Pips, Hatches, and Fledges…Sunday in Bird World

19 May 2024

Good Morning,

It is a long weekend for many countries around the world including Canada where we are celebrating Queen Victoria’s birthday. The girls and I are, however, celebrating sun. The rain has stopped for now and everyone will be rushing to get their bedding plants into containers or beds. That includes me. The garden will be a sea of red this summer in an attempt to attract more pollinators and hummers!

I am late…the summer means I stay up really late at night and have lazy mornings. It has been wonderful to sit with the girls and enjoy my coffee and take in the warmth of the sun. The squirrels are busy and the baby Red-wing Blackbirds are flitting around. Mr Crow has not arrived although his breakfast is waiting for him.

Moorings Park Ruffie fledged on Saturday the 18th of May! Flew like a pro! I love the look on Tuffy’s face as she follows Ruffin’s flight. Simply in awe. You are next Tuffy!!!!!! We thought you might not make it at one time, but look at you both. Beautiful healthy osplets!

The fledglings at Frenchman’s Creek continue to return to the nest to feed.

Larry’s kids are really growing!

At Larry’s Mum’s scrape, Archie decided to try and feed his chicks again. He is such a cutie! And a real keeper. Annie picked well.

Waiting for Little to fledge at Venice Golf and Country Club. The winds are up Saturday afternoon. Will he fly? Oh, yes, he did!

Little flew at 61 days! Way to go Little. Beautiful take off.

We are on pip watch at many nests including Boulder County.

And the Port of Ridgefield. Indeed, there are approximately 36 osprey nests that could have hatches this week. A similar number for the following week. Thanks for reminding me ‘BHA’.

Dad brought in a whopper of a cot rail at PSEG Oyster Bay on Long Island.

‘AE’ sent great captures of JBS20 visiting the nest with one of the adults on Saturday! Lovely to see this fledgling eagle thriving.

‘MP’ wonders if anyone has seen a sparrow this close to an osprey? This Male must know that Ospreys only eat fish!

Question: How many are watching this nest? And how is little three doing?

No sound at the Dyfi nest of Idris and Telyn or we would be able to hear the chicks that are ready to hatch – or have hatched. Waiting!

Louis continues to be the great provider we know he is for Dorcha.

At Rutland, Blue 33 is working on the cot rails and looking out with Only Bob to see what Mum Maya is doing.

While Blue tends to his baby, Mum at Port Lincoln would like Bradley to move on. Oh, gosh. Bradley reminds me of Ervie so much! Nice to see you Bradley even if you are irritating Mum.

In Europe, storks have died because of the torrential rains in certain regions. The pouring pitching cold rain and wind continues in Manitoba as it is at the Outerbanks nest of Betsy and Frederick. They have little osplets. Send positive wishes to all nests impacted by rain or fish shortage.

Betsy is doing a heroic job of keeping the wee ones dry and warm so far.

At Lake Murray, Little had a good day. Kenny is amazing. So much fish – whole, headless – almost back to back. Incredible and that is why this third hatch is doing so very, very well. Lots of fish delivered close together. I counted the bites along with ‘H’ and despite some intimidation, Little fared well. The third hatch is clever often moving about the nest to get in a better position. One thing I have noticed is that Lucy does the fish and when she does this, Little often losses out. But, Little did well. Smile.

Crops from various times of the day for Little.

Our friend and monitor of all things Australian does not like to watch Osprey nests but she has fallen for Little Bob at Lake Murray and she wanted to add her ‘ten cents’ to what happened on Saturday. ‘A’ we always welcome your narrative – thanks so much!

Late yesterday afternoon (18 May) was interesting at Lake Murray. Dad brought in a nice big whole fresh fish at around 06:02pm. Little Bob was sleeping right in front of mum while the two older siblings (whose plumage btw has changed in a single weekend into something speckled and gorgeous – their camouflage is amazing) were napping together. Little Bob, who has a discernible but not a large crop, thought he was in for a private feeding, but mum just took the fish from dad and stood there with it. She turned around a couple of steps in mid-nest, then heads to the far side of the nest. Little Bob follows her, but mum is distracted. 

Eventually, the older pair awake. As they do, we can see that they both have extremely large crops. Little Bob is still standing next to mum, begging for food, but she is just standing on the fish with one foot. Eventually an older sibling gets up, turns around and surveys the scene. He sees Little Bob waiting expectantly beside mum, who has fish. S/he makes no attempt to attack Little Bob, who decides it’s a good idea to head around behind mum to the other side. 

The larger sibling heads over and begins trying to open the fish at the head end, working on the mouth and doing a really good job. This continues for a few minutes before eventually, at 06:05:50, Little Bob, who is behind mum, stands up and looks the other older sibling squarely in the eye. This is surely a mistake, which he will quickly correct, no?

No! Little Bob not only continues to look his sibling in the eye but then lunges right across the nest to bonk his much bigger sibling! This takes the older chick very much by surprise. The reaction is predictable. But Little Bob, although beating a hasty retreat, is only protecting his head (he has such a long neck, this is not too difficult now he has grown to a size where he can lean far enough away) – he is not cowering in terror. He does eventually tuck but he does not duck his head under – he keeps it up and just away from his sibling, who has failed to make any real contact with him anyway, as its crop is so large, it cannot reach across it to hurt Little Bob.  

