Wednesday in Bird World

20 March 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Thank you so much for your good wishes for Hugo Yugo. She is at the vet and we will be waiting for the news that the surgery went well – and then she will be home around 1700. Mind you. She is supposed to be still. Not sure about that!

We will start off again with the sadness because it is always so much better to end with joy.

Many keep their own lists of the eagle nests like ‘H’ and I do for the Ospreys. ‘J’ keeps a running quite detailed account of many nests including some not on streaming came. This year the following Bald Eagle nests laid their first clutch and it failed: Berry College (they reclutched and we are waiting for hatch), Big Bear (still incubating 3 non-viable eggs), Dulles-Greenway (abandoned), KNF-E1 (abandoned due to Anna’s death), KNF-E3 (abandoned due to Andria’s death), NEFL (one lost in nest, one abandoned), Pittsburgh-Hayes (crushed egg), Sauces (crushed egg), and Superbeaks (they reclutched and hatched Dixie and Mason).

Of the following ten nests that have had eaglets hatch (Captiva, SWFL, WRDC, John Bunker Sands, Eagle Country, Superbeaks, Johnson City, Duke Farms, Bluff City, and West End), seventeen have survived so far, while two have died, Lusa and JBS21.

Sadly, Mum and the new Dad at Pittsburgh-Hayes had their only egg crush on Tuesday. Like so many, I am also frustrated by the failure of so many Bald Eagle nests this breeding season. There are lots of reasons and I will repost the article by Elfruler for any who missed it at the end of the post today. It just feels more overwhelming this year than other years on the eagle cams. ‘H’ and I do not keep data forms on eagle nests so I cannot say with any certainty if this is the case, but it does seem that there is a higher % of failures this year.

At Pittsburgh-Hayes is it possible that the intruder yesterday had anything to do with the crushed egg today? I don’t know the answer. Just asking a question.

So sad. Always a good nest. Some feisty eaglets fledged from here.

HM2 returns to the nest with talon wounds to examine the broken egg.

DNF (Decorah North Female) has blood over the right side of her face. It is unclear if this is blood from a prey item or she is injured. Her beak looks awfully clean for it to be blood from a prey item. But I am going to hope it is! Let’s see if has a bath and it all comes off. Finger’s crossed.

Southern Australian Osprey Charlie has died. If you were following the messages from Port Lincoln, you will know that they had trouble with the transmissions from the sat pak. Condolences to all who are working so hard to increase the population of Ospreys in the region.

I don’t know if this should go in the sad or happy space. Edie laid her fourth osprey egg at Captiva Tuesday morning.

It will be late when these osplets hatch. Eagles on the mainland of Florida have been known to hatch eggs in May. I looked to try and find information on late Osprey hatches in Florida and the Barrier Islands and have not found anything satisfactory, yet. I am sure they are there. I did find this one about an osprey couple at the James River in Virginia that was nearly two months late in having their family.

The weather during this period of time on average is:

I wonder how the fishing is because these Ospreys will need lots of fish if all of those eggs hatch! The fishing charters will tell you that the fishing is great year-round in the waters surrounding Captiva Island. It depends on the species of fish that you wish to catch.

So we are clearly going to have to wait to see if Edie and Jack defy all odds and have four healthy osplets very late in the season. My calculations indicate that we will be looking for pip/hatch around the 24th of April.

Big Red. Not sure whether to worry or not. It is decidedly not her typical behaviour to have Arthur incubate the egg/s for the entire night but that is precisely what she did on Monday. She has been on and off the nest during the day on Tuesday with Arthur doing a lot of incubation. She is, however, on the nest Tuesday night. Let us all hope that I am simply worrying for nothing.

As Port Lincoln says, ‘While they are mourning the death of Charlie, they are thankful for Bradley who showed up on the barge with his fish.”

The two eaglets with their juvenile plumage, Swampy and Meadow, are precious. Abby and Blaze have done an amazing job with these two. With so few nests having two eaglets, fingers and talons crossed for these two to fledge.

The nests having two surviving eaglets this season, so far, are: Eagle Country (first clutch), Superbeaks (second clutch), Johnson City, Fluff City, and Duke Farms. There is currently only one nest with three eaglets – the West End nest of Thunder and Akecheta.

‘A’ gives us a lovely narrative of part of a day at the West End nest: “The camera finally came back on at West End, and the chicks seem to have been moved back against the cliff face, into a protected nook, which is great but it makes it hard to watch feedings closely. Mum was feeding so early this morning (from 06:29) that all I could see were three little sets of glowing eyes – it took me a while to count three chicks. Watch the three of them lined up so nicely at the table at the 11am feeding (dad is doing the feeding). TOO adorable. Covered in saliva and fish juice that somehow still does nothing to take that bed head the youngest sports. Oh they are cute. The oldest is very chill. The middle one is pushier and has the neck to go with it. And wee WE (that’s what I call the baby of the bunch) is a jumper like Rubus. Such a sweetie. These parents are fabulous. I love the way Akecheta comes and stands on the nest near Thunder for an hour or two at a time while the babies nap in the afternoon sunshine. They seem to really enjoy simply being in each other’s company. Some of these bonded pairs are just ‘in love’, quite obviously, whatever the bird equivalent for that is. And just let somebody try to convince me that Beau does not absolutely adore Gabby.” 

The squirrel at Bluff City seems to be almost gone. BC24 still seems to get the most of the meals. The pin feathers are beginning to come in on JC.

Boone and Jolene’s kids are well behaved at Johnson City. They are both eating well and their thermal down is coming in nicely.

There is a lot of fish on the Central Florida Eagle nest of Pepe and Muhlady. Dixie and Mason are eating, sleeping, and growing.

Trudi Kron reports that the female’s leg (she was limping and appeared to be in much pain for the past weeks) at the John Bunker Sands Wetlands nest in Texas appears to be improving. Mum is up on the top railings. She often stays here and allows Dad to bring in the prey and feed their eaglet. JBS20 hatched on the 26th of January. He is 54 days old today.

Everything seems fine at Duke Farms with the two eaglets. Leaper and Jersey are growing so fast. It was like they were little fluff balls a few days ago.

At the Venice Golf and Country Club, the third egg is hatching as I write this. The other two are doing great.

An update from Kielder Forest on where their ospreys are today.

Jean-Marie Dupart reports that the number of Ospreys counted in Senegal is going down slowly.

Wisdom always makes me happy.

Annie is loving spring!

Eve and her mate M are also feeling like it is spring in Montreal.

The Loch Garten Osprey cam is now live.

At Loch Arkaig on nest 1, not a Buzzard but a Tawny Owl!

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

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘H, J’, PIX Cams, Raptor Resource Project/Explore, Heidi McGrue, Discover the James, Cornell RTH, Eagle Country, IWS/Explore, Bluff City-ETSU, Johnson City-ETSU, Superbeaks, JB Sands Wetlands, Duke Farms, VGCCO, Kielder Ospreys, Friends of Midway Atoll, SK Hideaways, RSPB Loch Garten, Faucons UdeM, and Geemeff.