White and Yellow Both Fledge Gives New Meaning to Double Trouble
June 24, 2013 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
The morning started out relatively calm for a falcon family with all four kids on the nest building just hanging out and attacking each other for fun and exercise. The bouncy crew made their way around the nest ledge until finally I had one on every corner of the building. I positioned myself as best I could and waited for food to be brought in. When Hurricane arrived with breakfast he drew three off their corners running and screaming and little blue took to the air. He chased Hurricane as best as he could but their is no catching this master of the air. Blue finally gave up and landed on the nest ledge with his screaming siblings knocking two of them over in the process. After a spirited battle over breakfast blue, red and white trundled off to the southwest corner for a nap and yellow opted for the northeast corner for himself. All was quiet until suddenly the threesome were bolted awake and in the air. Now only two of these kids are flighted and so I had to figure out which one was white and where was she going. I walked around the hospital twice and found her on the low roof of the medical center looking furious that she was now here instead of home. She bounced, ran and wailed for the next hour and a half in the heat but it didn’t bring the building any closer. Finally she decided to go for it, determined as she was, and she flew around to the south side of the hospital landing on the low mechanical roof. She didn’t stay long and her next flight went out and around the parking lot, a swoop back up to the south side and she grabbed the nest ledge with two talons. Flapping like mad she managed to haul herself up onto the ledge just as little blue came bombing in. He knocked her off of the ledge and she was airborne again. This time she made for the tower and landed very neatly in the back section. Triumph!! This was a perfect time for me to now get out of the heat for a brief moment and inside I went for a cool down. When I returned, I began to count heads again and could only find three. Grrrrr. I could hear this wee voice calling from the tower but could only see white, mom and dad. Wait… …at the very top!! Here stood little yellow and boy was he proud of himself!! Just then Hurricane flew in and the whole place erupted. Blue was in the air heading towards Hurricane, red came off the ledge and cirlced the roof while white stayed in her place in the tower and wailed. Hurricane headed for a landing next to yellow and in his excitement, yellow slipped off and began to fly north off of the property. Once again, demonstrating that this is very purposeful, Hurricane went above yellow and steered him down before he could leave the property and thus leave Dad’s protection. I ran over and found yellow sitting on the roof of a house in the residential neighborhood behind the hospital. Lovely. He ran screaming and jumping along the rooftop for the next hour before flying over to the next house. Now he was pretty tuckered out and when all else fails, take a nap in an eavestrough! Oh yes, with his butt squiggled down into the eavestrough of the house, he laid down on the roof and went to sleep. Good timing as white was quite determined to get home. She had been ramping up for the last half an hour and then without so much as a peep she was off. She headed straight for the nest ledge and like a pro, landed on the ledge with a splash and skid. I’m surprised any of these kids have tail feathers left with these sandpaper butt skid landing techniques but its working to get them home and that’s all that matters to them right now. Yellow was now awake and running the new rooftop that he found himself on. He decided to try another hopscotch to the roof next door and missed the edge. He was now sitting on a shed looking quite miffed. I raced over and met the homeowner in his driveway and we were off into the yard to see if we could help little man. He tried for the rooftop of the house from his position on the shed and narrowly missed an open, flaming and very hot BBQ. Phew. He ran between the house and the shed and forced me to make a very ungraceful and squishy rescue. Yellow was going home. After a cool down we took him upstairs for the release. When I took him out for his exam he was quite nasty for such a cute little thing and after trying to grab my face several times we got through the exam and all was well. He was unceremoniously released to the roof and chased me back a few steps before I was gone. You are Hurricane’s son for sure little one!!
Pictures will follow at the end of tledge watch as I haven’t the opportunity to process them yet. Time is tight but I will post highlight pictures soon.