Urban Hawks

Well, Saturday’s discoveries were that things aren’t working like clockwork just yet. 

Our female was awoken by three young boys playing Star Wars.  As it got dark, she started calling before the male.  Her calls were all I heard, no trills from him.

She flew out and he soon arrived.  They copulated, she called for a few minutes with him a few feet away, and then they both went across the path to stream.  We could hear her calling.  We left the park to ensure we weren’t interfering with their hunting and bonding.

It’s as though he doesn’t quite know that his role is to keep her feed yet.  This young male may end up needing an additional year to get things right.

Nature keeps reminding me to be humble.  When I think I have it all figured out, she throws me a curve ball.  My guess the other night, that they may have started nesting was premature.

Tonight’s owl watching only lasted ten minutes, but it revealed that the female may have already begun to lay and incubate her eggs.  She only came out of the cavity when she heard the male’s calls, quickly copulated with him and after a few minutes of calling returned to the cavity all within ten minutes.

These dates seem to match, almost exactly, the schedule from last year.

The night started with our finding the female’s current roosting cavity, which was a real breakthrough for us. 

The male flew into view and she quickly left her cavity to join him.  The two owls perched near each other, and then the male flew off into the Loch.  The female stayed in two perches calling softly.  We didn’t see the male return. The temperature was dropping, so we left before she flew off.

It looks like this pair is starting to be a real couple.  The female showed the male where to hunt tonight and he ended up catching a mouse.  It also looks like she was given the treat.

No more endless calling by her, but a nice duet, copulation and a quick snack.  It’s looking like they’re finally getting in sync with each other.

We realized while leaving the park, that our male needs a nickname.  We’ve settled on Mars for the male to go with Trident for the female.

It was a nice night with the male learning to answer back to the calls of the female.  They copulated two or three times.  The female covered a large area of the Loch going across the stream and then flying back.

All was going well, except the male has hasn’t learned that he’s supposed to be more attentive later in the evening.  The female called for over an hour without his returning.  Our young male needs to learn to be a better boyfriend!