Sally Reports
June 16, 2019 - Toronto - Don Mills
Marion Nash Reports:
Cathy, Lucie and I arrived at Quest and Mystery’s site to hear that “Red” aka DoHa had come to ground from where she’d spent the night. With Bob, Marion and I positioned with good views of the roof, Mark and Cathy took DoHa up to the 220 roof for release.
She appeared quite soon after, but didn’t really vocalize for a long time, and we didn’t see the parents for a while either. Eventually she called when seeing Quest, but no food brought over.
By this stage her brothers had spotted her, and did some fly overs, settling on the upper roof above her, before continuing with their crazy chasing games, not staying still for long. Super fliers! Mystery gets no peace and quiet now.
With so many theories of where Bobak could have ended up yesterday, Cathy and Lucie walked around the block to check out the lower buildings and shrubbery that we hadn’t had a chance to check the day before. Mystery was on a low building in the direction they walked, and as we’ve seen first-hand, the parents often reveal the location, so why was he hanging out in that spot… No discovery though so they walked back to where Bob and I were watching DoHa, as she’d turtle walked and flapped around the perimeter of the roof retaining wall.
As we grumbled that we might be in for another six or more hour roof watch, rain came through (not too heavy) and DoHa screamed across at her brothers being fed opposite her. We were happy to see Quest bring food over and feed her (a substantial feeding!). She ran and screamed after Quest for more food, but was eventually left alone on the roof for a while. RZee and Matrix flew to join her at some point and we enjoyed some beak kissing between DoHa and one of her brothers. So sweet.
Meandering back and forth then stopping to preen is DoHa’s speciality and sure enough, no flight attempt until 8:15pm! She flew over us, bumped 225, recovered and flew off around the side of 220 building, surprised us again with a returning flight over Valleybrook, then back again towards 220 but losing steam, landing on a hydro pole. Yikes. We had run to see where she might end up, and realized we’d turned the radios off and packed them away thinking she was going to stay put. SO, lesson for today was do not turn off the radios until it’s dark!
DoHa preened and attempted settle down on top of the pole, looking up at a few visits from her brothers, who watched her from a neighbouring building and kept flying over as if to coax her back to buildings with ledges (we noticed they flew in as if to redirect her. Good boys!) Nope, she discovered it’s quite nice to rest against a hydro pole insulator, and probably thinks it’s quite an upgrade from a low meagre parking light! This year, it’s “roof or bust” for this group. They haven’t been on the building ledges too often, but seem to favour all the roof tops or top balconies of the copper building. We’re hoping DoHa discovers that ledges are great fun tomorrow. No sign of the parents of siblings as we closed the watch with DoHa on the hydro pole.
