Wensi gets a late night snack…Late, late Monday in Bird World

31 August 2026

Hello Everyone,

Thank you so much for your prayers, for keeping us in your thoughts and your love. As MicPark said in the comments, Toby and I will survive this. We will, but I do not know how I would have survived this time without him and ‘The Girls’. We have been through challenging times like all families, especially when our youngest son was killed in a road accident. I can do this! There are millions of families dealing with someone who has dementia or Alzheimer’s. It is a horrible, horrible disease that truly robs that person of their identity.

I am trying to focus on the positive and the fun things that we did. One of those was making a snack late at night – tonight, Toby and I made a little pizza in honour of all those thousands of pizzas over the years made at midnight. It was delicious and brought back such fond times. I saved half and will take it to the hospital tomorrow.

Did I tell you that we don’t use pizza dough anymore? We used to make it from scratch. I use flour tortilla shells. They make the best thin crust pizza – if that is what you like. We would take a large one and put it in an 8 or 9 inch cake pan. It curls the edges up so you can have a deep dish style if you want. Put on the sauce and toppings and bake for 13 minutes at 410 F. Easy for kids to make – young and old. Make sure you get good pizza cheese, at least 25 % MF.

As osprey season really winds down, the Bald Eagles are returning to our delight. I did jump up and down with joy when I saw Gabby – she looks in terrific shape. Ron and Rose, as reported on Monday, have returned and I am sure looking forward to see if anyone will take up residence in the West End nest in the Channel Islands.

Recently, the clubbing of gannets was outlawed (at least for this year) on one of the Scottish islands (reported in a former blog). Here is a hopeful article on these seabirds.

Gorgeous gannets!

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/31/country-diary-for-the-gannets-of-bass-rock-its-a-slow-road-to-recovery?CMP=share_btn_url

The Port Lincoln osprey barge. Wind and rain hitting Mum as she covers her precious eggs. It looks like the weather is keeping Dad from getting any fish to the nest. As I keep thinking and saying, fish fairies, get ready. If you’ve donated to the fish fund before, start saving those pennies so these babies have a chance of survival.

Nicer weather for 37 and 38 in Sydney.

37 ate first and then there was fish left for 38. Lady did a good job feeding both.

Look at that crop on Diamond! Incredible.

With four eggs, the 367 Collins Street falcons are into full incubation mode.

Wensi got a late night snack, too – 20:27!

It was a big fish. Still eating in the dark – more than an hour after the delivery. Wensi will sleep with a full crop.

Thank you so much for being such a supportive community. Please keep an eye on Wensi. It will not be long before they fly to their winter homes, and then we’ll anxiously await seeing who returns next year. Let us hope they’re all in good health.

I will see you again in a few days.

Thank you to The Guardian for the article on the Gannets and to the owners of the streaming cams that let us look at these incredible raptor families. What would we do without them?