Category Archives: animal rights

Pips, Hatches, and Fledges…Sunday in Bird World

19 May 2024

Good Morning,

It is a long weekend for many countries around the world including Canada where we are celebrating Queen Victoria’s birthday. The girls and I are, however, celebrating sun. The rain has stopped for now and everyone will be rushing to get their bedding plants into containers or beds. That includes me. The garden will be a sea of red this summer in an attempt to attract more pollinators and hummers!

I am late…the summer means I stay up really late at night and have lazy mornings. It has been wonderful to sit with the girls and enjoy my coffee and take in the warmth of the sun. The squirrels are busy and the baby Red-wing Blackbirds are flitting around. Mr Crow has not arrived although his breakfast is waiting for him.

Moorings Park Ruffie fledged on Saturday the 18th of May! Flew like a pro! I love the look on Tuffy’s face as she follows Ruffin’s flight. Simply in awe. You are next Tuffy!!!!!! We thought you might not make it at one time, but look at you both. Beautiful healthy osplets!

The fledglings at Frenchman’s Creek continue to return to the nest to feed.

Larry’s kids are really growing!

At Larry’s Mum’s scrape, Archie decided to try and feed his chicks again. He is such a cutie! And a real keeper. Annie picked well.

Waiting for Little to fledge at Venice Golf and Country Club. The winds are up Saturday afternoon. Will he fly? Oh, yes, he did!

Little flew at 61 days! Way to go Little. Beautiful take off.

We are on pip watch at many nests including Boulder County.

And the Port of Ridgefield. Indeed, there are approximately 36 osprey nests that could have hatches this week. A similar number for the following week. Thanks for reminding me ‘BHA’.

Dad brought in a whopper of a cot rail at PSEG Oyster Bay on Long Island.

‘AE’ sent great captures of JBS20 visiting the nest with one of the adults on Saturday! Lovely to see this fledgling eagle thriving.

‘MP’ wonders if anyone has seen a sparrow this close to an osprey? This Male must know that Ospreys only eat fish!

Question: How many are watching this nest? And how is little three doing?

No sound at the Dyfi nest of Idris and Telyn or we would be able to hear the chicks that are ready to hatch – or have hatched. Waiting!

Louis continues to be the great provider we know he is for Dorcha.

At Rutland, Blue 33 is working on the cot rails and looking out with Only Bob to see what Mum Maya is doing.

While Blue tends to his baby, Mum at Port Lincoln would like Bradley to move on. Oh, gosh. Bradley reminds me of Ervie so much! Nice to see you Bradley even if you are irritating Mum.

In Europe, storks have died because of the torrential rains in certain regions. The pouring pitching cold rain and wind continues in Manitoba as it is at the Outerbanks nest of Betsy and Frederick. They have little osplets. Send positive wishes to all nests impacted by rain or fish shortage.

Betsy is doing a heroic job of keeping the wee ones dry and warm so far.

At Lake Murray, Little had a good day. Kenny is amazing. So much fish – whole, headless – almost back to back. Incredible and that is why this third hatch is doing so very, very well. Lots of fish delivered close together. I counted the bites along with ‘H’ and despite some intimidation, Little fared well. The third hatch is clever often moving about the nest to get in a better position. One thing I have noticed is that Lucy does the fish and when she does this, Little often losses out. But, Little did well. Smile.

Crops from various times of the day for Little.

Our friend and monitor of all things Australian does not like to watch Osprey nests but she has fallen for Little Bob at Lake Murray and she wanted to add her ‘ten cents’ to what happened on Saturday. ‘A’ we always welcome your narrative – thanks so much!

Late yesterday afternoon (18 May) was interesting at Lake Murray. Dad brought in a nice big whole fresh fish at around 06:02pm. Little Bob was sleeping right in front of mum while the two older siblings (whose plumage btw has changed in a single weekend into something speckled and gorgeous – their camouflage is amazing) were napping together. Little Bob, who has a discernible but not a large crop, thought he was in for a private feeding, but mum just took the fish from dad and stood there with it. She turned around a couple of steps in mid-nest, then heads to the far side of the nest. Little Bob follows her, but mum is distracted. 

Eventually, the older pair awake. As they do, we can see that they both have extremely large crops. Little Bob is still standing next to mum, begging for food, but she is just standing on the fish with one foot. Eventually an older sibling gets up, turns around and surveys the scene. He sees Little Bob waiting expectantly beside mum, who has fish. S/he makes no attempt to attack Little Bob, who decides it’s a good idea to head around behind mum to the other side. 

