It is strongly believed that this year’s male is different from previous years. The reason for believing this is that this year’s male has very different behaviour from the previous male. Examples of this are:
- This year the male has been very submissive to the female whilst changing brooding duties (this was not the case previous years).
- This year’s male has been showing off (strutting his stuff if you like) to the female. This has also not been seen in previous years
- The male body posture is different. Last years male was a more heavy build; this years is not – its rather slim and young looking.
- This years bird sits in different places from last year. This year the male favors the North West Turret area. Last years bird spent most of his time on the South East Turret Area.
All these add up to us being 99% sure it is a different male; the only thing that does not make it 100% is the fact that neither males are ringed.
(Luke Dray, David Shaw and Janet Shaw)
