edge of the nestbox.  This screaming went on for at least 15 minutes.  At that point the falcon on the right started to lose her "voice" and her body posture started to soften.  My thought was they were thinking, how do we get out of this!  Suddenly the banded bird did a backwards drop right out of the box.  The falcon on the right dived after her.  I just had the impression from the face and body language that this was an "I am going to escort this floozy out of here" move.  I didn't see either one of them down on their back as in the video and slideshow from Alison.  Hope this makes it a little clearer.

[Elaine L]

The Brighton Battle was fierce - the worse thing about it was how close the talons get to the eyes.  I don't want to see this again.

[Alison]

There was also a territorial battle at the Alma, Wisconsin nest earlier this month. I passed on the information to Raptor Resource, who notified Bob Anderson and John. People at the Alma Plant checked the area, and found no dead or injured falcons. Bob looked at the photos I had saved, and commented that he didn't see either of the falcons try to bite each other's neck and that while there have been battles at this site in the past, they haven't found a dead falcon yet.

In case anyone would like to see the pics, here is the slideshow:

[Alison]

Wow...not going to watch that and thanks for the warning  !  That is strange isn't it?  I wonder if the male was one of her offspring from 2007, would he fight with his mom?  I'm going to poke through their logs to see if this female was around back then...

That's a good question, Carly. It's difficult to know, because the female is unbanded. The site has only mentioned that the male is new this year - easy to tell because he is banded - but I think the female is also different. Last year the female was unbanded, but she had a slight beak problem; the upper and lower mandibles didn't quite align. It was noticeable, but not severe, and did not cause her any problems eating or feeding the chicks. She also had a lot of black on her beak. This year's female has no beak problem, and not as much black on her beak. This is only my opinion, and I haven't seen anyone else mention this possibility.

[eagle63_1999]

Wow that was quite the fierce battle.  I've never seen raptors battle before but man oh man it was unreal. Thankfully they both survived for another day.  It's amazing what technology has done to capture not just the lives of the eggs but every other aspect of being the Prince of Birds.

[carly]

Wow...not going to watch that and thanks for the warning  !  That is strange isn't it?  I wonder if the male was one of her offspring from 2007, would he fight with his mom?  I'm going to poke through their logs to see if this female was around back then...

[birdcamfan]

Wow! I've never seen this kind of battle before so thank you for passing it on. A word of warning for others, it's pretty violent.

[Alison]

As for territorial disputes...
alot (not all or not all the time) is sound and fury, dominance displays if you like.  If one doesn't back down, then it gets a bit hairy and there is spitting and talons etc.  And yes some disputes are to the death.  They are also gender specific - females fight females, males fight males.

I have always read that territorial battles are gender specific, but it seems that at the Brighton, England nest yesterday there was a territorial battle between the resident female and a new male (who was actually born at that nest two years ago). There have already been changes at the nest this year - last year's unbanded male did not return, and a new banded male from Chichester, born 2005, moved in.

TPC, I'd be very interested in your comments on this battle - it seems unusual for a female and a male to fight. There is a video on the Diary page of the site:

http://www.regencybrighton.com/birds/