The larger sibling heads over and begins trying to open the fish at the head end, working on the mouth and doing a really good job. This continues for a few minutes before eventually, at 06:05:50, Little Bob, who is behind mum, stands up and looks the other older sibling squarely in the eye. This is surely a mistake, which he will quickly correct, no?

No! Little Bob not only continues to look his sibling in the eye but then lunges right across the nest to bonk his much bigger sibling! This takes the older chick very much by surprise. The reaction is predictable. But Little Bob, although beating a hasty retreat, is only protecting his head (he has such a long neck, this is not too difficult now he has grown to a size where he can lean far enough away) – he is not cowering in terror. He does eventually tuck but he does not duck his head under – he keeps it up and just away from his sibling, who has failed to make any real contact with him anyway, as its crop is so large, it cannot reach across it to hurt Little Bob.  

Meanwhile, the self-feeding osplet continues to self-feed on the head, pulling from the mouth and getting some good bites from the cheek area. aT 06:06:15 mum finally starts feeding one of the older osplets. The second desists from worrying about Little Bob and comes to be fed too. This leaves Little Bob behind mum and the two feeding siblings. As the food is close to the edge of the nest, there is really absolutely no real way he can now get fed until mum and/or one of the siblings moves.

It is 06:20 before Little Bob gets up, turns around and heads back to the centre of the nest to survey the feeding situation. Both his siblings have huge crops. Mum has been eating a bit of this fish herself too. Still no room on the feeding line, as Big Bob has a piece of fish it is self-feeding on. Little Bob actually considers rushing this fish but gets a death stare from its older sibling and thinks better of it, turning around and retreating a few steps. 

Little Bob cannot find a way to mum’s beak. Big Bob is occupied. Middle Bob is between Big Bob and mum, so Little Bob heads around behind mum to try and reach the far side of her. There’s not much room here. They are near the edge of the nest. It takes him a while to figure out how to come forward, over the baby rails, to reach mum’s beak. Eventually, he clambers over the rails precariously. He is close, if she turns her head his way. But will she? She is eating most of the fish herself and has been for a couple of minutes now. It is 06:22:30pm. 

Mum knows Little Bob is in position. At 06:22:38 she reaches down and to her right, back under her wing, to give Little Bob his first bite of this feeding. She keeps feeding him. Big Bob lumbers off, hardly able to carry its crop. Middle Bob remains on the other side of mum to Little Bob, watching closely as she feeds its younger sibling. Mum feeds Middle a couple of bites, then returns to Little Bob. Middle gives up and leaves the table. The fish has very nearly gone. It is 06:24. Little downs the tail. Mum feeds him the last remaining pieces – some of those bits of flesh near the tail are very juicy – and picks up every flake she can find for him. By 06:25 the meal is over. 

But Little Bob is still begging for fish and mum searches some more. She finds the leftover Big Bob had been playing with and works hard to get pieces off it that Little Bob can eat. He gets some small bites. He continues to beg for more. Shortly after 06:28 she flies off the nest. 

Little did not get to eat much of what was after all a huge fish. He did start the feeding with a visible crop, and went to bed with a full tummy. Unless a food disaster (such as occurs when a parent goes missing) occurs at this nest, I become more confident by the day that my prediction here is correct. This youngest hatch is SO brave. It may even be female based on the behaviour. Today’s effort was amazing. Little Bob stared down an older sibling and then rushed across the nest in an obviously intimidatory manner (which even the older sibling didn’t take seriously initially) and started a major fight. This is not a cowed osplet. It is smart enough not to get beaten up but it is certainly not being terrorised and it has a crop every time I look at the stream. 

This one is going to do fine. Mark my words. I’m sorry to bang on so much about it, but this is one really cute little osplet. I fell for this one immediately and have been very confident about it all along, despite the difficulties and the aggression, mainly because of its own attitude. Never has this little one given me the impression that it has given up, only that it is scheming for another moment, another chance, another bite to eat. It has the longest neck, which sure doesn’t hurt in these situations, and it has a determined streak that really suggests that it could actually be a female. It would not surprise me in the slightest. 

The older two osplets have actually become relatively laidback at this point, and there is nothing to say that the older sibling would have bonked Little Bob for the staring incident late yesterday afternoon had he not rushed across the nest to attack it. So I think the aggressive phase on this nest has passed, and as long as the fish supply continues and Little Bob does not make a habit out of deliberately provoking its older siblings,everything will be absolutely fine and this nest will fledge three this season. Talons crossed.” 

