Fly high Forsythe Mini…Sunday in Bird World

18 June 2023

Good Morning Everyone!

To all the males in the world – raptor or human – who have cared for any living soul in their lifetime, Happy Father’s Day! Rejoice in your compassion and humanity. We thank you.

There is so much news, so I decided to stop and make apricot and cherry jam on Saturday just to shut down. It is necessary sometimes but, first, we have new members of the ‘garden club’. Dyson brought her two kits to the garden today for the first time. My calendar notes show they are 8-9 weeks old (give or take). Dyson has been busy taking peanuts to and from her nest, which I have not located. We have numerous very tall and old trees nearby, and it may be in one of those. Grey squirrels are born without fur, no teeth, and closed eyes. Those eyes do not open until the kits are about six weeks old. Dyson was here with them and I made sure that there were peanuts in all of the tray feeders and on the deck. For some reason, the little ones do not like to get on the ground and good thing – those bloody cats!

Dear Dyson – named because she can suck up peanuts faster than any of Sir Dyson’s vacuum cleaners can get at the cat fur! She is so precious to me and to have her bring her kits into the garden warms me from the top of my head to my big toe.

It is difficult to put in perspective how small they are because they are not standing at the table feeder with Mum.

Dyson is moulting. She looks tired to me. She is not a youngster. Hopefully, lots of good nuts will help her replenish her health now that the two youngsters can fiend for themselves.

We lost two osplets at the Marder’s platform at East Hampton, Long Island, NY, on the 16th, Friday. Thank you for the head’s up ‘SW’. Dr Gavin Hitchener of the Cornell Lab will do a necroscopy if the specimens can be retrieved and if they are not too deteriorated.  He is with the Duck Lab on Long Island. So grateful. What is causing this? It would be good to find out… the number of unexplained osplet deaths this season grows.

The areas of recent sudden deaths are included in this map and begin at Edgewater, Maryland (near the D in Maryland-lower left) and follow the coast to East Hampton, Long Island and then to Cananicut Island, Rhode Island (Jamestown). You can see the coastal/water path that this pattern is taking.

The female at Marders with her only surviving chick.

Today, remembering Mini at the Forsythe Nest who died during the night after surviving horrific conditions of siblicide/starvation. ‘H’ noted that before it died last night, it did a tiny PS Saturday afternoon and took a direct shot at Little who had been the problem with it getting food. Fly high, little one!

There were two more osplets that hatched overnight. The first hatch for Fortis Exshaw is reported by ‘H’ for day 40 of egg 1 on 16 June and the the third hatch for Hera and Zeus on the 18th at South Cape May Meadows. Thanks ‘H’ for monitoring these nests!

As most of you know, this has been a tragic year at many of the US Osprey nests. It feels unprecedented. ‘H’ and I have been monitoring – along with Kathryn and ‘L’ – a number of nests and when we see beaking at a certain stage, we get nervous. With the death of Mini at Forsythe, directly from siblicide/starvation, we are watching carefully the Barnegat Light nest in NJ. Chatters have commented how cute the beaking is – it isn’t. As ‘H’ and I know far too well, this can quickly turn deadly. If you see people considering this light-hearted play, let them know that it is very serious dominance behaviour that could lead to the one being abused being shut out from food. Thank you!

‘H’ reports: “Duke arrived with a partial fish at 1905.  Just prior to the feeding, Middle beaked Little, and then Big beaked Middle.  So both Little and Middle were tucked.  After a moment, Middle was up and joined the feeding.  It took longer for Little to raise up, in between Middle and Big.  After Little received a few bites, he was again beaked by Middle and tucked again.  Little did return to the feeding and received enough bites to have a crop.  It was a relatively short feeding, and the majority of the feeding was peaceful.  After the feeding, Middle and Big engaged in a bit of a beaking-fest.” 

Many of you have wondered what the impact of the wildfires has on the behaviour of wildlife and raptors. ‘R’ sent me an informative article. Have a read!

Last night I took the time to check in with the Finnish Osprey nests to see what was happening. Here is a brief encounter with the nests and their chicks – all have three osplets but nest #5 which has only 2. There are two nests without any occupants and one that is curious.

#1: There are three wonderful little osplets.

#3. Three osplets!

#4. There are also three!

#LS-5. Two Osplets.

I am trying to find out what happened at the osprey nest at Janakkalan – the nest of Boris and Tito last year. Female and one if not both chicks are believed to have died of Trichomoniasis. There were two osplets on the nest. Then it appeared that something had happened to both of them and today the female is back on the nest. Very confusing. Do you know?

Second chick hatched on 8 June after the first on the 7th.