Meanwhile, the self-feeding osplet continues to self-feed on the head, pulling from the mouth and getting some good bites from the cheek area. aT 06:06:15 mum finally starts feeding one of the older osplets. The second desists from worrying about Little Bob and comes to be fed too. This leaves Little Bob behind mum and the two feeding siblings. As the food is close to the edge of the nest, there is really absolutely no real way he can now get fed until mum and/or one of the siblings moves.

It is 06:20 before Little Bob gets up, turns around and heads back to the centre of the nest to survey the feeding situation. Both his siblings have huge crops. Mum has been eating a bit of this fish herself too. Still no room on the feeding line, as Big Bob has a piece of fish it is self-feeding on. Little Bob actually considers rushing this fish but gets a death stare from its older sibling and thinks better of it, turning around and retreating a few steps. 

Little Bob cannot find a way to mum’s beak. Big Bob is occupied. Middle Bob is between Big Bob and mum, so Little Bob heads around behind mum to try and reach the far side of her. There’s not much room here. They are near the edge of the nest. It takes him a while to figure out how to come forward, over the baby rails, to reach mum’s beak. Eventually, he clambers over the rails precariously. He is close, if she turns her head his way. But will she? She is eating most of the fish herself and has been for a couple of minutes now. It is 06:22:30pm. 

Mum knows Little Bob is in position. At 06:22:38 she reaches down and to her right, back under her wing, to give Little Bob his first bite of this feeding. She keeps feeding him. Big Bob lumbers off, hardly able to carry its crop. Middle Bob remains on the other side of mum to Little Bob, watching closely as she feeds its younger sibling. Mum feeds Middle a couple of bites, then returns to Little Bob. Middle gives up and leaves the table. The fish has very nearly gone. It is 06:24. Little downs the tail. Mum feeds him the last remaining pieces – some of those bits of flesh near the tail are very juicy – and picks up every flake she can find for him. By 06:25 the meal is over. 

But Little Bob is still begging for fish and mum searches some more. She finds the leftover Big Bob had been playing with and works hard to get pieces off it that Little Bob can eat. He gets some small bites. He continues to beg for more. Shortly after 06:28 she flies off the nest. 

Little did not get to eat much of what was after all a huge fish. He did start the feeding with a visible crop, and went to bed with a full tummy. Unless a food disaster (such as occurs when a parent goes missing) occurs at this nest, I become more confident by the day that my prediction here is correct. This youngest hatch is SO brave. It may even be female based on the behaviour. Today’s effort was amazing. Little Bob stared down an older sibling and then rushed across the nest in an obviously intimidatory manner (which even the older sibling didn’t take seriously initially) and started a major fight. This is not a cowed osplet. It is smart enough not to get beaten up but it is certainly not being terrorised and it has a crop every time I look at the stream. 

This one is going to do fine. Mark my words. I’m sorry to bang on so much about it, but this is one really cute little osplet. I fell for this one immediately and have been very confident about it all along, despite the difficulties and the aggression, mainly because of its own attitude. Never has this little one given me the impression that it has given up, only that it is scheming for another moment, another chance, another bite to eat. It has the longest neck, which sure doesn’t hurt in these situations, and it has a determined streak that really suggests that it could actually be a female. It would not surprise me in the slightest. 

The older two osplets have actually become relatively laidback at this point, and there is nothing to say that the older sibling would have bonked Little Bob for the staring incident late yesterday afternoon had he not rushed across the nest to attack it. So I think the aggressive phase on this nest has passed, and as long as the fish supply continues and Little Bob does not make a habit out of deliberately provoking its older siblings,everything will be absolutely fine and this nest will fledge three this season. Talons crossed.” 

‘H’ caught the Sunday morning events for us – sadly, we probably do not have to worry about Little Bob’s survival from the siblings now, but rather from the GHO that is waiting for them to fatten up. “

The camera was zoomed way out, and we could see that Lucy spent about 4 hours on the perch overnight.  Sadly, I suppose we are on ‘owl watch’.

0614 Kenney delivered a fish.  It was rather difficult to tell from our vantage point, but Little appeared to eat for about 3 minutes until he was intimidated and moved aside.  At 0627 Little was back at the feeding line until one of the siblings returned at 0630.  At 0635 both older siblings had moved away, and Little ate for 3 minutes more.  So, Little was fed for about 9 minutes at this meal.

Kenny brought in a headless fish at 0700 and feeding commenced at 0701.  Little ate for about a minute until he was intimidated, but appeared to still be able to reach toward Lucy’s beak once in a while.  At 0711 Lucy started to reach out, and fairly consistently fed Little until 0718.  Little ate for roughly 10 minutes at this meal and had a nice crop after the back-to-back feedings.”

