Wind and Rain Both Out of the Nest
June 21, 2011 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Bruce was on site at first light to check on the two girls’ progress in navigating their newly discovered airspace. Rain was still on the west side of the building on the windowsill just beneath the nest ledge, Wind had left the roof and was now on the low mechanical building on the south side and Storm was all over the place screaming about how happy he was to be flying. When Frank and I arrived, Storm had gone down to the lower mechanical roof to visit with his sister Wind and the two of them were having a flapping good time. Rain was still on the western side of the building and Frank positioned himself to witness her coming off from and heading around the building to be with her siblings. When I arrived later that afternoon, there were two juveniles on the lower mechanical roof and one up on the roof of the nest building. It was clear that it was Storm on the roof as his little scream is hard to miss. That meant that Rain had sneaked around and evaded the watchful eyes of Frank to land on the mechanical roof with her sister. As the evening progressed, the two females were getting rather excited to fly again and Storm had been down to visit them both quite regularly. Wind finally took off from the low roof and circled the entire building gaining altitude as she went. She finally ended up on the northeast corner at the nest ledge and was so jubilant to be back, she dropped where she stood and napped the night away. Rain also made a flight attempt from the same low roof and wasn’t as successfully in gaining height as her larger sister. She landed on the north face of the building on a 4th floor window ledge. She managed to tuck herself up against a pillar separating the windows where she finally fell fast asleep. Storm wasn’t quite done for the day as he gathered up his courage and made a try for the tower that he fell off of during his initial fledge. You can only imagine how loudly he screamed when he successfully landed on the top of the tower, joining his parent in their favourite perching spot. O’Connor and Hurricane were so pleased to see Storm succeed that they stuffed him with food as he sat on their tower. Storm eventually flew back to the roof and then made another “cheater” drop down back flap flight to the east facing “H”. It is clear now that the resident adults have no haven left away from the kids; Storm has now made it to all their personal perch sites!! Storm ended the evening by returning to Wind on the nest ledge and slept next to her. With Wind and Storm “home” and Rain settled in for the night, Frank and I left the site ready to return early tomorrow morning.