14 March 2025
Oh, my goodness. Is it possible that something has happened to one of the chicks at Big Bear? This video shows one caught on Shadow’s talon. There appear to be only two chicks in the nest eating later. The little one was last seen in the snow. I presumed it has passed. What a tragedy.
UPDATE: Peeps can be hear on the Sauces cam if you turn up the volume loud enough.
I had not expected to publish anything today, but, of course there are exciting things happening. As I write this Jak and Audacity’s baby is trying to get out of that membrane. Dr Sharpe says that a large part of the shell had pulled away from the egg on Thursday. The membrane will get brittle and easier for the wee one to break it with its egg tooth. I am so hoping. As I told one reader this will require a large magnum of champagne. We have so long wished for this couple to have an eaglet to raise. I hope it comes to pass.
Shadow wants brooding time. Some worry chick 3 isn’t getting enough food and is also cold and wet. We have to wait and see. https://youtu.be/Jiowi5MwKDU?
The first Osprey star has landed at Manton Bay and the first fish of the year was delivered to his nest by Blue 33 (10). Here is some more information about the Rutland Ospreys:
The first of our annual reports from ‘H’ is full of nest news from the US:
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, 2024 Osprey Report from Ben Wurst: “Plentiful Fish and Calm Weather Give Ospreys a Boost in 2024”
https://conservewildlifenj.org/2025/03/12/plentiful-fish-and-calm-weather-give-ospreys-a-boost-in-2024/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI_jkBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSGmHTB4RViiVDKCLLku5MwoVadkOxbQD8OsX3KTWwcqR5eaZxEZGiD20Q_aem_mfMa2GGBFnrvmtKh_bN9-w
There is an osprey nest cam in Havre de Grace, Maryland, that I have been watching for a couple of days. It seems to have a bonded pair. We have already seen fish gifts and mating. It is located at the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum: (photo of the male with a fish)
There is an osprey nest cam that went online two days ago in Dewey Beach, Delaware. So far in two days, I have only seen a gorgeous female, and she has begun to refurbish the nest while she waits for her mate to return: (photo of the female)
Opal returned to her nest at Forsythe NJ on 3/12. She awaits the return of her mate, Oscar. Opal is a 4-egg-layer. Oh, I dread that. Last season, all four eggs hatched, and only the eldest fledged. There never seems to be enough fish at that nest. I am hoping that only two chicks will hatch this season.” Thanks, H!
I just caught sight of two ospreys on Maryland’s Western Shore for Old Town Home osprey nest!
Peregrine Falcon numbers are dropping. We understand that dear Annie and Alden might have succumb to HPAI. Is that the cause of this other sudden decline?
“In North America, Skip Ambrose, a peregrine expert formerly with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, has been monitoring the falcons along Alaska’s Yukon River since 1973. He, too, has seen a sharp decline in numbers.
In the summer of 2023, Ambrose reported that 20 of 60 peregrine nesting sites were empty, with nearly a dozen more missing a parent. That is particularly notable because peregrines are generally loyal to both their nesting site and their partner….Curiously, the peregrine’s plight in North America seems most pronounced along the coasts. In New Jersey, for example, 22 of the 44 known nesting peregrines went missing during the last breeding season. In Virginia, local scientists recently noted that a dozen out of roughly 70 birds had vanished.
Peregrine nests in inland Washington state, near the Cascade mountains, seem stable, Anderson says, while those on the nearby San Juan Islands are struggling.
“It is interesting that coastal populations are showing impact while those in the middle of the continent, so far, do not,” says Patrick Redig, a veterinarian and president of the Midwest Peregrine Society, who helps track 200 nesting pairs across seven states.
Though scientists lack an official answer as to what is driving such sudden and far-reaching disappearances, many – including David Bird, who formerly led the Avian Science and Conservation Centre at Canada’s Montreal’s McGill University in Quebec – think highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) may be largely to blame.”
More tragedy. Seabirds are getting brain disorders like Alzheimer’s. What to blame? Microplastics?
Plastic pollution leaves seabirds with brain damage similar to Alzheimer’s, study showshttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/12/plastic-pollution-leaves-seabirds-chicks-with-brain-damage-similar-to-alzheimers-study-aoe?CMP=share_btn_url
Cholyn has laid her second egg!
Ospreys are starting to arrive in the UK as well as in the NE of the US.
Thank you for being with us today. Take care everyone. 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: ‘H, J’, FOBBV, Channel Islands Eagle Lovers FB, SK Hideaways, Rutland Manton Bay, River Gwash Ospreys, Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home, The Guardian
Well that’s a depressing read. I think the falcons are so vulnerable because they eat other birds (in Melbourne, other pigeons, and in Orange, parrots and don’t forget the ducklings and the dreaded starlings), all of which can be carriers. The ospreys are protected by their fish diet – the eagles sometimes so, depending on location, but they do supplement that with the odd waterbird. So I would agree it seems likely that HPAI is to be the reason behind the decline in peregrine falcon numbers.
And it is tragic but perhaps unsurprising that a little one has been lost in that deep snow at Big Bear. Three was always going to be a big ask (the youngest did not appear to be getting enough to eat at many of the feedings I watched), but to make things more difficult, they have been unlucky with the weather – too much snow before any of the eaglets had thermal down. So sad. Fly high sweet baby.
I think we can be grateful that we have two surviving eaglets at Big Bear. They are now doing well. Let us hope the weather – the horrid killing winter weather – does not return.