25 April 2024
Good Morning Everyone!
Oh, let us get everything out of order. When Big Red and Arthur exchanged incubation duties Wednesday evening, they looked down at the eggs. The time was 2001.
They knew that their first baby was beginning to make its way into the world. Less than three hours later there was a huge crack, more crushed like cracks and a hole! I am expecting a little hawk let when I wake up in the morning. Oh, gosh, golly. (I may research osplets but my love are the hawks and falcons).
Cornell has confirmed that a hatch is in progress. BR brings a vole to the nest and relieves Arthur.
Wednesday was a glorious day on the Canadian Prairies, and I spent it near Delta Beach at the southern end of Lake Manitoba, where the Delta Marsh is located. There were tundra swans, waterfowl and shore birds, ducks, geese, and a Bald Eagle family. Sitting in the sand looking out to the lake, which still had snow and ice, it felt quite strange, watching Killdeer scratch for insects.
Please note: These are not the best images. I am at a great distance from most of the birds, and the pictures get ‘soft’ when I crop them.
It was odd being at the marsh, walking up the old wooden tower to look out on the water after seeing Where the Crawdads Sing on a streaming channel. The marsh was definitely alive and I want to go again in a fortnight to check and see what other birds have arrived. Ducks were in the pond along with a few geese. Just a short distance away there were huge wetlands. It wasn’t the lake and not a small pond, the water extended for miles.
These images are the marsh. There was miles and miles of water.
This is Lake Manitoba. That is not surf. It is snow and ice. The sand was lovely. I could have stayed. It was the quiet – the only sound was the birds as there were so few people about. What a marvellous change from the city where one gets too used to the noise.
Tundra swans breed at the very northern tip of Manitoba. They are resting from migration in the marsh or they are non-breeders.
The bald eagles were sunning themselves on the ice formations on the lake and then would dive to get a fish. They must be incubating eggs as one was always on the nest. The nest is about 3 metres from the shoreline. After seeing what happened at Swampy’s nest, I was particularly pleased that this one is deep but it is balanced rather precariously.
Oh, I giggled. ‘H’ asked who wrote the opinionated section in Wednesday’s post about Swampy’s nest. It was me – no one else or I would have said. What I failed to mention is that the streaming cams normally have maintenance checks annually and that would be an excellent time to clean out the nests, secure them, and do whatever is needed to make them safe. Seriously. (I do recognise that for some nests this is not possible because of the sheer height or the location but so many could be reached and this also applies for the osprey nests – clean them out, fix some nice rails at the side like they do in Wales for the nests. Let’s at least pretend we care!
The American Coot arrives in Manitoba in early April and migrates south again in early November. They can be seen in the southern half of the province and they also breed in the far north in the small area of the Tundra Swans. They build floating nests where they incubate 8-12 eggs for a period of 24 days. They eat insects, tadpoles, little fish and vegetation both aquatic and terrestrial. Their plumage is distinctive and once you have seen one you will easily identify others in the future – deep rich shiny black feathers cover the body and the head with a white bill. If you look closely there is a red spot above the white bill between the eyes on the adults. They have piercing red eyes and the most amazing yellow-green legs.
Northern Flicker, male. There are Northern Flickers across our entire province except for a tiny area in the far north where the Tundra Swans breed. They arrive in April and migrate in October although a few have been reported during the winter. They nest in the cavities of dead trees or poles and sometimes use a tunnel in a dirt bank to raise their young. Normally they incubate 5-12 pure white eggs. They will be seen pecking away at the soil for insects but they might also catch flies and insects in the air. Look at this gorgeous bird with its piercing ebony eye, its silver-grey beak and back of the head with that identifying orange-red band indicating the male. The area around the eyes is a golden buff with the back being a barred brown with black. Then look at the black and white undertail. A very distinctive bird, nothing like it!
Here you can see the front and that very long beak used to drill into the soil. I love this image. It looks like the bird has a leopard stole on with a sleeveless lace top and a broach. Note the moustache. This one is also a male. There were about a dozen in a ditch pecking for insects.
Killdeer. The Killdeer are all over Manitoba as well except for the very far north. They nest on the ground in shallow depressions where they incubate four eggs for a period of 28 days. Sometimes they will have two successful clutches a year. Here this one is hunting on the ground which is typical looking for insects, snails, and earthworms. They are very distinctive. Their legs are a deep dark chrome yellow..they have a white breast and a stunning charcoal grey back and tail. Their head is also the same charcoal grey and they wear a white collar. You can just see their white eyebrow.
A grumpy looking American Robin. I have no idea why…there were quite a number of them and they were sure pulling out some mighty long earthworms.
