Ghent Doing Very Well
June 08, 2014 - Burlington - Lift Bridge
Tracy Simpson Reports:
When I arrived at the lift bridge, the first thing I did was do a sweep of the CCIW area looking for Ireland. Today is the fifth day that he has been away from the bridge. My scans yielded no sign of him so I headed over to the bridge to meet up with Bill, Sue and Barry to watch Ghent. Now that he is out of the house our attention is going to watching him and making sure that he is safe. In the morning he was found on the top of the lift bridge tower looking really good after spending the night in the scaffolding. We watched him as he hopped out to the arms of the lights and back again while Cirrus sat in the hydro tower and MacKenzie hung out on his beam on the Burlington side. Without a peep Ghent took off of the tower and flew directly over to the top of the Skyway bridge arch and the only reason we realized that he did this is Cirrus was over there giving him a lecture. She wasn’t too fond of him being there and really let him have it. He had landed on a horizontal beam that crossed over the road of the Skyway and was weaving his way through the girder. Just then another watcher arrived and after we exchanged greetings, we turned to point out his location but we couldn’t see him. Barry looked up at the tower and sure enough Ghent had made another silent ninja flight over to the Burlington tower of the lift bridge and was now on the top of the elevator shaft. Little stinker! He stayed there for a while and then decided to try for the Hamilton side but had way too much of a head of steam and overshot his landing slightly using the elevator shaft on that roof as a back stop. He stayed there for a while and then made another flight over to the Skyway arch as this seemed like much more fun. At this point Cirrus went to retrieve a pigeon that she stashed earlier and things got a little crazy. MacKenzie followed her and tried to sneak in and swipe the lunch off of her that she now gave to Ghent. This did not go well in MacKenzie’s favour. The three sat on the Skyway and snacked for a while just as the rains now came in. This settled everyone down as Ghent enjoyed his first rainbath, Cirrus went off to the Hamilton tower for her own shower and MacKenzie landed on the cable arm on the Hamilton side. A short 15 minutes or so later, the whole family was asleep.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, MacKenzie woke up and began kakking…. …at nothing! He looked around and found his mate and offspring both sound asleep where he left them and so back to sleep he went. Just bizarre!! Dreaming of pigeons perhaps. As the rains began to taper off Ghent became active and decided to go for the hydro tower where Cirrus was sitting. First he went to the Burlington tower roof and then off to the hydro tower with quite the speed! He came in way too fast and this time used Cirrus to stop crashing into her and sending her into the air as he hit. I bet Cirrus never thought being an airbag for Ghent was a part of the deal. He stayed in the tower for a while and then did several more flights, always maintaining his height and landing kind of well considering this was his second day out. He finished off the day back in the Hamilton hydro tower with Cirrus looking on and MacKenzie now under the Skyway for the night.
Ghent is doing incredibly well and is on his way to skilled flight. Unfortunately Ireland remained unaccounted for today and after 4 days of extensive ground searches we now consider him missing in action. As with all fledge watches, we take the good with the bad and do the absolute best that we can. I can say for certain that there is no better crew out here and their efforts on behalf of this family have been outstanding. Thank you to Bill and Sue, Barry and Linda, David and Rob, Bruce, Margaret, the Rochester girls and all those that have been down attending, watching, searching and supporting the Burlington Lift Bridge pair. This watch could not be going as well as it has without you!