19 July 2024
Hello from Toronto,
Update: We lost Little Bob at Osoyoos Wednesday night. Sad, sad. The osplets are getting their feathers. It has been a horrible, horrible year.
Oh, my goodness, Thursday was a gorgeous blue-sky day. It wasn’t too hot, and there was a wonderful breeze. High Park was only a disappointment in that there were fewer ducks or species of ducks than I anticipated. Robins were dancing all over the lawn searching for worms, a lovely lady feeding pigeons and squirrels (she comes daily to the same bench), and a delightful little zoo.
When I was doing a residency at Hospitalfield in Scotland, I would often drive through the countryside and see the gorgeous Highland Cattle at the farms.
Their ‘hair’ is like stiff bristles.
I particularly loved the Emu. The San Diego Zoo describes these birds as: “Tall and majestic, the emu belongs to a group of flightless running birds known as ratites, the most primitive of the modern bird families. The ratite family includes the kiwi, ostrich, cassowary, and rhea, all birds found only in the Southern Hemisphere. The emu is the second-largest living bird in the world (the ostrich is the largest). Adult female emus are larger and heavier than the males.”
The peacock was trying to impress the peahen and spread his tail feathers in quite the show in front of me. As a child, my grandmother’s sister had peacocks on her ranch in Oklahoma. They were stunning.
One of the nicest parts of the afternoon was visiting with this lovely woman who comes to the park daily to feed the squirrels and pigeons—a kindred spirit.
Toronto has ‘Black’ Squirrels, Winnipeg doesn’t!
The biggest disappointment was the lack of duck species.
Moving on to check on our birds.
Hot, hot, and hotter for Iris. Where’s all that fish?! Iris looks worn out in the heat of the day.
She was tired and trying desperately to keep her babies safe despite being in the heat of one of the hottest days, and it was going to get hotter with no break until Tuesday. That is four days away! The fish deliveries have dropped due to the extreme heat – not Finn’s fishing skills. Fish go deeper. Ospreys only fish the top metre of the water. Sending positive wishes for all of them as you can see the heat is not going away.
Finn has come in with a big fish. The chicks now join Iris is cheering Dad’s arrival – and these fish, despite being plentiful, are so welcome since it is hot. Iris tends to feed her chicks before herself and she needs to eat and stay strong.
Charlo Montana. Lola needs fish. The little twiddler brought in so early in the morning cannot sustain this family. At first, she let one of the chicks self-feed, and then she took over. She has to eat, too. They need more fish!
Single Mum at McEuen Park still holding in there and the only surviving Bob is still with us. They have that hot hot heat, too. ‘PB’ reports that the osplet had a good ps and crop!
How in the world are these amazing ospreys able to stay cool and alive during this incredible heat wave?
Self-feeding and a fledge at Field Farm.
Blackwater had a fledge!
Beautiful baby at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Mum and Dad will once again fledge a single chick. Let’s hope that being the only survivor means that this baby is nice and healthy. So many weren’t this year.
The two Llyn Brenig chicks have their names.
More ringing in Finland. Great footage including a drone view of nest.
Geemeff sends us her Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust summary:
The Capercaillie is highly endangered. Decoy capercaillie nests have been set up and baited with chicken eggs plus a wax one so the researchers can ID which predator took the eggs. Also deer carcasses left.https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/artificial-predator-feeding-sites-could-save-scotlands-capercaillie
===============================================================================
“I can’t think like an Osprey…” said the man in charge.
No, that’s true, but you can build nest platforms in safe places once you demolish this old bridge. Sorry for the loss of the chicks when the nest was blown off in the storm – a sturdy nest platform in the general area of the old one, with high sides and a few starter sticks and moss, will definitely get the attention of the returning pair next Spring.
===========================================================================
Daily summary Thursday 18th July 2024
A dreich day with mist and rain, and heavy rain from around 11pm. Tonight’s forecast is drizzle and light winds, but looking at the nests via night cam, it looks more like heavy rain and fog. Not a pleasant day, but although Louis and Dorcha only showed up once this morning, arriving around 08.55 with Louis departing at 09.03 and Dorcha departing at 09.36, there were plenty of little visitors to Nest One, and what sounds like a juvenile Tawny Owl calling near Nest Two around 10.30pm. Despite Dorcha’s calls, Louis didn’t bring a fish and made a half-hearted mating attempt before leaving. Neither adult returned to the nest today after that one visit. Over in Spain, we received more footage from the translocation programme of 1JR , formerly known as the submissive chick, looking strong and healthy and tucking in to a big piece of fish on his own with no one trying to intimidate him or take his fish away. It bodes well for his future success.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.30.05 (04.03.54); Nest Two 23.14.11 (04.08.55)
Today’s videos:
https://youtu.be/qaojgIgK74A WTScotsocial tweet and footage of 1JR tucking into his fish dinner in Spain
https://youtu.be/eUp1mUx7Wcw N1 A little bird hops up on the nest – juvenile Robin? 04.53.20
https://youtu.be/38ok-uZ5sHg N1 A Jay visits 05.15.24
https://youtu.be/wa59vTuwYJc N2 No fish, just a failed mating attempt 08.54.10
https://youtu.be/1FIRDaevMNU N1 Various little birds visit 10.43.32 – 10.53.50
https://youtu.be/pxWsh7-M96g N2 Is this a juvenile Tawny Owl calling nearby? 22.33.16
Watch the Loch Arkaig Osprey livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam
Twin Cities Metro had their first fledge.
