29 June 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
First. We thought for sure he was no longer with us and well, here is the good news from Geemeff:
“Louis the Loch Arkaig Osprey makes a triumphant return
08.26.37 The two chicks alone on the nest look up and start squeaking. Then Louis lands, with a fish. Wonderful to see him back looking magnificent with a nicely rounded crop. Where has he been? What happened to him? We’ll probably never know, but right now, this is the most wonderful sight. The two chicks immediately go over and take the fish off him. 08.26.55 Dorcha returns, and immediately looks for the fish 08.27.00 Louis departs – please return soon! Dorcha moves over and takes the fish away from C1 and starts dishing up. Normal service has resumed!”
Everyone is overjoyed…my inbox is full.
The Girls are anticipating the big birthday party on the 2nd. They have found a few little boxes but they can’t open them! Calico was hiding – but Hugo Yugo, Missey, and Baby Hope, the birthday girl were out playing.
Goodness, it is almost July. Hard to believe. The ‘bad’ news in Bird World generally tapers off this month and that is a good thing. It was pitching down rain in Winnipeg and much cooler than it has been. It was a good day to go to our biosphere, The Leaf. For some reason, I was fascinated by the flowers. Enjoy. The iPhone didn’t do too bad!
There was a special exhibition of plants used in traditional healing. Camomile, Cedar, Sage, Sweetgrass…
The koi pond through the mist of the water fall.
It was a lovely quiet day.
‘H’ is taking some time. We will look forward to her reports when she returns.
We are still hoping that Louis will return to Loch Arkaig. Plans are being made if this doesn’t happen. This is the latest news from George at The Woodland Trust.
Dorcha comes home to well fed-osplets.
The family cuddles together wondering where Dad is.
In all her sadness, Geemeff is still able to send out her daily report for The Woodland Trust:
Daily summary Friday 28th June 2024
There is no easy way to say this: Louis is still missing, not seen since Wednesday evening. We still hope to see him safe and well, but as the chicks were beginning to suffer from the incessant rain and lack of food despite Dorcha’s heroics with catching an eel yesterday, Woodland Trust took the unprecedented step of approaching NatureScot for permission to intervene. They are the Scottish Government’s lead adviser on wildlife management. In this case, using the evidence of Steve Quinn’s meticulous fish stats showing Louis’ decline and first hand observations of Louis’ unusual behaviour by LizB, permission was granted. Intrepid licensed raptor experts Lewis and Henry braved the climb to the top of the very tall nest tree and hand-fed the chicks with mackerel, leaving some on the nest as well as on a specially built platform below for Dorcha. Not a moment too soon as Lewis observed the second chick was approaching the stage of being too weak to eat. Luckily, after the initial strangeness, both chicks fed well and downed a whole mackerel each. Dorcha returned soon after they left and fed herself and the chicks from the fish left on the nest. Whatever your opinion about intervention, it’s good to see the chicks with full crops again. In other news, Garry LV0 paid a visit to Nest One and returned bringing nesting materials. Tonight’s forecast for the nest area is light rain showers and a gentle breeze, but the sound of the wind and the movement around the nest suggest otherwise.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.48.40 (03.30.52); Nest Two 23.19.18 (03.59.43)
Today’s videos:
https://youtu.be/6maD-9zG5xk N1 Garry LV0 visits twice and brings nesting materials 10.06.18 (zoom)
https://youtu.be/9HYxpRU-hjY N2 Dorcha returns when the fish fairies leave after feeding the chicks 15.25.02
https://youtu.be/c2oZrwNXbvI N2 Dorcha and the two chicks huddle together on a dreich night 23.38.35
Bonus read – Morphometric sex determination of young Ospreys: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233013597_Morphometric_sex_determination_of_young_Ospreys_Pandion_haliaetus_using_discriminant_analysis
Watch the Loch Arkaig Osprey livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:
I wrote to Dr. Greene to find out if Iris’s osplets will be banded. The answer is “no”. The camera and the nest are only for education, not research purposes.
