Totally captivated in 2007 by the live camera feed of the Hornby Island nesting Bald Eagles in B.C., I was drawn into birding and have never looked back. Thus begins my account of what I'm fortunate enough to discover each day and perhaps capture with my camera.



Unless otherwise stated, all images were taken by and are the property of Janice Melendez

Species Counts:

2014 Final Year List: 255; 2015 Year List a/o June 5, 2015: 235; Life List: 327

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Our FIRST ever First-day-of-Summer- June 21, 2010


So here we are at our Base Camp in Scarborough when those two women photographers arrive yet again to see how we're progressing, especially now that all three of us have fledged, whoohooo, life is good! Only problem is that despite our fervent cries for a food-drop, mom is nowhere to be found, so in the meantime, we decide to amuse ourselves by stressing out those women that admire us so much! 

So one of us is hanging out on this lower branch on a tree right in front of them, one of the women even commented that this was the closest view ever she had had of a Red-tail, I felt honoured to give her one of my best come hither" poses to mark the occasion for her!


But it was time to have some fun with them, as we had discovered that whenever we took flight (as wobbly as we still were) these two idiots would be running all over the place trying to keep track of us...not sure why they freak out so much, but maybe they know something we don't re the pitfalls of life-outside-the-nest. So as I take off, just like clockwork they freak out, so to torture them, I land on this sloping roof of the big white building across from Base Camp:


I hang on for dear life here for a few minutes (mom did not tell me about this part of leaving the nest!), and then to totally mess with them, I drop down off the roof and they freak, probably assuming I've injured myself, but HAH, I'm now on this other flat roof below.

But these two are smart, the one called Ann, I think, finds me safe and sound, while across the way my brother's keeping the other idiot occupied as he perches on this light standard:




But hey, this flat area I've landed on may have some goodies for me, something here even reminds me of food (which, by the way, I'm still ticked at mom about, WHERE IS SHE???). So I check out this round, black thing to see if it's edible, I mean it IS the size of a mouse, right? I try grabbing it with my right foot and move it around to see if it's still alive or not, I like 'em fresh:

 







Nope, it's not edible, one of the women calls it "a chunk of tar"??? Ewwwwwww, this is boring me now...



So it's time to stress out these two again, I'm going to leave behind that black thing on the ledge and take off, so let's see if I can shake them, I'm going to aim for that tree next to my brother:

 


Yup, made it to that tree (almost missed it, shhhhhhhhhh), and they followed me too:





So I stay put here for a while, but then eventually head back to another tree closer to Base Camp, perching on a low branch- this time it took the two of them a while to find me, but perhaps my hunger cries blew my cover, DOH!



Time to take flight again, I'm so close to these two it'll be hard for them to get all of me in the photo- on your mark, get set....




I changed my mind just to mess with them again, and landed on a ledge next to that new condo building next door:





But I took off again so fast that the one woman couldn't really get me in focus, HAH!





...made that landing better than the last one, but those two screamers were shrieking out of fear that I'd either miss the ledge or hit the side of the building- oh ye of little faith, gimme a break!



...so off I go again, especially as we're now hearing that nasty KESTREL from last week flying around overhead, mom and dad were sooo stressed out before, it totally messed up our feeding schedule, grrrrrrrrrrrr




But these two women finally left us for the afternoon, probably because we decided to hunker down and chill. After all, I'm sure we had their heart rates going based on their shrill reactions to our moving around, it was great fun giving them a run for their money, we just wish they'd give us a bit more credit as we "get our wings"! If they give us a bit more time, we'll have new tricks for them at their next visit!

BTW, that ANN woman (the other one not so much, she was a late-comer to Base Camp) has done an awesome job of following our lives this year, we just love reading about ourselves in our spare time at http://redtailnest.blogspot.com/



2 comments:

Unknown said...

And the pics are greatly enhanced by the amusing and clever commentary. Both complement each other so well. Wonder if the birds picked up any bad language as you followed them around capturing their antics?

janice.melendez said...

thx, Alison- on a serious note, you hv no idea how stressful it is to see these beautiful creatures fly around not knowing if they're going to hurt themselves by hitting a window, the side of the office or condo building, or worse yet, a moving car, TTC bus, etc, as they live in the middle of the city and are still honing their flight/survival skills. They're truly unaware of the perils they face, nor are they afraid of us yet either, as you can tell by their proximity to us. We're all keeping our fingers x'd that they "make it" against the odds, quite frankly!