The GHO is constantly attacking the female at Moraine Park – these owls are smart. Please take a screen capture of Cowlitz PUD’s solution and send it to the owners of any nests that you are aware are having predation issues by owls, eagles, goshawks, etc. Thank you.

The trio of osplets at Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home appear to be hanging in there and doing well. We are NOT at the Reptilian phase when the bonking normally begins (8-11 days) – and so I hope that there is lots of fish and these are well behaved.

Beautiful Big Red, N1, and N2. Another great raptor dad, Arthur.

All four storklets at Bolewice are doing well.

Despite Olivia incubating, the eggs at Severna Park, they have been left too long and they have been rained on. I want to thank everyone for their comments regarding this nest. From the observations by the writer below, this sounds to me like Oscar has another nest with a different family and has abandoned Olivia and her eggs. For those of you that have watched Louis and Iris, you would be familiar with this type of behaviour by the male. It is extremely sad but please let us hope that Olivia moves on to find a new attentive mate next season.

I thought I would share one of the letters with you – I have withheld the author’s name. I feel very protective of those that send me information, comments, and news and do not ever wish for there to be any kind of backlash against them. It is the same as a report protecting their source.

Dear Ms. Steggles: 

I’m pleased to inform you that Oscar did not meet his demise in the middle of the highway, struck by a semi truck, while chasing that flying fish.  He flew to the nest a couple of hours ago, mated, and then he left, lol.  No fish!  Olivia went fishing for herself again.

Oscar should be hanging his head! What about all this business of raptors mating for life? Goodness, gracious.

Only Bob at Carthage continues to thrive being the sole ‘diamond’ in his/her parents eyes.

‘H’ is monitoring the Captiva nest and reports: “5/18 Captiva Ospreys – 0833, First feeding, a whole hardhead catfish.  CO7 ate, then moved away from Edie at 0847, but CO8 was reluctant to move after having been beaked earlier.  CO8 finally moved to Edie at 0849, ate 11 bites of fish, and was then beaked repeatedly.  CO7 ate some more, and had retired from the feeding at 0913, so CO8 moved up and ate the last three bites of the fish.  CO8 had eaten 14 bites of fish.

The second feeding at 1136, consisted of a small whole pinfish.  CO7 ate, and prevented CO8 from eating.

At 1300 Jack delivered a nice size partial speckled trout.  CO8 was intimidated and stayed back.  When CO7 moved away from Edie, CO7 was again reluctant to approach, and Edie stopped the feeding. Edie resumed feeding CO7 at 1310, and when CO8 approached at 1316 he suffered a prolonged beaking by CO7.  Edie stopped the feeding.  CO8 did not eat at this meal.

Feeding #4 at 1358, Edie picked up the large leftover piece of trout and fed CO8 for 19 minutes!  CO7 stayed in the shade of Mom’s tail, and did not interfere.

Feeding #5 at 1639 consisted of a whole pilchard delivered by Jack.  It was a harmonious ten- minute feeding, both osplets ate, and both had large crops.

The last feeding of the day was from 1805 to 1821, and was a partial speckled trout brought by Jack.  CO7 ate first, and CO8 waited his turn.  There was no aggression by CO7.  At 1812, CO7 backed away and CO8 moved up to eat.  Three minutes later, CO7 returned, then the chicks ate peacefully side by side. “

Dr Ericke Green has finished his teaching responsibilities for now and is focused – and clearly excited – about the events at Iris’s nest. Here he explains about the egg tossing that New Guy did and why.

On Saturday, Bradley brought a squid to the barge nest at Port Lincoln instead of a puffer. How interesting! Way to go, Bradley.

Will this year be the season when Hope reigns? Is it possible for us to ‘hope’ that Hope, the female at Newfoundland Power’s Snow Lane Osprey platform dubbed the ‘Hopeless Nest’ will feed her chicks so they live and fledge?

The rain has stopped at Patchogue and the little ones are good.

The paper, sign, or whatever human garbage was covering the egg cup at Patchogue is now gone. Thankfully.

Oh, tears. ‘T’ just sent me the best news for Black Storks: “Waba is in Estonia! Yesterday he flew 253 km, and now he is at the Saaremaa island. Data shows 7804 km This is the distance that Waba covered after transmitter activation this year.”

Oh, I would hope we get some news about Bonus.

We have the first hatch at Great Bay today at 1345. The top images shows the parents looking at the hatch in progress.

Welcome little one.

Thank you so much for being with me this morning. Please take care. Enjoy your weekend – go outside and listen to the birds! We hope to see you again soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, posts, images, streaming cams, and videos that helped me to write my post this morning: ‘A, AE, BHA, Geemeff, H, MP, PB, TU’, Heidi McGrue and Moorings Park, Frenchman’s Creek, ParksConservancy, SK Hideaways, VGCCO, Boulder County, Port of Ridgefield, PSEG, Dyfi Osprey Project, Geemeff, LRWT, PLO, OBX Osprey Cam, Lake Murray, Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home, Cornell RTH, Bolewice Stork am, Severna Park, DTC- Carthage, Window to Wildlife, Montana Osprey Cam, Newfoundland Power, and Great Bay Ospreys.