Chroma’s big flight
June 24, 2015 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
Just before 9:00 this morning, Tony was alerted that Chroma was on top of the 19th floor balcony at Sun Life, where Merry was trapped for a few days last year. Janice and Tony checked on her at various times during the morning. A Sun Life employee on that floor reported that Chroma was on her side. When Janice investigated, Chroma was lying down against the glass and it did look like her left wing was sticking up in an awkward position. She was alert and looking around. At 11:30, I saw an adult circling the upper tower and went up to see how Chroma was doing. When I got there, she was hopping back and forth along the ledge where the mirrored glass is and was trying to jump through, hopping up into the glass. The window is very confusing for young falcons as they can see through it to the landscape below but they can’t get through to the other side. They also see their reflection in the glass and it looks like another falcon so they try to reach them. Luckily, Chroma figured it out and hopped over to the open balcony away from the mirrored glass and the reflections. She seemed to be holding her right wing down lower than normal. She hopped onto the metal ledge under the railing and sat there for a few minutes looking down. Tony and Janice were at street level on Union Street and could see her from there. Just before 12:00, she dropped off the balcony out of my sight. Tony saw her drop and Janice was pretty sure she flew towards the hospital, and the flight was strong. A minute later there were two juveniles flying high above the hospital roof. In the blink of an eye, things change quickly and it’s easy to miss what is going on. With no one completely sure whether Chroma flew or dropped down, we did a rooftop scan. Tony took a walk on the 5th floor roof, as I scanned from the higher floors to see if she fell down to a lower level. Chroma could not be seen anywhere. We put out an alert to the fledge watch team to try and find her.
David arrived at 1:00 and was joined by Kim at 1:30. One juvenile was on the top platform of the CTV tower. Reggie, landed on the top too, and started preening. Karen arrived shortly after that and had sighted a third juvenile tucked into the hospital roof on a lower level. It was pretty quiet other than an osprey flying by at 2:00. At 3:15, Caster flew by with Ginnie hot on his heels. Ginnie and Redbud played tag for a bit. One bird was above the H, one was on the Kings Tower antenna and Reggie was on the CTV tower. Karen checked her images and could see that it was Chroma on the hospital ledge! What a feat for this tough girl! Not only did she make it up to the top of the Sun Life building, but she managed to fly back with, let’s hope only some sore wings and perhaps some bruising. Chroma’s crop looked empty so she probably hadn’t eaten for a while. One of the adults came in with a package and Redbud got it. Mystery was around and Ginnie was trying to fly over the moon!
At 7:00, Janice was back on the watch and saw one juvenile on the CTV tower and one on the hospital antenna. Rudy joined the watch at 7:10 just in time to see one of the adults come in with a food package. The juvenile on the hospital antenna pursued the adult with the food package and caught it in mid-air! Nicely done!! There was some vocalizing from the hospital roof but no one else was in sight. At 7:40, one of the juveniles flew down from to the emergency entrance roof and out of sight. Another juvenile was sighted at the front of the hospital.
Karen was back on the watch at 8:00, and sighted three out of the four juveniles. At 8:30, Mystery and Caster were on top of Sun Life on the Union Street side, Caster in his favourite perch. I joined up with Karen a few minutes later and all 4 juveniles could be accounted for. Reggie was on the CTV tower, Ginnie on the highest part of the hospital antenna, Redbud on the rooftop with the big H, and Chroma on the lower level of the hospital roof below Redbud! It did look like Chroma was holding her right wing down a little lower than normal, her shoulder lowered. She stretched out her left wing over the hospital ridge. At around 9:00, the 3 other juveniles all went back to the CTV tower. Chroma took flight a few minutes later. She looked like she was struggling and couldn’t get the height that she needed to make it to the 2nd level platform to join the others on the tower, so she circled back and landed a little higher than she was before, mid way up on the hospital antenna. Reggie joined her there shortly after as if to give her some encouragement. With her back to us, again she held her wings down and stretched them out again. Reggie flew back to the CTV tower to the very top to join the others. At about 9:30, one of the adults flew onto the antenna below Chroma with a food package to try and entice her to leave her perch for a bite to eat. From Karen’s observations today, she hasn’t eaten for a while. The adult flew back to the CTV tower, dropped the food off for the others and then flew off towards the Sun Life tower. Chroma remained on the antenna when we left her at about 10:00. Hopefully, all she needs is a good nights sleep and some rest for her tired wings.
Photos courtesy of Janice Newton, Tony Bergauer & Karen von Knobloch