‘H’ caught the Sunday morning events for us – sadly, we probably do not have to worry about Little Bob’s survival from the siblings now, but rather from the GHO that is waiting for them to fatten up. “

The camera was zoomed way out, and we could see that Lucy spent about 4 hours on the perch overnight.  Sadly, I suppose we are on ‘owl watch’.

0614 Kenney delivered a fish.  It was rather difficult to tell from our vantage point, but Little appeared to eat for about 3 minutes until he was intimidated and moved aside.  At 0627 Little was back at the feeding line until one of the siblings returned at 0630.  At 0635 both older siblings had moved away, and Little ate for 3 minutes more.  So, Little was fed for about 9 minutes at this meal.

Kenny brought in a headless fish at 0700 and feeding commenced at 0701.  Little ate for about a minute until he was intimidated, but appeared to still be able to reach toward Lucy’s beak once in a while.  At 0711 Lucy started to reach out, and fairly consistently fed Little until 0718.  Little ate for roughly 10 minutes at this meal and had a nice crop after the back-to-back feedings.”

The GHO is constantly attacking the female at Moraine Park – these owls are smart. Please take a screen capture of Cowlitz PUD’s solution and send it to the owners of any nests that you are aware are having predation issues by owls, eagles, goshawks, etc. Thank you.

The trio of osplets at Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home appear to be hanging in there and doing well. We are NOT at the Reptilian phase when the bonking normally begins (8-11 days) – and so I hope that there is lots of fish and these are well behaved.

Beautiful Big Red, N1, and N2. Another great raptor dad, Arthur.

All four storklets at Bolewice are doing well.

Despite Olivia incubating, the eggs at Severna Park, they have been left too long and they have been rained on. I want to thank everyone for their comments regarding this nest. From the observations by the writer below, this sounds to me like Oscar has another nest with a different family and has abandoned Olivia and her eggs. For those of you that have watched Louis and Iris, you would be familiar with this type of behaviour by the male. It is extremely sad but please let us hope that Olivia moves on to find a new attentive mate next season.

I thought I would share one of the letters with you – I have withheld the author’s name. I feel very protective of those that send me information, comments, and news and do not ever wish for there to be any kind of backlash against them. It is the same as a report protecting their source.

Dear Ms. Steggles: 

I’m pleased to inform you that Oscar did not meet his demise in the middle of the highway, struck by a semi truck, while chasing that flying fish.  He flew to the nest a couple of hours ago, mated, and then he left, lol.  No fish!  Olivia went fishing for herself again.

Oscar should be hanging his head! What about all this business of raptors mating for life? Goodness, gracious.

Only Bob at Carthage continues to thrive being the sole ‘diamond’ in his/her parents eyes.

‘H’ is monitoring the Captiva nest and reports: “5/18 Captiva Ospreys – 0833, First feeding, a whole hardhead catfish.  CO7 ate, then moved away from Edie at 0847, but CO8 was reluctant to move after having been beaked earlier.  CO8 finally moved to Edie at 0849, ate 11 bites of fish, and was then beaked repeatedly.  CO7 ate some more, and had retired from the feeding at 0913, so CO8 moved up and ate the last three bites of the fish.  CO8 had eaten 14 bites of fish.

The second feeding at 1136, consisted of a small whole pinfish.  CO7 ate, and prevented CO8 from eating.

At 1300 Jack delivered a nice size partial speckled trout.  CO8 was intimidated and stayed back.  When CO7 moved away from Edie, CO7 was again reluctant to approach, and Edie stopped the feeding. Edie resumed feeding CO7 at 1310, and when CO8 approached at 1316 he suffered a prolonged beaking by CO7.  Edie stopped the feeding.  CO8 did not eat at this meal.

Feeding #4 at 1358, Edie picked up the large leftover piece of trout and fed CO8 for 19 minutes!  CO7 stayed in the shade of Mom’s tail, and did not interfere.

Feeding #5 at 1639 consisted of a whole pilchard delivered by Jack.  It was a harmonious ten- minute feeding, both osplets ate, and both had large crops.

The last feeding of the day was from 1805 to 1821, and was a partial speckled trout brought by Jack.  CO7 ate first, and CO8 waited his turn.  There was no aggression by CO7.  At 1812, CO7 backed away and CO8 moved up to eat.  Three minutes later, CO7 returned, then the chicks ate peacefully side by side. “

Dr Ericke Green has finished his teaching responsibilities for now and is focused – and clearly excited – about the events at Iris’s nest. Here he explains about the egg tossing that New Guy did and why.

