Ottawa Fledge Watch Day 21
June 27, 2009 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
I am beginning to think our Nihei is going for a record, the most number of days without flying! Have any of you experienced this? Let me know, please!
Well, same old, same old. Our day started out the same as the day before, with Nihei still on Tower 1. She is now 49 days old, and Tailer is 50 today. Maybe she is waiting to turn 50 before she goes. She had better do it right!
Breakfast was served just before 7am. Tailer had his on the top of the Bay St Apartments, a Mourning dove which he plucked. Obviously his lessons are going well. He flies freely between all the buildings in the area, as well as on the antennas on high buildings, and never forgetting to spend time with his sister on Tower 1. I am sure he is hoping she will join him soon so they can play talon tag and do barrel rolls, and other things young falcons can share ( except food).
Diana and Connor move around between the antenna on the Carlisle, the Crowne Plaza Hotel, and the sensors on Tower C, as well as Towers 1 and 2 of Constitution Square. They bring food once in a while. I miss Horizon who was an excellent, but no nonsense mother. She would not bring food at this time, but would fly by her chicklet, holding food in her talon and making sure her baby saw it, then flying away with it. Surely Nihei would have been flying by now…… A thought!
Nihei spends her day alternating between sleeping, begging, eating, being out of sight, beetling, and again. Do we have a drama queen here? She can beg quietly, then turn up the volume, sound unhappy, then turn on the sob story, and can make herself sound absolutely miserable if she isn’t fed! Fortunately that doesn’t work as fast as she hopes for.
Tailer has adopted a habit his father, Connor used to have, sleeping in the “box” on the side of the hotel ( used to be an access door for the neon sign that used to be there).
This afternoon I had the opportunity to go up to the 21st floor to check on our Nihei. She was sleeping on her tummy, out of sight of the watchers below. That visit was to confirm that it was Tailer who flew from Tower 1, not her. We have had several moments of a false alarm now. One time this evening, Tailer had dinner on Tower 2. Just as he was cleaning up, a biplane flew overhead and he nearly jumped to Tower 1. As a chicklet suddenly flew from there to the box on the side of the hotel, everyone thought she had finally gone. Once again, I went up to the 21st floor to check it out. She was still where she had been, picking at something on the ledge, while Tailer had flown and was on the tiny ledge above the box! Diana passed by with food and he dove on her, following her to the west side. Another time had volunteers running around looking for her and finally spotting a chicklet on the side of Tower 2. When Diana came with food, it was Tailer, once again getting fed. Nihei was still on Tower 1, watching! Diana actually fed him beak to beak as if he were still a little baby……. Watching from the Delta is proving a good spot now.
When we left tonight, she was still on Tower 1, east corner, and Tailer was snoozing in the box, just below her.
Tomorrow???????
Eve Ticknor