Aerial antics!
June 19, 2016 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
At 10:10 a.m., Heather was on the watch and the juveniles were flying everywhere! They are flying really well now, getting good heights, soaring and swooping around together with lots of acrobatics. By 10:20, they all settled down except for one juvenile who flew back and forth, from the CTV tower, to the hospital and to the Kings Tower. At 10:45, the entire family were in sight – the juveniles on the CTV tower and the adults on the Kings Tower antenna. At 10:55, a juvenile flew to Kings Tower and circled a few times. One of the adults joined it and they flew over to the hospital together. The juvenile landed on the antenna while a parent circled above, and then flew back to Kings Tower where the second adult was perched on the antenna above. At 11:05, the adult flew back over Kings Tower, the juvenile took flight to follow and ended up back at CTV. They vocalized to each other off and on. At 11:18 it’s getting hot out and one juvenile laid down on the edge of the top platform with its wing hanging over the edge, tired from all the flying! Two others were preening and the fourth was laying down too. At 11:30, all juveniles were at the top of CTV tower – three on the top platform and one just above perched on the railing.
Mike and Elaine were on the watch at 4:00 p.m. and at first only located one juvenile on the upper platform of the CTV tower. At 4:15 they discovered a dead gull on the top of the hospital parking garage. One of the adults was sighted on the Sun Life tower at 4:25. Ten minutes later, a food package was dropped off at the upper platform of the CTV tower. All four juveniles were on that level. At 6:05, Tenor flew to the hospital tower. Five minutes later, another juvenile flew from the CTV tower and engaged Tenor in some aerial acrobatics. The remaining two took flight and all four were in the air, flying from tower to tower and building to building! At 6:20, only three of the juveniles were accounted for. One had flown over the hospital parking garage. Mike went to check it out and found the missing juvenile eating the dead gull on the top floor of parking garage! At 6:30, Susie arrived to join Mike and Elaine on the top floor of the garage to observe three of the juveniles taking turns eating the gull only 40 feet away!! The first juvenile ate more than half of the gull, then regurgitated some of the meal before flying back to the CTV. Ziegler was seen feeding one of her siblings!
Sheldon and I arrived shortly after 8:00 p.m. to join Susie on the watch. At one point, there were falcons flying everywhere and one falcon flew off really low towards Waterloo and we lost sight of it around the lower office buildings. We were going to go off on the hunt for it just in case it went down, however all kids and one adult were accounted for about 20 minutes later. Two were on the top platform, one was beside the nest box and the fourth was on the girders on the north side under the nest box platform. Sheldon and I went to the garage roof to inspect the gull carcass and a few minutes later one of the adults quickly moved in to escort us away from their dinner! At 9:00 p.m. it quieted down, one of the kids was laying down on the ledge of the nest box under the light of the moon. All were safe and accounted for at various levels as we left the watch.
Photos courtesy of Heather Buerkle
