Ervie has a dust up with Mum!

26 May 2022

We all love Ervie. He melted our hearts the second he hatched. For a long time, until the day he was banded, I called him Tiny Little Bob.

• Big Bob hatched on 13 September at 22:03
• Middle Bob hatched on 14 September at 02:30
• Little Bob hatched on 16 September at 00:51

In the first two images, Ervie is four days old.

In this sequence of images, Ervie is 11 days old. The lads are in the Reptilian Phase. From left to right – Ervie, Falky, and Bazza.

Bazza was trying to assert his dominance on the nest and was not very kind to either Ervie or Falky. Bazza was known on the chat as ‘Big Bad Bazza’.

After Bazza had beaked and frightened Falky, he started on Ervie. Just look at the difference in size in their wings despite there being only 51 hours between them in age.

Ervie was always clever. He got out of Bazza’s way and Bazza went back to beak Falky. Ervie watches and listens to what is happening. It was rare for Ervie to khow tow to Bazza.

Twenty-two seconds later they are lined up being civil to one another and eating their fish. Ervie has already learned to be right up front near the beak.

Here is Ervie at 28 days old (14 October) still right up by Mum’s beak. By now Ervie is standing up to Bazza. Ervie is the first to eat and the last to leave the table most days. Even with a full crop Ervie enjoyed as much fish as he could get.

Just look at how our boy has changed in the image below. It is 30 October. Ervie is now 44 days old. The three will be ringed on the 8th of November and Tiny Little Bob will officially become our ‘Ervie’. All three will be pronounced to be males.

Ervie is the closest to the top of the frame intently watching Mum break off bites of fish.

Just adorable.

Ervie is doing ‘kissy-kissy’ with Falky. I looked at Ervie’s short stout legs and was certain that he was a female. Not according to the banders.

It was only after they fledged that the lads started being lads -fighting for fish and generally not wanting to share the nest. Ervie with his wings out wants part of the fish that Dad has delivered. It is his favourite – the portion back by the tail and Ervie is intent on getting it.

Ervie just walks through Bazza. It will be one of many ‘dust ups’ that he has with the older sibling.

On this particular occasion, Bazza is pushed off the nest and Ervie winds up hanging by his talons upside down!

Today, if we count Ervie’s hatch day, he is 253 days old. Until yesterday, Ervie has always known the ‘barge’ as his home. In some ways you could say the nest was probably a little like a security blanket. It was familiar. He would, on occasion, go down and chat with Dad in his den. No one but his brothers ever tried to force Ervie off the nest. It must have been a shock when he came to eat his Puffer on the nest yesterday (the 26th of May) and Mum ushered him off the nest.

‘A’ captured the action on the nest yesterday, thankfully. Thank you ‘A’ for sharing these with me so we can all see what happened.

Ervie has landed on the nest with his puffer. Mum is flying down to give Ervie the ‘boot’. Dad is over on the right side perch.

I have seen parents evict their juveniles from the nest – it has happened at the SWFlorida nest with E15 and with Diamond and Xavier when Mum had to give Izzy the cold shoulder. They certainly were not as ‘into your face’ as the event between Ervie and Mum.

Indeed, Ervie is, as I said, probably shocked at the reaction. One day he is welcome and the next not. He has 252 days of being welcomed to the nest – and there is nothing in Ervie’s own experience that would prepare him for his removal.

Ervie did take off with his puffer. I do wonder if the old barge is still around or if there is a close place where Ervie feels comfortable eating his fish.

Tonight there was another ‘dust up’ between Ervie and Mum. This time Ervie was hesitant to give ground. If you look carefully, you can see Ervie fly off with Mum on the nest. She will eventually go back and join Dad. It is interesting to me that it has been the female – Diamond at the Charles Sturt scrape and now Mum here on the PLO barge – to do the evicting.

Here is the video of the latest interaction between Mum and Ervie.

No doubt there will be some more attempts by Ervie to land on the nest and more evictions by Mum. We want both of them to be safe. I wish Ervie had his own private barge!!!!!

Thank you for joining me as we catch up with Ervie over the past couple of days. Take care everyone!

Thank you to the Port Lincoln Osprey Project for their streaming cam where I took my screen captures and video clip. We are so every grateful for this opportunity to watch the lives of Ospreys in the wild. It has been a fantastic season.