!!! Hope’s rescues & Ziegler’s big flight !!!
June 14, 2016 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
All of the juveniles were safe and sound at the start of the fledge watch at 6:00 this morning. Tenor was on the edge of the top platform while Mystery was prepping breakfast. At about 6:40, Tenor went for a brief flight. He circled around the Bell Media tower and landed back on the top platform. At 6:45, Ziegler hopped up onto the roof in the back of CTV’s parking lot. At 6:50, one of the other babies followed Tenor’s flight path and landed on the east corner of the top of the Bell tower. At 7:15, two kids were on the top of the tower, one was on the nest box platform and the fourth one was on the ledge of the nest box.
At 9:25, 3 out of 4 of the kids were on the top platform! Casper (S41) was still sticking close to the nest box. One of the adults did a low fly by right down King Street towards downtown Kitchener at 10:10 and at 10:20 another adult flew by. One of the parents was sighted just before 11:00 on the King’s Towers antennae while the kids screamed. It quieted down until 11:45. Ziegler, Hope and are still on the top platform, while Casper remained on the nest box platform on the Pine Street side. Ziegler still has her red tape on her band, but all of the others have lost their coloured tape which make it harder for the fledge watch team to identify the birds. Hope took 3 flights during this time, one to the hospital tower and back!! At one point, Mystery coaxed her out and she did a nice loop out towards the hospital and landed back on top of the Bell tower. Caster continued to perch at the hospital tower watching over most of Hope’s flights.
Just before 2:00 a fuss could be heard from one of the ‘grines’ at the Sun Life tower. Hope had taken another flight from the tower towards the hospital and back but couldn’t make it back to the platforms. She tried to land on one of the tower’s steel beams but ended upside down. She aborted that flight and ended up perched on a hydro wire only about 15 feet from the ground on Pine Street. Hope sat there for over an hour and just before 3:00 she made another attempt to fly to the tower platforms, but couldn’t grasp the bars with her talons and ended upside down again. She flew off to the Pine Street medical building and landed on the window sill. She flew back over towards the Bell tower but landed in front of the bushes on the ground. The fledge watch team corralled her and she was easily captured by Rudy.
Meanwhile, Ziegler flew to King’s Towers and Tenor to the antenna. During the afternoon Caster and Mystery were busy flying around after their newly fledged kids! At one point, one of the adults flew off to chase a small raptor out of the immediate area. There is a nesting pair of Merlin’s in Mount Hope Cemetery that are a little too close to Caster & Mystery’s territory. At 6:00 p.m., one of the adults brought in a meal for Casper in the nest box, and then took off with it towards Uptown Waterloo and landed with it up on the east parapet. A 2nd and 3rd ‘grine’ were sighted on top of the Sun Life tower! At the very top of the tower was Ziegler!! What a big flight for this newly fledged falcon!!
Hope was examined and hydrated. She wasn’t injured and at 6:40 p.m. was released from the CTV rooftop adjacent to the Bell Media tower. She hopped onto the building’s edge walking back and forth and getting a bearing on her new surroundings. Caster was on perched on top of the hospital antenna watching over the family. Tenor took a flight towards Caster and his perch but headed back and landed on the very top of the Bell tower on top of the drum. Mystery flew back to join Tenor on top of the drum with Ziegler hot on her tail!! At 7:20, Hope flew back out towards the hospital around the tower but she couldn’t get enough loft and again couldn’t latch onto the steel beams with her talons and went upside down and flew down towards the CTV building and ended up lightly hitting the lower windows and landed in the garden. For the 2nd time today, Hope was rescued from the ground! At 8:00 p.m. Caster and Mystery both arrived and are trying to coax the juveniles to fly. At 8:25 one of the kids did a couple of flights around the tower. At 8:30, one of them takes a flight to the roof of King’s Towers. After about 10 minutes, the juvenile flies back to the tower but isn’t able to land on the satellite dish and flies to the hospital roof. Caster follows the youngster and again stands guard from his perch on the hospital antenna with lots of vocalizations to his kids. Casper has not had a confirmed flight and is resting in the nest box. Hope will be released in the morning after a good night’s rest.
Photos courtesy of Karen von Knobloch & Michael Hilborn
