17 July 2023
Good Morning Everyone,
It is 11 degrees C or 51.8 F. Chilly. The temperatures on the Canadian Prairies are like a roller-coaster these days. My tea is not cold this evening; it is hot!
Sunday was meant to be a quiet day, and, for the most part, it was. I do not know if I mentioned a young and very beautiful Calico cat that has been coming to my house since last fall. I feed her and call her ‘Calico’ (nothing creative in that). Now she will come and sit about 1.5 metres from me. If she is ‘starving’, she comes to the garden door and looks in. Thankfully I see her most often and take out food. She had kittens about two weeks ago (the problem with feral cats). This is her first litter. I have tried to find where she goes until this evening. She is very tricky. She had me going in the opposite direction. I now have it narrowed down to an old garage or a garden shed. The goal is to locate the kittens, see if the Humane Society can find homes for them, and see the status of Calico. The goal is to get the kittens into good homes ultimately. Calico is probably too old to be socialised but I am hoping to have her a heated home by fall.
Then ‘H’ warned me about an issue with a nest in Ocean City (later). Definitely did not end quietly!
What should you do when you believe a nest has a crisis? You’ll need to take notes and screen captures. Dates and times. What happened? Make sure it is a crisis. While doing that, find out the precise location of the nest. Google search for the wildlife rescue and rehab clinics for that specific location. Get their contact details. Once you are confident there is a problem, contact them! Don’t sit and discuss the sadness on chat – do something! This is especially important if there is no chat moderator. There are rules and guidelines to get permits. The nest in question at Ocean City has adults missing, one chick dead, and one alive. The question is: Can they intervene and foster the surviving chick before it dies? What is that old Nike saying? Just do It. It takes time to get permission; the sooner people know there is a problem, the quicker help can arrive. It could save a life. (It isn’t easy to know who is the precise authority over the particular nesting area so write to several agencies).
There was a surprise for me. An Osprey landed on the Seilli Osprey nest in the far north of Finland. The nest did not have a mated pair or chicks this year but maybe next year?
The two chicks at nest #5 in Finland were ringed on 13 July.
The chicks at the two German nests that we have been observing – Goitzsche-Wildnis and Eschenbach – have now fledged. All three on the Goitsche-Wildnis cam flew on the 13th of July.
The three flew and returned at Eschenbach safely.
At the Oceanside Marine Nature Study Centre, the first two hatches flew on the 12th of July while the third took off on the 13th. A fish came in but only one claimed it as the reward…more fish arriving later.
The osplets at Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home nest have fledged as well and I am searching for dates. If you know when those beauties flew, please let me know. (I have asked chat with no response).
All is well for the fledglings at Wolf Bay in Alabama.
Just returned.
Waiting for fish!
At Crooked Lake there is a whole lot of flapping going on. Fledge is so close it could happen this week. The chicks are 51, 50, and 48 days old. Average fledge range is 50-55 days.
Watching the Ferris State University nest for fledges, too.
‘H’ is also reporting a fledge today. It is the first fledge for the Forsythe nest and she says, “Forsythe fledgling has been identified as chick #1 (Owen). I hope she was able to find a safe perch. The storm started 20 minutes after she took off.” Send your best wishes. It is terrible for these birds when they have just flown and the heavy rains begin. I am haunted by the image of Yurruga on the little building at Orange to do this day.
At Llyn Brenig, it is reported that “LM6 and LJ2 both brought in a good size trout each to the girls. Both have a huge meal tonight”.
In other news,
The MN Arboretum Landscape osplet appears to be eating really well and amassed a huge crop on Sunday. ‘L’ caught a screen shot of its outstretched left wing for me and all looks alright. Hoping that is the case!
It was raining on Little Mini – as it was on many of the nests in the area. Some had huge storms hit Saturday night. In fact, Mini seemed to have a miserable Sunday with the big ones flying in and grabbing the fish.
One soaked Little Mini. Hopefully, Mum and Dad will come and feed their fourth hatch so she gets some good fish before night falls.
Mini eating a nice fish Monday morning. Thanks Mum and Dad!
Everything is fine at Dunrovin and the weather appears to be markedly nicer than that for the nests on the NE coast.
Everything is fine at the Boulder County Fair Grounds and, in fact, it is looking good for most of the nests despite the storms and torrential rains in the NE, so far.
