Well, at least one of them is home.
The first peregrines tend to return to Manitoba in the last two weeks of March, with the remainder of our resident birds appearing by the end of the second week of April. And then there are the late arrivals, the evicted (from nestsites elsewhere) and the tourists, non-breeding birds who are on their Grand Tour – they usually pop in/out through the end of April and May.
For about the last 5-6 years our first returnee has been Hart our long-time resident male at Logan. He’s a very social male who all the lady peregrines seem to like, even though both he and his ladyfriends have mates of their own. Last year, Hart returned but he was without a mate. His 2019 mate Spencer died shortly before fall migration so all of his years of experience courting the ladies was going to be essential for him to attract a new mate. There was however, an unexpected snag. Snag’s name was Ella. Ella had been our West Winnipeg resident female for a couple of years but last year she made a bid for the Pip and the Radisson nestsite, and she won. That left the West Winnipeg territory empty, so Hart decided to split his time between his Logan territory and the now empty West Winnipeg territory which in the peregrine real estate ranking is second to the Radisson. Now this was a wise decision for Hart – never know what a potential mate might find attractive in a nestsite – both Logan and West Winnipeg have their pros and cons. All was looking good except that Ella spent about a quarter of her time at her old territory bedevilling Hart for food and running interference when lady peregrines dropped by for a visit. Six lady peregrines in fact. Ella was definitely the snag in Hart’s romantic campaign! He fed her well though so while he didn’t have chicks of his own, he certainly helped Ella, and Pip indirectly, raise their chicks.
This year, our first bird back is Ella. Since 2018 she has been an early returner and she was first spotted at the Logan nestsite, so it does make me wonder if perhaps she’s looking for Hart. Over the last few years, they are often the only birds back for a week or two and they tend to “date” rather seriously until their respective mates arrive. Ella’s back about a week earlier than Hart’s earliest return, so we will see he is sticking to his schedule – and hopefully Pip returns shortly after so that Ella is too busy to interfere with Hart’s love life again this year!