Day 2 of the William Osler Fledge Watch Starts with a Nice Flight
June 13, 2016 - Etobicoke - William Osler
Tracy Simpson Reports:
I opened the watch today and all was quiet on the ledge at first. The kids were just waking up and getting animated and Chessie was in the tower watching. Casper was on the southern H keeping vigil there. All seemed to be nice and calm when Ramses had other plans. At around 9am he took to the air running. Seriously folks, he was running down the ledge, got airborne and forgot to stop his feet from running! He flew out over the south employee parking lot maintaining his height and headed back for home. He was one floor short of the nest ledge and so he swung out around the east parking lot. This time he was starting to drop height as he was tuckering out pretty quick. He tried for the nest ledge on the east side but was only half way up. He flumped into the wall and fluttered down to the ground. I was so not ready for a rescue but I ran over to where he stood. Chessie was stooping me (not terribly close but enough to say get lost) and in one grab I had him in my hands. I cradled him in my hand and tucked him against me with his tail sort of under my arm and marched him into security to get the rescue carrier. Uh oh. Security was on patrol. Ok. I’m sure I have something in my car. I found a bankers box full of stuff that I needed to take out and Ramses watched as each item came out in turn. The box now empty I just needed to find the lid. Oh no. No lid. Ok. I have a thick towel. I draped that overtop and headed back into security where I met up with one of the guards. We were able to transfer him over into the rescue carrier and all was well. Ramses was so furious at me for our little walkabout all gathered and tucked that when he went into the carrier he wanted back out to get a piece of me! He was in fine shape and has his mother’s attitude.
Back outside Chessie was somewhat upset. She kept stooping and hovering over the last place she saw him and finally landed on the light post closest to his last location. She stayed there for almost 15 minutes and then finally returned to the tower. She kept checking the area for him for the next hour and then took some rest. Sahara on the other hand was bee bopping all over the ledge. She was testing her wings and building up strength. Bruce took over for me in the afternoon and until close saw much the same as I did. Sahara remained on the ledge but she was ready. Really ready. I came back at dusk and took Ramses back up to the roof for a release and he was quite ticked off. He looked great and so out the door we went. It took me about 5 minutes or so to find him a good spot out of the howling winds and then it was time. A flick open of the door and a hiss from little man and it was done. I will be back at dawn as Bruce has warned me that Sahara is beyond ready for first flights and Ramses is anxiously awaiting the daylight to return home. Some photos I took of Chessie today are attached.
