Saturday in Bird World

23 April 2022

UPDATE: All of the Denton Homes nestlings are now deceased. Sending positive energy that the parents do not also die from Avian Flu as well as the other nests in the area. Condolences to all at Denton Homes on the loss of these three precious eaglets.

Thoughts go out to all of the nests in the area including Mother Goose on the abandoned eagle nest and Mr and Mrs North at Decorah North and their two eaglets.

The three eaglets of Thunder and Akecheta still cause us to hold our breath when they go near the edge of the nest. In their discussions yesterday, Sean Peterson and Lynn Scofield of Cal Falcons said that there is no Avian Flu present on the West coast (yet).

Thunder and Akecheta brought in 9 small fish for the trio yesterday. They have all learned how to ‘hork’ – eating the prey whole almost choking it down! I hope they continue to bring in fish to the nest – no more Coots!

Baby has a full crop and is getting shade from the adult on the nest of Chase and Cholyn at Two Harbours. Blink and the wee fuzzy one turned into an eaglet!!!!!!!! with thermal down. Gosh.

Middle (Little) had a fish tail and a pin fish this morning. He is on the nest being extremely vocal about wanting more food.

Little or MiniO fledged on the 22nd of April at 06:46:14. It is not clear if this was intentional or the wind gust took her off the nest. She has not been seen since fledging. The moderator of the chat said that Lori Covert intends to look for Little MiniO when she returns (I do not know when that is).

The hatch of L2 at the nest of Big Red and Arthur is proceeding nicely. This image is now about 3 hours old. That little one is almost out then. A good shove to the shell might do it. Earlier it appeared that a third egg might have a pip.

Arthur is keeping the pantry stocked.

The arrival of a Robin prompted Big Red to get up and eat a bit. You can see the crop on L1. Both L2 and L3 are now hatching. You can see the progress in the front two eggs. This nest is going to get super busy – and exciting – as these chicks hatch. Notice the bright yellow cere on L1. How gorgeous. The cere is the fleshy covering at the base of the upper beak.

L1 can hear its sibling and is mesmerized by that beak chipping away at the shell. If you look lower L2 has cracked its way around the egg. It will not be long.

There is some exciting news (for me anyway) coming out of the UK. Mrs G and Aran’s 2017 third hatch, Z8, was spotted at Loch Gruinart.

Z8 hatched just before midnight at the Glaslyn nest on the 29th of May 2017. He fledged at the age of 54 days on the 22nd of July 2017. This is the first official sighting of him! Excellent. I hope that we hear more about Z8 now that he has been spotted in Islay. He was a third hatch osprey!

Here is the FB announcement:

Other good news is that chick 3 who had remained in the crumbling eagle nest and nicknamed ‘Velcro’ has been reunited with chick 2 in the temporary nest in Illinois. These folks worked long and hard for these amazing eaglets who have not fledged but are the size of a Canada Goose. Congratulations to everyone at the Illinois Raptor Centre for this incredible effort.

To read about this journey, please go to the FB page of the Illinois Raptor Centre and scroll down – read from the bottom up – from when the nest collapsed.

The two Dale Hollow Eaglets have done so well. The sibling rivalry or food competition is all over between Big and Middle. They are now 55 days old and one of them is standing on the rim of the nest today.

They may have had some lean days but today was feast day and both have eaten so well and have such filled crops that they are ignoring a fish on the nest! Does it get more wonderful than that?

Everything seems to be fine other than being damp and getting potentially more rain later at the MN-DNR nest of Harry and Nancy.

It is 15:04 on the UFlorida Osprey nest. Little Bit continues to cry for food. The older siblings have no crops. It is very hot on the nest and all are food crying now. Wish for a miracle! That is what it is going to take – a miracle. The pattern has been for only one more fish to come in before bed and the two big ones are already ravenous.

As I wrap this up we are still waiting for fish to drop from the sky on the UFlorida Osprey nest, a hatch at Cornell (or two), and Little or MiniO to return to the Captiva Osprey Nest. Some believe they might have heard her calling. Send positive wishes to all the wildlife struggling on the Canadian Prairies with the torrential downpours and the flooding.

Thank you for joining me. Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or FB pages: Loch Garden and Other Ospreys FB, Illinois Raptor Centre, Captiva Ospreys and Window for Wildlife, Cornell Bird Lab RTH, UFlorida-Gainesvlle Ospreys, MN-DNR, DHEC, and Explore.org.