Wednesday in Bird World

7 February 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

We hope that Wednesday finds everyone well and happy!

It was a repeat for Queen of the Cat Tree on Tuesday, and this time, Baby Hope won! It changes constantly. You might recall that I did not know what having four female cats would be like. I had hoped to find another sweet little male like Lewis, but it was not to be. Hugo turned out to be a girl for those just joining us, and I would not part with her for anything!

On Tuesday, Baby Hope decided she wanted the top of the cat tree. The only thing to do, if you don’t bite and fight, is to try and shift Hugo Yugo off the top by pushing with your entire body! Baby Hope is very much like Missey, very chill.

Getting Hugo Yugo off the perch is not as easy as Baby Hope thinks it will be. In the end, they decide to share the view.

Then Hugo Yugo decides to be nice and go inside the little house and let Baby Hope have some time on top!

Then Baby Hope decided she didn’t want on top of the cat tree after all. “A Day in the Life of the Girls”. 

The storm that has raged across California continues to wreck havoc with Jackie and Shadow at Big Bear. We know that Jackie last ate on the 4th and was crop dropping on the 5th. The snow is so bad that it is likely Shadow cannot find prey. Eagles can survive several days without food especially if they are not exerting so much energy – like Jackie is incubating those three precious eggs. Still, we all worry for them. 

I am so thankful there are not eaglets in that nest.

A video of our dear Jackie.

Wednesday morning at Big Bear.

Cal and Lusa are enjoying some fresh fish and old bird for their meals today. Jackie would probably love to have a nice big fish right about now! 

Rollin’ Rag, one of the moderators of the Eagle Country nest, notes that Meadow – despite being beaked – did not back down and got some of the duck that landed on the nest (live).

Swampy was wanting to chew on Blaze’s feathers!

Blaze has a lot of fish and other prey on the nest. Can see two beautiful little heads sticking up. Nice.

Heidi Mc gives us a week in the life of R6, including wingers, loving glances at her chick by Rose, and some nibbles on a fish by R6. That is a great record showing how quickly these little ones develop. Wow. 

Eagles were at both nests in Decorah – North and the Hatchery. The pond at the Hatchery is has a number of Canada Geese.

It was a nice day in Texas. From what can be seen, the little eaglet at JB Sands Wetlands is doing alright. Looks like lots of prey brought in and the weather is so much better than elsewhere.

No egg yet for Rosa and her new mate at Dulles-Greenway.

The flooding near the nest at Redding did not stop Liberty and Guardian from working on it on Tuesday – and look, some nice close-ups of Liberty. They are finding lots of new sticks to build up this nest. 

Gabby is incubating their egg, which is now 47 days old. There is a big battle going on between males for this territory. You might recall this one landed in the nest next to Gabby. He is quite injured trying to get this territory away from Beau to be with Gabby.

The nest is ready but so far, no egg at Moorings Park.

There are osplets at Pelican Bay. Another one of those deep nest boles…we will wait! 

At Captiva, Jack might finally be in the mood to replace his former mate Ruby who has been missing for nearly a month now.

‘H’ reports: ”Things are looking up at Captiva! LO6, is the latest identifiable female that has been vying for Jack’s attention since Ruby disappeared on 1/11.  Jack has chased off and tried to discourage all of the other females.  LO6 was first seen a few days ago.  LO4 was by far the most persistent of the females, but Jack never wanted to have anything to do with her.  This morning Jack sky danced with a fish while LO6 was in the nest.  He then delivered the fish to her, and she ate the fish at the nest.  While she ate, Jack performed some minor nestorations and was nest-cupping.  Later, they had displays of pair bonding (not mating) on two separate occasions.  Fingers crossed for this pair!”

First bonding of Annie and new male in the scrape. Check out the size of Annie compared to the new male when they are in the scrape. Wonder how old he is.

Remembering Lou.

Monty and Hartley are like the old ? slogan of the US Post Office. Rain, snow, or sleet will not stop them…in this case …from bonding on the scrape. Way to go you two.

I wonder if either one is going to try and feed the egg/s this year.

I am starting to wonder if Bonnie didn’t lay her first egg just after 20:00 in the nest on Farmer Derek’s property. She was there all afternoon, left briefly, returned, and then was looking down and moving something in the nest (or so it appeared to me).

In Latvia, Milda has been visiting her nest with a new male. Like Annie, Milda has been through a number of partners. She normally lays her eggs at the end of March. I sure hope this male works out. Does anyone know what happened to Voldis?

‘A’ reports on the WBSE: ”February 6: Early rain meant a cooler start to the day. The adults spent the night at Goat Island and were still there this morning. Then just after 1pm, there was a possible sighting of SE31 along Haslams Creek, in the area near Wentworth Common (shown in picture below) . Later, at around 4pm, no eagles were sighted at the river. A cooler day and quite windy. Again, no eagles were seen at 5pm, though one osprey was seen catching a fish, then eating it on one of the electricity towers behind Mangrove Island.”

‘A’ also sends us comments on the Royal Cam chick: ”TF chick is growing SO fast at Taiaroa Head. Little TFF chick is such a sweetie and so much tinier. It’s amazing how much difference a week makes. It’s hard to imagine that TF was the same size just a week ago. Oh they are so sweet Mary Anne. Those little bills and those tiny paddles. Such fluffballs. And the way they turn around and head underneath mum or dad when they’re full or tired and want to be brooded. It’s adorable. These albatrosses allopreen their chicks like RTHs. They are the only other mums I’ve seen do so much preening of their chicks. Angel used to drive Deyani mad if you recall, constantly allopreening. I’m a big bird now, mum! STOP it! I loved watching her. And it’s the same here. This wonderful four-week period goes by so fast. Yes, we do have eight months to enjoy them before they fledge, but after the first four weeks, the interactions between the parents and the chick and, even more so, between the two parents are few. In fact, last season, I can’t remember the parents overlapping once after the post-guard period ended. So from the final changeover at about four weeks of age, they each came in periodically to feed their chick but never once were there at the same time. Their breeding season lasted for about two months of courting, nest-building and mating, followed by 11 weeks of relieving each other during incubation, and then a month of brooding the baby, after which they may not see each other again /for the best part of two years. It really does make those changeovers incredibly precious interactions that are to be treasured as the incredibly rare family moments they are.”

Unbelievably, the ability to stop these culprits has not taken hold. Killed so the wealthy can go out shooting grouse on a weekend? 

I love Red Squirrels and that is how I found Dani Connor Wild. In the attached video, she takes a trip to an island in Norway at the Arctic Circle where there are Puffins! They are adorable – and there are also Arctic Hare. Enjoy.

I shouted out to Mary Cheadle for the fundraising for the binoculars for Jean-Marie Dupart and his team in Senegal, who count the UK and European Ospreys who winter there. Guess what? Enough funds were raised to purchase four pairs!!!!!! It is incredible what people can do – small donations add up and make a difference. 

All you need to know to take part in the upcoming Great Bird Count. Get ready. We are only a few days away!

Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care. I hope to see you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ’A, H, J, SP’, FOBBV, Window to Wildlife, Rollin’ Rag, Eagle Country, Heidi MC, WRDC, Raptor Resource Project/Explore.org, JB Sands Wetlands, Dulles-Greenway, FORE, NEFL-AEF, Carol Shores Rifkin, Moorings Park, Cal Falcons, Ildiko A Polk, SK Hideaways, Farmer Derek Owl Cam, LDF, NZ DOC, and Raptor Persecution UK.