Monday June 16th at ESL. Triple Decker Day!
June 16, 2014 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Monday morning started off with a bang for Kathy and Baylie at the Etobicoke Sun Life nest site. When Kathy left home she had all 4 chicks on the nest ledge but that was not to be the case when she arrived. She met up with Baylie who was out watching the morning wing flap fest and now they could only find two on the ledge instead of four. Ok… They started searching the area for the two missing chicks and found Sunni on the roof of the centre tower and Pierre on the canopy above the entrance to 3250 Bloor Street. Sunni was in their sights and in a good position and so they put the heaviest focus of their attention on Pierre who was now admiring himself in the reflective glass behind him. He sat there for quite some time before slipping off during a stretch and coming to the ground. By this time Rob and Rene had joined Kathy and Baylie at streetside and they all watched from the south side of Bloor Street as Pierre fluttered down to the doorway of the east tower and started to walk towards the road. Kathy was off like a shot across the street and before he knew it he was in a towel. He was attempting to flap his way out and so for added effect, Rene removed her jacket and threw that over top as well. Kathy marched little Pierre right into security and into the rescue carrier he went. They made their way back out into the street to watch Sunni hoping that his next flight would be a stellar one.
Sunni did a few more nice flights that ended him up on the railing of the Kingsway on the Park terrace where he spent the bulk of the day. Food went several times to Heaton and Skyla on the ledge while Sunni continued to bee bop around on the west tower. Finally Sunni took another flight and Kathy described it as just gorgeous. He made two large circles around the top of the centre tower and a nice landing on the west tower to finish it off. Great job!! At around 4:30pm Kathy went in to the Sun Life building and as she passed the All Trans live stream of the cameras, Skyla took off!! Kathy was out the door immediately and saw her flying low out towards Aberfoyle. Jim was now with Kathy and the two watched as she turned back towards the nest building and grabbed onto the concrete. After doing “the bat” for a minute or two she started to scramble and slide down the wall. She let go and headed over to the Kingsway on the Park west tower 16 stories up on a very narrow window ledge. There she was as I arrived and it was just then that Sunni took another flight. The bird headed towards the nest building and attempted to land on the ledge but was too low and flumped into the window. He quickly recovered and flew over to the Kingsway on the Park and landed on the outside of a balcony on the 20th floor. Sunni decided to try again for the nest ledge and flew around to the south side of the east tower and flumped up against a window. After circling back around Sunni once again made for the nest building and made a second flump on the east side windows. This time our little fledgling fluttered down and ended up on the roof of the mezzanine level. After two window flumps I decided to go up and check on the young one so off to security I went. When I got up the ladder to the roof I could see Sunni sitting on the ground looking good but deflated. I decided that a rescue was in order so off I went and scooped up little Sunni. Given that this bird was borderline in weight at banding and we weren’t sure of its sex, I can say for sure that Sunni is a male. I headed over to the hatch to have the carrier sent up when all of a sudden Skyla decided that the window ledge was not working out for her. She flew over to the nest building, did “the bat girl” and hung for a second. She then flew back out towards Kingsway on the Park but was too low to use that option and made for the nest building again. Flump, into the window right above me and then flutter, flutter down to my feet. Really? Ok… I slowly crouched down, put my hand on her back and gently pushed her down to a laying position. She obliged as she was a little stunned and I slid my hand down to encapsulate her wings, legs and tail and picked her up like a popsicle. I now had Sunni under one arm and Skyla under the other. Just then I realized that I hadn’t really thought this through as to how I was going to get them in carriers and off the roof but decided I would figure that out once I got to the hatch. O’Connor had other plans…
As I stood up with two of her chicks, one under each arm, in came Mommy bird and boy was she mad. She stooped me on the low mezzanine roof over half a dozen times as I made my way over to the hatch. The last stoop she raked my sunglasses on the top of my head and she now owes me a new pair. I got to the hatch and asked security to get me a second box and send up the carrier. He came back with a collegue and the carrier came up first. I took Skyla and scooted her into the carrier and slammed shut the door. Done!! Then up came a cardboard box that was quite large and I plunked little Sunni into it and slammed the lid shut. Double done!! Down to security they went with Pierre and next thing you know it I was down at Eagle Road with Jim with a great story to tell.
Mark came down at dusk to give me a hand with a triple release. We put the birds in a carrier, up to the roof and took the door off of the carrier to allow them to come out on their own. The three were up and home with little Heaton still on the ledge. All is well.
A huge thank you to Kathy, Rene, Baylie, Jim, Rob and Mark for all of their efforts today to watch the kids, rescue Pierre and return him home! Also I would like to offer up an enormous thank you to Paragon Security, especially to Tom and David, for their efforts to help me get off the roof with my two little bundles of peregrine joy while dealing with the wrath of O’Connor. Without your help I would have been really stuck up there with a conundrum… …or two in this case. Tomorrow should be a busy day with the first three having fledged, come down, been rescued and now released. Phew!!!