11 April 2022
The tributes continue to come in for Grinnell! It is more than heart-warming to know that this little falcon touched the hearts and lives of so many in such a positive way.
I have not seen the list of names chosen by Cal Falcons in the naming contest. Will keep you posted.
A soap opera saga is playing out in the Glaslyn Valley in Wales. The four players are Mrs G, the oldest UK Osprey; her mate, Aran, Monty’s son Aeron Z2 at Pont Cresor, and Blue 014. With the late arrival of Aran and Blue 014, Aeron Z2 and Mrs G got a little too comfortable over at Aeron’s Pont Cresor nest. When both Aran and Blue 014 returned yesterday things got a little sticky. It looks like the guys are going to leave the girls to fight it out. I am just not clear which Aran or Aeron Mrs G wants!!!!!!!!
Aran is really handsome and looks in tip top shape. It is interesting, in terms of bird behaviour, what happens to a couple after there has been a loss of chicks on a nest and, to add to that, an injury to the male. That is precisely what happened at Glaslyn last year. We will wait to see how this sorts itself out.
Aran is enjoying his fish and keeping watch over his nest while the ladies fight it out.
While the drama continues to unfold in Glaslyn, the folks down in Poole Harbour are rejoicing at the reuniting of CJ7 and Blue 022. These two are totally committed to one another. What is at stake? The first Osprey to hatch in Poole Harbour in over 200 years! It is really exciting. CJ7 waited a couple of years for a mate and Blue 022, a youngster, showed up last year very keen – very keen, indeed.
The list of Ospreys left to return to the UK is growing shorter by the hour. Both Louis and Dorcha returned to the Loch Arkaig Nest safe and sound. So happy!
Some of you will remember the 2020 Osprey season at Loch Arkaig with Louis and his mate, Aila. They raised three amazing fledglings. Sadly, Aila did not return last year. Louis moved to a different nest and bonded with the female that is now called Dorcha.
I adore Louis. He is a great provider and a fabulous father. Here he is bringing Dorcha a fish. Louis knows how to take good care of his family.
It is very windy at Loch Arkaig today. It is hard to get a good image of Louis and Dorcha. Louis is on the left and Dorcha is on the right. Notice Louis’s beautiful necklace. I saw someone on one of the chats the other day comment that they thought only females have necklaces. That is not correct; there are quite a few male Ospreys with exquisite necklaces – the envy of many females!
Here is a link to camera 2 at Loch Arkaig:
I started the other day, with my friend ‘S’s list of favourite Osprey nests. So I want to go back to that list because Chesapeake Bay is on that list of great Osprey nests to live stream. The nest is on Kent Island just off the coast of Maryland. It is on the property of ‘The Crazy Osprey Family’. This family has been sponsoring a streaming cam for the Ospreys since 2012.
The Chesapeake Conservancy Osprey nest is the home to Tom and Audrey. Last year, after a couple of eggs broke in the nest, the couple fledged one chick, CJ.
Some viewers have been concerned about what appears to be a cut on Audrey’s chest. I say ‘cut’ because it does not appear to be blood from bringing in a fish. It is amazing how quickly wildlife heal and the water around the nest is 50% salt which is excellent to help cuts heal (Thanks ‘L’ for checking on that amount of salt here). Audrey should be fine.
The couple who returned to the nest from their winter migration to South America – Audrey on the 18th of March and Tom on the 25th – have been caught on camera mating today. If mating is successful, it takes three days to produce an egg. Keep watching!
Here is the link to Tom and Audrey’s camera:
The Osprey family on the light stand at the University of Florida at Gainesville survived the ball game yesterday. All three chicks were wide awake and ready for fish this morning! It is too early to tell how this nest is going to turn out. Middle and Little Bob still do not control their head as well as Big Bob who is right up front for food.
Here is a link to this cam:
https://wec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/ospreycam/
Richmond and Rosie, the bonded pair of Ospreys whose nest is on a World War II crane at the Richmond Shipping Yards in SF Bay are hilarious. I highly recommend this nest – yes, absolutely. Solid Ospreys.
However, Richmond got a little carried away and decided to bring a small tree to the nest. In the process, he almost broke all the eggs! Richmond!!!!!
Then later Richmond decided he wanted to incubate the two eggs and was tired of waiting so he sat on Rosie! Richmond, maybe Rosie is thinking of laying a third egg??? What do you think?
Doing a quick check on Middle Little at Dale Hollow shows both eaglets ate well, both parents on the nest and a couple of nice hunks of fish. No sign of any monofilament line. All is well.