One lucky stork and some wonderful caring people who saved it in Switzerland.
‘H’ reports: 7/18 Osoyoos osprey nest: The two osplets are 40 and 41 days old. This was not a good day for this osprey family. It was sunny and hot. Two out of three weather apps stated the high temperature reached in Osoyoos was 102F/39C. There was only one fish delivered to the nest. Soo brought in a small whole fish at 0531, and she fed for approximately six minutes. I tripled-checked to make sure I did not miss another fish delivery. Olsen was not seen on camera today, and Soo spent a large portion of the day being ‘Mombrella’ to help shade her big chicks. Unfortunately, we don’t know how well the chicks ate yesterday, because the cam was down for half of the day. Weather forecast for Friday: Sunny, high temp 100F/38C, light winds. The severe heat wave is expected to last through Monday. Please note in one of the attached photos, the crop on one of the chicks at 9:00 pm.
7/18 Colonial Beach osprey nest: There was only one fish brought to the nest today. The temperature was quite a bit cooler, with a high of ‘only’ 86, and light winds. David delivered a large whole fish at 1310. It was so big, that it was equivalent to several meals. Betty and her 24-day-old youngster ate on-and-off for nearly two hours. The nestling still had a large crop at 1945.
7/19 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: The story of the youngest chick at this nest is one of survival. Little was one of those tiny underdog nestlings, that for weeks had to compete for every single bite of life-sustaining fish he ate, amid the dominance of the aggressive oldest sibling. Fortunately, thanks to ‘Master Fisher Dad’ and his ‘whopper’ fish deliveries, Little was able to make it through that dangerous period of time. Due to the lack of proper nutrition during those formative weeks, Little’s development was delayed. Well, today at 68 days of age…Little fledged at 0850! Happy tears! Little made a nice landing back on the nest about 4.5 hours later. And, not only that… Apparently during those few hours that Little was away from the nest for the first time, he had undergone some sort of metamorphosis, and he found his ‘mojo’. Over the past several days, Little was still coming up short with the fish grabs. He could not compete with his larger and more aggressive older siblings when they would fight for fish. But now as a new fledgling, and with his new-found courage, he must have had a long talk with himself during those few hours that he was off the nest … “I am strong, I am important, My life matters, I have rights, and I’m not going to take it any more!” After he flew back to the nest, Little was hungry. He had missed out on a couple of fish drops at the nest, so he munched on any fish scraps he could find. At 1529 Dad delivered a medium-sized whole fish. All three fledglings were already at the nest. Well, in a flash Little jumped into action. He fought for that fish. Middle had initially acquired the fish, but Little grabbed Middle by the nape with his beak and didn’t let go for nearly a minute. Middle dropped the fish. Big was standing off to the the side, wide-eyed, wondering who that kid was, lol. After Middle dropped the fish, Big was eyeing the fish laying on the nest, but she decided not to get involved! Middle walked away (unhurt). Little calmly walked over to the fish, proudly picked up his prize, and chowed-down! Little was a changed osprey today, in more ways than one.
7/18 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Captain Mac’s Fish House): This nest still seems to come up short on fish. The weather has not been very hot. The high temp today was in the upper 70’s, with light winds. 34-day-old ‘Fen’ is still behaving aggressively toward both of his parents. I believe Fen is ‘hangry’. Johnny delivered three fish to the nest, and the partial fish were not very big. June has started to allow her youngster some time to try to self feed, but so far Fen is rather clueless as to how to proceed. Then after about 15 minutes of Fen trying to nibble on the fish, June will feed Fen. It is possible that the waterways being congested with boating traffic this time of year, compounded by reduced fish availability from the many vacationers out fishing, may be affecting Johnny’s ability to catch fish.
Thank you so much for being with me today. I wish you could have walked through the little zoo or sat by the water listening to the songbirds and enjoying the squirrels with me. Take care! See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, H, PB, TU’, Montana Osprey Project, Charlo Montana, The Weather Network, McEuen Park, Cornell Lab Bird Cams, Friends of Blackwater NWR, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch, Werner Fahrner, Osoyoos, Colonial Beach, Fenwick Island, and Patuxent River Park.
Is anyone going to rescue Blue on Boundary Bay Central in BC? He hasn’t ate in days?
Hi Debbie, Fish is being provided to Blue at various times by Hancock Wildlife, I presume. Here is the latest image from 18 July, showing him eating fish and he had a nice crop. You can go to Hancock Wildlife Forum and find out about that is happening on the nest. Search for Boundary Bay Eagles. This won’t let me post it. I will put the image in tomorrow’s blog.
Great, thank you!