Sunday June 16th - Ashley Found in a Tight Spot
June 16, 2013 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Today was to be day 2 of Ashley on the lamb as my morning walk around the four MEC buildings yielded no sightings or signs of her whereabouts. Catherine was on the nest ledge and winding up as the adults made several attempts to tease her off. She didn’t take the bait but rather sat and screamed her indignation at the whole flight thing content to rock around the ledge. In and out of the box, in and out of the well and lots of flapping was the flavour of the morning with the adults trying their utmost to get her out into the air. When the parents realized that this little potato had no intention of flying at the time, the fed her up and put her to bed so that they might turn their attention to the missing Ashley. This is where things got interesting. The parents were soaring around above the roof of MEC 1, in particular the southeast corner. Now previously, I had checked the roof for Ashley but did not see her. I visually inspected the corner of her release and the environs but was quick to exit. A quick and stealthy peek yesterday was all that I accomplished and yet I still drew the attention of the parents. Now they were kiting and soaring over the roof of MEC 1 and paying lots of attention to that corner. So what did I miss? Their calling and searching of the creek valley and neighbourhood had ceased. Did they find her? I think they did and she was still up there somewhere. I intended to go back up and see what I was missing but Catherine slowed me down as she woke up and took a brave step forward towards flight. She jumped the gap. While this may seem like a small thing, for these juveniles at MEC it is a huge step forward and a big confidence booster. She first jumped one gap to the south of the box, then another and another until she was finally at the southeast corner of the building. She dipped in and out of the wells at that end and then finally made a swift and sure leap-fest back to the nest ledge. It wasn’t until Winston arrived that I finally decided it was time for a look at what the parents were kiting over. To make this even more compelling, they were doing this at mealtimes only. They weren’t flying around with food yet the behaviour was timed with the feeding of Catherine. When I got upstairs, my targeted search was the area of the parents interest. Behind the hatch is a 4 foot high retaining wall that has a catwalk type channel around it and machinery in the middle. I walked over and to my surprise, it was an open area that was about 16 feet deep. I’ve only seen this rooftop at dusk during releases and had no idea there was an open cooling tower “pit” behind and to the right of the hatch. As I looked into the depths, two cute little eyes stared back with an “I’m really stuck” expression. Down we go to the door to the base of the tower and a quick scoop up of a fussy little girl was complete. She bit, taloned and drop kicked me but that was what I wanted to see out of a juvenile that had been missing for a few days. Her health check complete, I released her to the roof once again all the wiser for her experience. By the time I was back in the street, she was on the retaining wall howling at her parents that were now greeting her and re-bonding. Thank you so much to Margaret, Shannon, Katherine, Winston and best of all the staff at Garda Security for helping me to find and free Miss Ashley!! Great job everyone!!
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