The history of the Osprey in Finland:

Keeping with a focus on some of our international osprey nests, I went back to check on a German nest we checked on earlier in the season. Those osplets are doing fantastic.

There are also three osplets at the Urdaibai platform in the Biosphere which is part of the Basque region. It has been raining and miserable – and in past years the chicks have died of exposure. Let us all hope that these three make it.

In her 2006 M.Sc. thesis, FACTORS INFLUENCING MORTALITY IN NESTLING OSPREYS (PANDION HALIAETUS): AN ANALYSIS OF BREEDING STRATEGIES, Jennifer Anne Rettew confirms that “Weather is a significant influence on breeding success. There are fewer young in years of heavy rainfall. Even when brooded, if the nest becomes wet, the mortality of eggs and chicks increases. Younger chicks are vulnerable to becoming too cold. Direct sun can also cause significant mortality among nestlings. This is especially true for younger chicks. Small young are susceptible to overheating on hot summer days (Poole et al. 2002). Severe storms can also cause nestling mortality. Storm killed young are most often older young because they are too large to be effectively brooded by adults. Poole (1984) found that severe storms caused a substantial number of deaths in a third of study sites. However, chicks were also emaciated, indicating that both starvation and exposure during the storms led to mortality. Weather can also cause a decrease in parental provisioning, which in turn can decrease nestling viability. Cloud cover or sun does not have a significant effect on hunting ability but wind speed and water surface conditions do. Precipitation increases the length of hunt duration such that prey delivery rates to the nest decrease in rain. Hunting is no longer profitable for adults in terms of energetic costs when wind speeds are greater than seven meters per second (Machmer and Ydenberg 1990).”

We have seen this several times on streaming cams where the chick cannot get under the female who is brooding in bad weather and dies of exposure. Indeed, it is quite common especially in large broods or where there are large chicks and one smaller one that cannot get underneath Mum to stay dry and warm.

I love it when I get mail where the excitement jumps right off the computer screen. That happened this morning when ‘R’ wrote to tell me about the antics of Little Mini at Patchogue. So instead of taking screen captures, I did a very short video clip and then a little longer one. Our Little Mini is a tour de force!

Little Mini had such a good day that on several occasions, it appears that she is so full she can hardly walk. It is difficult to imagine having to worry about Mini any longer. This is a formidable, intelligent osplet that is determined to eat as much fish as it can, when it can – and survive!

One of the neighbourhood children saw this image and thought that Mini had quite the costume on but that the ‘grey sweater’ was ‘too tight’. LOL. I was hysterical! Out of the mouths of youngsters! They all love Little Mini and are so excited she is thriving.

‘A’ reports that Deyani ate a skunk today – amongst other prey items. Oh, gosh golly. Tom fed it to his girl who has been jumping and flapping all over the nest. Fledge is near.

The little RTH living with the Bald Eagles in Redding took a bit of a fright today.

Big Red and Arthur’s hawklets are doing fantastic…getting too close to fledge, too.

Oh, but they still love to be fed by Mama.

I am always amazed at all of the things that a wildlife rehabilitation centre needs – and let’s face it, they rescue wildlife in the strangest of locations, build and repair enclosures, and do all the health stuff. Do you have an unused kayak you could donate? Just think about all the waterfowl that get tangled in line or trapped….they need a way to retrieve them!

Want to learn how to catch a fish? Let Ervie teach you! That third hatch of the 2021-22 Port Lincoln season continues to live and thrive in the area of the barge. And guess what? Mum and Dad were on the barge together the other day…the season will begin to kick off in Australia soon enough.

Gosh, he is a handsome osprey. Perfect form!

Cal Falcons are all fledged and grown up but still hanging around the scrape! Thanks, SK Hideaways.

If you are missing fuzzy little Peregrine Falcons, well, here is a scrape with four little ones and an egg in Alberta Canada! Link to camera is below image of this cute little family:

And last, a beautiful tribute to M15 – the Bald Eagle of the year – from SK Saunders Photography. They did an amazing job with all of their footage! Warning: G et the tissues out.

Thank you for being with me today. We will be back to some full nest checks of the osprey in the US and UK for tomorrow. Take care!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, and streaming cams that helped to create my blog this morning: ‘A, H, R, SW’, Google Maps, Marders Osprey, Forsythe Osprey, Fortis Exshaw, SCMM, Barnegat Light, The Standard Journal, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Fischadlerwebcam, Urdaibai Biosphere, PSEG, Window to Wildlife, FORE, Cornell RTH, Birds in Helping Hands, Fran Scully and Friends of Osprey Sth Bus, SK Hideaways and Cal Falcons, The Real Saunders Photography, and Scotfold-Alberta Falcons.