Holy cow, what a ride Mackenzie has taken us on. If you knew half the things he did the past 2.5 days. He's hit the glass 2 more times, batwinged on a building, spent 2 nights and 1 day out in the open..like a beacon really with no respite from the sun, no place to hide from nasties. yesterday he was almost attacked by a redtail, he was buzzed continuously by gulls..it was awful. How did he get on this building? He hit the glass again and came down to the ground right over traffic and landed on the sidewalk and we rescued him 2 days ago-he had bit his tongue when he hit the building so his mouth was full of blood so he got water and we had to keep him over a few hours to make sure it was his tongue and not internal bleeding from an injury when he hit the glass. When we put him back up at night, instead of staying calm like they normally do at dusk - he panicked and flew...off into the dark! It took me 7 hours to finally locate him - he picks the condo with the green space of course, full of people!! So he ended up on like a metal tower at the very top near the mechanical eqiupment!
Angel tried in vain to get him off this building last night at dusk. It was awesome to watch her, she kept coming up next to where he was perched on this piece of jutting metal and she was kakking up a storm. She kept stopping, turning and flying off as if to say..follow me, this way home, over and over and he just hung on to that ledge for dear life and finally she gave up as it was too dark. And we thought ok he'll have to stay out here - it wasn't really safe as there was no cover for him..he was basically like a beacon to an owl. Just as we're about to call it a night..he takes off in the dark but the opposite way mom showed him and even further away from the nest site!!! Tries to gain height and he did but not enough..flies into window, panics and goes back to condo tower thing. Tries again, gets a bit of height and ends up on the side of a building wall..batting for dear life and then pushes off and flies into the dark over the hydro-subway transformers. I thought for sure we had lost him
Then I get there this morning and right out of the subway, I look up and there he was back on the condo thing!! Watched him for 45 minutes and then he suddenly just took off in the direction mom showed him, gained altitude..I ran so fast down Bloor after him and then I saw dad jump off our building and get up under him and then ahead of him and lead him around the condo next to us..he kept gaining height (dad) to show him - you know, instead of going straight for the building go around and as you do, go up steadily and dad led him up to the rooftop of our building! It was brilliant! He flapped a full city block..that's how far he was from home!! Hopefully that raised his confidence as I think that was also a huge part of the problem.
The challenge now is he's behind his siblings in skill, they are now playing and chasing each other in the air and that's what got him in this mess. He's missed 5 days of lessons! Mom did finally entice him up to teach him to glide today and he did well- it was short but at least he now gets the idea, glide using the wind! He didn't know how to bank either which he now knows. He did take a few really nice, short flights today and dad made him chase him for food in the air and he maintained altitude so that's good. I'm hoping he's know turned the corner but we're going to watch him a few more days just in case. I know watching his siblings today playing tag, he had his wings up a few times but thought better of it. If he can be patient and take a few days to work on his skills - I have no doubt he'll excel!
Sorry for the long post, didn't mean to run on like that but I thought for those who have never done a fledge watch = well now you know what you can expect! Thank you to everyone for all your support and the 'group hug', I really felt it today!!
