!!! Jewel’s dramatic rescue !!!
June 21, 2022 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
Another early start for Amy, she located Corona and one of the adults on the nest box tower, the other adult on the small drum tower. She reported: “We have lift off from Corona at 5:53. A successful trip from the nest site to below the antenna on Grand River Hospital. One adult is with her on top of the antenna. Flight number 2 at 5:58. She circled around the hospital with an adult escort and safely landed back on the hospital. This time she is on the antenna. Loads of vocalization.” At 7:35 Corona flew back to the hospital after taking a loop over the Pine Street medical building.
At 11:19, Corona was on the tower and the two adults were flying around. At 1:26, Karen reported: “Both adults are in the tower and Corona is on the top rails of the top level screaming at the moment. A few tours by the parents but Corona has been pretty static for a few hours.” A stifling hot day, less attention was given to Corona as the volunteers continued the search for Jewel, still no sign of her. It was decided that the building (824 King Street West) where Jewel was last seen should be searched. The team was busy trying to get ahold of the owner so that they could get access to the building.
As luck would have it a contractor working in the building let David and Rudy into the building to search for Jewel. It didn’t take them long to find the chimney clean-out. Opening the cast iron door with little but a screwdriver, a hammer and a concrete drill was another task. They were working for well over an hour. Rudy and David were almost giving up and went back outside to see if CTV would let them back on Kings Towers to get a view from above. Rudy was in his car about to leave, when Steve (the contractor) suddenly came out and triumphantly announced that he’d got the stuck door open and that he thought Jewel was in there! Rudy, David and Steve went back into the building and another chore was to remove all the chimney swift litter and bird remains from the bottom of the chimney. There was literally 2 feet of debris at the bottom of the 100 year old chimney! David stuck his phone in to see if she was in there and lo and behold Jewel was in the bottom of the chimney!!! They could hear her hissing at them. Rudy stuck his towel in and got her to grab onto the towel and pulled her out!!! To say that Rudy was over the moon was an understatement! Rudy did a preliminary exam and she appeared to be fine. Jewel is one lucky bird as Rudy also pulled out a complete skeleton of a banded bird and many other bird part that met a more deadly fate.
A special shout out to our hero, Steve who saved Jewel. It’s nothing short of a miracle that she was rescued! And of course to all of the volunteers who did not give up on finding Jewel!!!
