Hatch for Tom and Audrey…Monday in Bird World

12 June 2023

Good Morning,

Oh, Sunday was a beautiful day – much cooler with a super breeze. A nice day to be out in the garden – it has really been neglected. The tiny tomatoes needed picking and the w—- hole hanging to—–mato plant needed a good spray with Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom Salts). Did you know that about a 1/4 of a cup in a gallon container – mixed well – and sprayed on the leaves will rejuvenate them if they are yellow with green veins. Try it! Planted three oak trees for the future and three more peony plants for me. The bees have really been visiting the climbing rose-s and the rest of the garden is quiet except for Junior, one grey squirrel, and some sparrows. Talk about lonely – missing those critters.

————————————————————————————-

With the Ms safely back in their nest and everyone talking about ear parasites, how much do we really know?

Everything you did and did not want to know about nest parasites and maggots in the ears of hawks!!

Taking a wee bit of a break from the ospreys to check on some of the other nests that we like to follow such as the Black Storks in the Karula National Forest in Estonia of Karl II and Kaia (the foster parents of Bonus). Oh, they are adorable. There has been or had been some difficulty with getting food as the Blue Herons were taking the fish from the baskets provided by Urmas. The chicks are hungry and for the first time it has been noticed that Karl II was pulling on both chick 4 and 3…perhaps to do a brood reduction due to poor foraging. This is highly unusual. I do not know of Karl II ever initiating an attempt at brood reduction. He must be very concerned about the foraging and the ability of him and Kaia to provide for four on the nest. This is so sad. Urmas has worked hard to supply the fish baskets for the storks but, he cannot stop other species from feeding. They are also hungry.

When they were feeding, Kaia put the food down in front of storklet 1. Parents want at least one of their offspring to survive when times with food shortages are intense. So many nests of all species have food shortages this season.

The only eaglet at the Bucovina Gold Eagle nest in Romania appears to be doing well.

Oh, the love-life dramas of single male Ospreys. W6 needs a mate at Keilder Forest and he would be a fantastic catch. Read about his latest escapades!

There is much concern at the Kielder nest 2 where the third chick has hatched and it is 75 hours younger than egg 2! The record at Kielder is 100 hours. Please send this nest your best wishes…we are all nervous already.

‘H’ nest updates at Barnegat Light: “Another feeding observed, 1517 to 1530 -Little was late arriving to the table as s/he was sleepy.  The three siblings ate side by side without any bonking.   At one point Big accidentally knocked Little flat on his back, but Little recovered and went back to Daisy for more bites.  Little had a total of 30 bites, and some of them were pretty big ones. Later, per the chat: feeding at 1646 “They eat so nicely”  “All three in a food coma”

Hatch for Tom and Audrey at Kent Island! ‘H’ reports that this baby was out of the shell around 0330 and that if it is egg 1, it was 42 days old – H was told that Audrey’s eggs tend to hatch at the far end of the scale.

Tom sees his baby for the first time. (This is new-dad, Tom – all ospreys at this nest are named Tom and Audrey).

Dahlgren looks good, also. “Feeding 1413 to 1455, very peaceful, both Osplets well fed.  Ya, know, at 4 days apart, this nest is just a pleasant surprise.  It still amazes me.”

At the Forsythe nest, Mini is getting battered by Little. Like Mini at Patchogue, it has missed out on a number of critical meals on Sunday. There were ten fish deliveries and ‘H’ counted that Mini got 159 bites of fish. I remember dancing when I counted 97 bites for Tiny Tot Tumbles. Mini will live to see another day but Little appears to be getting much more aggressive…going after Mini which tells me the third hatch is a female, most likely.

‘H’ complete report to give you an idea of how a nest is watched when we think siblicide could become an issue: “Feeding 0818 to 0829, small partial fish – Mini was up front and did not get any bites from Opal before s/he was beaked by Little.  Crazy Little beaked big at 0820, and was beaked back.  Little did make it back to eat, but Mini never even made an attempt to get back to the feeding line.  Total for Mini = 0I’ve noticed that the attacks on Mini by Little the past day or so have become more violent, and include the biting, and last longer.  Oh, geez.Feeding 1236 to 1251 – medium whole fish. Over 4 hours since the last fish.Little beaked Mini at the start.  Mini in submission.  I took until 1248 for Mini to get into a good position [3,1,2,4], but then Middle beaked Mini ! Total for Mini = 0Feeding  1340 to 1353 – medium whole fishMini wasn’t even up at the feeding line, but at 1342, Little reached back and beaked Mini, and again at 1345, and 1346.  At 1346 Big Beaked Little.  By 1348 Mini had found a safe spot to try to get fed, between Middle and Big, but Big beaked Mini !  Mini never came back.  Bites for Mini = 0Feeding 1456 to 1501 – small partial. Mini was not bonked at all, but s/he seems timid of all of them now.  Big only had a couple bites and dropped out.  Mini held back, sort of between and behind the other two.  Mom reached out and gave Mini one bite. Total bites to Mini = 1 Feeding 1529 to 153230 – small fish piece. Poor Mini scrambled across the nest to get to Mom first, and got two bites, before Little caught up with him and beaked him.  Total for Mini = 2 bites. Feeding 1608 to 1615 –  small fish. Mini first to Mom’s beak, but is soon bonked by Little.  Things shuffle around a bit, Mini gets back to the table, then positioned [4,1,2,3], and Mini got some bites.  Total bites for Mini = 17. Feeding 1647 to 1654 – small partial. Once again Mini rushed over to Mom, received one bite, then was beaked by Little.  At 1652 Little tried to reach between Middle and Little, and Little beaked Mini.  Total for Mini = 1. Feeding 1749 to 1803 – partial fish. Mini was bonked by Little at the beginning.  At 1752 Mini wasn’t even close by, but Little just had to beak him again.  At 175942, Mini got its first bite.  Only Middle was still nearby, but at that point Mini got nearly a private feeding.  Total bites for Mini = 36. So far, today, 10 feedings (I sent a report on the first two earlier).  There may be another feeding this evening, I’ll check in the morning.  Total bites for Mini so far today = 159.” How sad it is that your birth order has such an intense impact on your life (as it often does with humans, too). — The feeding for Mini did not change with other deliveries on Sunday night. Mini went into submission even though there was fish left that Mum ate. It is not looking good for this fourth hatch at all.

