1 Egg at Collins Street…Monday in Bird World

4 September 2023

Hello Everyone,

I hope that you have had a lovely weekend and for those living in places where this is a long weekend, savour all the moments left before returning to the norm.

It was the second day of integration with Missey, Lewis, and Calico. Missey and Calico are fine. Lewis still has an attitude about the new family member and was not happy today. He must have let it fester all night. So Missey and Calico spent the most time together while Lewis was in and out of various rooms depending on who was where. We continue to work with treats, nice food, and spreading the scent of Calico being mindful of the safety of all three. Tomorrow is a new day!

I wish Lewis was as relaxed in his behaviour as he appears.

Missey has been simply phenomenally well behaved and accepting.

Calico and Missey are in their favourite spots and so is Lewis. It is only a mater of time.

The entire time with Calico has been a huge learning experience for me. I rarely give my City a ‘high five,’ but I will now. There are so many programmes for feral cats and dogs – to spay and neuter them and return them to their community OR for people who want to adopt them and take them home. One agency was offering $20 spay and neuter. Others are heavily discounted, and the Humane Society will spay and neuter for people to own the animal for $50. This is an incredible discount from taking them to the vet! It also helps keep the animals off the street, gives them a home, and gives people companions who need the social interaction (in many instances). They do not help with rescuing cats and kittens under decks and this would be very helpful especially those that require trapping.

‘H’ just sent me a note that there is one egg at 367 Collins Street in Melbourne and that both cameras are operational! Yes! I had been so involved with the drama between Lewis and Calico that I missed this. This is fantastic news for all falcon lovers. Thanks so much ‘H’.

Here is the link to the cam with the egg in the scrape.

Bazz Hockaday has some more images of Ervie from the past couple of days. What a fine fisher Ervie became!

For those of you who do not know, Ervie is the third hatch of Mum and Dad at Port Lincoln in 2021. His two big siblings were also male, Bazza and Falkey. Despite his size, Ervie wanted to live, and he took no gruff off Bazza after a few days getting himself right up to Mum’s beak for the fish. It is the only year that I can recall no siblicide at the PLO nest, and I attribute that to the fact that the three fledglings were all male. During feedings, they got along in the nest, lined up like sweet choir boys. It was only after fledgling that they went at one another, becoming independent in their own right and striving to succeed. Falkey flew off the dock, flew about 350 miles away and was never heard from after the first sighting. Bazza has not been seen since leaving the area. Ervie stayed close to home. He lived on puffers for the first half a year or so it seems. He lost a talon and then to the delight of all was seen fishing with Dad. He is the love of so many people’s hearts from that year and we are overjoyed that he is thriving.

I am so glad that there is some action in Australia. There is very little happening at the Osprey nests. Most have departed for their various migration sites. The Bald Eagles are flying in to their nests and working on them.

At Turnby Island in South Australia, our couple – Marrum and Partner – now have two eggs while we wait for the first at Port Lincoln.

Dad Harry was still delivery fishing at Alyth to the third hatch, Chirpy, who is 99 days old today. My goodness he is so good to his last chick at home. Look at that super nice fish!

Idris is still delivering fish to Senior at the Dyfi Osprey platform.

Maya was still at Rutland.

White YW and one of the fledglings are still at Foulshaw Moss in Cumbria.

Aran is still busy feeding 0H1 and 0H2 at Glaslyn as of Saturday!

This morning they all seem to be in the Valley.

At Dunrovin, Swoop is still providing fish dinners for Snap and Crackle.

Iris is still home, and she is making it known that this is her nest as she does some restorations before migration. Gosh, she looks good!

Mini flew over and in front of the brewery to land on both of her legs on the perch at 1726. She looks much better than she did yesterday. She is fish crying and wouldn’t it be superb if Dad would bring her a fish – for our sakes – on the nest? Gosh, that would be grand. One last time seeing her eat a nice big fish meal.

Oh, what a lovely sight you are our dear girl! Thank you for coming to see us.

