!!! Hope fledges!
June 13, 2020 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
Around 9:00 this morning, Sandye and Christine observed that Hope had fledged too! Casey and Hope took a little flight around and landed on the tower. Lots of vocalizations. Enigma had flown off while Mystery was on the top of the tower. When Karen arrived, just before 10:00, two of the siblings were in the nest box and one kid was on the tower.
In the afternoon, more fledgewatchers arrived to keep an eye on Hope.Dale reported at 4:00, “Hope is pacing back and forth on the struts below the box. Not much activity this afternoon after the one o’clock feed except the adults doing some flybys to entice Hope. The boys are hunkering down in the box.”
At 5:16, Micah reported: “Hope just left her perch about halfway down the CTV tower and took a decent (though quite wobbly) flight to the Pine Medical building roof. The others are flapping quite a bit as well.” At 6:15, Joy and Michal reports: “Hope flew again and is now on the CTV building. We are all in different spots so we can track her if she flies again! She does not get good altitude. Both parents were out trying to help her back for this last flight. At one point she was clinging to a balcony on the apartment building. She seems to start out okay but loses her height very quickly!”
David reported: “She did gain altitude on her flight from Pine St. over to Kings Tower. She had reached a level about 4 floors from the top, but got herself in a tizzy trying to figure out where to land, and ended up trying to cling to the vertical bars of a balcony railing, (one with blue tarp behind it) flapping wildly for a couple of seconds. When she let go, she tumbled vertically for about 2 floors, then regained flight, heading back towards the CTV tower. She barely cleared the roof of the Sleep Clinic building next to the Green Street lot, flew over the medical building, finally landing on the roof of the CTV building.
This is when I went to the Hospital roof, to keep an eye on her from that angle. She sat very quietly on the CTV roof parapet for quite a while, I’m sure she was pooped. Eventually she started walking along the parapet, gaining her bearings. She eventually started exploring the roof, hopped onto some of the equipment, and finally took a short flight over to the next building - the Grand River Hospital building next to the Green Street lot. She sat there for a bit, then eventually started exploring it, looking for something higher that she could launch from.
Then she finally took off, followed closely by one parent, and we think Casey, made a wide circle back around the CTV tower, and then across King Street to the Hospital, and must have landed there. I had my eye on her fairly consistently, and not the other birds so much, so I’m fairly sure of where she ended up.”
Karen reported: “I arrived just before 6 p.m. and left around 8:30 p.m Hope is on one of the lower roofs of the grey buildings at Grand River Hospital facing King Street. Both parents flew over a few times fairly low in that area. When I left one of the parents was on the top rail at that corner to probably keep an eye on her.”
It was a busy day for the fledgewatch team, and will be an early start tomorrow, looking for Hope.
Photos courtesy for Karen von Knobloch