‘A’writes: “Darling Finn slept on the perch all night, as he has taken to doing every night, watching over his family. He is such a sweetie. He left on a fishing trip to get breakfast very early indeed – it was still dark just after 05:30 – but for once, he had left fish on the nest and Iris got up at 05:35 and grabbed a large headless fish to feed the osplets. The pair as always lined up at the table and were beautifully behaved, as mum shared out the food to both. Oh my goodness, Big has had a growth spurt!
Little is slow to get up but makes his way to the table. Mum welcomes him with half a dozen bites. These two are just so sweet together. I saw one short, minor early episode of very half-hearted beaking and that was it. I still believe it could easily have been as much about curiosity as anything else, as there was no real aggression involved in it. More like checking what this small thing was. I am not entirely convinced it could even be classified as real bonking. Certainly, Little Bob did not interpret it as such, as hsi behaviour subsequently did not alter in any respect whatsoever. So it was not even worthy of being considered an act of establishing ‘pecking order’. Little Bob is harder for Iris to feed – he needs to move forward a step so she doesn’t have to reach as far forward and down to reach his beak. She makes the effort, but it means that when the two are side by side and competing for bites, Little Bob generally loses because of its greater height and reach. It’s surprising that Little doesn’t move forward – he normally does in this situation but sometimes makes mum really stretch. He is first to turn away from the table too, his little crop bulging.
So far, Iris hadn’t had a single decent bite for her own breakfast – she will always ensure that the babies have had a decent amount to eat before she starts sneaking in the odd bite for herself. This is truly one incredibly devoted mum. I love watching Iris with her chicks. The way she shades them, shelters them from the rain, keeps them warm at night, righted Little Bob when, early on, his little balloon body ended up flailing on its back – these osplets are the centre of her existence and she prioritises their welfare above everything else in her world. Watching her, you feel genuine joy for her.
Finn is back with a fresh headless fish just before 06:02. Good on your dad. There is still half a fish leftover from last night (and this morning’s first breakfast). He spends a bit of time trying to work out whether to choose the fish he’s just brought in or the half-fish left on the nest. He stands beside Iris for several minutes, reaching out at one stage as if to gently touch her with his beak. He adores her. Eventually, he decides on the fresh fish and flies to the perch with it just before 06:04. Ten minutes or so later, he returns the leftover fish to the nest. Good man! At 06:15 he tries to feed Iris, offering her a bite of fish several times before she accepts a small piece. She then stands up and grabs the leftover fish from the early breakfast (not the one Finn caught this morning) and begins feeding Big Bob while Little Bob backs up for a tiny PS.
Little Bob appears to have entered his own reptilian stage this morning, his little head starting to look oily. Big Bob is definitely a woolly oily teenager but perfectly laid-back and well behaved. He eats far better now, though still does not comfortably manage large pieces and still has trouble finding the right angle to get food from mum’s beak. He experimented with some self-feeding yesterday.
Finn watches breakfast feeding number two for a couple of minutes, then takes the leftovers of his morning catch and flies back up to the perch with them.
I wrote this yesterday – but I will send it anyway. Iris really is looking absolutely exhausted to me. I worry about her. She is putting everything into this season – she adores her babies – but you may well be right. If this is how she spends her last year, she would have wanted it this way. She is such a natural mum. She is in her element. I have come to love her a great deal.
I continue to believe Finn is literally heaven-sent. Just the sweetest guy. His loyalty has been fantastic. Louis never stood a chance against Finn’s determination to win Iris. I worried so much about him, but just look at the mate he has turned out to be. And what a handsome catch he is! I actually don’t hear them chat together at all – I hear Iris doing a lot of chatting but I never hear him answer. He just listens, learns and obeys. “
Osoyoos: It is 77 degrees F and 4 mph winds.