At the Patchogue Osprey platform, Mini is as keen as Mini at Forsythe for fish but has been often locked out due to the Big ones barging in or the intimidation that comes now from both Big and Third. Thankfully, Mini is older, wiser, and waits and watches…and I am certain that this Mini is a female.

Mini at Patchogue stretching and flapping its wings after finally getting a fish feed. Mum fed the three for over an hour. It is unclear how much was left of that bony fish when Mini got its ultimate time to eat by itself in peace. But, Mini did get some fish.

In the UK, Louis turns up with a late night fish snack for Dorcha. So sweet…and the talon tapping osplet slept through it!

Oh, how I have been missing Jackie and Shadow. Popping in and what a surprise. Our gorgeous Big Bear couple were on the nest! ‘B’ tells me this is an unusual low-lying cloud on the mountain obstructing the view. These two are looking good and they are protecting their territory and taking care of that nest!

Today has been a different posting…I will do a quick sweep of some of the Osprey nests but not all of them. My concerns are with Forsythe and Patchogue. We will go back to tracking the daily happenings of most of the nests for Tuesday.

Patuxent I appears to be good today. Nice crops on both osplets.

Loch of the Lowes: Despite having to defend the nest, literally, from intruders, Laddie managed to get a big fish in and both of the osplets had bulging crops. Blue NC0 had to help Laddie defend…go away intruders!

Dyfi Ospreys: It was raining in Wales. Telyn had been a keen mumbrella for the two. Dry and fish in the nest. Thanks, Idris!

All is well at Glasyn with Elen and Aran and the two osplets.

Poole Harbour: Three itchy Reptilian Bobs for CJ7 and Blue 022. All is good.

Manton Bay: All is well, feathers are coming in – you can see the shafts. But the condensation doesn’t let us get a very good look at Blue 33 and Maya’s three Bobs.

Llyn Clywedog with Dylan and Seren Blue 5F: All good.

Llyn Brenig: As far as I can tell-without watching closely-, all is OK.

Loch Arkaig: Louis brings a large whole fish to Dorcha and chick for breakfast. Well done, Louis.

Boulder County Fairgrounds: My concerns are growing for the survival of the third hatch. Is anyone watching this family closely? Any comments? Hatch dates are May 26, 27, and 29 but that little one appears to be struggling. Please correct me if I am wrong!

In Germany, at the Fischadler web scale, the trio are doing great. T he third hatch just barrels in and pushes its way through the two bigger siblings to get fish. Way to go!

‘A’ watched Deyani yesterday for us and reports, “Deyani had an interesting day, with three breakfasts between 07:10 and 07:33, then nothing until shortly after 7.30pm, when dad brought in a partial rabbit for dinner. As occurred yesterday, the food brought to the nest was about half what they had been bringing up until that point. So it is obvious that over the past two days, the parents are preparing Deyani for fledge – she does presumably need to lose a little bit of weight before she can fly (power-to-weight ratio, spoilt, greedy only chick and all that). Today (12 June) will be the first day of fledge watch – I am not ready, but it appears Deyani is, and Angel and Tom certainly believe their hawklet is on the verge of taking the plunge. The chick is SO curious. I will miss her antics on the nest. Today, she had an epic battle with a pine cone, which landed on the nest with quite a big ‘thud’, obviously from high in the tree. (Had it landed on Deyani, she would really have felt it, I suspect, from the sound dit made and the size of it.) The hawklet had no idea what it was, and initially gazed at ity in astonishment. She then became concerned it may be alive. The tentative approaches with her talon, followed by kicks and other attacks on the pine cone were just TOO funny. Watch her from 5.59pm as she hangs onto it tightly with her right talon and attempts to pull pieces off the pine cone (or defur it). She also had an entertaining moment when a Daddy Long Legs crawled across the pine cone and up the tree. She was entranced as she watched its progress.”

Darling Luna visits the scrape giving us a really good look at how much those chicks of Lou and Annie have grown since fledge.

Birdlife Malta is concerned about changes to EU laws that had allowed for the creation of biodiversity spaces – the Restoration Lawls – and a move by politicians to delete or water down what is in existence. If you live in the EU, speak up!

That said, I know that each of you is interested in so many things, and a new essay in Emergence Magazine might interest you. It is about migrations. The writing is fantastic. Have a read “Creaturely Migrations on a Breathing Planet”.

Thank you so much for being with me today. I hope that you found something of interest – and that you will always look out for the birds. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to create my blog today: ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘H’, Parasitism in Hawks, Looduskalender Forum, Eagle Club of Estonia, Bucovina Golden Eagles, Lady Hawk and Bucovina Golden Eagles, Kielder Ospreys, Barnegat Light, Dalhgren Ospreys, Forsythe ospreys, PSEG, Geemeff and Friends of Loch Arkaig and the Woodland Trust, FOBBV, Patuxent River Park, LOTL, Dyfi Ospreys, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Poole Harbour Ospreys, LRWT, CarnyXWild, Llyn Brenig Ospreys, Boulder County Fair Grounds Ospreys, Fischadler Web Cam, Birdlife Malta, SK Hideaways and Cal Falcons, and Emergence Magazine.