That egg on the Loch Arkaig nest is finally smushed…..Just watch this chick flap and hop!
Congratulations to Victor at Moorings Park who was seen catching a fish on Saturday 15 July. It might well not be Victor’s first but we certainly know he has the skill set to get his own food. A tribute video was made in celebration of the event.
Just when you think it is a quiet Sunday, it isn’t. Both adults at the Ocean City OC nest in New Jersey are missing. Two chicks – one has died. The other is living. Folks are hoping for an intervention and a fostering situation.
UPDATE: The second chick fell off the nest into the marsh and died. The issue appears to be a die-off of fish from the storms that have hit this coast over the past month as well as the heat domes and the current issues with fewer fish in areas of salt water. What makes this so sad is that entire nests have died off this season and without trying to be too negative this could be a glimpse into the future for many of the nests. I wonder if any of the surviving parents will leave the area for elsewhere? There are other ospreys, adults, landing on this nest. It is really unclear if these are the parents of the two dead chicks but, personally, I do not believe so. Ospreys do not just abandon dying chicks (even this did not happen at either Carthage or Snow Lane).
‘H’s report on the other nests she is monitoring:
Osoyoos: It is hot is Osoyoos and temperatures are predicted to be even warmer later in the week. Dad has been delivering 7-8 fish per day. Soo and Olsen’s 20 and 21 day old osplets are doing very well.
Forsythe: Things are off to a pretty good start this morning. Oscar delivered a partial fish at 0836, and Opal delivered a huge fish at 0853. The beneficiary is chick #2 who had been shorted on fish the past few days when chick #1 was in the nest. Opal will get a nice meal from that large fish as well. I hope that chick #1 is safe and will return to the nest soon.
Dahlgren: D12, the younger sibling at 55 days of age, seemed so eager to fledge on 7/16. There was a storm that went through, but after the weather cleared and his wings dried out, D12 stood at the edge of the nest for the longest time. At one point he leaned into the wind, bobbed his head, spread his wings a little, and bobbed some more . . and all the viewers held their breath . . Ah, but he did not fly, and we eventually had to exhale, lol. Fly when you are ready, little one.
‘Sibling B’ fledged at 1504 and made a nice return landing on the nest about 7 1/2 minutes later. Foster, Sib B’s older foster sister, was waiting in the nest to congratulate him. Nicely done, Sib B !
Louise delivered 8 fish to the nest at: 0604, 0640, 0807, 1234, 1400, 1804, 1945, 2058. Her chicks were once again well fed. Louise’s new friend, Mr. O, did not bring in a fish. But he did land on the nest at 1214 and seemed to be fending off an intruder. Louise landed on the nest right behind him, then Mr. O flew off after the intruder. Mr. O also brought a nice stick to Louise at 1921, and surprisingly, she was satisfied with his initial placement of the stick, lol.
Thanks so much, ‘H’.
A real survivor! Lived to tell the tale of its nest collapsing and is now seen in Senegal by Jean-marie Depart. What a beautiful story.
If you are concerned about the amount of plastic in the oceans – and we should be because in several years, there will be more plastic than fish – here is an article titled, ‘Global assessment of marine plastic exposure risk for oceanic birds’. Please read and try as hard as possible to find alternatives to plastic in everything you use and purchase. The article was part of a package of materials from the British Trust for Ornithology and appeared in Nature.
Whenever you look at those cute little Albatross chicks (or Petrels), you need to realise that they are the most at risk. Let us all join together to do what we can to help them.
Artist interpretations of our feathered friends opens at the Photographer’s Gallery. Have a look at some of the images.
Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care. See you soon.
Thank you so much to the following for their notes, posts, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ‘H’, Seilli Ospreys, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Eschenbach Ospreys, MNSA Osprey Cam, Maryland Western Shore Old Home town, Wolf Bay, Timothy Dygert Live Stream, Ferris State University, Llyn Brenig, MN Arboretum, PSEG, Dunrovin Ranch, Boulder County Fair Grounds, Geemeff and the Woodland Trust, Ej Ej and Moorings Park, OC Osprey Cam, Osoyoos, Forsythe, Dahlgren, Patuxent River Park, FortisExshaw, The Guardian, BTO and Nature, and Mary GK.