Olsen brought in a tiny whole fish at 0446. Each chick and Soo had some bites. She fed, stopping on and off, until 0453:10.
At 0800:53, Olsen brought in a very alive nice sized headless fish! Thank you for eating, Olsen. You and Soo have to eat in order to care for the babies.
Everyone got fish. Little walked away and the feeding stopped at 0818:25.
Olsen brought in the third fish of the day at 1131:49. It was a really nice size.
All of the chicks already had big crops when this big fish arrived! I am so glad that today was my day to monitor. It has been terrific. Soo fed the chicks and was still eating off the fish herself at 1158. Tears.
Little turns around and looks like it is trying out for the role of Hulk at 1157. Kids are too full to eat anymore.
At 1610 the chicks still had big crops. Did I miss a fish?
At 1728, Olsen brought in a large headless fish. Everyone has eaten well all day. The cooler temperatures and no wind must be helping. This is tremendous for this nest. Please send positive wishes every day to this family. They certainly deserve it. So was still feeding everyone an hour later and still had fish left. Sweet dreams babies…
I will check later but this nest doesn’t need any more fish today to survive but gosh it would be good for all of them if they ate and ate.
From now on I will add the temperature and wind conditions, where possible, on nests we are closely monitoring.
That tiny third hatch at Blackbush seems to be breaking hearts! It is a cutie. ‘MP’ adores this little one for being “persistently motivated, resilient and goal-driven in the face of challenges and difficulties of the parent’s predicament. Dad is lovingly family-oriented.”
‘PB’ has been monitoring the Cowlitz PUD nest and reports: “Cowlitz, little had around 115 bites. Excellent feeding and you can see a crop! This is a spunky little one that knows how to get to mom and be safe from big ones. When big one approached, little scooted closer to mom for protection and was able to feed again.Add 50 mote bites for Cowlitz little 3=165 total so far. Little found a gap between mom and dad to be fed 50 more bites!
You might remember that Challenger had cataract surgery. ‘J’ writes that it went well and sent us the link. He is now back home!
If you missed the June Condor chat, here it is!
David and Betty welcomed osplet three to the Colonial Beach nest on Friday.
Fledglings continue to return to the Venice Golf Course osprey nest for fish dinner. How lovely.
Family portrait at Oyster Bay. All is well.
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Only Bob is alive and Mum is feeding it – looks OK.
It was really windy and rainy at the nest of Beaumont and Hope in Newfoundland. Hope is feeding the baby better than she has done in past years. 12 C with winds gusting to 40 km/h. Not good for fishing those winds.
Gorgeous day in Colorado. Charlie and Lola are doing really, really well. What a beautiful trio. Did you know that Lola is Charlie’s new mate replacing Charlotte? And she is 14 years old and was banded in Lola, Montana? She must have lost her mate, too. Glad these two found one another – they are a beautiful family.
Two beautiful osplets in Latvia!
A nest full of big beautiful osplets in Poole Harbour.
All is good for the Dyfi kids of Idris and Telyn.
The Dorsett Hobbies have three eggs.
Gorgeous eaglets at the Estonian nest #2. Walking stronger. Eating well. Both of them.
Goshawks abandon their nest after hearing shots.
Well the persecution of raptors continues and now there is a Taskforce. I hope it does something besides having meetings — something good for the raptors.
A large number of my readers live in the UK. Here is a great article – for those times you are going out to find wildlife – on where to go, who to spot, etc.
Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, J, MP, PB’, George Anderson and The Woodland Trust, Geemeff, Geemeff and the Woodland Trust, Montana Osprey Project, Osoyoos Osprey Cam, Blackbush, Cowlitz PUD, American Eagle Foundation, Ventana Wildlife Society, VGCCO, PSEG, MN Landscape Arboretum, Newfoundland Power, Charlo Montana, LDF, BoPH, Dyfi Osprey Project, Dorsett Hobby, Eagle Club of Estonia, Raptor Persecution UK, and The Guardian.
