Rainy Day Sunday at William Osler
June 30, 2015 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Well the good news is that Peggy has fledged. Ya!! The not so great news is that her first flight ended up with a tree top view of the nest ledge. She took flight sometime just after dawn and when I arrived at 6:30am she was sitting in a tree full of robins near to the emergency entrance. Her placement in the tree was quite good as she had no branches in her way to contend with. She sat in the tree begging for the parents to look after her but it wasn’t meant to be. The parents will not feed their young in inappropriate locations such as trees so she was just going to have to fly somewhere else that is parent approved. She was getting rained on this morning which was not helping at all. When the rain would stop she would preen and dry off. Then just as she was ready to go… …more rain. More wet Peggy. The boys were flying around during the rain breaks and each hour or so one, Winston, would do a low pass past Peggy trying to encourage her out of the tree to no avail. After staring at the same tree for about 5 hours, I took advantage of a break in the rain and a sleeping Peggy to try and get some photos. As I was taking some shots of her 40 feet up in this tree a bird comes whipping really low past me. Good gravy its Hurricane. He skimmed the top of the emergency entrance overhang, using it to cover his approach, and came right at me. I started to head back to my car to put away my camera as the last thing I wanted to do was upset the family when - whoosh - another low pass… …by WINSTON. He was following and imitating Hurricane in defence if his sister! He came out of nowhere and wasn’t nearly as close but his efforts were quiet valiant. Hurricane made another low pass at me after which he retreated to the tower to watch me. A media blackout on Peggy had been imposed by Hurricane and I was to obey. I did as he asked and went back to watching Peggy sleep.
The afternoon into early evening had periods during which the rain actually let up. This was time for the boys to get out and play!! It started around 1pm with Sven and Winston but there was no sign of Benny. I wasn’t worried as I figured he might be over on the north side out of my view. Nope. As I scanned the towers for adults I was looking south and here came Benny!! He was WAY off campus down by Islington and Rexdale where Chessie hunts the local flocks. The minute he returned he sought out Sven for a tussle. Man in Benny rough. He was grabbing Sven by the wings and tail causing him to have an aerial tumble then recovery. Good life lesson but tone it down already.
It wasn’t until late in the evening that Peggy went for that next flight. She lumbered out of that tree and headed for the tower. The landing was rough but she stuck it and wailed her excitement to the world. With her ultimate goal now in sight, home, she launched herself for one more great effort. Then something happened that I have never seen before. Peggy was met in the air by her brother Winston. He flew with her and guided her towards the building rooftop! That’s an adult job! She came in too low and circled a second time, this time managing to grab the wall just one foot below the roofline. She did “the bat” for a good minute or more with Winston on the roof right above her vocalizing encouragement. Not to be easily defeated (she is a Hurricane child) she flapped and WALKED the last foot up to the top of the roof!! Well. Now it was party time. All three boys went over and joined in the celebration of Peggy’s return. I left the family to their reunion as the sun was going down with the hope of great flights tomorrow.