Middle Little is growing really well and eating good! Look at that big hunk of fish.
Sitting on the Canadian Prairies you would not know that a super storm is set to hit the area tomorrow. Most people are being extremely cautious. Our rivers are full to overflowing and they are predicting ‘the storm of the century’. Is it weatherman hype? In this case I hope they are entirely wrong! Thousands of Dark-eyed Juncos have just descended on our City, the Geese are nesting, the Snowy Owls are migrating north, and more song birds are moving in by the day.
This was Sunday in a rural area. The water is now up over the banks there.
There are tens of thousands of Canada Geese in Manitoba and more arriving daily.
Normally the geese leave you alone unless you get too close to their nest. Then watch out!
This little red squirrel had a stash of corn kernels at the base of the tree in the park.
He was such a cutie.
Oh, he looks like my Dyson with part of the fur on his tail missing. Poor thing.
Speaking of Dyson, I need to go and make sure that there are plenty of solid seed cylinders placed in various locations so that the squirrels can get to them during the storm. It should not be arriving until tomorrow evening – plenty of time to restock wood for the Jotul stove in case the electricity goes out, find candles, and generally get ready to sit back and read for several days. Can’t wait!
I hope that all of you are well. Thank you so much for joining me today. It is a pleasure to have you with us.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Cal Falcons, Woodland Trust and Friends of Loch Arkaig, Explore.org, SF Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, UFL Ospreys at Gainesville, DHEC, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife, and Poole Harbour Ospreys.
Thank you Mary Ann for all the great updates today! The photos of the little
Red squirrel and the Canadian geese are a joy to look at! Thanks for all the photos and links to the nests. Thanks for adding Audrey and Tom and so glad the cut on her chest is healing up ! Glad little middle is eating well and no line seen there. Thank you for the update on Mrs G and Aran’s nest. I hope she stays with him. I am excited to learn the name for Annie’s mate when they post it too. It just don’t seem the same without Grinnell but the new male is doing a good job helping Annie too.
Have a great evening and I pray the storms are not bad there tomorrow.
Linda
You are so welcome. It is my pleasure. I am glad you enjoyed the local images. I keep trying to get the Juncos but they are so scared – so I let them eat. Mrs G is on the perch – it is night. Hopefully she will stay home. Aran is a good guy! Take care! Thank you for writing in.
Thanks for the updates on all the beautiful Osprey nests. You’ll have me watching bird nests 24/7, lol.
I’m so happy things are going well at Dale Hollow. Little Middle is getting so big and I haven’t seen aggression from Big in a while. There’s been so much food on the nest I think it’s making all the difference. Plus, as hoped, LM is growing rapidly, which seems to be tamping down Big’s aggression. Little Middle learning to self feed is a real blessing, what a wonderful little survivor h/s is.
Big is almost fully feathered, she looks like a big eagle already. As I said before Big is going to be a force of nature.
I heard Alden is one of the top names being considered for New Guy, named after Alden H. Miller, who was Joseph Grinnell’s successor. But CalFalcons hasn’t announced the finalist names yet, so I’m sure there are other names on the list to be considered.
Birds are so wonderful, they’ve enriched my life and given me so much pleasure. One of these days I’ll tell you a cool story about a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, who practically raised their chicks on my bird feeder, two years in a row. ☺️
Little Middle is, indeed, doing very well and what a wonderful relief. They are now 44 days old if we count the hatch date. Normally this would have ceased a bit ago but…food on the nest seems to help Big calm down and share! It is lovely to see them both doing well. I like Aiden. Someone had mentioned the name and I also mentioned it. It seems to be a good way to name this wonderful little falcon. His face is so round sometimes I giggle when I see him. But he has to be kind – kind to Annie – and ferocious to the others. So happy for Annie. I am thrilled to hear that you love the birds too, Lily!
Thanks for the update!
Richmond’s nest became a hot topic in Japan when they brought stuffed monkeys. Thank you for the link. I am so glad Little Middle is eating. It was great to hear about the geese and Dyson’s story.
At around 17:58（Nest time）, Ervie arrived at the nest with a puffer fish! Good to see him again!
Oops, it was 17:38 (nest time)!
Oh, Akane, Thank you. We have been working to get all things ready for this storm and I had not checked the PLO nest! We so appreciate your time stamp. He must be living on Puffer fish without having that other talon! I should tell you that Dyson has been very busy eating and storing food. He lives with Scraggles in the tree in front of our house so we put lots of food for them to carry to their nest yesterday. It is now all gone.