Late Saturday in Bird World

25 June

Hi Everyone. Just a quick check on some of our favourite birds for this late lazy Saturday in June.

Wow. Lindsay is one gorgeous peregrine falcon! Have a read:

https://www.berkeleyside.org/2022/06/22/uc-berkeley-falcons-fly?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_Berkeleyside&fbclid=IwAR135T5s_P5RpSCzOtAtDjst7vZ1bTgP6JaM9yD7kPMhOYEoOZN8deWtINw

There are some beautiful birds coming out of San Francisco and Rosie and Richmond have two of them. Brooks and Molate.

Oh, stunning. They remind me of Idris and Telyn’s chicks of 2021 – Dysynni and Ystwyth.

I once asked Tiger Mozone about the qualities of a good Osprey. He asked me if I knew about racing horses. Of course! So the answer to the question is that it isn’t ‘looks’ – it is performance. How many of their osprey chicks survive? fledge? return? breed? That is the measure of a good Osprey parent. So see if you can find a history of your favourite Osprey and look at their ‘track record’.

Here is the one for the Dyfi Osprey nest in Wales.

One of the reasons that Monty is such a ‘Kingpin’ in the Welsh Osprey history – if you look at the family tree above – is that he had three different mates and in 8 years he fathered 8 returnees. Many of those have made Monty a grandfather. My favourite is Tegid Z1. You won’t see him on a streaming cam – on private land in Wales but his brother Z2 Aeron causes all that mischief with Mrs G. Z2 is at the Pont Cresor and this is his second year to raised chicks. As a female, Telyn who is now mated with Idris after Monty died has had 4 of her chicks return. You can only find out this kind of information if you ring the ospreys! They will be at the Dyfi Nest this week! We will find out the gender and names at the same time. Fantastic.

You can increase the size of the graph by going under View on your computer and zooming ‘in’.

I have to look up Blue 33 and Maya. They have done better than Monty, I think. There are gaps in the information. For example, there are no returnees listed for 2021 on the family tree. Perhaps there were none.

Malala fledged this morning, the little Red-tail Hawk brought in for dinner and raised by Bald Eagles on Gabriola Island, British Columbia. The time was 06:17:30. She flew by at 06:17:44. The video is quick. I hope they raised enough funds for a much better camera!!!!!

The adult arrives on the nest with breakfast and Malala takes that opportunity to fly off the nest. Perfect! Congratulations everyone!

My focus today has been on the ND-LEEF nest. It deteriorates by the minute – little pieces fall off here and there. It was therefore quite shocking to see an adult land with a squirrel and then have 15 fly in and Little Bit there trying to eat. Little Bit began to slide. Oh, I hope this nest survives a few more days.

Little Bit is eating it. The parent did not stay on the nest very long.

Hang on Little Bit 17!!!!!!!!!

Here is a video from today on that nest when breakfast arrives.

It is a warm steamy night on the Canadian Prairies. More rain. It is absolutely impossible to keep up with any weeding. The vines that grow and shelter the birds in the heat have doubled in size this month. It is crazy.

I do have some news to share with you. It appears that Little Red is father to a couple of new little ones. We have located his ‘new digs’ and have been entertained by the two babies. So cute. My goodness can they balance. I have not seen them anywhere but the tree nest and the wires.

It is hard to understand their size but they are very, very tiny. These images are blown up quite a bit. They chase one another back and forth on the wires! Their colouring is so beautiful. Little Red’s bright red colouring has faded a bit over the years. We sure hope they stay safe up there.

Thank you so much for joining me for this quick peek at a couple of the nests. I know that some of you watch Lady and Dad at the WBSE nest. It takes 42 days for the eggs to hatch (normally) and they were laid on June 8 and 12. So egg 1 is now 17 days and egg 2 is 13 days. There is a ways to go yet.

Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or websites where I took my screen captures: Dyfi Osprey Project, the ND-LEEF, SF Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, GROWLS, and Cal Falcons.