9 October 2026
Good Afternoon Everyone,
It is a ‘grey’ day, heavily overcast, in Winnipeg. There were a few drops of rain on our walk. The birds, especially the Dark-eyed Juncos, are busy foraging. Mr Crow and family are enjoying pizza leftovers after finishing their peanuts in record time.
The final comments on the Canadian company Omega Protein’s menhaden reduction fishing in the Chesapeake Bay are due by midnight today. It’s easy to add your voice to help save the ospreys. I will include that information below. The New York Times ran an article today on the dirty truths about farmed fish. As you might be aware, the Menhaden that the ospreys depend on to live is gill-netted, ground up and sold as – yes, get this – fish food! Please do not eat farmed fish. There are many reasons, including but not limited to the use of antibiotics. In fact, with fish populations declining, warming seas, and our fish-eating birds dependent on what remains, we should stop eating fish and eat more legumes. Eating beans is much healthier for the planet!
Here is the link to the article: The Dirty Secret Behind the Farmed Fish You Eat
Forced labour, rancid waste, harmful chemicals. What to know about the seafood that could end up on your plate.
This is all you need to send your submission to demand at least a 50% reduction in the Menhaden quota. Be sure to include the subject-line wording and the opening statement, then add your personal observations. This does not need to be long – just to the point about the osprey deaths and the need for a reduction or a moratorium and no more studies – enough studies have been done to know. That is just putting off the inevitable. Thank you!
E:mail: jboyle@asmfc.org
Subject Line: Addendum 1 Comment for the Public Record”
Dear Sir:
“I support Addendum II and the most restrictive options.”
Put your name and address at the bottom.
Here is another group working on the same issue. Their deadline is 19 October.
Oh, another way to kill birds is to trap them in Halloween webbing. Please don’t use it and kindly advise others against!
M15’s new female friend has finally joined him in the old nest tree. Androcat got it on video: https://youtu.be/sQcH0KFZrRY?
Here is a great comparison for the size of the male and female at 367 Collins Street. And there is a lot of food – those little floofs should be growing like crazy. Just think in less than 30 days they will be ready to fly. Yes, seriously.
We are on pip watch at Orange.
It is a warm fuzzy feeling when you see a tiny osplet eating fish. Congratulations, South Australia, on your first hatch of the season.
Such good camouflage but so adorable…SE 37 and 38 with their juvenile feathering.
Migration count at Hawk Mountain:
Knepp Farm reports that one of its White Storks has broken a migration record. Have a read!
| Our Record-Breaking Stork: Sussex to Senegal! |
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| One of this year’s juveniles has just set a new migration record. Hatched at Knepp on 12 May this year, this young male fledged in late June and set off on his very first migration soon after. By late September, he had reached southern Senegal, the furthest south any of our birds has ever travelled, to our knowledge at least. Until now, our record was Morocco. This stork has flown thousands of kilometres further, crossing the Sahara and continuing on into the Sahel. We’ve been able to follow every stage of the journey thanks to the tracker fitted before the bird fledged, tracing the exact route from Sussex to West Africa. This is part of a bigger step forward for the White Stork Project. This year we’ve started using new tracking technology that is much cheaper than the satellite tags we’ve used in the past. Because those tags were so expensive, we could only fit them to a small number of birds, but the lower cost of the new devices means we can now follow far more of our storks than ever before. In total, 44 have been fitted with e-rings, which use nearby mobile phone signals to send us their location. It’s quite possible that some of our untagged storks have flown this far, or even further, in previous years without us knowing. Now, with so many more birds tracked, we’re finally able to see it. It’s hugely exciting that this new technology is already proving so useful, and we can’t wait to see what else it reveals about our storks’ remarkable journeys. |
Oh, thank you for being with us! Please do send in a comment to everyone trying to save the osprey. Those in power need to know the world cares!
Thank you to everyone who posted information and images on FB, and to the owners of the streaming cams. Thank you to Hawk Mountain and to Knepp Farm for keeping us informed on all migration news. We are absolutely grateful for your help in letting us view these amazing avian families.
