4 January 2024
Hello Everyone,
Oh, gosh, it was cold on the Canadian Prairies on Friday. -22 C. My legs were freezing. Thank goodness I am short. It means those coats that fall below the knee hit my ankle! A bit of a wind, too, made your cheeks feel like they would fall off. Still, it isn’t as cold as it was when it was -38 C.
So for something different today because so few nests have chicks. Winnipeg. Our lesson for the day – everything you wanted to know about where I live and move. We are the coldest city in the Western Hemisphere! We have the world’s longest river skating rink. This video will tell you more about the City where I live. Just a note. You will see tent cities discussed. Our new premier, Wab Kinew, is removing these one by one. Accommodation will be made available to all. There are currently ten tent cities, normally of indigenous people along the river. They will all be gone in a few months. No worries about anyone freezing!!!!!! But notice all the parking lot comments. Concrete. No efficient transport to the suburbs where most live so you see one person in a car driving into the city centre. Empties at the weekend. Those houses for $200,000 – mostly new immigrants. The average price of a family home in a reasonable neighbourhood with good schools is about $525,000 and up. Enjoy! Watch: https://youtu.be/yOJ28eNaw3Y?
CROW came to the rescue at the Captiva Bald Eagle nest of Connie and Clive. If you were watching you will know that a large piece of some kind of twine made its way on to the nest. A big threat to the eagles and eaglets and human caused. Still, CROW required a permit from USFWS to get up to an occupied nest. That intervention took place Thursday.
Here is the video of that removal: https://youtu.be/EPwsr1-3IFY?
All is safe and well on Friday.
The osplet at Thistle Island in South Australia has fledged.
Kasse and Wilko did well on Saturday. Both Mum and Dad really pulled their weight with the fish and at the end of the day both fledglings had good meals.
The Real Saunders Photography gives us a different view of the SW Florida nest of F23 and M15. https://youtu.be/QD1sfL3a_oc?
We will never know what happened to Diane at the Achieva Credit Union nest. Normally we would see her before the end of the year back at the nest with Jack. Did she choose not to return after a couple of poor years? We have certainly see Bald Eagle females not return after several poor years. A Good example is Ma Berry from the Berry College nest in Georgia. Ma Berry voluntarily left her mate and was photographed in Alabama. I also believe that Connie’s mate Joe also left the nest after he delivered a rat to the nest which was fed to Peace and Hope. The result was that both eaglets perished due to rodenticide poisoning. I will never forget his grieving over their bodies. Diane might have seen the state of that nest at Achieva and tossed her talons into the air! She might also have perished. She was not seen after Hurricane Milton which hit the St Petersburg area with great force. She was not ringed. We can speculate and we will never know. I am listing her on the Memorial Page. I also cannot prove that the female on the nest is Tumbles, the third hatch of this nest in 2020. She was not ringed. I can only examine the pattern on top of the head. The plumage pattern on the top of the head and the underwing of ospreys do not change from the time they fledge til they die. All other parts of them can.
The nest platform is a mess. The nesting materials are drying in the sun and some might blow off, but nothing has been done about securing the drainage holes or the presence of squirrels on the nest. Indeed, how are they getting up the holes? And why, so many months after Milton, with no activity on this nest, has no one stepped forward to do anything?
The Bald Eagles, George and Gracie, have prevailed with their first egg arriving at the Hilton Head nest!
Gabby and Beau are doing fantastic with the incubation of their two eggs – getting off and on you would think they had been doing this for decades.
Thunder and Akecheta at the West End nest on Friday.
Chase and Cholyn were both seen at the Two Harbours nest on Friday. Chase flew in with a fish and then appears to have left with it. Are they both 26 years old this year? For those not familiar, Chase and Cholyn are the parents of Thunder at the West End nest.
Highlights are still playing at the Fraser Point nest of Andor and Cruz.
Windy day at Eagle Country nest.
Eagles at Big Bear.
Peregrines preparing their scrape at London University. https://youtu.be/xsg4kCyMGmw?
A good news story about an osprey rescue! An Osprey ringed in the Forest Preserves of Cook County, Illinois, was found injured in Colombia, South America, more than 2500 miles away. Thanks, Geemeff.
To end the day, some gorgeous wildlife photographs. Smile. Despite everything we have so much joy in the world. We just need to look.
Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, comments, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, J, TU’, From Here to There, Window to Wildlife, Port Lincoln Osprey, Achieva Credit Union, Bart M and the PLO, The Real Saunders Photography, NEFL-AEF, IWS/Explore, Eagle Country, FOBBV, Yvonne M, The Guardian
I know, I am so angry about the nest at Achieva that red is the color of my skin. I’ve emailed-externally, internally on websites, called and almost prayed except I don’t do that. I will continue to send messages around the social media game until someone has to take a look at their monstrosity of an osprey platform. One someone in the profession of erecting platforms specifically for osprey said they know what they’re talking about and the birds will rebuild the nest because osprey are stick pros and if anything keeps chicks safe it is their stick building. And that the drain holes are just that holes for water draining and chicks NEVER go down drain holes—EVER! I know he said, I’m a professional builder of osprey plaforms. Pft!
Those drain holes need SS mesh of some type on them. i know someone would have it in St Petersburg if I can get it here and there has to be a cherry picker. Where is the local person that cares??????????/. It is anger provoking for sure.