Good Night, Mini.

Thanks Rosie Shields for the End of Season report on Borders Osprey. Congratulations on a great year with Samson and Juno!

The report for the end of season fish count at Llyn Clywedog. Dylan sure does love those Brown Trout and so does Seren and the kiddos.

‘H’ sends us her two morning reports – Fortis Exshaw is not empty of Banff and Louise and we have only Barnegat Light and Kent Island.

Kent Island – Tom brought at least three fish to the nest for his fledgling.  For the most part, Molly has been taking her fish off the nest to eat.  Molly is 84 days old, and she fledged on 8/11.

Barnegat Light – Thanks to the efforts of Daddy Duke, Dorsett is looking a little bit chubby.  All that extra fat will serve her well though, as she will soon get the urge to start her long journey south.  Dorsett is 96 days old, and she fledged on 7/30.

Karl II comes to say goodbye to his nest just like. Kaia did. The kids are on their way, there is no more mouths to feed, and Karl can make his own way to the centre of Africa for the winter. W hat an amazing dad he was and what a difficult year. I t was the first time, that I am aware, that he did a brood reduction. There was simply a drought and not enough food- thanks to Urmas and his team, the family survived and the three out of four storklets went on to fledge.

Well, Karl II did not waste any time. His tracker shows him to be in Belarus.

Kalvi is in the north of Poland.

The last transmission for Bonus was August 28 and showed him in Belarus before the battery of the tracker quit sending.

Waba and Kaia are still in Ukraine according to the last reports posted that I saw.

In Australia, ‘A’ writes: “It’s just after 9am and the eaglets are waiting patiently for breakfast. They are playing with a leaf on a stalk, grabbing it from one another. So sweet. They are the cutest little eaglets. I just adore them. I check them first thing every morning to see if they have eaten. Usually, they are in the middle of their second breakfast by now but not for the past two days. I can only assume this is a parental decision and is deliberate. When they need to, they have been quite prepared to raid a nearby nest for a meal, and when Dad decided it was time to feed them the other day, he had a fish on the nest in under ten minutes. So I can’t help but think this is not a food shortage but a life lesson. There is a lot of preening going on as those feathers grow. I can’t believe how SE31’s shoulder feathers have grown in the last two or three days. She really is more feathers than down now. They’ll have juvenile plumage before we know it. Our little fluff balls are nearly gone already. I do love their little pale grey heads though, especially SE32’s. He is a darling. And all the bald patches on his little head and neck have grown back now, so he looks a little less like a raggamuffin.”

“Lady has spent a bit of time on the nest with the kids this morning, but has disappeared again now. I’m not sure, but they bring it very quickly when they decide it’s time for food. I just get the impression they’re not in a rush to go and get anything… The eaglets have been getting at least one really good feeding per day over the past two or three days. They seem to be doing well, though obviously, we would like them to eat at least two good meals a day. From what I remember, food has not been a problem at this nest before, but we will wait and see. Still, for the third day in a row, it is late (after 2pm) and no food has arrived yet.” 

SK Hideaways show us that good fish lunch the eaglets were devouring.

The adults are coming and going at 367 Collins Street!

No eggs at Port Lincoln.

Thank you so much for being with me. Please take care! See you soon.

Thank you to the following for your notes, posts, streaming cams, and articles that helped me to write my blog today: ‘A, H’, 367 Collins Street by Mirvac, Bazz Hockaday and Friends of Osprey Sth Aus, Alyth, Dyfi Osprey Project, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Jane Dell and UKOsprey Info, Foulshaw Ospreys, Dunrovin Ranch, Pam Breci and The Joy of Ospreys, PLO, Montana Osprey Research Project, PSEG, Rosie Shields and Border Ospreys, Alastair Cameron, Peggy Beatrice and the Eagle Club of Estonia, Looduskalender Forum, SK Hideaways and Sydney Sea Eagles, Sydney Sea Eagles, and 367 Collins Street by Mirvac.