Toronto - Don Mills

DAY TWO DON MILLS FLEDGE WATCH:  A great day!!  My day started off with a phone call when I was on the way, from the wonderful security(both Mano & Ramesh from 220 are the best!!) guard Ramesh advising me we had a fledgling on the 2nd floor.  Sounds like Ace figured out how to get off that building! And when I arrived, it was indeed Ace!  Well done.  Yeager and Zigzag were on the nest ledge and Nitro was not in sight but no worries as he was on the roof.  Good start to the day!  I was joined by Bob shortly after and we settled to watch Yeager ledge hop to the corner and see Ace try to climb the window(like Nitro the day before).  He batted and clung for a bit before letting go and dropping down.  Then Yeager had our attention, and then he was off!  He flew beautifully, but it was windy and he kinda hovered for a sec(we were hoping he’d fly back to the nest building but no.) then flew out, Quest was off like a shot, and escorted him around 225 and out of sight!  By the time Bob & I were around the building, we lost sight of him.  Quest returned so I knew she knew where he was so that was some comfort.  Sally joined us at this point to help with the quick search and we found him on the top of the parking garage behind 225, atop of the staircase, the highest point.

Ace, who’d been on the low level of 220,  took off flying. He circled and came towards 225 with Quest intercepting his flight to slow him down and redirect. He landed on the 8th floor window ledge (he’s quite familiar with those!). He didn’t stay there long, before he flew out over us, circled again, gaining even more altitude than before, made for the nest building but then turned and flew west, landing on the roof of 180 (Herjavec building). Beautiful flying!

Mystery flew over to join Yeager on the parking roof, as he was being harassed by robins and what we think were grackles. Ace didn’t want to be left out and flew over to join them, but due to the strong wind he landed clumsily and out of sight. When he hadn’t shown himself, Sally walked south along Valleybrook, to see if he’d flown further. As I was returning Sally could see and hear very agitated birds diving into one of the pine trees close to the parking arcade. Unbeknownst to Sally, both Yeager and Ace had flown off the roof, Ace landing beautifully on the roof of the nest building but Yeager went out of sight. He was in the pine tree, getting clipped by the angry birds. He had a couple of clear pathways out of the pine trees, and eventually flew out, but into the dark parking arcade, and straight back out (no thank you!), over to 225 aiming for the roof but bonked a window, recovered and flew around towards his nest building, bounced off the aluminum flashing, came low and circled back, landing on the glass wall near the entrance. After joking we’d just watched a pinball wizard, Cathy distracted him and Bob netted him. Into the carrier to wait for Mark to give him a checkup. All good. Marion joined us at this point. After a few quiet hours, he was released.

Ace was very hungry at this point(don’t blame him) and chased Dad past the nest building, over the Purolator parking lot, all the way to the building behind, landing nicely on that rooftop!!  He returned to the rooftop of the nest building and was finally rewarded with a nice meal from Mom–we know Nitro got some too as Quest was feeding him at the same time, reaching down to him.  But as Ace “aced” his flights, he got the lion’s share!

Now, we had been wanting to see Nitro since his release yesterday. He was still on the roof, and decided to fly as we released Yeager. A good flight, south over to what seems to have been a popular spot today: The 225 Parking arcade roof (where he stayed until close).

Ace lived up to his name today, flying really well, and when Yeager jumped up onto the roof ledge they hung out for a bit, allowing us to keep an eye on Nitro. Shortly before close, Ace chased Quest across to 225 roof, then a beautiful flight right back home to the nest ledge and a happy, unfledged Zigzag.

Hoping tomorrow has Zigzag joining his brothers in flight. Nice to have all four accounted for when we closed the watch. We had beautiful weather today, unfortunately the weekend weather doesn’t look the best for flying but we’ll hope for the best!! It was another long day but a good one…one more fledge to go!!

Cathy