17 May 2025
Hello Everyone,
Morning Updates:
The 4th egg has hatched at Rutland Manton Bay.
First fledge at Duke Farms.
USK Valley: Children have given the ospreys their names: “We are pleased to announce that our male osprey is to be called Syfaddan* named after Llangors Lake, which is one of the favoured fishing grounds. The female will be known as Clogwyn** after the imposing rocky outcrop on the Allt overlooking their nest. This feature has also assumed the more romantic mantle of “the Pride Rock from The Lion King” – for fairly obvious reasons – by other children in the area.”
Heidi Nest Notes:
‘PB’ reports two osplets at Salt Point.
The pouring rain continues. The grass and leaves turn a deeper emerald green with every drop. The temperature is dropping, however, and with the wind chill it is -5C. The potted tomatoes, peppers, and hydrangea are inside on the island, as snow is predicted. Brock’s dishes are all full. The birds have abandoned the garden to the squirrels, who continue their search for peanuts and seeds. It must be hard on the outdoor animals – this rollercoaster ride of a season.
The Girls have been busy watching everything flying about. The lilac blossoms are beautiful but I fear that with the high winds they will not last.
Hugo Yugo is under the table having been cornered by Toby. Baby Hope looks down hoping she is high enough and out of the way.
Toby and Hugo Yugo wanting to play with the same toys! These two are actually friends.
Thank you for all your good wishes for Toby. He appears to be getting better. We had a dear friend for lunch today, whom we hadn’t seen in several years. Toby and she hit it off brilliantly! What impressed me most was that ‘R’ picked up on Toby’s attachment to ‘me’. She asked Don if he was jealous. His reply was more thoughtful and elaborate, but in essence, he said, ‘no’. I had always brought the cats to our house, and they had always gone to him, so it was only ‘fair’ that Toby could be mine. Had I not been driving, the tears would have streamed down the front of my sweater. A complicated question answered precisely and accurately with empathy from a very dear man.
Quickly getting to the news highlights form Bird World:
Surrey Reserve Bald Eagles: Hancock Wildlife Foundation has sent a climber to retrieve the bodies of SR10 and SR11 so that they can be tested to determine the cause of the eaglets’ death. The post read, “A four member climbing team thankfully retrieved Brit & Rey’s two deceased eaglets. Lots of fresh fish was left for the parents. Thanks to all who organized this retrieval, and we hope this gives some peace to the deeply grieving parents.”
FOBBV: Special moments at the Big Bear nest captured on video before the darlings Sunny and Gizmo fledge. https://youtu.be/WraMnX8mFy0?
Loch Doon: First hatch of the 2025 breeding season came on Friday the 16th.
Kielder Forest: Rutland’s two-year-olds are making their presence known!
Nests are coming under heavy winds and rain. Will they hold up, ‘PR’ asks. They write, “We have a very windy day. The wind blew part of a house finch nest half off. I checked and they were still in process of building and no babies or eggs yet. But Oppd Osprey, Denton Homes and Trempealeau nests are all in heavy winds today. If you look at Denton it’s really blowing that tree around. Photos in order.”
‘PB’ reports that the Denton Homes nest is swaying considerably in the high winds.
We are all concerned about nests collapsing after the death of the triplets, three very healthy eaglets, of Scout and Bella, at the NCTC nest.
Cornell Red-tail Hawk Nest: Beautiful little chicks of Big Red and Arthur, bursting after a great meal. https://youtu.be/8VgHH2iV034?
Trempeauleau Eagle Nest: T3 is growing so well, and Mum gets a huge gold medal for raising this beautiful eaglet single-handedly.
Norwegian Osprey Nest: There are at least two eggs, perhaps three.
Goitzsche Wildnis: Incubation continues.
Golden Gate Audubon SF Ospreys: Rosie and Richmond had their first hatch on the 10th or the 11th of May. It is unclear if there have been any others.
Rutland Manton Bay: The age spread is great. Maya and Blue 33 are very experienced. Will they be adding another to the three hatches already? Quite frankly, I hope not. Number 3 is rather tiny.
Cardinal Land Conservancy: A fantastic nest that I haven’t checked on enough. Great parents, eaglets growing up with four meals and a turtle on Fridays. Incredible.
San Jose City Hall: SK Hideaways catches the frantic nature of having four ringed and hungry eyases! https://youtu.be/vpojZPJghJo?
Geemeff’s Woodland Trust daily summary for Loch Arkaig Friday 16th May 2025
Today was calm and routine – Louis brought two fish for Dorcha, taking his tally to ninety three, but Garry didn’t bring any fish for Aurora, engaging instead in a mating session which looked successful. His tally remains at fifty four, the weather remains settled, and we’re moving along nicely towards pip-watch with first hatch expected around 21-23 May – that’s next week!
