MEC First Fledge Back Home Tonight
June 05, 2015 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
What a day today! This morning there was again lots of teasing by both resident adults in the hopes that one of the triplets would fledge but this morning they were content to stay home. By 8am Renegade had come in with a small bird for breakfast and that set off quite a spit spat. The food came in to an awaiting Ieva who took it from Renegade with quite a yank. Adrianna now came up out of the window well and was furious there was none for her so she scrambled across the ledge screaming her head off all the way over to her sister… …whom she then punched in the face. Yes folks, Adrianna punched Ieva in the face with the wrist of her wing. It had the desired effect in that Ieva immediately dropped the food which Adrianna happily scooped up and ate the whole thing herself. That set the tone of the day between these two girls when it came to food.
After the 8am feed there was a lot of flapping which was sustained and coordinated, looking rather good in fact. By 9am they had all retired to the window well for napping and preening to round out the morning. For the next three hours I was ledge watching, not fledge watching, as the three remained out of sight. By noon they had popped up and were looking for food so activity really picked up. Bruce arrived at 2pm and we watched Ieva finally exact her revenge on Adrianna for the face punch by jumping up on her back… …twice. Right square on top of her sister and riding her like a horse. Yeesh.
I left Bruce as the weather was rolling in and he had to finally take some serious shelter under the overhang at MEC 3. At one point he lost sight of the nest building all together as the rain pelted down heavily and steadily. When the rain let up he was able to get a head count on all three girls and then as he was changing his position Midnight took to the air with what seemed like real urgency. She circled low over the trees on the west side of MEC 3 and Bruce now had only two in view on the nest ledge. He began his search of the area while Midnight watched from the top northwest corner of building 3. Bruce did find our little flyer on the west side right where Midnight had been circling and scooped up wee Hawkeye with blue tape. He placed her in a carrier and it was off to MEC 1 to await an exam and release. She is one hissy little such and such!! Lashing out with her talons, biting and charging the carrier door was all she could think about as we checked her out and cleared her for release. She was released tonight to the roof of the nest building to try again tomorrow. Looking forward to it!!