Mom: Cirrus
Dad: Mackenzie
Photos copyright of Bill McCreadie
It has been a difficult week and a good week. Happy Days, sad days, hot days, cold days and rainy days. A week of meeting old friends and a week of making new friends.
A
Recap of Falcon Watch Week....
Our official
watch started on Tuesday, June 3rd. The morning started with a lot of
flapping going on in the nest box. Ireland was the brave boy. He was the first to the front of the box, first
to stand on the edge, while Ghent was a little more timid and hung back.
We had ourselves convinced that it would be a couple of days before we
had a fledge, so we sat back to watch. Around 12:45 pm, Mom approached
the nest box and landed on the canopy. Ireland was so excited to see her
that he rushed at her lost his footing and ooops he was airborne. Out of
the box round the canopy and out towards the lake with Cirrus and Mackenzie in
hot pursuit. Bill and I lost sight of
him in the trees and behind the bridge.
Suddenly Cirrus and Mackenzie returned so we decided that we must have
been mistaken, it was Dad that we saw.
As we watched the box we knew that Ireland had fledged. So the search was started. Bill walked the Burlington Pier, in and out
of every path and checked every tree at least 3 times that afternoon. We were convinced that he was gone.
Thanks
to Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) for allowing me to post
this photo of the lonely Ghent left in the box.
After
Bill and I took a break for dinner, David and Rob Williams and Tracy Simpson
arrived and did the same search again with no luck. Just as dusk was settling in, Rob happened to
notice 3 Falcons flying just above the tree line on the Burlington side of the
pier. Everyone was ecstatic, Ireland had
reappeared. Cirrus and Mackenzie chased
him into a tree where we were able to check on him. We decided he was in a safe place for the
night, there was nothing we could do and we all headed home.
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| Mackenzie Feeds the Kids |
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| Mackenzie Feeds the Kids |
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| Mom Takes Flight |
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Cirrus and Mackenzie show the kids how it's done
|
Wednesday,
June 4, 2014
In
the morning when Bill arrived, Ireland was gone from the tree. As other watchers arrived, it was decided
that a ground search would be conducted in the area where he was last
seen. With all the work going on under
the Skyway, it is very difficult to gain access to the area. Barry Cherriere and Mourad Jabra took on the
task. They searched the entire area and
again, no Ireland.
In
the meantime, we were joined by Margaret Nelson, an experienced watcher from
Mississauga Executive Centre. She had
parked her car and walked from CCIW and back searching the whole way. No Ireland.
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| Ghent works on strengthening his wings |
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| More Wing Exercises |
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| Dad Looks After Ghent |
Thursday,
June 5, 2014
Other
than Ghent getting up to the front landing of the box and a lot of flapping,
things were pretty quiet. Everyone
continued to walk the area searching for any sign of the missing Ireland. Cirrus and Mackenzie were certainly not
issuing any clues.
It
was a miserable and cold day. By the
afternoon, winter coats were required as we continued to watch Ghent.
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| Ghent gets in more exercises |
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| Winter coats in June! Yuck! |
Friday,
June 6, 2014
When
we arrived in the morning, Ghent was still in the box and there was still no
sign of Ireland.
Everyone,
Barry, Linda, Mourad, David, Rob, Bill and myself continued to scan the
surrounding area.
In
the late afternoon Bruce Massey arrived to assist us and close down the watch
for the night. Bruce did a search of the
Marina and Waterfront for Ireland and still no luck.
Tonight
I received an email advising us that a few of the girls from Rochester, www.rfalconcam.com were coming to spend Saturday
with us to assist in the watch. What
great news to receive. I know that they
love the Falcon Watch at the Lift Bridge, but they also love our Canadian Back
Bacon.
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| Cirrus check on Ghent |
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| Cirrus tries to entice Ghent to Fly |
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| "No Dinner - Get out of here" |
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| Pretty Soon |
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| Almost Ready |
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| Mom, I'm going to Fly at 7:05 Tomorrow Morning. |
Saturday,
June 7, 2014
Bruce
arrived on sight at the crack of dawn.
At 7:05 AM, Ghent flapped his wings, bobbed his head, stretched his
wings and was off. Without any
assistance from Cirrus and Mackenzie, Ghent made his way to the roof, of the
Hamilton Bridge Tower. He spent the next
hour or so running the roof, exploring his new surroundings and even ventured
out unto the light standards above the Canada sign.
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| Ghent shortly after his first flight |
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| Ghent Prepared for Another Flight |
Cirrus
at some time caught a pigeon which got everyone excited including
Mackenzie. In a flash Ghent was off the
roof and with Mackenzie in pursuit, he landed on the scaffolding under the
Skyway Bridge. Cirrus joined Dad and the
two of them tried desperately to get Ghent off the scaffolding and back to the
bridge. After a few attempts by Mom and
Dad, Ghent finally took flight and tried to return to the Hamilton Bridge
Tower. After two missed landing attempts
on a horizontal beam, he tried to land on the bridge itself. He missed again, this time slipping down and falling
into a hole on a vertical beam of the bridge.