Annie and Archie have made Cal Falcon history. It is the first time that all four eggs of Annie have hatched. These two are going to be super busy! Let’s hope that there are a lot of at healthy pigeons around for Archie to bring to the table.
Archie watches and is learning to feed chicks.
‘A’ writes: “At 1303, we can see that the fourth egg is virtually split into its two halves and we see the damp chick curled up still inside the egg, but it is almost out – effectively hatched, though not yet free of the shell. The hatch time will be a few minutes later than that – when it fully separates from the shell – but it is effectively here by 13:03. Too exciting. The baby has had some food already. Annie is very good at seeking out those little mouths at the back or facing the wrong way. Watch her in particular at that second breakfast around 07:15. She is very careful about getting to the little one at the back. Archie rushed in to make sure the chicks didn’t get cold or lonely while mum was at the pantry, but she rapidly returned, before he was able to get any chick time, and mum went about the business of the second breakfast. Archie brings in very beautifully prepared food for his family. Everything Annie grabs from the pantry would make a human butcher proud. Not a feather on it. Occasionally. something fresh arrives directly to the scrape, requiring a little preparation, but that is rare. He is such a very good dad – there is speculation on the chat that this may not be his first effort at fathering.”
Louis was really enjoying his rest time incubating the Loch Arkaig eggs when Dorcha decided enough was enough.
Tuffy and Ruffie had a good day on Wednesday. Tuffy looks so different now that s/he has grown and those juvenile feathers have come in!
Mum was at the Frenchman’s Creek nest feeding the two osplets for awhile today. The nest is getting fuller and fuller with fish.
Swampy did return to the nest as an official fledge and a fish head was brought in. I hope that there was more during the day but it did not appear to be the case. (Please correct me). This eaglet needs food!
Heart warming to see Jackie and Shadow – nothing needs to be said. They have overcome their tragic season and are back to enjoying one another’s company. We can learn so much from them.
The third hatch at Little Miami Conservancy is such a cutie pie. Just look at its size and that nice crop on Wednesday.
There is sad news from ‘R’, who has been monitoring the Florida-Gainesville nest of Talon and Stella. The third hatch, which was 22 days old on Wednesday, died of siblicide. ‘R’ said it was very brutal. Poor little one, how tragic. Soar high!
An earlier image.
‘H’ reports that Seaside has its third egg of the season. She also reports that Captiva has its second hatch. The egg was 36 days old. Well done Edie and Jack!
There was one, then two….if anyone asks you if ospreys can have eggs hatch late in the season in Florida and in the Barrier Islands, you can now say yes.
Great capture by ‘H’ of the chicks being fed a Needlefish this morning.
‘H’ brings us up to date on the other nests she is monitoring:
“4/25: Barnegat Light – We are still waiting for the first egg for Daisy and Duke.
4/25: Severna Park – We are also still waiting for the first egg for Olivia and Oscar. Their nest looks ready, but they are running a couple of weeks behind previous seasons.
4/25: Kent Island – Tom was only seen at the nest in the morning on 4/24, so I suppose Audrey had gone fishing when the crow attacked the egg. But since that time, Audrey has not been seen very much, in fact she was not seen for most of the night last night. And when she was at the nest, she did not incubate. The temperature was in the 40’s. Tom and Audrey are both at the nest this morning.
4/25: Dahlgren – Helen had not been seen since 17:30 on 4/24. Doug was at the nest all night, and he has been incubating their two eggs once in a while overnight…temp in the 40’s. Helen and Doug were both at the nest this morning.”
At Poole Harbour, CJ7 laid a fourth osprey egg. Now everyone is quite excited about this, but well….We will see how they do. I would more than pleased if one was a Dudley.
Affric does not seem to warm to Gary LVO at Loch Arkaig 1.
New Osprey platforms going up in Norway.
Want to help science by being an osprey nest watcher?
This is somewhat brief because I did have a fantastic day outside. I hope you get the chance soon – it is invigorating! Take care. See you soon! As always, thanks for being with us today.
Thank you to the following for the notes, posts, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, R, SP’, Cal Falcons, SK Hideaways, Geemeff, Moorings Park, Frenchman’s Creek, Eagle Country, Little Miami Conservancy, UFlorida-Gainesville, Window to Wildlife, the Birds of Poole Harbour, Gregarious Jorus Toonen, Wildlife Conserve of NJ, Severna Park, Kent Island Ospreys, Dahlgren Ospreys, and Chesapeake Bay Magazine.
*Disclaimer: Every effort is made to recognise the individuals and organisations that provide news for my post. If I have inadvertently missed someone, please let me know so that I can amend the oversight. Thank you.*
