Courtney takes another two short flights today and finally gains some altitude!
December 31, 1969 - Brampton - Courthouse
CPF Postmaster Reports:
-
Saturday July 23rd - 2011 - PM Fledge watch report:
For the most parts this afternoon, the fledge watch was uneventful and a very quiet evening with the exception of the rain and Courtney’s single flight around 6:45pm.
Around 6:46pm, young Courtney took her second flight of the day. She again bolted from the Library Courthouse roof where she had earlier flown to, and immediately lost altitude almost coming to the ground. Amazingly, she was able to get some air and gained some altitude as hooked around to the south further away from our view.
Out of nowhere, Truss, - (mon) appeared in our view and was in hot pursuit of baby Courtney. In a few seconds, Truss has intercepted Courtney and managed to literally herd her around in the air and turned her back northbound. While Courtney struggled to hold her altitude, a few gusts of air made all the difference in the world. Courtney caught a break, as the quick moving air allowed her to gain some incredible altitude and she was able to make a decent landing back on the courthouse building,, - two thirds up - on one of the courthouse’s upper south elevations.
There she stayed on the ledge until dark.
Heavy dark clouds rolled in and for the most parts, and they stayed for the balance of the afternoon and evening. We got several good soakings of rain that has us running to the cars to cover. The rain although was most welcomed, as it cooled down the air temps and the hot pavement that surrounded us. The rains cooling effects was incredibly welcomed!!
It was quite obvious that the peregrines were equally as delighted with the rain, (well,,, at least Courtney and Milton), as they were both observed running around on their perspective ledges flapping in the rain in quite an animated fashion.
Courtney was especially animated through the first two periods of rain, (unlike the her behaviour a day ago when she was far less amused by getting wet in the short little spits of rain that we had received). This time, she was observed with wings open, bobbing up and down trying to dip herself in some water puddles that has obviously collected on her ledge.
I was equally as surprised to see Milton’s behaviour during the rain, as he was the most animated of all. We don’t often see “wild” adults acting like kids playing in the water! He flapped both wings while simultaneously running around in short circles bobbing up and down during the first two short downpours. He was absolutely hilarious! If I’m to understand it correctly, this is the very first rain that we have received in a month, and with this unbearable heat and humidity over the past week, its been oppressively hot in the streets on the fledge watches!
We didn’t see Truss during this period so we don’t know what she was doing at this point.
By the end of the day, Truss fed Courtney at least three times (if not four times) throughout the day. It is worth noting that while we have all seen Milton do some hunting and food caching, Truss seems to be doing the most all of the hunting these days! Her preferences seems to be pigeons, as we are constantly seeing her struggling in the air with huge pigeon kills as she returns to the Courthouse. This is not surprising, as Truss was produced at the Burlington Lift bridge nest site, where her mother dined (and fed Courtney and her other siblings as a young hatchlings) almost exclusively with pigeons. The Burlington lift bridge, in addition to the Skyway bridge has thousands of pigeons, and we have watched the adult peregrines at the bridge over the years “shopping” for pigeons amongst the steel girders of the two bridges.
At one point, we observed the adult peregrines actually hovering outside of the large hole openings of the bridges steel girder undercarriage, (going from hole to hole like shopping down the ails in a supermarket), then diving into the holes, reappearing with young pigeon squabs. In addition, we have long observed both adults working/ hunting in the steel undercarriages of both of the bridges rousting out the pigeons.
Truss has learned this from her mother at the Burlington nest site, and obviously teaching some of these same things to Courtney. It looks like “pigeon” will remain a big part of Courtney’s diet, and something that she will likely teach her own hatchlings should she survive to adulthood and raise her own family.
-
Saturday July 23rd - 2011 AM Fledge Watch report
0515-Arrived @ Courthouse, all quiet.
0530- Heard Courtney vocalizing, and found her @ North end of Nest, she was also attended by an Adult (Female??) On the top roof.
0545- Mom in w/food, Courtney grabbed it, Mom made a low stoop about the height of Building to East of Courthouse (ServiceOntario).
0600-Courtney finished food and back up on Southeast Corner of Middle Ledge.
0615- Courtney off to try for exact same ledge as yesterday with exactly the same results. The only difference was that she was around 60′ East and with the added angle she did a gentle carom off the Marble and today she landed on the top roof instead of the one she landed on yesterday.
0630-Mom chases a pigeon and either tags it or it hit the East side of the Courthouse and followed it down to a lower level roof. She has been back there a second time & I haven’t seen her remove it, so I would call it a stash. Tivo arrived and I heard some more detail of Courtney’s escapades last evening.
0645-Mom up South East Corner of Middle Ledge, ( Vocalizations loosely Translated “Aw not Again, were did she go”. She then grabbed the remainder of the pigeon Courtney had for Breakfast and took it down to Her. After feeding for 5-10 minutes Courtney lay down flat for a nap, The two feedings must of made her “very sleepy”. I don’t know what Dad’s excuse was but even he was napping on & off.
0745- Things pretty static, all 3 falcons visible on East side of Courthouse. Dad occasionally stooping to clear pigeons around East Entrance or flying over Courtney to keep her alert.
0805-Mom finally chased Dad, she seems fairly adamant that “It’s no excuse to not have the “Honey Do” list continued on with even though it’s Saturday and he just wants to “chill” and work on his Tan.
0845-Courtney back eating some left over Pigeon.
0900-Courtney active, finally flew Down to Lower Roof (same place she spent most of yesterday). She looked like she was getting a good dose of sun, so she was looking for shade. Mom & Dad still in same positions.
1050- Courtney in same position, Mom finally picked up pigeon and transported w/some difficulty to Northwest Corner, ate some and the flew back to East side of Courthouse. She flew saw the Male resting and flew up and screamed @ him. Reading his beak I would say the reply was “Whatever” flew 50′ or so and when she disappeared he flew back & went to sleep.
1055- Just saw the funniest ever, 2 pigeons flew into land on the metal Flashing in the area where I suspect Courtney is. What I saw brought a new meaning to the Term “Touch & Go”. They no sooner touched that Flashing then they did the quickest 180 degree Turn I’ve ever seen.
1115- Dad got busted, Mom rousted the Two pigeons mentioned above and then busted Dad for resting.
1130- Dad moved around to Northeast Corner of Courthouse.
1200- Dad back, Mom in same place, no sign of Courtney.
1230- Dad only one visible, did a walk about, no sign of Mom or Courtney.
1300- Brief glimpse of Courtney up & flapping, 1st Time since 0900 (4 Hrs).
1400- Courtney up again. Mom very vocal.
1445- Things settling down. Courtney back out of sight.
1500- Mom agitated, at one point she chased off the pigeons near Courtney and in doing so passed by me @ head height no more than 6-8 feet away and I would guesstimate around 100 Mph.
1600-Courtney appears on Ramp that leads from rooftop above toward courthouse entrance. Very interesting watching a juvenile navigate an angled surface, she almost slipped off when turning.
1615-Mom made one attempt to lure Courtney off with Food, with no luck
1645-Evening Watch crew in, filled them in with Day’s happenings and headed home.
Thanx Bruce
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
Fatal error: Call to undefined function post_gallery_get_images() in /var/www/html/w/wp-content/themes/cpf200903/index.php on line 29