Tuesday in Bird World

6 August 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

What a wonderful way to start the day!

This is part of a fabulous message from ‘B’: “Gosh, Mary Ann, Hellgate is breaking the smile-meter today.  Not only does Sum-eh “branch” to the perch at 6:53, but then s/he tires of the perch at 7:43 and takes off on a real fledge.  And without even seeing her, we can follow the whole flight by seeing Antali track the whole flight, right up to the landing a minute later.  At 8:00 Iris lands and begins calling for the celebratory fish, but she must already know it is on the way, because Finn arrives with fish at 8:00:54, and the whole family is on the nest to celebrate Sum-eh’s fledge.”

How many of us just had tears in our eyes when we saw Sum-eh fly? I keep thinking that this is the perfect Osprey family. Everything this year was as if it had been choreographed by someone directing a world-famous symphony or ballet company at the Hellgate nest of Iris and Finnegan. I want it to stay this perfect.

Iris and her family have energized me.

Information on Montana Ospreys and where they migrate and when:

Poor Iris.

Oh, it was not so hot today but that did not stop the Blue Jays dive bombing the Crow fledglings whenever they came to get cheesy dogs and kibble! The sounds of the fledglings alarming and wanting the parents to come and help was, at times, a bit eerie. And then a community cat came and that really got the Crows going!

The tree you can see is where the Blue Jays nest. They gather there and swoop at the fledgling Crows whenever they come for food. You will see that one of the Crows on the fence has a lighter chest (far right)—it is moulting and an adult.

BirdGuides Photo of the Week is an osprey diving for a fish. Several places in the UK offer hides for taking these amazing images – at a price. Most of all, it helps the ospreys because there is a healthy amount of fish available and, in all cases, as I understand it, the ‘farmers’ who monetised their ponds or fish tanks are making more money from folks like us who want to get that winning image. Note that I have been more than careful not to say ‘shot’ – as the ospreys steal fish at the commercial fish ponds in South America and do get shot. I wish those farmers would advertise hides for taking photographs. They might discover this win-win situation, too.

Geemeff’s daily summary for Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust:

Daily summary Monday 5th August 2024

Just a raft of Mistle Thrushes and a Woodpecker on Nest One today – no Ospreys, no other action on either nest, just plenty of rain. Filling in the gap a little, LizB posted more footage of the Bunarkaig nest showing Affric and her chick, links in the bonus section. The wet weather continues tonight and tomorrow, with the possibility of thundery showers in the late afternoon.

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 22.35.04 (04.41.35); Nest Two 22.46.59 (04.49.03)

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/2VFRd-lLvn4 N1 Many Mistle Thrushes and a Woodpecker visit 13.12.59

Bonus videos – Another couple of bits of video footage from Bunarkaig (thanks LizB):

https://youtu.be/KZnXzJYpR6Q  The chick having a flap and a hop about on the nest with mum Affric

https://youtu.be/aFurmuMNz5E The chick taking flight

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

Concerns for USU at nest #4 Finland continues as migration approaches. Will someone take the osplet into rehab?

‘PB’ caught USU flapping!!!!!!!

We are going to have a fledge at Charlo soon!

The other nest to keep an eye on is Minesota Landscape Arboretum. Our only surviving chick is on the perch with Mum on Monday.

Dad continues to deliver nice fish meals to the Cowlitz PUD nest.

River has come a long way to getting very proficient at self-feeding. Mum Keke looks on at the Sandpoint nest.

All three on the nest at Blackbush at Old Tracadie Harbour.

Nice crops on Mum and the fledgling at Boulder County.

‘PB’ caught a great image of the McEuen fledgling – just look at that crop. Mum did well. Such a sad year for this nest but one osplet survived with Mum despite the heat and having a single parent nest.

Blue (HWF BBCentral nest) was doing some wingers and moving around the nest including standing on the rim.

From the Forum:

‘CG’ reports:

AP Hovasse was out taking videos this morning.  Believes Blue is ready to FLY!!  He will be out again tomorrow morning.  

Cams came back up at 1452 hours.

At 1715 hours, she pulled a plastic bag up out of the nest and proceeded to rip it up scattering it across the nest.

At 1750 hours, a parent delivered food, dropping it at the edge of the nest.  Blue grabbed it and mantled it.

She did her usual flapping and seems to have taken to sitting on the edge of the nest.  She also had three healthy looking PSs this afternoon.  

Close up of Blue.

By 2251 hours, she is lying down asleep.

Weather for Tuesday high of 73F, low 50F, sunny.  Temperature predicted to rise to the 80s Wednesday-Friday, then back down to the 70s with clouds for Saturday through the next week.”

Dad brought a really nice fish to Mum at the Port Lincoln Barge Tuesday morning! Oh, these two are getting me excited. Think the fish fairies will be around this year?

Small beak peeking out of the egg at the Olympic Sea Eagle nest in Sydney. The chick has made some progress during the night and Lady didn’t get much sleep. Let’s hope it is out today.

At Osprey House Environment Centre, the three osplets are little reptiles. I wonder if they will continue to play sweet. Let’s hope!

Where does Australia’s Painted Snipe go in the winter?

A reality TV show in Australia where the contestant ate a rare bird. I thought Geemeff was kidding me – not. Who are these idiots?

https://www.birdguides.com/news/reality-tv-contestant-killed-and-ate-protected-bird

And some better news!

https://www.birdguides.com/news/extinct-in-the-wild-guam-kingfisher-hatches-in-captivity

‘H’ reports:

8/6 Colonial Beach osprey nest:  By 0935 this morning, Betty will have been missing for three days.  Yesterday, David brought 43-day-old Cobey a large headless fish in the morning, and Cobey ate some of it a few times throughout the day.  Cobey is doing well with his self-feeding, but he is not strong enough to tear through much of the skin, especially as the fish dries out.  There was an interesting period of time when there was an intruder on the nest for about 1.5 hours.  Fortunately the intruder was not interested in Cobey, and he did not take the leftover fish.  The intruder simply looked around, and moved some sticks.  We were hoping that David would bring a fresh fish for supper, but he didn’t.  Cobey was noted to have a few good PS on 8/5, but s/he needs more fish than what he is getting.  Unfortunately, David does not do any feeding.  As a single dad, we are hoping that David will increase the amount of fresh fish that he provides for Cobey.  Today will be mostly cloudy, high temp 90, winds gusting to 17 mph.  Please come home, Mommy!

8/5 Osoyoos osprey nest:  They had a good day.  There were 7 fish brought to the nest, including 2 from Soo.  And, both Soo and Olsen delivered some whoppers.  Chick 2 is still not quite ready to take that maiden flight.  S/he did some wingers with slight lift, but no hovers that I have seen.  Weather for 8/6:  sunny, high temp 90F/32C, winds gusting to 13 mph.

An Osprey family living in the Turtle Mountains of Manitoba just west of where I live taken by Brenda Lyons two days ago!

In Estonia, three new Black Storks have been fitted with transmitters. Yeah! We wish them a long, long life. We hope that one of those, Kerli, which is believed to be Kergu’s sweetie pie, will return with him next year to breed.

Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care. We hope to see you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, observations, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, B, CG, Geemeff, H, PB, RP, TU’, Montana Osprey Project, Montana Osprey Cams, mt.gov, McEuen Park, Hancock Wildlife Forum, HWF-BBCentral, BirdGuides, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Cathy Cohen, Osprey House Environment Centre, The Guardian, BirdGuides, Colonial Beach, Osoyoos Osprey Cam, Brenda Lyons, Ciconia Negro.