AND IT’S FOUR FLEDGED!!!!
June 11, 2022 - Toronto - Don Mills
Cathy Kerr Reports:
DAY 3 FLEDGE WATCH: What a day! I arrived to find Zigzag had fledged! All four in 3 days! A very nice photographer told me that when he arrived Zigzag was on the 1st level of the nest building facing east. He ledge hopped around to the front when he lost sight of him. He had flown out and back, where this gentleman saw him fly up, hit the flashing of the 3rd level and drop to the 2nd. And up he popped! I found him on the second level facing east. He ledge hopped back and forth. Bob joined me at that point. After a time he tried the exact same move, with the exact same result. And the second level he remained until evening. When I drove in, I immediately saw Nitro, still on the garage rooftop….and there he remained, walking back and forth, back and forth, until evening. Yeager was still on the roof when I arrived but not for long! He was off and flying rooftop to rooftop, I really can’t remember how many, he did so well! And Ace just went from 0 to a hundred in 2 days, it’s really amazing.
Sally joined us just before noon and she has been nice enough to report the rest of the day:
I joined Cathy and Bob just before noon, and Zigzag had fledged. Nitro was still on the parking lot roof. Ace and Yeager were doing great.
Our day was spent mostly focused on Zigzag, and periodic checks that Nitro was indeed still in the same spot. It was a very rainy afternoon, so everyone stayed put.
Cathy left for a couple of hours to feed her fur babies, and Bob and I kept watch. Zigzag started ledge hopping west and Bob remarked hmmm this is where he flew last time. Bob grabbed his net, and we repositioned ourselves to follow him, east. Yep, off he went. South towards Nitro on the parking arcade. Bob walked east in case he’d circled right around 225. Instead, he circled back as if towards the nest building but then up up to an 8th floor window ledge of 225. I was happy to see him pull up and not bump the window. A controlled landing. I texted Cathy the good news.
So now we were stationed in a new spot to watch if Zigzag flew again and then we saw two juvies flying north out over Duncan Mill to 240, with one looking a bit clumsy. He attempted to reach the roof, missed, and came to settle on a west facing ledge with the other juvie on the 220 roof. Bob went to see if Nitro finally left the parking arcade roof and yes! We checked and confirmed all four in sight. Yeager and Ace on 220 roof, Nitro on 240 and ZigZag on 225.
Cathy returned and we stayed in our new viewing spot for quite a while as we had good sight lines. No babying today from Quest. She was quite tough with all four. At one point it looked like she came in to prepare food for a very hungry Nitro. He screamed from the next ledge, attempted to fly out and around but misjudged and ended up flying across to the copper building, bumped the window, flying back to a lower ledge, facing south. And, Ace had other plans. He chased Quest for the package, with Mystery coming in to take a food transfer, inches from Ace. He’ll now be wanting more of that we’re sure! Quest beak fed Ace and Yeager predictably attempted to join, but Ace was having none of that. He flew out to block him, chased Yeager and pulled at his tail. Ace is getting very bold. Our worry now is his progress in comparison to his siblings. He’s quite dominant, and if he starts either hogging food or wanting to interrupt other feedings to play, we are probably in for a few nail bites spot checks!
We closed the watch with all four juvies accounted four (ZigZag never left his window sill).
Tomorrow is more rain, maybe thunderstorms in the afternoon, hopefully done by the evening so tomorrow night we should see some more exciting flights!
Thanks Sally for her help and report..thanks again to Bob for his help!
A very quick fledge watch, we just need to see some higher flights from Nitro and Zigzag. They’ll need to get strong to compete with their brothers!!
Cathy
