!!! 4pm to 10pm watch report - Lady Lamont returns to the nest box! An incredible and confusing afternoon and evening on the fledge watch!!!!
June 14, 2011 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Mark Nash Reports:
PM watch report -Tuesday June 14th - 2011
It was a crazy day in Burlington today full of activity on and off all day. There was so much happening throughout the day that my head is spinning.
The highlights this evening had Lady Lamont completing several good strong short flights from tower to tower roofs, them to the hydro tower for the first time as she tried to get closer to mom.
With several not so good landings and just as many aborted landings unable to get the altitude that she wanted, she was forced to fly around back where she came from only to land on a different part of the tower roofs. Finally she was able to make it back to the nest box where she was greeted with a very excited sister (Lady Nelson). The two siblings touched beaks for several minutes that could only be described as a true sign of affection between the two. A very heart warming moment indeed!
Throughout the later afternoon and evening, the resident adult male McKenzie was in “warp-drive” hunting mode with more energy that I have ever seen in my 17 plus years on the watch!
In addition to the incredible energy that this little guy demonstrated throughout most of the afternoon and evening, he has an affection for the local pigeon population!! He made several pigeon kills that were some of most outstanding stoops and pursuits, catching all that he went after with a determination and agility that I have never seen before. He never ran out of gas!!
If that were not enough to take your breath away - (and it did), we were all caught up in running across the parking lot on one of his successful pigeon hunts screaming “Go Daddy GO”,, as he struggled to hold his altitude making carrying the huge pigeon, while completed circle after circle and several figure-eights while trying to hold on and carrying these huge squirming live pigeons that he had in his clutches while trying to fly in dead air!!
On one occasion he was chased and mobbed by gulls that were in hot pursuit trying to take the pigeon away from him and was almost grounded in the water as he tried to gain some altitude as he flew up the canal past our watch position towards the Hamilton harbour!
Unlike the past weeks where the pair have been hunting in tandem on every other hunt, McKenzie hunted solo all day long today with his mate showing little to no interest at all in hunting.
Another unusual and very strange happening this year, is that both adults seemed to have absolutely no interests in the actual fledgling of their young. When Lady Lamont took her flights today, neither of the adults even looked sideways at her during the flights, let alone accompanied her in any of her flights. Very strange indeed!!!!! The resident adult female didn’t bring a single scrap of food to the young and she spent most of the day roosting on the hydro tower showing very little interest at all to all the happenings going on. And there were allot of happenings throughout the day!!!
McKenzie on the other hand, was in hyper-drive all day long right up until darkness when we closed down the watch for the evening.
By darkness, both of the girls had retired to the back of the nest box, with McKenzie roosting on one of the cables only several feet from the nest box. Mom was on the hydro tower, once again with her back to the nest box which has been her posture and behaviour for the most parts throughout the entire day!.
As I write this observation report, I can’t help but chuckle, as it would have almost appeared that the two adults must have had wicked knock out argument at some point during our absence over the evening and were they have been ignoring each other all day still not speaking to one another! They didn’t interact with each other at all today!
Hmmmmmm??????
Stay tuned…….
