Pip Watch at Orange, camera on at SWFlorida…Saturday in Bird World

30 September 2023

Good Morning,

I hope you are all well – and, please, stay that way. New masking restrictions are coming into play in various provinces in Canada as this new Covid variant takes hold. I slept almost all Friday curled up with Calico in the conservatory. Oh, what a loving cat she is. I wouldn’t take a million dollars for her and Hope! Or Missey and Lewis. Several have written about wanting to adopt Hope. I could never separate her and Calico. Their story makes me believe that magical things can happen.

The pair of them continue to play like kittens, and we count the days until I am well and can manage the four to ensure their lives together, living in the open, are safe for all. They all deserve it. Hope watched the Blue Jays cracking open the Black Oil seeds at the table feeder and the leaves blowing across the garden and deck. We have started a new book – new to them anyway. The Meaning of Geese. I read it in the winter and came to love the Siberian geese in parts of the UK. As our geese fly in to fatten up and head South, it is a good reminder of how wonderful these birds are. I hope they like it!

We are heading to the 1st of October in Orange, and we are on ‘pip’ watch for Diamond and Xavier. Should the first laid egg be fertile and viable, we should be seeing some action soon. We are holding our breath.

I will raise many eyebrows, and some of you will yell at me, but I hope that Diamond and Xavier have one strong hatch. Let’s see another Izzi in this scrape – not a strong first hatch and a weaker second one with feather development issues.

Keep your eyes on Orange.

Elain did ‘Highlights of Prince Manaaki’ for all those missing that cute little bundle of fluff who turned into a Royal Albatross. Loved watching him garden!

Expecting to see one of the Sea Eaglets interested in that parent branch shortly.

‘A’ has been watching them but had missed the singing, “I found the sea eaglets ‘singing’ with their parents the most adorable thing. Thank you so much for drawing my attention to that. Of course, as it happened at 05:25 and was not something that I picked up while scrolling through the footage, I would have missed it otherwise. Aren’t they looking beautiful? As I have mentioned over the past fortnight, the world beyond their nest has been fascinating to them, especially SE32, and I am truly hoping this will make them less fearful of the currawongs and crows. They are both much larger birds than the blue jays that bothered Angel. 

It is hot in Melbourne, and it is not even 0900. Why didn’t someone do something about the sun on that scrape? or remove that scrape box altogether?

A noticed this, “Poor mum is doing the morning shift at Collins Street and she has been panting since before 9am. Tonight, our clocks go forward an hour, meaning the shadow will not hit the scrape until an hour later than it is currently doing, and this will gradually get worse as time progresses. Today, mum is absolutely baking. It is SO hot out there. I hate to think of what it will be like in three or four weeks time when those babies have natal down rather than thermal down and the parents are going to have to shade them for at least three hours each day. Not sure how dad is going to manage that when he is already having problems brooding the four eggs (though he is valiant in his efforts and always finds a way somehow).”

The sight of the eyases almost roasting last year still haunts many of us. 

It is going to be 30 degrees today, which means it will be a lot hotter on that ledge. Sending out positive thoughts to our lovely Melbourne Couple.

At Port Lincoln, the oldest egg is now 24 days old. We still have a ways to go before hatch!

Egg dates: 6, 9, and 12 September.

Looks who is back fishing at Delamere.

A rallying call to vote for the Peregrine Falcon as Australia’s 2023 bird of the year. Remember go to The Guardian to vote!

A really quick check at some of the Bald Eagle nests – almost without exception, the Bald Eagles are busy readying their nests for next season.

Pepe and Muhlady paid an early morning visit to Superbeaks.

Jackie and Shadow returned after 1800 to work on their nest at Big Bear Lake on Friday.

Baiba catches that first stick delivery by Shadow in video.

Life is still – seemingly – unsettled for Gabby at NE Florida. No confirmation of who came to the nest on Friday.

Raining hard at ‘The Hamlet’ and no one knows who is on or off the nest.

Anna is still having trouble with her injured leg at the KNF nest that she shares with her mate, Louis.

Connie and Clive are working on their nest at Captiva. Wishing them a good year.

Checking on our Black stork family from Estonia, Karl II and Kaia almost took the same flight path – like almost identical – to get to Bursa, Turkey.

Kalvi is in Bulgaria.

Waba continues to fish on the Danube River in Romania.

The RSPB’s State of Nature (in the UK) report is out and it makes for some very grim reading. The main threats to wildlife are: “The changes in the way we manage our land for farming, and climate change were the biggest causes of wildlife decline on our land, rivers and lakes. At sea, and around our coasts, it was as a result of unsustainable fishing, climate change and marine development.”

Do you have a garden? Do you have friends or relatives that do? Have they given away all the cucumbers and zucchini they can to their friends and still have more? What about that kale? Wildlife Rehab Centres always need fresh vegetables for their patients. Your local wildlife rehab clinic will be so grateful for the food gifts.

Thank you for being with me today. Cameras will be turned on Saturday at SWFlorida! Go and watch M15 and his new mate kick off a new season. Take care of yourself. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, videos, posts, photos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me: ‘A’, Charles Sturt FalconCam, Elain and NZ DOC, Sydney Sea Eagle Cam, 367 Collins Street by Mirvac, PLO, Pam Hewstone and Friends of Osprey Sth Australia, The Guardian, Superbeaks, FOBBV, Baiba and FOBBV, NEFL-AEF, Tonya Irvin and KNF E-1, Looduskalender, and the RSPB.