March 31:
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Today was an exciting day, with challenges from (1) a curious squirrel who came snooping around the nest and (2) a crow who came too close. The female hawk charged the crow, and there was an exciting arial looping chase. We know it was the female, because she lit in the cypress tree long enough for me to get a good photo. She looks and behaves just like our Roxie from early last season, and we believe it IS Roxie.
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With this new insight, we can now speculate that something happened to Rufous around April of last year, leaving Roxie with no mate for the breeding season. But now she has returned to the territory first established by Rufous with a new partner. Although R2D2 favors different trees and branch locations than those favored by Rufous, Roxie goes straight to her old perches and dinner branch locations, further enforcing our belief that this female is indeed our old Roxie!
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Continue to Chapter 6: The New Couple Mates
[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
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