On Saturday, Bradley brought a squid to the barge nest at Port Lincoln instead of a puffer. How interesting! Way to go, Bradley.

Will this year be the season when Hope reigns? Is it possible for us to ‘hope’ that Hope, the female at Newfoundland Power’s Snow Lane Osprey platform dubbed the ‘Hopeless Nest’ will feed her chicks so they live and fledge?

The rain has stopped at Patchogue and the little ones are good.

The paper, sign, or whatever human garbage was covering the egg cup at Patchogue is now gone. Thankfully.

Oh, tears. ‘T’ just sent me the best news for Black Storks: “Waba is in Estonia! Yesterday he flew 253 km, and now he is at the Saaremaa island. Data shows 7804 km This is the distance that Waba covered after transmitter activation this year.”

Oh, I would hope we get some news about Bonus.

We have the first hatch at Great Bay today at 1345. The top images shows the parents looking at the hatch in progress.

Welcome little one.

Thank you so much for being with me this morning. Please take care. Enjoy your weekend – go outside and listen to the birds! We hope to see you again soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, posts, images, streaming cams, and videos that helped me to write my post this morning: ‘A, AE, BHA, Geemeff, H, MP, PB, TU’, Heidi McGrue and Moorings Park, Frenchman’s Creek, ParksConservancy, SK Hideaways, VGCCO, Boulder County, Port of Ridgefield, PSEG, Dyfi Osprey Project, Geemeff, LRWT, PLO, OBX Osprey Cam, Lake Murray, Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home, Cornell RTH, Bolewice Stork am, Severna Park, DTC- Carthage, Window to Wildlife, Montana Osprey Cam, Newfoundland Power, and Great Bay Ospreys.

Friday in Bird World

17 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

The Girls and I hope that you have had a wonderful week. We are so grateful that you are here with us and for your Leo and care for the wildlife – and all the animals – that grace our lives. Today is a bit of a hodgepodge. I mention Cal Falcons early on and then later bring them in again…my mind was a bit wandering! Most of all I would like to continue to convey my gratitude towards those that care for ospreys on platforms or trees and who are mindful of the dangers to their lives and take preventative action.

We are in the midst of the biggest downpour of the year. The thunder clapping and lighting sent Hugo Yugo running out of the conservatory in sheer fright! That has stopped and she is back with everyone except for Baby Hope who much prefers to nap on my bed during the day. Calico and Missey have called a truce with one on the hassock and the other on the back of the sofa pillows. They seem non-phased by the rain hitting the glass roof.

There was a beautiful rainbow when the sun finally began coming out!

‘H’ and I continue and will continue to monitor Little at Lake Murray, although it breaks my heart to know that predator-fish grids – could have been installed to protect these young from the resident GHO and were not put in place. It is hard cheering a little one on when it gets fed and smiling at its big crop when you know the outcome could be that it will be lunch for an owlet. Cowlitz PUD had great success with their simple placement of fish grates on opposite sides of their osprey platform. They are happy to share that information and everyone that has an osprey nest should install these. It might also work with goshawk predation.

H reports: “Kenny delivered a small whole fish at 1220.  Little had the perfect positioning again… on Lucy’s left side, with the older sibs to Lucy’s right.  Little was fed 20 bites of fish before Lucy moved, and exposed Little, and he was beaked.  It was only an 11 minute feeding.  Little managed to get two more bites of fish, for 22 bites at this meal.”

I note that Little was shut out of the afternoon fish until Kenny came in with a third back-to-back one and Little got in a good position and ate almost all of the fish.

Then great dad Kenny brought in so many fish back to back that Little got the majority of the 17:29 and all of the 1811! Way to go Little. The two big ones did not even bother standing up for the last fish they were so full from the earlier deliveries.

This family is working so hard they really do deserve protection from those owls. I am shattered that this was not done in the offseason. If money was an issue, try a CrowdFunder. The cost of two fish grates and welding could not be that much compared to the price of setting up an osprey platform or to the lives of the birds.

Others are keeping an eye on Lake Murray and I am grateful for MM’s morning observations: “dad brought a small fish in at 5:56 am which mom and number 3 ate most of except for a few bites to number 1. I think #3 got beaked one time other than that it was a quiet breakfast. At 7:46 am dad brought in what appeared to be just the head of a fish. #3 lucked up for the first few minutes and was on the far side of mom out of the eyes of the other two and recieved about 24 bites before mom changed her position and blew 3s cover at which time it was beaked away from the table. Feeding ended pretty soon after since it was only the head. So overall #3 has ate a decent morning as far as food goes.”

