The Last Two Days at MEC; She Still Eludes Me!!
August 05, 2012 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I have spent the last two evenings, Friday and Saturday, chasing after some information. One little letter on the bottom of a black over green band. I swear she knows it.
On Friday, I arrived at about 6pm and found her in her usual spot on a hot day. She was on the east side of MEC 3 digesting yet another enormous crop and napping away. I watched little miss fat and sassy ( as Bruce puts it ) for the next hour and upon awakening, she began to preen. Of course when it came time to preen her left leg, the one I was dying to see, she thrust it forward towards the inside of the ledge obscuring my view of the band. After her preen she turned her left side into the ledge and looked down at me as if to say, “You’ll just need to be patient silly human.” She flew off of the building with a burst and went around to the nest box which she entered and disappeared for at least 5 minutes. When she came out, of course she stood with band in full view but by this time it was after 9pm and darkness was falling. I tried to get a look-see through the scope but no dice. Argh…
On Saturday, I arrived at about the same time and found a bird on the top of the nest box. I pulled out the scope and tried for a look only to realize that this bird was unbanded. After working all day in 42 degrees, my brain failed me for a moment and I thought I was looking at a female. The bird was not as bright white as Sante, the resident male, always appears. It would take me a full 4 hours to realize that I was looking at him with my sunglasses on and that’s why he appeared so dark. Thick as a brick in this heat!!
I set off looking for the female and was doing a ground search of the perimeters of all 4 buildings when I heard her whine. I looked up on MEC 4 and found her hiding in between the horizontals on the letter “E”. Picture the E typed here and imagine her in between the center and bottom lines. Goofy bird. Found some shade in the strangest place possible. Well, she managed to squish herself in there and was whining away for some dinner. This time I had her in full sun and could see the band I was after. Unfortunately I left the scope in the car as it was too hot to carry and only had my camera. I have a ton of great photos of her fiddling around in that “E” and many of her band. But when you’re 20 stories up in the air, as I zoom in for a look, the pixelation takes over and I CAN”T READ IT!! Grrrrr… I decided to head back to the car for the scope and in the few minutes it took me, off she went on a hunt. Double Grrr…. I waited for her to return but was out of luck as the rain and lightning had already begun. As willing as I was to stand in a tornado for one little look at this band, it would have been way too dark to see.
I will be back this weekend to try again and I will be pulling out the big guns on Monday as Bruce will be joining me and we will hopefully have an ID for you. Between the two of us, we should have some news for you and we won’t give up until we do!!!!!