!!! All flights delayed early this morning with a thick dense soupy fog - but when the fog finally lifted, Mason did take flight and it was very good!
May 15, 2014 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Mark Nash Reports:
Thursday May 15th - 2014 AM fledge watch report.
Thick fog was an understatement early this morning, as most of the greater Toronto and surrounding area was completely fogged in with a thick soupy fog that offered less than 30 feet of horizontal visibility and less than that in vertical visibility!! My drive from Scarborough to the Mississauga this morning took forever despite the lack of any real traffic. What traffic that was on the road this morning at 5am was going very slow because of the lack of visibility due to the heavy dense fog.
Upon my arrival at the MEC, you couldn’t see a even a quarter of the way up any of the office towers, let alone see their tops, including that of the condo’s to the south where Mason was roosting at my departure at 10pm last night.
For nearly the first three hours this morning, all I could do is wait for the fog to lift. As the hours rolled by, the darkened shadows of the buildings slowly started to materialize from within the fog. Finally by 8:00am, with help of my binoculars and with allot of squinting I could see one of adult peregrines in the nest box through the fog.
By 8:45am, I could hear Mason vocalizing somewhere to my south on the upper fogged out level of the condo but still couldn’t see the upper portion of the condos. Moments later, the adult female (mom) appeared out of the fog an landed on the upper back corner of MEC #4, fixated into the fog in the direction of the condos where Mason was vocalizing.
By 9am the fog finally thinned to the point where I could see the ledge on the condo where Mason was last seen at darkness the night earlier, but despite all my efforts to locate him, (and his vocalizing), he was no where to be found on the upper ledge. With mom clearly in view now, starring at the condo, I started to scan the upper balcony’s with my binoculars. After several minutes of searching, I was finally to locate him on a balcony trapped behind the darkish blue glass. Almost at the same time, mom located him and immediately flew over to him landing on the roof elevation just above him.
We all watched him as he thrashed and banged himself up against the blue glass balcony for more than 30 minutes trying to get through the balcony glass without success. Throughout this timeframe, I was able to contact the security, then speak with the condo property manager to arrange a face to face meeting to organize access to the condo suite to attempt a rescue should Mason be detained for a prolonged period of time, (in addition to alert the property manager and any occupants of the condo suite).
While Grace and Marg keep a close eye on him, now visible from their ground location, I attended the condos and met with the property manager to arrange access to the suite to do a rescue. During my conversations with the condo property managers and the unit owner, Grace radioed to me that mom had flown off and minutes later returned with food for Mason trying in an effort try and coax him up and out of the glass enclosed balcony and up to her overhead position. Sadly, there was no way Mason (or any peregrine for all that matter) would have ever been able to fly vertical up to her elevation, especially given the confined space and his very limited flight skills.
Almost as if she was giving him instructions, (and telling him that I was coming), he finally jumped up onto a patio chair, then jumped a little higher onto a patio table, and finally to the top of the balcony rail, (using them as stepping stones to get to the top of the balcony rail, and above his glass confinement).
Just as I was getting into the elevator to go up to the suite with the property manager, and with the fog having finally lifted above the roof top, and with mom in tow, Mason finally took flight north-ward and eventually ended up landing on the top of the upper roof retaining wall on MEC #1, the nest building!!! He’s finally returned back home, - (well almost home)!! We say that, (almost home), as he has yet to be able to return to the nest ledge itself,, which takes much more skill.
This time, Mason actually gained a little altitude, and although Marg said his landing was allot to be desired, he did manage to land (and stay) on the top of the retaining wall ledge without slipping off. Dad immediately flew in with food and fed him, almost as a reward for his efforts. Unlike when the his mom feeds him, Mason mantled aggressively and ran dragging the food some distance away from the dad to protect his prize. This single action and observation sheds yet a little more evidence that this adult male may not be his father. Throughout the entire week, we have all observed the resident male at this site digging his new nest scrape in the nest box, and he is continually trying to coax the adult female into the nest box. In addition, both adults are still copulating more than a dozen times a day, every day since we started the watch five days ago!
By my departure at around 11:30am had Mason still roosting on the upper retaining wall ledge and settled. The past 18 hours was quite an ordeal and obviously quite a stressful event for little Mason. All part of the leaning experience.
After speaking getting an update from Grace and later speaking to Tracy later this evening, Mason spent the balance of the day on the nest building roof and retaining wall ledge. Sometime between 8:30pm and 9pm, Tracy texted me to report that Mason has just taken another flight over to MEC #3 and landed successfully again on the upper elevations.
