Author Topic: West Winnipeg - 2008 / Ivy & Jules  (Read 23093 times)

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Offline The Peregrine Chick

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West Winnipeg - 2008 / Ivy & Jules
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2008, 15:20 »
We aren't sure we have a residence but we do have two birds that are/were hanging out together.   Haven't identified them, but I have an idea of who they probably are.

In 2006, Lucy, a 2005 wild-hatch from the Radisson was hanging out with Obi-Wan, a 2005 wild-hatch from the McKenzie Seeds Building in Brandon.  No nesting, heck, no nesting behaviour occurred, but the two of them hung out together for about 4 months from May through August at one building, something non-breeding birds generally don't do.  That made us hopeful that they would return the next year and try to nest. 

In 2007, Lucy returned but Obi-Wan didn't.  Instead, Ivy, Lucy's male sibling turned up.  The pair of them tried to nest in a less than optimal location for peregrines, though it was a wonderful location from my perspective.  They were a very flighty pair, spooking at every noise and they weren't particularly clear on the mechanics of incubation, but they did produce three eggs.  Unfortunately, the eggs didn't hatch and the nest was abandonned, though Lucy and Ivy remained in the immediate area for the rest of the summer.

This year, a week after Princess arrived back at the Radisson, she was joined by a male with a light pattern of feathers on the back of his head.  From a couple of quick glimpses of his legband, I'm sure it was Ivy.  Princess wouldn't have anything to do with him so he sat napping on the Radisson sign (check out the March Photo Gallery) while she sat with her tail feathers against the building, on the "JR" sign on the Richardson Building at Portage and Main.  When Trey arrived, Ivy was "escorted" out of the territory.  He took no harm and relocated himself permanently to the West Winnipeg area where he was seen in the company of a larger peregrine, a female.  Considering that Lucy has been back to this same area for the last two years and tried nesting last year, I would hazard a guess and say that the female is probably her.  But I haven't seen her legband, so I'm saying its her for sure.  I also haven't found if they are nesting yet.  I have in the last couple of weeks only seen one bird at a time, and not very frequently, but still in the same area and on their favourite buildings, doing their favourite things (eating & sleeping).  I'm not sure they are nesting either.  They are not displaying any territorial behaviour which I would have expected to see given where I have been and how clost to them I have gotten.  Princess and Trey would have brought the roof down on me by now.  But I do have a couple more buildings to check, ones that are in the area but not ones I can imagine the are actually nesting on.  Its almost a case of nowhere else to look at the moment.

You may have noticed that I haven't given specifics about where in West Winnipeg can be found ... that's on purpose, and the reason is in the next thread.