27 March 2022
Good Morning Everyone,
Sunday was a beautiful day in the Canadian Prairies. Spring is arriving, and the small ponds around the City and parts of the river are melting. The Geese are beginning to return. I saw four this morning during my walk, and others have reported them returning on eBird.
There was one lonely goose on the open water at Fort Whyte Alive.
Several were in the sky, flying toward our Assiniboine Park and the River. It is exciting seeing the end of winter. Can’t wait to see ‘green’ as in grass and leaves!
We will start with an incredible video of M15 delivering a Bluegill to the eaglets at the SW Florida Bald Eagle Nest. Shot by The Real Saunders Photography, who are on the ground in Fort Myers. What a different perspective!
On Sunday, M15 brought three fish and a piece of ‘something’. I can’t be positive, but E22 got the majority, if not all, of the prey. He appears to continue to provide feast and famine days for the eaglets as he eases them into what will be living in the real world. There were no big dramas yesterday. M15 also found time to have a nice splash about in the pond. He has done it! Will the Es fledge this week?
The winds are blowing UK Ospreys onto their nests. Blue 022, the mate of CJ7 at Poole Harbour, flew on to the nest on the 26th of March. Other arrivals are being reported around the UK. The nest at Poole Harbour is part of the Roy Dennis relocation efforts to bring Ospreys back to the area after a more than 200-year absence. Last year CJ7 and Blue 022 fledged two historic osplets from this nest. Sadly, one was killed by a Goshawk.
Blue 22 was joined by an unringed female. Come on CJ7!
Telyn has arrived home at the Dyfi Osprey Platform in Wales just after noon on the 27th. Now we wait for her mate Idris to get home.
A second osprey has been seen on the nest at Clywedog, but the camera has gone down and no firm confirmation that it is Dylan. Sure hope it is!
The three osplets at the Venice Golf and Country Club in Florida appear to be doing quite well. They are certainly well camouflaged. You have to look carefully to tell the stripes on their backs from the sticks.
Arlene Beech reports that the first Osprey has arrived in Poland for the 2023 season.
It was so nice to check on Abby and Victor and find them both up eating Sunday morning. The average number of fish coming to the nest is 5-6 a day. Many of those are being brought in by Sally. It appears that on Sunday, Harry delivered one early fish. Thank goodness the water feature below the nest must be teeming with food. Sally has no trouble bringing fish to her, Abby, and Victor.
Everyone is preening and itchy. Look at the image above. The tail feathers are starting to come in also.
Sally keeping the osplets shaded. Where is Harry? He has been off camera for a couple of days. I am used to him being on the nest and there being a few more deliveries. Sally caught fish yesterday.
Abby and Victor were so full of fish they could hardly move and then Sally decided to feed them some more after the IR light came on. Just look at the crops on Sally and the kids.
‘A’ is a keen observer of the Moorings nest and she writes about Sunday, “Not only is Victor rapidly learning how to get to the beak, even if he has to go between mum’s legs or hide under her wing, and he seems to have renewed confidence. As I think I mentioned yesterday, he has developed a technique for not being beaked by Abby – as he becomes aware of Abby raising herself up to beak him from behind, he does the same himself, stretching his neck and standing literally on his tiptoes to get himself high enough to prevent her from being able to bring her weight down on his head. Abby retreats nearly every time. Victor has now learnt that, so he seems quite confident to continue eating even in Abby’s presence.” Thanks, ‘A’. There are no worries at this nest at the moment!
At the Achieva Osprey nest, Jack flew in with a huge fish around 0830. Diane has been busy feeding the trio. It is so difficult to see the behaviour on this nest this year without the camera zoomed in closer!!!!!!!! I cannot tell how the osplets are doing in terms of the feedings only that there are still three alive on the nest. The third hatch, despite being only four days younger than the eldest, is quite small.
Jackie and Shadow were at the Big Bear Valley nest early Sunday morning.
Shadow has been bringing in lots of nice fish. If those prey gifts could be eggs in that nest, it would overflow.
Congratulations to Bella and Smitty on their first hatch of the 2023 season at the NCTC nest.
Big Red was also on her nest early Sunday morning!
And the camera pans over to the Bradfield ledge and catches her trying to keep out of the wind. Is this a new improved zoom?
