Another Tragic Loss at MEC
May 24, 2012 - Mississauga - Executive Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Yesterday was the beginning of the full time Fledge Watch at the MEC site with a full crew taking shifts. I took the first shift early in the morning and at 7:10am, just as I was sitting at the lights to turn in, the phone rang. Marion was calling with another juvenile down in front of the nest building. Security reacted quickly and picked the bird up, placing it in a box in their fire room on the main floor. I was absolutely speechless and couldn’t even put together a sentence with Marion on the phone. She called Toronto Wildlife Centre for me and I went in to assess the young one.
When I walked in, security met me at the door and we immediately went to check on the bird. It was Skyreach. He was on his belly, eyes closed, feet cold and his breathing was shallow. We packed him up in the rescue carrier and I headed out to my car to get ready for transport to help. In the parking lot, I met up with Toivo who was helping with the morning shift. After a quick moment of orientation, I was off to TWC with Skyreach.
I arrived as they were unlocking the door and they immediately took him in for assessment. First step was an x-ray that gave us the news we never want to hear. It was clear that Skyreach had broken both of his legs at the upper joint and they were not in a position to be pinned and so beyond repair. It would appear that sometime just before I arrived, he had attempted a flight and then turned back to the nest building. Poor judgement and a bad head wind took him too fast into the building which broke his legs when at the last minute he put them up to absorb the impact. He fell straight down to the ground and landed flat on his chest as he could not use his legs. He suffered internal injuries that caused bleeding to occur. It was then that TWC and I discussed the fact that this bird would never stand properly again given the location of the leg breaks and that the internal injuries were still an unknown as to whether he would survive them. The call was made to let Skyreach go and with permissions given by the MNR and recommendations by the TWC vet, Skyreach was euthanized.
Two birds, two days, two losses, way too tragic.
I cannot thank enough Jennifer and her teammates on security at MEC. She has been amazing over the past two days as with all of the staff at the Oxford Property Management Group and security. It is through your help over the past decade that we have so many successes to celebrate. Thank you so much everyone.
I was at a loss as to why these young ones were doing this, this was not normal first flight behaviour for this site, and so I was down to close the watch last night and think. Something was motivating this. Something was not right. It was last night as Mark, Marion and I closed the watch that we believe we now know why. Check back for the full story and details by Mark Nash.