And even ‘A’ who doesn’t watch osprey nests has fallen in love with Lake Murray’s Little Bob. She adds, “

I am amazed by the third hatch at Lake Murray. It is simply incredible. Lining up right next to its fearsome siblings, reaching across in front of them to take bites. This is one brave little osplet. I think his older, larger siblings are actually slightly in awe at his daring. Why else do they allow him to get away with it? But the key point is, he is brave. He is prepared to take risks to get fed, and I honestly do believe Lucy has made that choice we often see mums make in these situations. This one has earned the right to a chance, and Lucy is giving him that chance. I could be wrong – I have only been watching the nest closely for three or four days, but that is certainly my impression. 

I must also say that pretty much every time I’ve turned to the stream, the three osplets all have very noticeable crops (including the smallest). I have on several occasions watched the youngest crop drop several times in order to continue eating more and more. He is definitely getting plenty of food! 

Whether or not this nest has turned a corner, it is way too early to say that because the level of aggression is still very scary on occasions. It may be that the two older osplets are now more interested in each other than in their youngest sibling – it certainly seems that way. Yes, they do intimidate the youngest, but as long as he takes the appropriate action and displays suitably respectful behaviours, they seem to be threatening him, looming over him, but then leaving him alone. Watch him feeding around 04:13 yesterday afternoon (16 May). Let’s hope, having put the oily teenage phase behind them, they will now learn to get along nicely, as we have often seen before on osprey nests. Talons crossed.   

I didn’t intend to become involved in an osprey nest, especially one with three osplets and a siblicide threat hanging over it. Unfortunately, due to your blog, I happened to stumble across the live stream and instantly fell in love with Little Bob. He is just so cute and so very brave and clever, I couldn’t help it. You just have to root for the chicks like this one. And like others before him, I think, he is going to learn so much from all this bullying that he will fledge as a smart, resourceful juvenile with a great chance of survival as a wild osprey. “

Dixie fledged on Thursday morning at Superbeaks just like Mason did!

In case you missed it, here are some banding day highlights form Cal Falcons. Two boys and 2 girls and they need names.

Poor Annie gets it right in the face!

I am always touched by the kindness of humans to our wildlife friends that we share our planet. It is so timely that this edition found its way to my inbox. Yesterday I sat and chatted with my allergy doctor (I don’t have allergies but I do have Nonallergic vasomotor rhinitis which causes my sinuses to cause my nose to run like a water hydrant on a hot day in the summer. He lives in the country. People have taken to letting their children use bee bee guns to shoot squirrels. He builds homes for the squirrels! Or to sit on their porch with shot guns looking for a coyote to kill. It made us both sick and I sighed that living in the country was no different than in the middle of a large urban city. Some will care for our wildlife friends and others are so ignorant and cruel – best ignore them and do what we can.

This story of how one family dealt with nests at the doorway will melt your heart. It is from Orion Magazine.

Orion-Magazine-When-Birds-Nest-in-the-Doorway-Go-Out-the-WindowDownload

Tracking data indicates that those amazing Sandhill Cranes that migrate through Nebraska and come up to Canada travel as far as NE Asia in their winter migration!

Tracking-Data-Show-Us-One-of-North-Americas-Most-Epic-Migrations-AudubonDownload

A Tree Pipit visits Dorcha and Louis’s nest at Loch Arkaig. If you don’t know how large ospreys are, this will give you a good idea.

The weather at the PSEG Patchogue nest has been torrential rains. Mum and Dad have been doing heroics to keep the chicks dry and warm. Weather like this is always troubling as the chicks can get ‘colds’ and not thrive. Let’s hope for sunshine and some fish!

I often talk about the lack of siblicide in the Peregrine Falcon and Hawk populations. It does occur. It is extremely rare. Even the smallest hatch normally survives. I did find a short letter with some good information in it on one exception.

p00184-p00184Download

The second egg has been laid at Dunrovin on May 16 in the morning. Congratulations Winnie and Swoop.

Precious baby. Rutland. Grateful for the quick intervention on Wednesday. Rutland Water is to to be praised. This baby tried hard to get out of those cot rails and back to its mother. Blue 33 brings in some really big fish and despite eating their head they are sometimes still alive and flapping. So glad this little one, their only one, survived.

Sometimes people listen when we make loud noises for things that will protect the raptors. Well done!

And Geemeff reminds me that even The Woodland Trust that has a non-intervention policy has placed Pine Marten baffles around the two trees at Loch Arkaig that are occupied by the ospreys. Before it is too late, those osprey nests under threat by predation should have metal grids placed opposite one another, as at Cowlitz PUD Osprey platform, for the bird’s protection.

