27 September 2022
Good Afternoon,
A brief check on what is happening at a few of the Osprey and Eagle nests that are on the edge of Hurricane Ian as it moves towards Florida and a peek at the Australian nests as the 28th of September begins there. At the moment, it appears that Port Lincoln Osprey barge is offline. Maybe that cam will start working again before I finish. The Sea Eagles appears to be offline as well.
I know that our thoughts are always with the people and birds when these treacherous storms arrive. Osprey Lena is hanging on tight to her new nest at Captiva as I write this. On top of having to hunker down and ride out what could be a category 3 or 4 hurricane by tomorrow, Lena also has not seen her mate, Andy, back at the nest. I just feel for her right now. The wind is blowing at 25 mph and the rain is intensifying at both the Osprey and Eagle nests at Captiva.
Lena continues to hunker down in the same spot.
An hour later she is holding on in the same spot. You can see on the live streaming cam the gulls and pelicans flying low to the water’s surface. Rain and wind are picking up.
At around 1700, Romeo, the young male tried to land on Lena and Andy’s nest so Lena not only has to contend with a hurricane coming but also is alarming and trying to protect her nest. She is not impressed.
Lena is blown off the nest.
There she goes.
You can watch the Captiva nest and Lena here:
You can catch the Captiva Eagle nest of Connie here:
The Achieva Osprey nest is starting to sway in St Petersburg and the wind seems to be picking up a bit at the nest of Harriet and M15 in Fort Myers. The nest of Ron and Rita in the Miami Zoo would make you seasick if you were so inclined!
The little sea eaglets – who are not all that little anymore if you look at that wing spread – are acting more and more like adults. Someone took a video clip of them sleeping. Have a look at how grown up they are standing with their heads tucked.
The Mum at Melbourne was doing some ker-chuffing at 0606. She did not take a break for several minutes later -at 06:10:43 -and she was gone long enough to have a nice meal and stretch her legs. While she was away the new male came to the end of the ledge. He did not incubate the eggs. He stayed for a few minutes and then flew off before Mum returned.
There she goes.
Mum appears to be a lot more careful when approaching the eggs and her body appears to be fluffed quite a bit. Can she hear her babies? From the pip to hatch can take anywhere from 24-72 hours. Oh, I wish we could get a real close up on those eggs!
Fluffed out and looking around.
This year Xavier appears to be spending much more time in the scrape box with Diamond.
Port Lincoln still appears to be offline. Send all your best wishes to the people and our beautiful birds in the line of Hurricane Ian. Captiva is S of Tampa and Tampa is expecting strong winds to hit tomorrow afternoon.
Thank you so much for being with me on this quick check as to what is happening. Take care everyone. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Captiva Ospreys and Window to Wildlife, Captiva Bald Eagles and Window to Wildlife, WRDC, Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre Sydney Olympic Park, 367 Collins Street by Mirvac, and Charles Sturt Falcon Cam.
Thank you Mary Ann for all the updates. It’s so scary to see Lena already swept off the nest by that strong wind. I pray she will find a safe place to stay. Of course I don’t know this but Maybe that is why Andy hasn’t came back yet. Wherever he is I hope he’s ok and makes it back safe.
The new male may be able to keep Lena safe or at least be company for her during this hurricane. 🙏❤️. I hope the cams come back on soon at Port Lincoln and the sea eagles nests. 🙏❤️❤️
Thanks Mary Ann for the photos and links to follow and updates. Hope and Pray for all our nests we follow to not get damaged or destroyed by the storm
And the birds to find a way to keep safe
From it too 🙏❤️
See you soon on here Mary Ann
We are ok here. We
Are near the Florida line on the Gulf Coast area but not in the impact area so far. 🙏.
Linda
I am glad you are OK,, Linda. Apparently all of the birds are heading to the mangroves across from the nest to take shelter. The mod at the chat says they will be safe there. And I don’t even think it has gotten bad there yet but the rain is definitely increasing in intensity. We keep our fingers crossed. You take care!
Prayers for all the nests in the path of the US hurricane.
At Port Lincoln, the camera is back up. There was obviously a feeding we missed, because at the 07:49 breakfast, Little Bob already had a crop, though s/he was front and centre for quite a bit more fish. So all three have eaten extremely well this morning – it was gigantic crops and food comas all round.
At Melbourne, one of the males brought food at 9:54:35 and mum runs down the ledge to him. They then exchange some e-chups before mum presumably takes her food to eat it on the floor above. Someone returns to the nest at 10:00:30, presumably mum, although her eye at 10:00:50 looks very much like the new male’s. She is doing a lot of shimmying (enfluffling) and egg rolling and often appears to be listening to the eggs. Hopefully something exciting is happening underneath her!
At Sydney’s sea eagle nest, those eaglets are beyond adorable. They are both self-feeding like pros, even the hard bits like stripping meat from leg bones. They remain friends, though there have been some serious stare downs by SE30 when asserting dominance over a food item. They will be gone all too soon.
Take care Mary Ann. I sometimes fear we care for birds and animals better than we look after ourselves! But I am equally sure that our relationship with them enriches and lengthens our lives.
Dear Alison, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your time stamps and observations for the PLO and Melbourne. I had to get away from watching the storm — there is nothing we can do but wait and hope now. And, yes, those Sea Eagles. They astound me. One day they want Mum to feed them and the next they look like they have been feeding themselves forever. Yes, like you, Alison,, I fear our time with them is very limited. They are adorable and if the other birds leave them alone, they could thrive!