11 May 2023
Good Morning Everyone,
Oh, it was a scorcher on the Canadian Prairies on Wednesday and we are set for 28 degrees C in a few days as the heat dome moves towards us fromm the West coast. All I can say is it is hot!
It is now 1839 Wednesday evening. Hail is coming down so intense that it is covering the ground like it is snow. It is about the size of marbles pelting. I can only imagine the horror at the Fort St Vrain Bald Eagle nest and the other nests in the area of that storm that went through Colorado. I wonder where all the garden critters are. Some will have gone into the small shelters for the chopped wood.
Relief. As soon as the storm passed, everyone was back in the garden.
Your giggle for the day comes from SK Hideaways and Cal Falcons! Red steals the food but doesn’t know what to do with it! She will learn soon enough! Mum Annie has a lot of patience but does the siblings who are hungry for breakfast?
A first for me. Two storklets with a snake on a nest in Germany could have gotten tangled. The Fire Brigade came to the rescue and saved the day. How do you say enlightened in bold letters?
‘T’ sent me the following information – check out the age of the male. “After the long-standing breeding stork Anna died in the 2021 breeding season, we will accompany Gerome (25 years) and his new breeding partner Frieda (17 years) from the Hessian nature reserve Bingenheimer Ried in the Wetterau in the 2023 breeding season. Up to and including the 2021 breeding season, Gerome had bred 14 times very successfully with the long-standing breeding stork Anna. During this time, Anna laid 71 eggs, from which 65 stork chicks hatched and from these a total of 47 young storks fledged.”
‘T’ reports that this is the same nest of Anna, the female Stork who broke her leg and the community helped to feed her and her babies. This is Anna’s former mate, Gerome, with his new female of two years. What an enlightened and caring community!
Another timely rescue this time of little Red-tail hawk lets in Austin, Texas. Smile every time you see humans helping our wildlife and reach out and thank them!
There has been, apparently, a lot of concern expressed about how Murphy’s baby will learn to hunt and live in the wild. World Bird Sanctuary shared their strategy with us on FB.
Bravo! E22 caught its first fish…little one dropped it but, gosh, this is progress. Well done, E22. Thanks, Gracie Shepherd. It is so good to see how well 22 is doing.
One day E22 will be catching whoppers like Aran does in the Glaslyn Valley of Wales, we hope. Just look at the size of that fish that landed on that nest! Elen has no idea how lucky she is that she found this nest and stayed….
There has been some concern about M1 taking a peck at M2 at Big Red and Arthur’s nest. This is perfectly normal behaviour and absolutely nothing to get worried over. It is very different from the dangerous level of aggression we have seen on osprey and eagle’s nests where siblicide has occurred due to food insecurity. I do not expect this level of rivalry to continue, and Arthur never lets the pantry dry up. Last year you might recall, everyone worried about little L4. Well, that last hatch climbed over all the others and was the first to catch its prey, becoming the first real juvenile after fledging. L4 is still around the campus – as far as I know.
I would loved to have seen Big Red when she was young and had her first brood. Just look at those tired feet. So grateful Arthur is such a good provider.
Big Red and one of her famous feeding sessions filling up those crops.
Birds, rats, mammals were all part of the feast at the nest of Angel and Tom in Tennessee today. Wow! So happy this little one survived those first days when food was so terribly scarce and Dad wasn’t sure how to help.
At 1841 the little one is getting another meal!
Everyone was elated when Rose returned to the WRDC nest – to Ron and R4 and R5. She appears to be fine.
Kathryn reports that Lucy has brought in the only fish at Lake Murray Ospreys on Wednesday. She also notes that Mum consumed C3. This nest really needs fish! What is going on with Ricky? Kathryn recalls six fish being delivered on Tuesday. Ricky has only been heard and not at the nest at all on Tuesday as of night fall. Intruders?
In addition to losing C3 on the 9th of May, we also lost the second hatch, Golden Eaglet, at Bucovina in Romania, the second hatch at Fort St Vrain, Colorado in a tragic hail storm. One of the little hatchings at Utica Peregrine scrape in NY was stuck to Mum Ares’ wing when she flew out. It fell and did not survive. So sad. Condolences to all those nests.
‘H’ reports that we have some osprey eggs that continue to be laid. Skiff and Dory – they raised three adorable osplets last year – have their third egg as of 10 May. This nest, as ‘H’ aptly notes could be problematic. She observes, “8 days between egg 1 and egg 3, with 5 days egg 1 to egg 2. Intermittent incubation for only about a day. (I may be wrong about that, we’ll know if they hatch closer together.)”. Last year we delighted in these two raising those feisty three. Let us hope that the outcome is equally as good this year but that is a huge difference -.