What has caught the attention of Louis and Dorcha?

There are now two Golden Eaglets in the Bucovina nest in Romania. Without exception, the eldest will kill and eat the second hatchling. Please be advised of this historical practice of this species if you are watching this streaming cam.

The precise term is “mandatory/obligatory cainism”. The oldest has no choice. Looduskalender published one of the most concise definitions: “The killing is done by pushing away from food and / or by direct attacks. Usually the dead body is not eaten, but it is often fed by the parent birds. While with many species of birds the nest killing of siblings during malnutrition is common, the act of killing is independent of the food situation in species with obligatory cainism. Mandatory cainism is similar to the inherent nest clearing behaviour of the Cuckoo and can be also triggered experimentally, for example by presenting a white cloth ball to the young bird. The attacks of the older towards the younger siblings usually begin with the day of hatching of the latter. Most of the younger birds survive only a few days. The parents do not hamper these attacks, it has been repeatedly observed that the older young bird continued his attacks even when a parent bird would feed him. The roles of “Cain” and “Abel” are determined solely by the sequence of hatch, in experimental transposition of “Abel” to a younger sibling, this “Abel” immediately took over the role of “Cain” and attacked the younger nestling. In further experiments on Verreaux’s eagle eagles, the aggressiveness of the siblings lasted at least until the completion of the major plumage growth. The nest of the species with obligatory cainism usually consists of two eggs. That’s why if both eggs hatch, only the older nestling survives.” (June 18, 2013).

The aerial acrobats of the falcons at Cal’s The Campanile are going to continue to get impressive as Archie and Annie demonstrate and then teach the Fab Four how to survive in the wild.

A video encapsulation of the Cal Falcon eyases growth over the past weeks.

The news is worrisome for the fish at Captiva and the warm waters could be the reason that Ospreys have not had chicks late in the season in the Barrier Islands.

‘H’ reports: “It was another slow fishing day for Jack.  The water of the small bay between the islands is warm, and the fish may have gone deeper.

The first feeding was not until 1119, and consisted of a small whole silver perch.  CO7 intimidated CO8.  CO7 ate, and later beaked CO8 at 1125 when s/he attempted to approach.  It was only a 13 minute feeding, and CO8 had nothing to eat.

Meal number two was at 1217, a partial sheepshead.  CO7 was in a position to be fed, and CO8 was intimidated a few times and stayed back.  The feeding was over by1235.  Nothing for CO8.

Jack brought in a whole hardhead catfish at 1549, and the third feeding started around 1551.  With fewer fish, CO7 has been extra aggressive today.  CO7 beaked CO8 on multiple occasions.  At 1610 and 1614 CO7 seemed to be done eating for a while so CO8 made his move toward Edie, but CO7 beaked him and then ate some more each time.  At 1617 CO8 attempted to move even further away from Edie, but was followed by CO7 and beaked.  Finally, at 1620 CO7 moved away from Edie, and allowed CO8 to eat!  CO8 ate for a full 10 minutes, and ate approximately 142 bites of catfish.  At that point CO7 had returned to eat some more, until the fish was about finished.  CO8 then ate at least 6 more bites while Edie was trying to pull some flesh off of a tough piece of skin.  Oh, yes…CO8 had a nice crop!

Feeding four was at 1936.  Edie had brought in a partial catfish at 1935 (strange that Edie did not have a crop).  CO7 would not let CO8 eat.  CO8 snuck one bite.  At 1955 Eddie rushed off to chase Clive (the neighboring eagle), and she returned a few minutes later.  Upon her return, she fed CO8 a few bits of the scraps remaining.  CO8 had a total of 5 or 6 bites of fish.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better fishing day.  It will take a lot of fish to calm CO7 down.”

Ildiko Pork got some good screen shots of Mum and the oldest and only surviving chick of three at the University of Florida-Gainesville osprey platform. It looks like the osplet is healthy and will survive. Stella is doing well providing for it and her after Talon’s disappearance.

Maria Marika reports that the four Bolewice storklets are doing well. Great news.

‘H’ reports that there is a second hatch at Outerbanks. “517, The earliest that I could see the second chick fully out of the shell was at 00:18.”

At the Netherlands Peregrine Falcon nest, watched closely by PB, she reports that the Smallie has gained some feathers and she is really hoping for its survival. With the good rate of success by the falcon nests, we will all be cheering this little one on.

And just look at Monty and Hartley’s four to put a smile on your day!

