Mississauga Fledge watch Saga so far.
June 12, 2019 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Marion Nash Reports:
We have been posting MEC fledge watch info on facebook so I thought I would copy paste the postings up to June 11th.
MEC update - if you’re wondering why you aren’t seeing either of the juveniles on the camera that’s because they fledged! Bruce Massey started the watch this morning and it’s been a very eventful day!! Here is the Coles Notes on the day. Young female is in a carrier awaiting release after being rescued by Bruce and the young male has flown and we are working to locate him. More to come. Check back soon.
MEC update - I am posting this for Bruce as he was at the site for the day and had the pleasure of dealing with Amanda and Drago for the most part. Drago was apparently a jumping bean, all over the ledge and on the pre flight phase of jumping the gap as we call it. More like flying the gap!! Back and forth and up onto the nest box. Amanda thought this looked like great fun and decided to give it a go. She was running back and forth across the ledge stopping just short of the edge until on one of her rampages…oops, I’ve gone to far. She lost her balance on the corner and out into the air she went. She did a short flight out, headed back for home and came up short. She fluttered down to the front of MEC one and after giving Bruce a bit of a hard time he scooped her up and into the carrier she went. Drago in the meantime was all over the place. On one of his little gap flights he missed his landing and off he went as well. He went north and then came back towards home, flew in tandem with a parent and out of Bruce’s sight. He came back in low and is believed to be somewhere in a thick (and I mean thick!) treetop near the nest building. He didn’t resurface tonight and the parents are not panicking at all. They know where he is and is confident he’s safe for the night. After much walking by Bruce, myself and Winston we can say for sure he is not on the ground. I released Amanda on the roof of MEC 3 and she didn’t make it easy. She absolutely refused to come out of the box and attacked if I tried to help. After almost 5 minutes she came out pounding her feet and hissing up a storm. She’s a wild one this one. All was quiet when I left and we’ll be on Drago’s tail in the morning.
MEC UPDATE - The fledge watch continues. After Amanda‘s release on MEC three last night she has remained on that building during Bruce’s watch. She was fed this afternoon by the parents and they did make attempts to encourage her to fly but no go from this little girl. Drago still remains elusive. We have been unable to locate him and Renegade has spent a good portion of the day away from the site. It is our hope that he is with Drago and is keeping a watchful eye over him. If anyone in the local area of Mississauga has some time and would like to pop in to the MEC fledge watch you would be gratefully and graciously welcomed. It would certainly help give watchers eyes a break and also facilitate the continued search for Drago. With Amanda on the loose the main watch crew must unfortunately stay close to the nest site as she is a priority at this time. Check back soon for more updates.
Lost and found and misplaced at MEC. It is absolutely freezing out here. What makes it so cold is that it’s so wet. The rain stopped and the winds are howling and after clearing the base of building one and three I went back to my car to warm up and check on Amanda. I sat down in my car I shut the door and then I looked up at the overhang over the driveway out front of MEC one. What is that? It can’t be! She’s on the building! DRAGO!!!! I jumped out of my car and was at the ready. All he had to do was come down. Oh he had other plans! He decided to take off. And where did he go you might ask? He flew away from the nest building complex, across six lanes of traffic and over to the Morguard building. He landed pretty decently on the roof! What? I was both elated and annoyed at him. Little punk! Where on earth have you been!? He wouldn’t settle on the roof of the building. Oh no he wanted to come home and that was quite clear. He took a flight again across six lanes of traffic and flew to a spot that I had suspected he’s been for the last few days. He flew across the street to the new tall condos down at Burnhamthorpe and Hurontario. He made for a balcony and in part hovered in front of it but missed. He started to lose elevation and tried for another balcony but missed that one too. He dropped and tried to grab and dropped and tried to grab and continued to lose altitude attempting to grab at balcony railings as he went until he dipped below my site line behind the treetops. I don’t know when the last time was that I ever ran that fast. Now he’s a good city block away. Still I ran like I was on fire! My concern was that because he came down the side of the condo facing six lanes of traffic I was worried that when he got down low enough he might try and fly across the road and get himself into deep trouble. When I got down to the condos I scanned the balconies but couldn’t see him anywhere. Scanning balconies in near darkness is never an easy task and this one was impossible. At the base of this building there is a three-story flat elevation that looks like a rooftop patio above a storefront. There is a very good chance he may of ended up on that or landed eventually on a balcony. I did however circle both condo towers and cleared the ground.making sure that he was nowhere down low and required scooping up. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I texted Bruce and told him what I just experienced. The first question he had to ask was where did this little guy come from and where did he get the jet pack all of a sudden. It’s now almost completely dark and I can’t find him anywhere. My hope is that he’s come down somewhere safe and he’s decided to stay put for the night and will try again in the morning. Bruce knows where he is and today had dropped off his telephone number to the security that runs those two condos. If he’s found on the ground at anytime they certainly will call. I can say for sure he’s not on the ground as of tonight. Bruce is going to go down and look for him tomorrow but he will be challenged as Amanda’s ready to go. So he has one on site ready to fly and one offsite just slightly misplaced. The only thing I can say without a shadow of a doubt is I am utterly relieved to have seen his little goofy face again.
