15 May 2023
Good Morning Everyone,
If we blink, it will be June. Seriously. I could not believe it when I went out to check on the garden Sunday evening and within the last week, there are little green tomatoes on the hanging vines, the lettuce is up and so are the climbing beans. All of the transplants are thriving. I have three peony bushes to plant and done. Oh, we love summer in Canada. It is a time for relaxing and being outside after the long winter. It is also nice to see the migratory birds flying through on their way north. The Harris Sparrows were here yesterday and some have Baltimore Orioles in their gardens now. I simply cannot stress how good for our souls nature is – even when the times are tough for our feathered friends. The air might not be as fresh as it could be, but it is so much better than having a furnace on all the time…going barefoot, having sunlight after 1630, clear skies and stars.
The worry has been at the Loch of the Lowes but, Laddie has brought in fish and by some miracle that first hatch – which appears to be the second egg – has survived. I am in tears. This is excellent news coming on the continuing sadness at Lake Murray.
Monday morning early. Is this the first hatch? Has it gotten any food?
It really is a miracle. Everyone thought that it was dead and dying but here is Laddie with a fish and Blue NC0 feeding that hatch. It turns out it was the paler second egg so if the next one hatches it should be the third so only two for Blue NC0 to deal with – that is a blessing. She does not do well with three..but two, yes!
Geemeff gives us an edited feeding over 15 minutes. Fantastic, and, yes, I am in tears.
Lucy brought in five fish to the osprey platform at Lake Murray on Sunday. No one went hungry!
Ricky was last seen on 9 May at 17:09 when he delivered this fish. Five full days. Please send your best wishes to Lucy and the two surviving osplets.
This post sadly gives us some confirmation that a dead Osprey has been found in the area of Lake Murray and I am going to presume that it was Ricky. I hope that LMO sends the body for testing. That said, Lucy has picked up the pace on fish deliveries and let us all continue to wish her well as she continues on this journey of raising these two osplets to fledge all on her own. She has lost a mate and a chick.
And then the sadness. ‘H’ and Kathryn report C1 was taken by a GHO last night at 0137. This nest is not getting a break and Lucy was doing so well. I am beyond words.
The osplets at Achieva were also eating a fish brought in by Mum at 17:38 on Sunday. They had an early fish brought in before 0700.
Everyone is alright at the nest of Big Red and Arthur. Everyone is fed. Arthur has found some nests to raid and I see at least a couple more squirrels in the pantry.
Angel’s baby RTH5 has been eating well at the nest in Tennessee on Sunday also. Tom has really grown into his role as Dad and not any time too soon. I thought this hawklet was a goner. No food and newly hatched for 30 hours.
RTH5 has black talons. it will be a normal coloured Red-tail Hawk not Leucistic like Angel.
Baby was to full to are if Angel brought in more prey Sunday night!
‘A’ found a cute little video by Ondabebe of RTH5’s birthday breakfast delivery.
When I checked there were three fish on the Moorings Park Osprey Platform in Naples, Florida. Victor has yet to fledge. It is 18:35 Sunday night.
The two hatches at Manton Bay are strong and loving their fish. Two more eggs to go for Blue 33 and Maya.
Blue 33 continues to come in and check on his family. Love this guy!
Aran and Elen are looking good at Glaslyn. Awhile to go for those eggs to hatch but life is fine on that nest in the Glaslyn Valley in Wales.
Louis has been hanging out with Dorcha at Loch Arkaig…gorgeous couple. Dorcha reminds me so much of Mrs G with that dark colouring. She is definitely good at the old ‘snake eye’.
CJ7 and Blue 022 have the switch off for fish and incubation exchange down. They are a lovely couple and it appears that Poole Harbour is planning ways in which visitors can view the nest from a hide without interfering with the birds.
For all of us missing E22 – and I suspect that is everyone reading this – s/he’s home! Must have gone for a little tour. Time: 17:23 Sunday the 14th.