We wondered if he would be trapped for good. Everyone sprang into action. We wondered if he would be trapped for
good. Up onto the bridge watchers ran,
(Bill, Bruce and David) towels in hand at the ready. Luckily, Ghent must have landed on top of a
pigeon nest, because there he was looking out the hole, wondering what the heck
he had just done.
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| Mom With a Pigeon |
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| Ghent in Scaffolding |
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| Cirrus Brings a Pigeon to Try and entice Ghent Off Scaffolding |
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| Ghent Trapped in a Hole |
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| Ghent Tries to get out |
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| Ghent Tries to Get Out |
Just
shortly after this happened, Carol, Kathy and Dana from Rochester and Margaret
and her husband David arrived on scene.
Everyone split up. Some taking up
the watch from the Burlington side of the Bridge and some on the Lake and Bay
side of the Hamilton Bridge. He would peak out one side of the hole and
then the other side of the hole. He tried for a couple of hours to get out. We had hoped that during one of the bridge
lifts, when the people and traffic were quiet he would get up his nerve. Finally, he did manage to free himself and
landed on a horizontal beam on the bridge with the traffic whizzing by just
beneath him. It was funny to watch
because at one point there were 4 pigeons sitting right beside him on the
beam. I guess they must have realized
that he was just a baby and was not a danger to them. But just wait for a couple more days and they
won’t think that.
After
another couple of hours, he finally few off and after several attempts to land,
came to the ground behind an 8 foot fence of the construction site close to one
of the bridge abutments. He managed to
get himself over the fence and landed on top of a shipping container which he
ran about much to our amusement. His
next move was to the top of the scaffolding around the bridge abutment under
the Skyway Bridge. Cirrus and Mackenzie
tried to coax him off, even using food as incentive. Cirrus flew into the scaffolding to beak feed
the little man and then flew away showing him the way out. When Bruce closed the watch at 9:30 pm Ghent
remained in the scaffolding.
Thanks
to all who helped out today. Bruce,
David, Rob, Barry, Carol, Kathy, Dana, Margaret and of course my hubby Bill.
Sunday,
June 8, 2014
When
Bill arrived this morning, Ghent had made his way to the roof of the Hamilton
Bridge Tower, where he remained until noon, when he made his way to the very
top arch of the Burlington Skyway. Tracy
Simpson arrived to assist. We watched
Ghent fly to the Penthouse of the
Burlington Tower then to the Penthouse of the Hamilton Tower. He noticed Cirrus sitting in the Hamilton
Hydro Tower and he flew to her knocking her right off her perch. Cirrus went and retrieved a meal from under
the skyway with Dad and Ghent hot on her tail.
The three landed on the very top arch of the Skyway. A great flight by Ghent. Cirrus eventually gave the meal to Ghent but
she stayed right with him to ensure that Mackenzie didn’t steal it. As of late, we have watch Mackenzie go into
the nest box to steal remains for himself.
Dad started searching for other caches for himself.
Around
2:00 pm, it started to rain and the little man spent the next 5 hours out in
the rain on the very top arch of the Skyway.
Cirrus dropped by to check on him a few times but for the most part he
remained there alone. He must have run
the arch from one end to the other at least twice.
Finally
around 7:30 pm the rain stopped.
Everyone was wet and cold and tired.
When we left around 8:00 pm, Ghent had managed to get himself of the
Skyway Arch and back to the Hamilton Hydro Tower.
In
all for a little guy who had only been flying for a couple of days, he is doing
amazingly well.
He
is maintaining his altitude but his landings still need a little work.
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| Ghent Practises |
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Ghent Gets a Reward From Mackenzie After Those Flights
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| Ghent in Flight |
Monday,
June 9, 2014
When
Bill arrived this morning Ghent was on the roof of the Burlington Bridge
Tower. He flew back and forth between
Burlington and Hamilton Towers.
Mackenzie delivered two small food packages to the roof the Burlington
Tower. Ghent made two more flights
between the bridge roofs. The final
flight included a really good landing.
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| Ghent in Flight |
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| Ghent Uses Mom as a Back Stop |
At
12:15 pm, we witnessed our first Talon Touch exercise between Mom and Ghent.
We
left around 3:30pm as we felt that Ghent was doing really well. We will be back tomorrow.
Thanks
Margaret for your help.
It
has now been 6 days since our last sighting of Ireland. Fly high and free little guy wherever you may be.
