MEC Yesterday; We’re Coming Along
June 09, 2015 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I started the watch yesterday at 6am as two girls, Ieva and Adrianna, were released to the roof of MEC 3 the night before and I wanted to be there just in case of an early morning flight or slip off in the torrential rain. When I arrived, Hawkeye was still up on MEC 1 where she was released a few days earlier running the roof line and singing in the rain. We’re not surprised that it is taking her a while to get going as her first “flight” was a hip check knock off by Adrianna and wasn’t intentional at all. While all three girls hatched on the same day and are of equal age, they certainly aren’t of equal confidence. Every day that Hawkeye spends up on the top of MEC 1 she is learning, exercising and experiencing the wind, balance, flapping and all that she needs to get going. Her next flight should be just awesome.
The other two girls were right where I left them the night before on MEC 3 sitting in the rain and looking like a pair of wet, miserable gargoyles. With the rain being so heavy the parents had nothing to hunt and share as all the prey species were under cover staying dry. It was about 8am when we got the first break in the rain and the adults were off like a shot to Square One to do some shopping. I was confident they would come back with food as I could now hear all of the little birds getting active. After about 20 minutes Adrianna, sitting on the southeast corner of MEC 3 started flapping wildly. She was screaming and flapping and then suddenly in the air! She had no idea she had just flown, all she knew was mom was coming with food and she was going to get it at all costs! Both adults flew over to her and steered her back onto the roof of MEC 3 with an almost perfect landing. She got into an all out brawl with Midnight over the prey as she wanted it for herself and Midnight was intent on beak feeding her. Mom won the tug of war and forced Adrianna to calm down and eat. This gave Ieva the opportunity to run over and join the two of them and try for a tidbit herself. She got some but had to really shoulder her way in to get it.
By this time Hawkeye had dropped down onto the roof of MEC 1 and the rain had picked up again. Margaret arrived just after 9am and the day for the most part was wet and uneventful. Things really got active again around 2pm when the next break in the rain came. Grace arrived to relieve Margaret and both Ieva and Adrianna were now becoming active. The adults went out hunting and Adrianna decided she’d had enough of waiting around. She ran all the way down towards MEC 1 and when she got to the closest vantage point, she took off. She headed straight for MEC 1 and banked around the north side. We were on our feet and ran over to try and see where she ended up and when I walked around to the north side, here was Adrianna on the roof with Hawkeye who was screaming at her sister; Adrianna made it like a champ! She walked over to Hawkeye, said a brief hello, and then ran down the retaining wall away from her screaming sibling. Midnight arrived about 10 minutes later with food on MEC 2 and was alarm calling. She missed Adrianna’s flight and told all chicks to freeze until she could figure out how Adrianna got where she was. The food went over to Adrianna and Hawkeye who met mom on the northeast corner and once again Adrianna began brawling with Midnight over the prey. Once again mom won and beak fed both chicks while Ieva watched on MEC 3. Renegade flew in with prey that he gave to Ieva and then left for another perch in the complex. Ieva watched her siblings get beak fed while she sat hanging onto this chunk of meat. Dissatisfied with the method of delivery, Ieva dropped the entire chunk into the window well and decided that she wanted what her sisters were getting. She ran and flapped up the courage to take the leap. By this time Winston had arrived and we were ready. She flew towards MEC 1 with a full parental escort but fell short of the retaining wall and did the bat for a minute. She let go and headed back to MEC 3 where she brushed a window but recovered incredibly well. She went back towards MEC 1 but had lost too much height and now came fluttering down to the front lobby. We ran over and Grace and I assisted Winston in his first rescue. Winston was awesome and with great execution, grabbed up Ieva and into a carrier she went. I stuck around to help with the release back up on MEC 3 and all went incredibly well. Ieva is now almost as aggressive as Adrianna lashing out once out of the carrier and tried to climb my arm. Nice. She also learned from previous experience that tearing a towel apart with her beak was so much fun and we have one more hole filled towel in our collection!
Thank you so much to Margaret, Katherine, Grace and Winston for all of your help today. What an awesome day and such a great team effort. Today should be interesting and Grace will be ready for the girls this morning!!!