Hatch at Duke Farms, GHO owlet with family, E22 is the fastest prey grabber…Tuesday in Bird World

28 February 2022

Good Morning Everyone,

Lewis and Missy hope you have had a wonderful start to the week. They are enjoying a new ‘dog bed’. It is so soft, and with their own blankets, they both decided that it was ‘OK’. They are way too big to share the small basket, and neither one will be alone!

They had to do everything together from the moment they came to their forever home. It is like synchronised living. Sleep, eat, drink water, poop, look out the window, play – it is always in tandem.

My goodness. Most of the time we think of a pip and then a wait to see how long it will be until hatch. Well, the first eaglet of the year has blasted out of the egg at Duke Farms. This is one strong eaglet. Want to bet she is a fierce formidable female?

Dad was on the nest checking on the progress.

The reveal came around 14:06.

Well, hello! Aren’t you amazing? Such a strong eaglet! Dad sees his chick for the very first time.

One strong eaglet! A nice fresh fish on the nest for Tuesday morning breakfast!

The first breakfast for Monday came in at 10:28:45 at the SW Florida nest of M15 and the Es. It was very difficult to see what that prey item was, actually. E22 mantled it and got a huge chunk. M15 found some small bits and kept 21 busy feeding him.

Another delivery came at 13:47:05. This time it was a small fish, not tiny but not huge. E21 was up at Dad’s beak first but 22 did his usual work around and got up to the beak to get some of that fish. E22 exhibited no fear as he touched beaks with 21 trying to get some fish. Meanwhile, the female is down in one of the trees not bothering what is going on at the nest. It appears that 21 and 22 play around trying to eat the skin and some bits and bobs.

E22 is the fastest eaglet on this nest and the best at self-feeding. He learned those traits early on when we all thought he might not survive. What a great eagle you will be 22.

M15 came in with another prey item at 14:54:14. It was difficult to tell which eaglet was which, but both got something to eat. I think it was 22 at the end who also had the bone and was chewing on it. Perhaps you held your breath seeing the adult above the nest, but thankfully, it was M15 just getting off the nest at 15:01:36.

I believe it is 21 on the left and 22 on the right by the tail feathers but, I could be so wrong.

M15 came in with another fish for the eaglets at 16:23:21. E21 got some first bites but E22 was quick to get itself into a position to snatch and grab from the right to the left!

E21 is on the left and E22 is on the right.

He just grabbed a big piece of fish!

22 pushes 21 back while keeping his beak up to get the fish.

The fish went back and forth, but E22 got it and finished it off quickly. Dad was back up to the branch at 16:28:38.

That might be the last feeding of the day. It has gone well. Thank you, M15.

They both look a little tattered. Harriet was M15’s first mate. She was a fierce eagle as we know and no one would mess with her chicks, her nest, or her territory. We wait to see how this goes.

I am warming up to her. Injuries, stress, hunger. They all trigger behaviours that might not otherwise take place. Yes, she has pecked and winged but, she has not injured E21 or E22. As we know she did, voluntarily or feeling forced, feed 21. She has protected the territory. M15 will need a ferocious mate to take on this popular territory together.

M15 brought a squirrel into the nest at 093215 for 21 and 22. He did some feeding but, in the end, it seems that 21 took some of it to self-feed. That is 22 getting fed by Dad below.

There appears to be, sadly, a territorial dispute going on at the Redding Bald Eagle nest of Liberty and Guardian. Guardian returned to the nest where Liberty is incubating their single egg for the season injured on Sunday. Injuries appear to be the left eye, the top of the head, and some frayed tail feathers.

A short time in Ron and Rose’s nest, a shift change. I love the chortling.

Everyone is counting down the time to eggs and I am thinking that it is two weeks. Around 13 March for Big Red and Arthur. So happy they are back at the nest on the Fernow Light Stand so that we can watch them raise their eyases.

Meanwhile, L4 is still with the young hawk and still on Mum and Dad’s territory as far as I am aware.

