Late Saturday in Bird World

4 June 2022

It was a fantastic day on the Canadian prairies. Clear blue sky. Sun shining bright and everyone happy – even smiling and saying ‘hi’ on the trails. Sadly, the birds thought it was beautiful too and they must have all gone sight-seeing! There were some American White Pelicans – 7 to be exact – hanging out with 9 Double-Breasted Cormorant. A female Hooded Merganser. A family of Canada Geese! And many Red-wing Blackbirds protecting territories where there were obvious nests. It was still nice to be outside with the sun beating down even if there had been not a single bird in sight.

There were two females on nests and these three goslings with their parents. This place should be crawling with goslings – everywhere. The flood really did a lot of harm.

The Redwing Blackbirds appear to have sentinels that stand watch or follow humans trying to lure us to one spot or another away from the nests.

There has not been a lot of time to check on all the nests. I wanted to see if Little Bit 17 had any food. He had an entire fish to himself yesterday but he needs food every day! It won’t always get it, sadly. Not on this nest. At 19:02:47 a Bluegill at 19:02:47. Everyone sort of looked at Dad and the fish. Then at 19:04:57 Little Bit stole it! I cannot tell you if he got any fish to eat but he worked on it until 16 – the one who beaks him – stole it from him. Then 15 took it and Little Bit moved over by the porch and did the snatch and grab and got some fish. There could be another delivery later.

It is not a huge fish.

Little Bit was quick! And he took advantage of a good situation. It is too bad that Dad didn’t just block the other two!

16 has the fish and 15 is going to get it away. Little Bit is at the top left watching and listening. Little Bit knows if 15 gets the fish he will get some food.

There is a scab forming over the bad peck that 16 gave Little Bit the other day.

Little Bit is by the tree snatching and grabbing bites from 15 as 16 watches.

At 17:37 Little Bit gets the fish head and moves with it to the top railing where he feeds off it until 17:50! Well done Little Bit 17! You will clean that head of every bit of fish flake like no one else. So happy.

Janika has been regularly feeding the storklets. The last feeding was at 22:54:10. The four have eaten well today. I thought maybe she would stay with them during the night but she is off hunting for food. Urmas has not removed any of the chicks. Perhaps Janika can make this work! I hope so. I wish she would find the fish basket provided for her.

The last two eggs hatched for White Storks Bukacek and Betty at their Mlade Buky nest in The Czech Republic. I cannot help but think that the two smallest will become brood eliminations but, maybe not. That is a lot of mouths to feed.

At the Cal Falcons scrape, Annie and Alden have done the most amazing job raising these two eyases. They are huge – full of energy and life and absolutely healthy. We will be forever grateful that the Avian Flu did not manifest itself in the West so that these two can take flight. Their names could not be more perfect – Lindsay and Grinnell Jr.

Meals happen outside of the scrape now and the chicks run up and down flapping their huge wings. Seriously – look at that wing!

These two have great fun playing with one another. Have a look:

There is something so stunning about the plumage of juvenile Ospreys – the patterning, the beautiful black and white. I do think they are much more gorgeous than the adults. Don’t tell them! Middle has been working his wings since Big fledged.

These two have eaten well. Mum and Dad really filled them up yesterday after getting Big back on the nest for breakfast. And it is nice that the heavy rains forecast for Gainesville as part of the Tropical Storm did not materialize.

The five falcons at the Manchester NH scrape have almost lost all of their baby down. It is really something when food comes to the scrape. All are fed but oh, my what mayhem!

Aran and Mrs G are doing fine with the osplets. It is a wonderful streaming cam because you can hear rural Wales – the sheep bleating and the cows mooing. It is quite lovely if you live in a city like I do.

Despite the strong winds at the Dyfi nest, Idris and Telyn are keeping the osplets nicely fed and hunkered down. Bobbi Bach has really eaten well. He hatched on the 28th of May and is a week old today. Happy Week Birthday!

Poor Telyn. The wind has done a mess of her feathers.

When the third egg hatched at the Loch of the Lowes, I held my breath. It took Blue NC0 a few days to get it together to feed three. Now just look at them. Unbelievable. Lots of fish and this is what happens – fluffy little Osprey chicks with their soft grey down turn into Reptiles. Little Bob is not having any trouble. There he is in the middle of the pack at Mum’s beak.

All over England they are celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee but in Poole Harbour everyone continues to be delighted in the first three – yes, the third hatched – ospreys to hatch in Poole Harbour in more than 200 years!

In fact, of the birds translocated from Scotland to Poole Harbour over the course of a couple of years, three are now breeding. It has been an enormous success and a shout out should go to Roy Dennis Wildlife for his steadfast belief that you could re-introduce birds to a location by using hatches from another area (Scotland in this case).

You can read all about CJ7 and Blue 022 on Roy Dennis’s website here:

https://www.roydennis.org/category/latest-news/

Roy Dennis writes extensively about this project in his book, Restoring the Wild.

Big Red took a break from parenting to sit on the lights in the sun today. It is quite crowded on that nest now!

The light was not so good to see the eyases but it was good to show the dark bands on the chick in front of the light box. There are five clear dark bands on that chick. From the length of that tail in comparison to the bird to its right, it has to be L1. I would suspect that there are actually 6 clear bands. She is ready to fledge!

What a year it has been for Big Red and Arthur with four eyases on the nest! Even at 19 Big Red continues to surprise us and keep us in awe. She is an incredible hawk and hawk Mum!

Thank you for joining me for this quick look at a few nests today. Take care. See you soon.

NOTE: My Sunday report will come in the late evening.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, Friends of Loch of the Lowes and the Woodland Trust, Cornell Bird Lab and RTH, ND-LEEF, UFlorida-Gainesville Ospreys, Poole Harbour Ospreys, Cal Falcons, Peregrine Networks, Mlade Buky Stork Cam, and the Eagle Club of Estonia.