The Afternoon Shift; Very Vocal Chicks!!
July 15, 2012 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I arrived to relieve Bruce at 12:30pm and we witnessed a feeding at that time. Another package at 1:30pm and then after the food fight, both kids settled down for a nap. At 2:30pm, the juvenile female woke up as Hurricane had now landed in the tower and was watching over the kids. Storms were beginning to move in and he stayed put for the time being. The rain came down but not a very substantial amount and so off to hunt went the resident male. All the while the two juvies sat on the eastern ledge and screamed and screamed and screamed. By 4pm, the sub-adult female, Chessie, was in with food and had a huge pigeon to share. She was immediately mugged by the juvenile male and robbed of her gift of food. The young female then came and stole the food from the male and the chase was on!! The two young ones now each had a foot on the prey and each refused to let the other have it. This led into a mutual chow down where they both ate each from their own side of the prey until they met in the middle. Now that was trouble. At this point, they would each take a bite and then take turns snatching out of each other’s mouths. Just ridiculous. It would appear that these chicks are really hungry but let me tell you this… …these chicks are far from starving!! They are being fed so much food!! They seem to be a really vocal and demanding bunch this year. If the adults keep feeding them like this, at migration time these kids will still be unfledged and just scream until the South American continent moves to Etobicoke!!
It took almost 45 minutes for the lunchtime ordeal to finally finish and it was about then that the rains came in full force. Both chicks were on the east side near a concrete upright so as it rained, they got a little wet. Once the rain stopped, they screamed at the parents until they were dry as “Mr. Rain touched Mr. Feathers and I’m really upset!!” Usually the chicks really enjoy their first real bath but these two weren’t into it for this rainstorm at least. The chicks did not stop their verbal harassment of the parents all afternoon. Even as she was lying down, the juvenile female continued to vocalize at poor Hurricane left to babysit in the tower. He being a seasoned male, he just turned his back and ignored them. He knows they eventually run out of pigeon power and have to stop for a while. At 8:30pm, you guessed it, food comes in! This was now the 5th feeding of the day. No weaning here. Both chicks were on the north side of the building and Hurricane flew in with a good sized bedtime package. Out of nowhere, in came Chessie and she’s now behaving like one of the chicks. She is whining at Hurricane for food and even flew over and briefly swiped the food off of the juvenile female. She squealed and Chessie relinquished. This didn’t really strike me as odd given that Chessie is just one year old now and is a mother already. She has moments here and there of a little confusion as to her role in all of this but it never seems to take long for her to figure it out. After she stood on the ledge with the chicks for a few minutes, she flew up and joined Hurricane in the tower and whined some more. A couple of starlings flew up to the tower to try and flush her off and she went at them half heartedly. I closed tonight’s watch with the adults in the tower and the two well fed and quiet juveniles sleeping on the eastern ledge.
Photos to follow shortly!!
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