!!! Little Cosmo and sibling gets blown off the ledge! Cosmo comes to the ground!!
June 17, 2014 - Toronto - Don Mills
Mark Nash Reports:
June 17th - 2014
Day two on the fledge watch.
For the most parts, I’m told that the large part of the day was a typical day on the fledge watch for the volunteers, much like watching paint dry. But, things can change very quickly as we all know, and that’s just what happened. With Environment Canada issuing severe thunderstorm warnings, heavy rain warnings with risk of flooding, high winds and risk of tornados, things were about to change for most of Ontario very very quickly!
Well, the weather man got it bang-on right this time, as that’s just what happened in Toronto (and many other parts of Ontario)! Just after 5 pm, the storm cells barrelled in and swept through southern Ontario.
With calls streaming in on my cell phone from Rudy in Kitchener Ontario on the Kitchener Waterloo peregrine fledge watch to Tracy out in Etobicoke at the Bloor & Islington peregrine fledge watch to Helena, Donna and Bob out at the Duncan Mills fledge watch, the severe weather caused all kinds of problems for both watchers and fledglings!!
The high winds swept in with torrential rain and heavy downpours that added to the challenges as two of the young Duncan Mills hatchlings ended up coming off the nest ledge!
Thank goodness to the quick response of the Duncan Mills fledge watch team as Little Cosmo - (yellow tape) was influenced by the severe weather and ended up on the ground out in front of the nest ledge at the base of the nest building moments before the torrential rain started.
A second sibling was also influenced by the gusty high winds and also ended up out of the nest ledge. It managed to grab hold of the concrete wall face and luckily ended up on a ledge directly below the nest ledge. * see photo attached.
Ping, one of the new fledge watchers jumped into action along with several other members of the fledge watch team managed to scoop up little Cosmo before he even realized what had happened! Bob later transferred him to a larger rescue carrier for safe keeping until I arrived on site to examine him and assess the situation.
As quick as the extreme weather moved in, it departed just a quickly, but only after leaving the GTA battered with downed trees, power outages, damaged buildings and cars as a result of blowing mail boxes and other debris having been blown around and flooding all over the city. By 7:00pm, the bad weather was all over (at least for us), and the dark clouds were quickly replaced with white fluffy clouds and much clearer skies.
Cosmo was carefully examined to ensure that he hadn’t suffered any injuries or trauma as a result of his premature departure and fall from the nest ledge, * see photos attached.
Based on the much improved weather conditions, clearing skies and his very healthy condition, I made the decision to get him back to the upper roof top of the nest building and to his parents care before darkness.
Cosmo was successfully released back to the nest building roof top without incident by 8pm. The release was supervised by Quest - (his mom) who was quick to fly in to voice her opinion of my presence on the rooftop during Cosmo’s release. By 9:30pm as darkness closed in, all three hatchlings were in view and knowing that little Cosmo was on the lower upper roof elevation surrounded by a four feet retaining wall, all was well and we closed the fledge watch down for the evening.
A huge thank you to the Berkley building management group and security for both assisting and facilitating the rescue and release this evening!!
Stay tuned, as its only just begun…………
Posted on June 18, 2014 6:45 am