MEC WATCH UPDATE - it’s absolutely pouring rain out here right now and the winds are just howling. Drago still remains elusive as we have been unable to locate him. Ground searches for him are happening daily and several times throughout the day and each evening the base of all four buildings are cleared before we go home. Bruce has also informed security at all four buildings at the MEC complex, condos to the south and businesses to the west. He’s left his phone number with each contact so that if Drago should show up we can go over and assist. It is our hope that wherever he has gotten himself stuck that he is able to extricate himself and come home on his own where we can offer him assistance if he’s down low. For now our focus is on Amanda. Today she remained on the roof of MEC three. Sitting up on the catwalk that rings the roof Amanda was treated to her first full on rain shower. Midnight sat with her and the two girls got completely soaked. Renegade stayed beneath one of the building signs and kept himself dry so that he would be capable of hunting later and defending the site if need be. Amanda has not had to go without today at all. At last count, Bruce said she’d been fed a total of five times throughout the day. Even so, as the rains died down for a moment she began to wind up. With the wind is howling she would be unable to control her flight should she slip or take off into the air. I sat here holding my breath hoping she would just settle down and it suddenly began to rain again. That was enough to stop her flapping and silliness and calm her right down. Midnight is sitting on the nest building monitoring her and Renegade is off hunting and hopefully will bring home a dinner meal that will tuck her into bed for the night. Tomorrow the weather promises to be better and we hope to see a flight from Amanda. We also hope to see Drago show up and will continue to look for him tomorrow. Thank you to all of those who have popped in to offer their support and for all of you whose comments of support help to keep us going through the long days, the wet weather and the late nights. Thank you to all for your great support.
Amanda and Drago at it again. Today Bruce started off the watch hearing Drago in the area where I found him last night. He could hear him vocalizing but he couldn’t see him. Amanda was still on the roof of MEC3 and the parents had come in with breakfast. She spent the better part of the day as a lazy lump up on top of the building. Bruce made her his priority as her first rescue was due to a slip and not a flight. There was nothing deliberate about her leaving the nest. Because she had not truly flown yet and Drago obviously had given his antics the night before Bruce wanted to make sure that she was always in his sights. He let the parents deal with Drago as they had clearly discovered his location at some point this morning. At some time in the afternoon, while Amanda was napping, Bruce made his way down to the new condo buildings to take a quick peek for Drago. While he was gone Amanda woke up and decided it was time for a flight. This always happens to all of us on every watch. You leave for so much as a second, even though their sound asleep and haven’t moved for hours and suddenly there in the air and taking flight. I swear they watch and wait for us to move. Her flight took her out behind MEC 2 where she landed on the retaining wall. Bruce received a call from security alerting him to the fact that Amanda was down low and he went over and scooped the little girl up for a second time. She was not amused with being back in the carrier. I came down to relieve Bruce and Winston joined me for the evening watch. When I arrived Bruce and I both witnessed Midnight going into a stoop and snatch up a pigeon and then fly south east on a mission. We knew she was most likely taking that meal to Drago. Where was he? Bruce headed home and Winston and I pursued the lead given to us by Midnight. We walked down Highway 10 to Burnhamthorpe and then east along Burnhamthorpe towards Central Parkway. When we reached Burnhamthorpe and Robert Speck Parkway I looked east at the low apartment buildings near Central Parkway and sure enough found a peregrine on the roof line. We headed down to check it out and who did we find? Well none other than our little prodigal son Drago. On closer inspection we found Midnight also on the roof keeping a close eye on her young fledgling. After about 10 to 15 minutes Midnight became rather agitated and started alarm calling. She took to the air and was stooping something very low on the south side of the apartment building we could not see. We crossed the street to take a better look and from what we could see she was quite upset about a local cat roaming around in the grass. We left her and Drago and started to make our way back to MEC one. We were quite confident that Drago was going to try and make a flight home before dusk. When we got back to the MEC complex we found a spot at Robert Speck Parkway and Shipp Road where we could see the building that we found them on. On closer inspection it was clear the Drago had taken flight. Midnight flew from MEC2 and headed back down towards the south east. I tracked her as did Winston and we were able to see her land on another building closer to Robert Speck Parkway. As soon as she landed little Drago made his presence quite know. He ran towards her flapping his wings like crazy excited to see his parent had arrived. Midnight had taken the last of the food that she had stashed over at MEC 2, what was left of the meal she had earlier fed to Drago. She gave him the rest of the food in the hopes that he would stay put for the night but he was a little Jack rabbit today. Full of confidence and looking to go home he kept running around the ledges of the building. By dusk Midnight settled in with Drago and Renegade was somewhere in the MEC complex for the night. It was time to release Miss Amanda. We took her up to the roof in MEC3 and like the release before it, she was an absolute spaz. The whole walk over to MEC three from the nest building she attacked the towel destroying it with all she could give. She vanquished that evil towel and was quite pleased with herself at how she’d done. Getting her out of the carrier and onto the roof was just as challenging as the first time I tried this. Every time I put my hand near to the front door of the carrier she lashed out with her talons and then quickly retreated into the back of the carrier. I’m tired. I’m not having any of this. You are getting out of this box and onto this roof and back to your parents and that’s just the end of it! I wiggled my fingers in front of the opening of the carrier and she came charging out and then raced back in again. After about 10 attempts to grab me she finally came out and grabbed 2 feet full of concrete. Pleased with herself that she now had her mortal enemy, the concrete ledge, firmly in her grasp I made my retreat and came down the stairs into the mechanical room. Tomorrow we fully expect that Drago is going to attempt to come home. Bruce will be watching for him even though he is not to be the priority. We also expect that Amanda will be making a similar effort her self. We look forward to seeing great flights tomorrow from the both of them.