Hide and Seek on a Whole New Level!!
June 22, 2010 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I arrived at 6:00pm this evening to take the closing shift for Mark as he headed off to a CPF event at another nest site. As is protocol, he updated me on the activity level on the ledge. “All calm and quiet here.”, he said. “Well behaved little bunch this afternoon.” …yeah, well behaved right up to the very moment that Mark pulled out of the driveway..
The next two and a half hours began with what is best described as “Blam!! Pow!! Zowey!!.” I looked up at the nest ledge and began counting heads. One, two, wait no, three… …no two, one, three…? They kept bopping up and down like little jumping beans! I had three for sure and went looking for a fourth. As I approached MEC 2, off of the roof comes number four. Oh how I wish you could have seen this landing! This little juvenile male landed on the retaining wall of the roof of MEC 1, the nest building, and had such a head of steam going that when he landed, the inertia pitched him face forward right onto the roof. And here he was thinking he was sooo cool!! It turns out that this little one was Wade and he made a flight out from the roof and landed on the nest box without a hitch.
It was 6:21pm when the adult female arrived with food to a chorus of screams from an over-zealous spoiled group of brats! This adult female has, and I can’t stress this enough, consistently brought in food between 6:00pm and 6:30pm every single day. Maybe peregrines can tell time!
After supper was playtime. Dominating the most raucous activity was the tag team of Craig and Wade. These two… …they held races down the ledge, tag on the nest box, sister pouncing and sumo wrestling to round it all out. Full of beans doesn’t cover it!! By 7:00pm, Wade had made another flight to MEC 2 which he attempted to tease Craig into trying. Joe and Xuan on the other hand, decided that napping was more important. During all of this “goofery” , the adult resident pair circled the building performing all sorts of aerial acrobatics showing the juveniles just how its done. With all three juveniles ( except for Wade ) back at the nest box, our young adventurer makes another flight to the nest building roof. All birds are now settled in… …just as Mark returns from his presentation.
“So, all looks quiet here. How have they been? Give me a brief.” I just stood there, hair a mess and clothes askew with a stunned look on my face. There is nothing “brief” about the last two hours. My answer to him, a single word… …exhausting!
At last look, as I made my way back to my car, the juvenile Wade was making a last flight out to the condos north of the nest building. An incredible feat as this is a long flight for a young fledgling. A few minutes to catch his breath and he was airbourne again and headed right into the ledge on the north side of the nest building. This story ends with Wade running down the ledge “whee, whee, whee all the way home” to bed.