Ummm...Casper gone, Hurricane back at William Osler
Critical Update for William Osler; HURRICANE HAS BEEN FOUND!!April 07, 2013 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I have been struggling to write this post as it is such an unbelievable and complex story. Two sites intertwined with adults missing, moving, lost and found. Phew! What a tale. A long story but a must read. The timeline goes like this;
Dec. 9, 2012 - Casper and Claire last confirmed as resident adults at the Hilton Garden Inn
Dec 22, 2012 - Hurricane and Chessie last confirmed as resident adults at William Osler Hospital
Jan. 14, 2013 - Hurricane missing from William Osler. Casper identified as new resident male with Chessie.
Feb. 2, 2013 - Claire is confirmed missing from the Hilton Garden Inn nest site
Feb. 5, 2013 - Chessie and Casper identities confirmed and pair is mating at the Hilton Garden Inn territory
Mar. 9, 2013 - Casper and Chessie choose William Osler as their nest site. The Hilton Garden Inn territory is now void.
Mar 27, 2013- Last known photograph of Casper at William Osler as resident male with Chessie
Apr. 2, 2013 - First egg arrives in the nest tray.
Fast forward to this past Thursday April 5th…
As reported earlier, I stopped in and spoke with Ross at Environmental Services and learned that the first egg was in seen the tray on Wednesday. I travelled upstairs to the monitor for a quick look and there were now two eggs. Given that the interval for egg laying is about 48 hours, that dates the first egg laid as April 2nd. Back outside, I see the male on the eastern nest ledge to the south of the sign. I report that he is babysitting and I must tell you, I resisted the temptation to compare this male to Hurricane. He was sitting in the EXACT same spot as Hurricane always did when it was his turn to watch the kids and doing the EXACT same thing, sleeping. Not wanting to dwell on the past, I ignored my instinct that told me that something was different. Still, I was back the next day, Friday, as this was nagging at me. The bird looked different ( very dark helmet head), acted different (calm, quiet) and had a familiar “feel” about him. I wanted to confirm his band number.
On Friday, things took a turn for the bizarre. I found the male at 4pm on the edge of the nest tray facing south and sleeping. Boy did this ever remind me of Hurricane. Chessie was on the southern “H” and had just finished eating. She flew up to the southeast corner of the rooftop and was poking around up there for a good 10 minutes. She then took to the air and landed on the southeast corner of the nest ledge. The male was off the tray and flew in to mate with her. The pair then took to the air and spent the next 20 minutes in aerial courtship. What? Aren’t we past this? We’re doing the egg thing now. Bonds are set. Watching the flights of the male, he is clearly not Casper. This male was flying around the building at mach 10 with incredible control and when he hit the winds, not even the slightest wing quiver could be seen. This guy was seasoned. He took off on a hunt and was back in 10 minutes with food. Even though Chessie was full, she still chased him around the building and he was easily outflying her. He drew her in to the northern “H” with food and the pair sat on the sign together for a few minutes. Chessie then returned to the southeast corner and the male cached the food and was back on the tray. She sat staring at him on the edge of that tray for over 40 minutes. He made no move to incubate or attend to the eggs in the tray at all and she just sat and stared. She was not aggressive nor concerned, I would say more confused than anything. He flew off the tray around 7pm with her following and again, another incredible tandem flight display of soaring, dives and chases. He landed on the northern “H” to eat and Chessie bombed into the nest tray to lay down on the eggs. As the male ate, I snapped pictures. Although not completely clear, I could see a familiar line that we only see on three character recovery bands. These bands are older indicating that this was an older bird. Fits with what I’d been seeing of his flights. I could almost make out the 5 on top and the X on the bottom but before I could tell the world what I knew in my heart, I had to confirm this 100%. Bruce was dispatched that night to attend Saturday morning with me and we weren’t leaving without full confirmation.
Yesterday, the pair were in fine form together. The male was in the east tower and Chessie was in the nest tray. Bruce was able to confirm through scope view that indeed the bottom letter of the band was a singular X and that a line appeared above it. I wanted to be doubly sure and so we kept watching. Chessie came howling out of the tray to the southeast after a Red Tailed hawk that was wandering too close while the male flew recon around the hospital. This is the second time that the pair defended against another raptor that morning and the male was in full support of her. She returned to one of the antennas on the top of the building and he flew in to mate with her. It was like watching courtship all over again. He hunted for her, flew with her, mated with her and was clearly bonding with her. This male, without any doubt as the band was now clearly read as a solid black three character band with 5 over X, is Hurricane.
When this change happened, I can’t say. It is recent though. Casper was last seen on March 27th and photographed at that time. Where is he now? Where has Hurricane been? Migration is not likely as he has never done it before and starting now doesn’t make sense. The idea that a territorial male, who was now without a female and less than 5km away, came and challenged Hurricane for his site and won the day a few months ago makes some sense of this. Its possible that an injury kept him away for the past three months while he healed.
Bruce and I will continue to look out for Casper in the hopes of finding him well. With a mixture of elation at what we’ve found and the sadness of what we’ve lost all rolled up into a ball of “What on earth is going on???” we welcome you home Hurricane. Now quit messing with me old man!!!!