Still no Ospreys at the Cape Henlopen State Park brand new Osprey platform but the Black Vultures continue to love it!
Murphy’s eaglet is all grown up and perched like Dad! Just look at that. We know the nestlings grow and watch and study everything their parents do. Then they do them! Just think if human parents realised this and only did what they wanted their children to emulate.
While Murphy’s b baby was getting to perch or ‘sort of branch’, one of the two eaglets at Duke Farms has officially branched.
It is one explanation for it – Jack at the Dahlgren Osprey platform places the stuffed animals as decoys so that if the owl attacks it takes a stuffy and not one of his and Harriet’s chicks. No chicks yet to take but the Owl got one of the dogs on the nest last evening.
This article on Svalbard is particularly disturbing. The focus is on climate change and the Polar Bear but Svalbard is home to the largest population of Pink-footed Geese that spend their ‘winter’ in the UK – in Scotland and in Norfolk. When it is getting too hot for the birds in the south and now in the north, where do they go and how do they survive?
I have been reading about the Pink-footed Geese in Wintering. A Season with Geese by Stephen Rutt. His book led me to get the one that had inspired him – A Thousand Geese by Peter Scott and James Fisher written in 1953. “The pink-footed goose is the most abundant of our British wild geese – and the wildest. Its winter flocks on the meadows by the great estuaries of England and Scotland have been the respected quarry of generations of wild-fowlers, and – today – watchers. Its breeding grounds are remoter from civilisation than those of any other grey goose” writes Scott. His tale was of the wonder and the banding of thousands of geese. For Rutt, his is a diary and he speaks to a need to ‘see’ the birds that we have at hand and appreciate them. With the change in weather, and the ice melting – what will happen to the pink-footed geese?
There they are in England and Scotland where they arrive at the end of September and stay through the winter. Did you know that the geese travel with their fledglings as a family? It is quite remarkable.
“Pink-footed Geese” by naturalengland is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
As I worry about geese – no matter the species that I have come to love because of our local geese and ducks that return in spring – others are working to try and breed captive birds to release in the wild. There was some success with Socorio Doves at the London Zoo! The author says, “Numbers have been rising slowly and the birth of a new chick raises hopes that the doves, which once thrived on Socorro island, 600km (373 miles) off the west coast of Mexico, before being eradicated, could be restored to their former homeland.” Wouldn’t that be fantastic?!
Thank you so much for being with me today. Remember Dr Sharpe’s team are doing banding at the West End Eagle nest in the Channel Islands today. Take care. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their notes, discussions, videos, posts, and streaming cams that helped to make up my blog today: ‘A’, ‘H’, Kathryn, Geemeff, LOTL, Nick Gordon and Friends of Dyfi Osprey Project Lake Murray ospreys, Laurie Spender and osprey Friends, Achieva Credit Union, Cornell RTH, Window to Wildlife, Moorings Park Ospreys, LRWT, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Friends of Loch Arkaig, People’s Postcode Lottery, and the Woodland Trust, Poole Harbour Ospreys, SW Florida Eagle Cam, Heidi McGru and Friends of Cape Henlopen State Park, World Bird Sanctuary, Duke Farms, Dahlgren Ospreys, and The Guardian.
Hello and thanks for these updates Mary Ann. So sad about it possibly being Ricky that has been found. Hopefully they are running tests. Also so sad about the owl taking one of the babies😢 poor Lucy and the owl will come back for the other baby. I hope she will be there on watchout tonight. Also an owl was heard near another nest too! No parent was there seen but the eaglet was in the nest.
Glad Laddie is still able to bring in fish and prayers all who needs them there in the UK as well.
Have a good day Mary Ann and hope to see you here again soon!
Linda
These GHOs are becoming quite the issue as is the overpopulation – it seems – of raptors, in general. Not enough nests…my head is spinning from this year. Let us all hope that they will be safe tonight.