The heavy snowfall promised to hit the northeastern US is now falling on Big Red and Arthur’s nest in Ithaca, New York.

Indigo is still home! And he is loud. Missy and Lewis always want the volume off. For some reason, Indigos’ screeching scares them.

If you want to glimpse the four owlets at the Corona Owl Nest, you need to watch during the night or do a good rewind. There are four of them, and voting will begin on naming the four on March 6. Check out the chat with the live stream: Corona Owls on YouTube.

At Taiaroa Head, home to the Royal Albatross Colony, Sweet Pea does her very first sky call. Lady Hawk caught it for us!

Jackie and Shadow made the news in Greece. I keep saying if love could fill that nest with little eaglets, that nest would be spilling over. Fingers crossed for a successful second clutch and hatch in the future. If you are wondering, yes, it is possible. When Harriet and M15 lost Sassy Pants, M15 wanted another clutch of eggs. Those two eaglets hatched and were named Miracle and Grace.

Making News:

I brought you the news from CROW about a GHO owlet that had fallen out of a tree and was placed in a laundry basket hoping the parents would feet it. The story gets quite amazing. A wellness check was done, the original nest located, a sibling and lots of food in the nest – and even more special, the adults welcomed the ‘lost’ baby back into the family! Thank you, CROW.

They stopped the fireworks in the UK not to disturb this amazing walrus named Thor. Today, he was discovered in Iceland!

Please don’t tell any gamekeepers on those moors!

‘EJ’ sent an article to me explaining it isn’t the type they usually send. It is hard to believe that some individuals take shotguns and are called ‘removers’. They are culling one owl species for another. Honestly, I think humans should leave nature to nature. Do we actually understand what we are doing to wildlife and the planet? — Sorry, I am ‘getting started’. Nothing has convinced me that we are proper conservators of our home and theirs or that we have insights that make us superior. I wish it were different.

https://www.salon.com/2023/02/26/professional-owl-terrorists-scare-off-barred-owls-with-shotguns-in-the-name-of-conservation/

The author says: “Remover” was an accurate term for what Hunt did. But it was a euphemism. Hunt is one of the best in the business at shooting barred owls out of trees with a shotgun. The twenty-eight-year-old, slightly-built wildlife management specialist from Belmont, New York, had spent five winters tracking barred owls and systematically blasting them from the canopy with a twelve-gauge. The goal was to reduce the barred owl population enough to relieve the pressure on spotted owls. It was a divisive study generating high emotions on all sides. But Hunt loved the work. “I’m kinda sad the removal part is over,” she said.”

This is wonderful news. I am certain that when Rita was injured, we wished this might have been the outcome. It was not to be but, for this couple, it was the perfect ending. Congratulations to all!

Here is the whole story:

Some bird humour compliments of the Webster Texas Eagles FB page.

The season’s first egg is at one of the Peregrine Falcon’s nests in Japan. Congratulations! For those who would like to watch this scrape, I have messaged the site to get a link. The scrape fledged four little eyases in 2022.

A former student ‘CD’, now teaching her university-level science classes, posted this today. Do you know about these women who saved the birds?

Thank you so much for being with us today! Take care, everyone. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their tweets, notes, posts, videos, and streaming cams that help make up my blog: ‘CD’, ‘EJ’, Duke Farms, SW Florida Eagle Cam and D Pritchett, Gary and FORE, @Cornell Hawks, Valerie Valicento and Cornell Hawk Cam Chatters, Elain and Charles Sturt Falcon Cam and Cilla Kinross, Corona Owls, Lady Hawk and NZ DOC, Maria Grigoriadou and FOBBV, Heidi Mc and WRDC, CROW, BBC, Google Maps, Yorkshire Post, Salon.com, Sydney Wells and Bald Eagles Live Nest Cam and Nests, Webster Texas Eagle Watchers, Ashai Falcon Kirara, Women Who Saved Birds.