The three eagles of Martin and Rosa in the Dulles-Greenway Bald Eagle nest in Virginia continue to do well. What more can we ask when three are in a nest, and one is much bigger? They are doing well! There are, as of today, seven Bald Eagle nests in the US with three eaglets. Wow.
Ron and Rose continue to trade off duties caring for the two eaglets. Everything is going along splendidly.
A whole new meaning to ‘sleeping with the fishes’.
Rose indeed found an incredible mate when she landed on Ron’s nest! Lucky girl.
We are still waiting for a pip at the nest of Liberty and Guardian in Redding, California. I am not ready to give up on their only egg this season. Send them positive wishes, please.
Bella and Smitty had their first hatch on the 25th of the 2023 season. This is great news. The couple did not have any eaglets last season.
PA Farm Country now has their third hatch of the four eggs on the nest this season. Wow. They are going to be busy!
Pittsburgh-Hayes had their first hatch of the 2023 season at 12:03 on the 26th. Welcome H19!
Six hours old.
Congratulations to Nancy and Beau at MN-DNR on their first hatch of the 2023 season. Hatch occurred early Sunday evening.
https://www.youtube.com/live/l95k-iKfh8Q?feature=share
Bonding is happening at the scrape on top of San Jose City Hall. This new couple replaces Shasta, Annie, and Grinnell’s son, Sequoia.
Proud Owlvira standing with her three owlets in Corona, California. They have all ‘branched’ to the rim of the nest.
Pip, Tootsie, and Hoots must be full as each is ignoring the mouse in the nest that Mum delivered a few minutes earlier.
Here is that delivery:
Checking on Karl II and his family and their migration back to Estonia. Karl II’s last transmission was as he was almost leaving Turkey. No news today. Kaia had one ping in Chad and nothing since. That was several days ago. Waba remains in Sudan. Bonus’s last transmission was in the fall migration in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
If you want to take part in voting at Cal Falcons for your favourite memes, go to https://calfalcons.berkeley.edu Click on either the FB or Twitter links, and you will find the ‘Vote Here’ link. Have fun!
There seem to be more cases daily, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, as so many never appear on the FB site. It is a simple fix. Imagine all the resources saved, never mind the pain and suffering of the carrion feeders. So explain to me why this is not happening. The EU has banned lead. You cannot hunt waterfowl in England, Wales, the wetlands of Northern Ireland and Scotland using lead but, the programme is not comprehensive. A voluntary initiative in the UK to stop pheasant hunters from using lead indicated that 94% of the pheasants tested had been killed with lead shots. It needs to be a mandatory ban on all lead in all hunting and fishing equipment. It is simple. Every news outlet is looking for a story. Give them one. Pepper the local papers and outlets with the reasons for not using lead then make it mandatory. It will take a few years but people will comply (for the most part). Just do it! And not piece meal.
Here is the link to the story about the EU banning lead that appeared about a month ago in The Guardian and in my blog at the time.
Thank you so very much for being with me today. I hope to have another unique story from Barbados for tomorrow for everyone. Take care. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their notes, videos, posts, announcements, tweets, and streaming cams that helped make up my blog today: Real Saunders Photography, SW Florida Eagle Cam and D Pritchett, Ospreys of Poole Harbour, Dyfi, Venice Golf and Country Club, Arlene Beech, Moorings Osprey Park, Achieva Credit Union, FOBBV, Deb Stecyk and the NCTC Eagles, Cornell RTH, Dulles-Greenway, WRDC, FORE, Pix Cams, MN-DNR, SK Hideaways and San Jose City Hall, Corona Owl Cam, Live Owl Cam, Looduskalender Forum, Cal Falcon Cam, Phys.org, Terry Carman and Bald Eagle Live Nests and News, and The Guardian.
Thanks Mary Ann! So glad Telyn is home ! Such a beautiful Osprey she is!
I sure wish the cam was closer to the nest at Achieva too! It is hard to see them. I will try to watch on my tv some and see if I can see it better if it’s on utube. All the pips and hatches going on is amazing! Good luck to them all!
M15 has been and is still doing a great job with the E’s. I know they will fledge soon and have to stay around and watch him fish and hunt. It will be so sad to see them go especially since we don’t have Harriett around 😢. Thanks for all the updates and photos Mary Ann. Have a good evening and take care of yourself.
Linda
You are so very welcome. It is always my pleasure. Sure going to miss those Es. They are such characters.