William Osler Boys are Rocking. Peggy is Going to Fledge, No Wait, Maybe Tomorrow
June 27, 2015 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Bruce opened the watch this morning with all four on the ledge but not for long. Sven, Winston and Benny were all over the place this morning playing tag and investigating everything. That left Peggy on the ledge on her own trying to work up the courage to take that first big leap into the air. She came very close this morning during a period of intense activity where her flapping actually resulted in some lift. Her launches forward though were only wee hops. Still, she is very close to being ready and I can empathize with her reluctance… …look out ’cause here comes Benny!! This little man has become the star flyer of the family so fast that he has become ridiculously confident. That’s excellent for him but not for his siblings whom he regularly terrorizes the second they take flight. The games of tag have occasionally gotten a little rough over the past few days and it is always Benny who instigates the tough stuff. The great part about that is that he is challenging his brothers abilities and encouraging their skill development. The not so great part is that when Peggy goes for that first flight he’ll most likely be all over her wanting to play. Don’t worry Peggy, we’ll be there for you!
As the weather moved in the kids were all beginning to quieten down. Around noon, Peggy went back into the nest tray for a nap and the boys wandered the ledge in search of scraps to eat. Given the rains, heavy at times, all the local prey species were huddled and hidden so food was not abundant for the young today. That should make them good and loud come morning and in Peggy’s case, good and motivated! I arrived around 2pm and the family was all at rest. I took over the watch from Bruce and sat down for some action. Nope. Hello????? Are you guys still up there???? It was the quietest I have ever seen William Osler this year. I went back to the south down to the end of the driveway and looked back to find all four young ones on the southeast corner in one big goopy pile. Half wet, half dry and all asleep. I would say it was like watching paint dry but since paint won’t dry in the rain I wasn’t even able to watch that!! Yet as much as I wanted to go and most likely could without concern, I wanted to make sure that Peggy didn’t get any ideas about flight come suppertime. I am glad I stayed a little longer as at 6pm the whole crew woke up and the boys started flights. They were ripping around the property in the rain playing tag and having a blast. Peggy started to flap quite a bit and was pumping hard when she almost slipped off of the wet ledge. For almost an hour the foursome were active and just around 7pm Winston the watcher arrived. He took over the watch for me until close and the flappy bunch that I left him with didn’t take long before they all tucked in for the night.