Hera The First to Fledge at Etobicoke Sun Life
June 14, 2011 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
As told by Big Frank;
Kathy saw the fledge at 7:00am this morning of Hera and the flight was actually quite strong. This initial flight took the bird over to the center tower where he spent the better part of the day. Back on the ledge, there was a great deal of pre-flight exercise with lots of wing flapping and a feeding at 12:00pm by Jack. An hour later, Jack went over to the center tower to buzz the young Hera in the hopes of instigating another flight but only resulted in a great deal of screaming by the juvenile and an appearance on the retaining wall. A few minutes later Angel flew by with food trying to tease Hera into the air and when that didn’ t have the desired effect, she took the food to the nest ledge and fed Jupiter and Skye. The rest of the day was spent napping and flapping until at 8:23pm Jack entered the ledge with a small food package that Jupiter took off with and self fed. Hera flew a few minutes later from the center tower to the Kingsway on the Park tower and landed on a window ledge. He was unable to settle there and took another flight that had him clinging onto a window frame of the nest tower that was equally uncomfortable. After a short loop over Bloor street Hera finally ended up on the canopy over the entrance to 3250 Bloor street where he spent the rest of the night running the ledge to the west. Tracy arrived on site as the sun was setting and wee Hera was sitting on the far western corner of the lower elevation looking for some direction as to “what now”?! He looked as though he might stay and nap there for the night when he was awakened by activity below him on the street. The initial inspection came from a police cruiser that stopped to see what Tracy was up to with that set of binoculars and followed quickly by an ambulance rushing by with sirens blaring. On this lower elevation it is a little to close for Hera’s comfort and we thought that he was going to take off but instead settled down for a nap. The best solution for Tracy and I was to also settle down for dinner on the patio across the street and hope that the fledge didn’t happen in the middle of bite! At 11:16pm, Hera is still at the western corner of the low wall and we are still on the patio sharing stories of peregrines with the constituents. Cheers!