At the Loch of the Lowes, Blue NCO is getting acquainted with the ‘dark male’ that has appeared on the nest tree for a few days.

Tom and Audrey are not having any luck at Kent Island this year as ‘H’ reports.

Thank you for being with me this morning. Take care everyone. We wish you a ‘Rainbow’ of a day.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, observations, articles, and streaming cams that helped me write my post this morning: ‘A, Geemeff, H, MM, PB’, Lake Murray Ospreys, Heidi McGrue, SK Hideaways, Orion Magazine, Audubon, Geemeff, PSEG, Raptor Research Foundation, LRWT, Bald Eagles 101-Judy’s Post, Looduskalender, Wild Bucovina, Window to Wildlife, Ildiko Pork, Maria Marika, Outbanks 24/7, the Netherlands Falcon scrape, Chesapeake Conservancy, and The Scottish Wildlife Trust (LOTL).

Friday in Bird World

10 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Thursday was 23 C, clear blue skies, no wind. Today will go up to 27 degrees C. Thankfully we have had some rain. Where my son lives in the Caribbean, the rains did not come and the water supply for the entire island is drying up. The reservoir at Etang is beyond low and cannot be used and other areas are bone dry. My heart breaks for people struggling with a lack of basic resources like water.

Thank you again for all your good wishes. I am feeling better. Not 100%, but good enough to run more errands in the heat. When I left, Mr Crow had a full dish of cheesy dogs. When I got home – and he knew I was home – he returned cawing his head off for more! Their tree was cut down, and they have made their nest this year on top of a three-story apartment building about 100 metres from the food dish! He can hear me when I arrive home – and see me. Of course, Hugo Yugo thinks she should have some cheesy dog, too, which started all of the others prowling around the kitchen except for Baby Hope, who is a real angel.

At the Border Osprey platform, Augusta (Blue 500) laid her third egg at 1100. Congratulations!

Mark the date on your calendar. Cal Falcons will be banding Annie and Archie’s chicks on the 15th of May. Yes, you spotted that right – five days from now. That is hard to believe.

The Fab Four think they are starving!

The GH owlet at Wolf Bay has branched and will soon be flying.

The nest at Loch of the Lowes is now empty and abandoned for this year.

Still no hatch at Manton Bay. If the egg that was removed was the first one to be laid, then the next one is currently 33 days old today. Three more days and we should be ready for pip.

Just look at those legs on Ruffie! If I were taking bets I would say Ruffy – despite their aggression – is a male. Daddy Long Legs like Idris – or maybe it is just the camera angle.

Ruffie is really working its wings.

Gorgeous Tuffy. Look at that sweet face.

Did we have fledges and returns at Frenchman’s Creek? Looks like it. Bravo. And look at the nest. Not so many fish there.

Iris and the New Guy are not messing around. They protect that nest and their eggs. I wonder if Louis even knows what is happening? Surely he does. Maybe he has just given up and will take care of Starr and leave that area alone. He might not win a fight with this younger male.

The House Sparrows are busy nesting under the osprey nest at Dunrovin. No eggs yet for Swoop and Winnie.

I think I worry too much about the little one at Captiva. It is hot and the big one always monopolises the feedings. Hopefully ‘H’ will have a better report.

Will CO8 get some fish?

‘H’ has the answer: “CO7 continues to dominate CO8 at meal times.  But as we have seen at other nests, as long as there are regular fish deliveries, the non-dominant sibling usually fares better later in the day, after the dominant osplet has already had his/her crop stuffed a few times.

At 1636 the meal consisted of a whole sheepshead, and CO8 ate first, but only for a minute until he was intimidated by CO7.  CO8 thought about trying to eat at 1639 and 1655 but was beaked by CO7.  At 1657 CO7 moved away and CO8 was able to eat.  Then he made a very unwise move… after CO8 had been eating for 4 minutes, he suddenly and inexplicably turned around and beaked CO7!  Oh no, silly osplet, lol.  Well, of course CO7 retaliated, and CO8 moved away.  CO7 ate some more until 1704, at which time CO8 ate for the next 14 minutes.  CO8 had eaten for a total of about 19 minutes at this meal.

The next meal, at 1831, consisted of a prepared sheepshead.  The sibs were both little angels.  For the most part they ate side by side until 1853, and by that time they were both refusing Edie’s offerings.  Then Edie was able to feast on the large tail portion herself.”

Big Red was so smart when she picked Arthur. What a hunter. Thursday morning nets three chipmunks and a squirrel plus what has been eaten already. Their family will never go hungry!

