Wednesday in Bird World

15 January 2024

Hello Everyone!

First up: Nothing new to report at NE Florida. Some sad and glad news at the end of today’s post.

A great news story comes to us from one of our readers ‘EJ’. I think we all need to start off feeling good about the world! The eagle was frozen in the snow at the airport – check it out!

Good Morning. We hope that the week has been treating you well. The temperature warmed up on Tuesday to -14 C, but, gosh golly, it felt cold walking into a wind that cut right to the bone! We are expecting an Alberta Clipper to hit our province starting on Thursday. We will see how much snow and winds it will bring, but then….hold on. The wind chill factor for Saturday is set to be -40 or -45 C. We plan to stay home and ride our bicycle that day.

‘The Girls’ have no idea how blustery it is outside. Meanwhile my heart pangs for those poor dears living rough. There were four at the feeder today: Brock, Star, Squishy (one ear frozen and permanently folded down) and that little black cat from the fall. I haven’t seen that one for a bit.

Calico joined Baby Hope watching the squirrels run around the garden.

Last night I started reading Bob the Robin out loud. It is part of my ongoing attempts to find ways to engage Don in the daily activities of the house. Calico loves story time and she was right there. Gosh, I adore this cat.

As I write, The Girls are playing with a tiny stuffed mouse in the Conservatory. Baby Hope is the champion of picking it up and running away then, dropping it to see who will come and play with her. You would be right if you guessed it might be Hugo Yugo. These two love to play!!!!!!!!

I must say that I pace when I think of Gabby and Beau and their eggs. The AEF will be the official pip callers. They have lots of folks with eyes on those eggs 24/7. Gabby is not giving anything away.

Beau wanted to take over incubation and Gabby said a definitive ‘no’. I am hoping that means that one of those eaglets is working to get out of that shell!

The Es got a rabbit for breakfast – oh, goodness. Poor thing did not make it across the road. I wish these eagles would stay away from the areas where there is traffic. Maybe some good soul moved that rabbit to a safe place for them. That is what each of us should be doing. https://youtu.be/JnAejA5XU7o?

At Redding, Liberty is on the nest. Can we expect eggs soon? We wait to see.

Oh, those two at the WRDC nest of Ron and Rose. R7 and R8 lock beaks as fish is ready to be served!

The kids at the Captiva nest are changing quickly. Today you can see that dark charcoal thermal down that will help them regulate their own temperatures. Their pin feathers are coming in. That cuteness of a day ago is giving way to the ‘lanky’ look of a tall teenager (sorry for the stereotype).

They are also interested in pecking at the prey.

Eagle on the snowy ND-LEEF nest in South Bend Indiana.

Well, he is cute. His (or her) name is Skylar and he is the first hatch at the Dataw Eagle nest! https://youtu.be/wSZTtabDA5Y?

A visiting albatross got a sky call out of RLK at the Royal Albatross colony. The visitor wandered close to the nest with nothing happening and then smiled in the camera.

I love seeing RLK on the nest. OGK was my all-time favourite male in the colony. No one comes close to his endearing behaviour, sitting so long beside his daughter, Miss Pippa Atawhai. Gosh, I wonder how she is doing. At any rate, if you missed it, RLK is OGK’s son.

GLG has returned after 12 days of foraging to incubate their egg. RLK raises his head as he hears her. They will share time together and he will return to the sea hopefully to return safely.

Here is Cornell’s video of the visit. https://youtu.be/XverqezfBxI?

At the Port Lincoln barge, it is windy Wednesday morning. Both fledglings on the nest hoping for some fish.

This was Tuesday’s tally. Kasse got more – unless Wilko is off fishing. Maybe he has found a treasure trove of puffers!!!!!!!

Politics has no place when it comes to trying to protect our planet. And yet, politics is the biggest driver to either progress or hindrance. Unbelievable. I doubt if anyone working on behalf of creating wetlands ever thought that beavers were so controversial.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/14/no-10-blocks-beaver-release-plan-tory-legacy?CMP=share_btn_url

Wildlife adapting to what we have done to the planet?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/06/evolution-species-adapt-response-humanity-tuskless-elephants-natural-world-wildlife-aoe?CMP=share_btn_url

We always need a smile and when I saw this posting I knew it had to go here today. Shadow.

Calico’s Tip for the Day: You can Save a Life. Please make this a habit. Snip all of these kinds of closures including those white tabs that come on some loaves of bread, the plastic that connects soda bottles, etc. So many birds feed at the landfill sites and they can die from our negligence. Please be pro-active!

Heidi is sending tragic news:
“We had been told a few weeks ago that there had been a GHO at the osprey nest this past fall.  At 21:25 on 1/14, an owl dragged F1 off the nest while she was incubating two eggs.  We can still see one egg, and it is believed that the other egg is under some nesting.  As of 03:00 on 1/15, F1 has still not returned to the nest.  I worry for the future chicks at this nest.”

This is not a good start to the osprey season in North America.

There is good news coming out of West Africa for the Rutland Ospreys.

Thanks so much for being with us today. Please take care. We hope to 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: ‘Heidi, J’, NEFL-AEF, FORE, wskrsnwngs, WRDC, Window to Wildlife, ND-LEEF, HDonTap, NZ DOC, Cornell Bird Lab, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Bart M and the PLO, The Guardian, Neil Laferty and FOBBV, Rutland Osprey Project