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.16.47 (03.21.04); Nest 23.44.37 (03.43.07)
Today’s videos:
https://youtu.be/3ainCb_9inA N2 First fish arrives to the sound of birdsong 05.51.01
https://youtu.be/FmbBKyiOcBI N1 Successful mating for Garry & Aurora 18.36.48
https://youtu.be/jj0bPDw-OAE N2 Louis finally lands and gives fish two to Dorcha 21.36.22
Geemeff’s sends two other news items:
Ospreys and menhaden – again! https://penobscotbaypress.com/articles/forum-islandadvantages/are-osprey-in-trouble-again/
GenZ have discovered birding – will their interest help stop some of the stripping away of wilslife and environmental protections?
https://www.deseret.com/magazine/2025/05/15/bird-watching-captures-new-generation
‘VV’ gives us a report of some strange activity happening at the Maryland Osprey nests near the Bay: “One of the nest owners of N5 (where the gull ate the eggs) has returned. W/o the other around I can’t discern M from F. If Female, it means Nests 2, 3, 4, & 5 had established males this year who left their nests this month, 2 w/ mates and 2 w/o
Just as I was typing an eagle forced an osprey to drop a fish and the eagle retrieved it – these osprey cannot catch a break here this year. OH NO, I think it was the male of N9 – where incubation is still ongoing – who lost the fish. The eagles tag teamed him, I think they have a nest directly across the creek from me but deep into the pine.
Anyway, at least 3 males self-deported this month from the 5 nests off my porch. If males consistently fail to catch enough food for the nest, would they just stop coming home? Forcing the females, incubating or not, to fish or starve. There appear to be many unattended nests along the creek which had previously been rigorously attended – and in a number of cases believe were incubating eggs.
Also, like N5, one osprey has returned to N14 after days of absence. IDK M or F on that nest. Regardless, I have to conjecture only a regional dearth of food leading to impending starvation would prompt ospreys to leave off their breeding duties, from mating through to incubation.”
‘A’ sends us some news and comments, too! “Just look at these GHO owlets. They are the cutest things and couldn’t hurt an eaglet or osplet (yet)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frFP0GfDFK8&list=TLPQMTQwNTIwMjWuwzEhGO60dQ&index=7. And we are soon going to lose our cute fluffball from Taiaroa Head. The countdown begins. Eight or ten weeks to go I think. September is fledge month from memory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W2RCbyMiTk&list=TLPQMTQwNTIwMjV0ZXQf2Szmxg&index=2. The little one has been under the average weight for a female chick of her age for a couple of weeks but was fed twice the day before this video and should now be in the normal weight range again. These birds are absolutely exquisite, and so gentle. I adore them.
Lady and Dad have started to prepare their Olympic Park nest for a new season, and are spending nights near the nest much of the time. Earlier in the week, a juvenile sea eagle was seen around the island, catching a fish on the river. I wonder whether it is one of their past SE fledglings. Obviously, we hope so. Meanwhile, Mrs T continues to do a great solo job with T3, whose crop is immense nearly every time I check. She has really been a wonderful mum in difficult circumstances. Mr T continues to try and steal food from the nest when he can to take to his other nest, over on the island but Mrs T is still managing fabulously well with T3. I only hope the eaglet/s at Mr T’s other nest are doing well too.
At FOBBV, we are waiting for Sunny and Gizmo to take the plunge, as you are well aware. At NEFL the nest does look very empty. The juvie who adopted Bodie and the nest was such a strange addition to an already unusual season at NEFL. What a special year it really has been. I am absolutely certain that having siblings is a huge plus for eaglets (and presumably osplets etc) and it was a massive bonus for Bodie that the juvie arrived. It really did look as though the two of them enjoyed each other’s company immensely – I know I’m anthropomorphising but I’m just observing, and surely the juvie would have left again if that had not been the case, or if it was there purely for the food, would have fought Bodie. It was also interesting that a parent continued to bring food to the nest, making no serious effort to drive the intruder away. At Orange, Diamond and Xavier are doing a lot of bonding – several times a day – with Diamond also showing a lot of interest in cleaning up the nest box, even arranging pebbles. Diamond is on her ledge as I type, but has only a medium-sized crop (normally, she arrives with a crop so large it makes you wonder how she flies with it), so lunch might be on her mind. And Betty Lou looks so healthy – it has been a wonderful season for Jaks and darling Audacity.”
News from Knepp Farm:
They are adorable!
Thank you so much for being with us today. If the weather isn’t too bad, we are heading out to look at some jasmine plants today. In the meantime, take care. We are on hatch watch for the UK nests!!!!!!!!! It is finally going to get exciting. Take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, Heidi, PB, VV’, USK Valley, Dewey Beach, Barnegat Light, Hancock Wildlife Foundation Surrey Reserve Bald Eagle Nest, FOBBV, SK Hideaways, Loch Doon, Kielder Forest News, OPPD Fort Calhoun, Denton Homes, Cornell Bird Lab Red-tail Hawk Cam, Trempealeau Bald Eagle Nest, Fru Raurer, Joan Castnyer, Golden Gate Audubon, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, VV Maryland osprey report, ‘A’s report, Knepp Farm, Barbara Wolfson and Bald Eagles 101, Rutland Manton Bay, SK Hideaways and San Jose City Hall, The Guardian
