Yup, yesterday was day 37 and the age for transmitters - same age as Rain and Rosser last year. But we had noticed that Maya, Hunter and Sol seemed to be developing faster or at least they were losing their chick fluff faster. At hatching they looked like they should at band age so all looked good. Now it may be that they were shedding their downy feathers faster because of the hot weather we've been having. Age 37 is a good age for putting on the transmitters because most of their breast and back feathers are grown in which makes it easier to fit the transmitters so they don't interfere with their feathers - also bigger feathers are easier to avoid than smaller ones when you are working with a wiggling bird.
Unfortunately no one's schedule worked for Thursday when the chicks were 37 days old so Friday was our day. We started trying to keep an eye on the Brandon chicks earlier in the week to see what they were "up" to. This is the age that the chicks are "hopping" - on the Radisson its hopping from the ledge to the box and back again. On McKenzie Seeds, it's usually to the skylights (which they did) and then to the roof edges (which they did too). Because this little band were right on target for "hopping" but looked more developed based on less fuzz, we knew we were going to have to take a cautious approach. If they look like they are going to fledge, we call off our plans to deploy transmitters on the chicks. At this age they are able to fledge successfully if they are ready to go, but no one has any desire to prompt them to fledge any earlier than they should. We have noticed that our smaller chicks in the last few years do tend to go a bit earlier and the females aren't as far behind their brothers as some bigger birds. We were hoping that the warm weather might help us out by making the chicks less willing to be that adventurous in the mid-day heat.
So we waited until all the chicks were on the roof in the shade and settled down. Then the female chick made her way down past Lake McKenzie to hang out in the weeds much closer to our access point and we thought it might be a good opportunity to test the chicks' responses. So we opened the access carefully (it's not big but a bit noisy) and I had a little look out. Maya stayed where she was and tucked down, Hunter stayed where he was in the corner farthest away from the access (where they like to sit most in the shade) but Sol decided that now was the time and the took two running steps, started flapping and flew the entire length of the roof, gained altitude, made the turn and flew (very nicely indeed) over the wall and then southwest, followed by a tight turn to the north around the west side of the building and came to land on the Annex's northwest corner. We couldn't tell where he had gone of course, so Dennis and I bolted from McKenzie Seeds to check the streets nearby in case he had gotten grounded. We covered 4 blocks east/west and 3 blocks south and we ran into RCF and she went off to use the parkade to check rooftops. Not sure if she made it that far before finding Sol on the northwest corner of the Annex so we were able to stop combing backlanes and parking lots (yippeee). His successful first flight also meant that we wouldn't be fitting them with transmitters today.
Dennis stayed outside on the ground to keep an eye on the Sol and take some photos of the rest of the family under less stressed conditions than he usually "shoots" them (banding day). I headed back inside to check the other chicks and see if I could track Sol on the webcam but unfortunately he was further west than the camera could see. So we stayed to see how close Maya and Hunter are to fledging and were glad to be able to see how easily Hunter moves up/down from the roof to the ledge, a good sign that his muscles are getting stronger and his aim is good. Maya is also jumping well to the wall (first time I had seen her up) but she was sticking to the lowest section but she was pretty smooth and controlled so all the jumping they have been doing recently on/off the skylights has been doing them good.
Sol's first flight was about as pretty a first fledge I've seen and he's been exploring the annex and he knows where he needs to go to get back to his siblings. And his parents know where he is. Brooklyn (I believe, Dennis or RCF can correct) brought him food shortly after he landed on the Annex and he jumped up on a chimney and that's where he had is first meal-away-from-home. Not sure if he'll get back to main (2 storeys higher) McKenzie Seeds roof before Hunter joins him, but he might, he seems to be motivated enough. Hunter does look pretty chuffed that his brother is off doing "stuff".
