This is the first year that Sarasota Bay has a camera on their Osprey nest. This year there are three chicks and this morning at 7:41, Mom put on a stunning fishing demonstration for everyone watching. Here is a short video clip of that moment. She has been watching a fish for several minutes and was drawn to catch it!
Over in Mlady Buky, Czechoslovakia, the three baby storks and their Dad are really doing well. The community continues to provide food for them and will until such time as the little ones can get their own. How generous and caring these people are. It has been two weeks since the female was electrocuted on the hydro lines. It is heartwarming that everyone has pitched in so that this nest can be a success and not a tragedy.
Look at how well they can stand. Their wings are growing. This is just grand. And now the three can move around the nest much better than they could a week ago. They love to watch what is going on below them! My Asian friends tell me that everyone will be blessed with a long life because of their good deeds for this stork family. I sure hope so! It is for their efforts that these three little birds are now standing.
Look at those precious ones standing and their wing feathers growing in so nicely. They are looking like healthy little storks. This was ten days ago:
What a difference!
The little albino Osplet in the Urdaibai Biosphere Nest is still with us! It has really been raining and thankfully, the skies stopped pouring down and Landa got a break to feed the trio.
Aww, little Zuri is right up there wanting some fish. Thank you Roy!
The sun is setting. The golden glow that it casts on the marshlands makes them so green and so alive. Landa is keeping all three of her little ones warm and dry. I wonder if they will have one more fish dinner?
The rain has left Landa and her wee ones in Spain but it is pitching it down in King George County in West Virginia. Harriet and the two Bobs were soaked when I checked on them today. Just look at how big those kids are now. Harriet seems to have controlled Jack’s urge to bring too many objects to the nest! or maybe the people of the area have stopped putting out toys specifically for Jack to take to the nest! That would help a lot.
Thinking about toys and aprons being brought to an Osprey nest reminded me of Richmond and Rosie. Richmond is the ‘king’ of cute things coming in to the nest. There are people who watch so that the chicks don’t get hurt and carefully go up and remove them. One of the most fun things was a blanket last year; many remember an orange monkey, too, and an apron.
There are two camera views. One is a rather wide view of Richmond and Rosie’s nest on the Whirley Crane – yes a real crane – at the Richmond Shipyards in San Francisco.
The other one shows more of the actual comings and goings on the nest. The last time we checked on this family – I am embarrassed it has been so long – was when the third chick hatched. Rosie is a pro at handling a nest with three ospreys and Richmond is quite the fisher. These babies and their mom will never be hungry. Richmond does not migrate. He stays in San Francisco all year round but Rosie heads south in the winter returning in late February. This year she arrived earlier than she ever has – on 18 February – just a few days off of Valentine’s. Richmond is always delighted to see her. He is usually at the nest within minutes of her arrival! Oh, the love birds. How sweet.
I always watch the scrape box of Diane and Xavier on the grounds of Charles Sturt Campus in Orange, NSW, Australia. As you may know, Peregrine Falcons do not build nests like Ospreys and Eagles. They lay their eggs on gravel or sandy cliffs. This is a method that has evolved so that there are no parasites to harm their eyases. Izzi is Xavier and Diamond’s 2020 hatch. Izzi has his own very distinct personality. And he is a handful.
The scrape box is on top of the old water tower (170 steps up). The behaviour of the Peregrine Falcons is part of Dr Cilla Kinross’s research on raptors.
Izzi is posing a lot of interesting questions into falcon behaviour. He should have vacated the scrape box months ago as the new breeding season is about to start. BUT – yes one of those big pauses….Izzi fludged and was returned to the scrape box. Then on his second fledge he flew into a window and was taken into care and returned to the scrape box. The third time was a winner – a perfect fly out from the box. But Izzi, being Izzi, the only child of X and D, may think that the scrape box is his! It is now the beginning of June and everyone was sure he would be evicted no later than February. I wonder what is doing to happen???
Here is Izzi having a serious chat with Diamond, his mother, who is on the ledge. Izzi is known for being very loud. They can probably hear him all the way to Sydney!
I am going to close with a video by Lady Hawk on the Bucovina Golden Eagles in Bulgaria. The mother hunted and brought a fawn into the nest the other day. You might recall that normally the males do the hunting but the male is afraid of the camera! So the mother has had to go and hunt. Here you can see that she keeps feeding her chick til it looks like it will pop. Just look at that crop!
It is now 35 degrees C on the Canadian prairies. The heat warning remains in effect for this atypical weather. In fact we are now 7 degrees hotter than islands in the Caribbean! It is time to replenish all the bird bowls and baths. Have a fabulous weekend everyone. Thanks for joining me. Take care.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: Charles Sturt University Falcon Cam, Urdaibai Biosphere Ospreys, Mlady Buky, Dahlgren Osprey Nest, Sarasota Bay Ospreys, and Golden Gate Audubon.