S Cape May Meadows in New Jersey has a second egg for Zeus and Hera on the 10th. Lots of eggs are going to be hatching at once! I have never watched the South Cape May osprey platform – let’s see how it goes. Are any of you avid fans?
Not clear how many fish came to the Achieva Osprey nest on Wednesday but, it looks as if it could have been two. Middle did get some fish around 1500 or a little after.
That cute little Decorah eaglet is huge. It looks like it is going to be a really big female! Look at the size of those legs and feet next to Dad. Wow, Hatchery Chick. Seriously, we blinked, and this happened. That cute baby turned into a Hulk?!
Chase and Cholyn’s eaglet is growing, too, but does not appear to be as ‘huge’ as DH2!
Iris has been fighting off female intruders and today a banded Montana intruder. She also accepted the reality of that egg and went off to feed herself. The Raven took the egg on the morning of 10 May. Iris will no doubt lay another and another and the Raven will also have those for breakfast.
As far as I know, at the time of writing, Victor has not taken his first flight. Abby flew for the first time on the 8th of May. Victor is working his wings.
Two beautiful ospreys…Sally and Harry were remarkable. With the heat domes, the impact of urban expansion, places could take a look at Moorings Park and start stocking the ponds for the ospreys! It is going to become more and more important as we create growing challenges for them.
Warblers and Baltimore Orioles are arriving in Manitoba along with White-throated Sparrows. In the UK, the Warblers are singing, too. Remember – sit outside, go for a walk, let the sun warm your face. It will make everything seem a whole lot better! Stay in the moment. We cannot bring back the feathered friends we have lost but we can enjoy the ones that are with us – live or virtually.
The goal of 1500 GBP has almost been met with a fortnight to go. Thank you to all of the donors. Conservation without Borders is working hard to keep HPAI from killing more birds – and I am thinking of late summer/fall return down the flyway.
Thank you so very much for being with me today. The sun is out Thursday morning and we are looking forward to some pips and hatches at a couple of the UK Osprey nests. Take care all. See you soon and remember…13 May is Big Bird Count! More on that tomorrow.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, and streaming cams that helped to make up my blog today: ‘T’, ‘A’, ‘H’, ‘S’, Kathryn, SK Hideaways and Cal Falcons, Starch Hochstadt, Candy Smith and Cornell Hawk Cam Chatters, World Bird Sanctuary, Gracie Shepherd and SW Florida, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Cornell RTH, Window to Wildlife, WRDC, Lake Murray Ospreys, Audubon/Explore, Nature Conservancy in New Jersey, Achieva Credit Union, Raptor Resource/Explore, IWS/Explore, Montana Osprey Project, Moorings Park Ospreys, The Guardian, and Crowdfunder.
Hi again. The very last story with the little gray/white bird. What kind of bird is that? I have new birds here that I have been trying to identify but I cant even find on the audobon site and that little bird you have posted kind of looks like them
Hi there, It is a Warbler in the UK. A Harland. There are many similar ones in North America, too.
Rosa, as Big Red at Cal Falcons has been named, really seems to be making a habit of stealing the snacks. Check her out this afternoon, 13 May, from 14:40. I thought the two were loud last year, but three are deafening! Ah, the wait for eyases screeching and gutter-stomping at Collins Street come October.
I was thrilled to see the RTH chicks not only rescued when ‘displaced’ from their nest (whatever that means, we’ll let it go through to the keeper) but also being returned (complete with nest) to a position where the parents could continue raising their hawklets. An absolutely fantastic blueprint for when and how to intervene, at least for all those nests on streaming cams.
Harry and Sally have been wonderful parents to osplets Abby and Victor, and this nest has been a joy to watch, as has Angel and Tom’s nest over the past week as Tom has learned the baby needs food, lots of it and often. RTH5 is now growing like a weed. Angel adores her hawklet, constantly allopreening and gazing at it with such love, it melts your heart. The little one is SO sweet. And adventurous – Tom needs to bring in some baby rails asap!
Speaking of wonderful parents, M15 continues to bring food to E22, who looks as though s/he is just about to catch and keep that first fish! Go E22. Will M15 remain here when E22 moves on? And indeed, will E22 inevitably move on? If E22 is male (though that now appears to be uncertain based on E22’s size relative to dad) and if the idea is to ensure that sons don’t mate with mothers, will be be driven away now his mother is no longer in this territory?