Please ask me how much I wish they would band these two chicks so we could see if they return to the area or stay?

What a difference seeing the little hawklets in a tree nest at Syracuse instead of the light stand at Cornell.

Will there be any osplets at Llyn Brenig this year?

There is a full clutch at Fortis Exshaw.

The Decorah North eaglets are a little wet from the rain. Those little cutie pies are growing and grown and ready to fly soon.

It is all good at Little Miami. That baby made it! Unless something happens this nest will fledge three. Fantastic.

Port Tobacco is fantastic. That single chick had all the love and all the food.

At Duke Farms, Leaper is 10 weeks and 1 day old which means that we could be within fledge range in a week.

At Superbeaks, Mason and Dixie have both branched. That was a week ago. Stay tuned for fledging.

Concern for Little at Lake Murray continues as he gets shut out of many/most/all feedings. ‘H’ reports, “5/9, Kenney delivered a late partial fish at 1950.  Big and Middle still both had huge crops and were not very interested in eating.  Little ate for three minutes before he was beaked by Big.  Big ate for 3 minutes, then walked away.  Little was then fed by Lucy for 7 minutes, when she suddenly halted the feeding, but there was still a large piece of fish remaining.  At any rate, Little had a large crop to start the night.” Huge shout out to ‘H’ for monitoring this difficult nest.

I highly recommended Isabella Tree’s new book on the success of the rewinding at Knepp Farm. Birdlife International has just published its study on the positive impacts of conservation and biodiversity. We can make a difference is the mantra in both! Never give up. Do what you can.

Science-proves-conservation-works-BirdLife-InternationalDownload

Another senseless murder in Scotland. This time of a satellite tagged Golden Eagle.

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There is a new condor baby in California. Congratulations Ventana Wildlife.

White Storks Beta and Bukacek incubating their two eggs. Soon!

The two White-tail eaglets at the Tucholskie National Forest in Poland are thriving.

Two beautiful osprey eggs at the Seilli nest in Finland for Onni and Stefu.

News from Kakapo Recovery on their pesky flightless parrots.

I saw my first Moorhen in Grenada in 2022. It is great to see that others love them, too! Their appearance is so distinctive. The adult body is all black – the beak is a deep rich orange -red with at the tip dipped in a pot of bright almost neon-yellow. Their legs are green! The day these birds got their first plumage someone was having fun with the colours. They are very distinctive and when you have seen one, you will always recognise them. There will never be any confusion with any other waterfowl.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/country-diary-these-plucky-moorhens-have-become-local-celebrities?CMP=share_btn_url

All About Birds says this, “The Common Gallinule swims like a duck and walks atop floating vegetation like a rail with its long and slender toes. This boldly marked rail has a brilliant red shield over the bill and a white racing stripe down its side. It squawks and whinnies from thick cover in marshes and ponds from Canada to Chile, peeking in and out of vegetation. This species was formerly called the Common Moorhen and is closely related to moorhen species in the Old World…Common Gallinules eat vegetation, seeds, snails, and insects. They pick sedge, grass, pondweed, duckweed, and flower seeds from the water surface or just below the surface. Gallinules flip over leaves with their feet to grab snails and insects hidden .” They will lay anywhere from 3-15 eggs (what a range!) in nests made near the water’s edge. The incubation period is, on average, three weeks and they have two broods per breeding season.

“madres e hijos, polla de agua alimentando a su polluelo – mom moorhen feeding their chick” by ferran pestaña is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

We can be thankful that the hunting season in Malta is now over, but it should never exist, and, of course, as this says will the police do anything now? Wildlife certainly deserves the protection accorded to it by law. And that surely isn’t happening.

I feel like I am reading the news from Scotland.

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Oh, those ads for the perfect lawn make me so mad. Dead bees. Dead pollinators. Even dead birds. Tell them ‘No, thanks’.

Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care all. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, PB’, Cal Falcons, SK Hideaways, Wolf Bay, Scottish Wildlife Trust, LRWT, Moorings Park, Frenchman’s Creek, Montana Osprey Project, Dunrovin Ranch, Window to Wildlife, Cornell RTH, SU-RTH Cam, Stephanie Scofield, Heidi McGrue, Raptor Resource Project, Little Miami Conservancy, Port Tobacco, Duke Farms, Superbeaks, Lake Murray, Birdlife International, BirdGuides, Ventana Wildlife Society, Mlade Buky Stork Cam, Bielk OnLine Bory Tucholskie, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Kakapo Recovery, The Guardian, BirdLife Malta, Malta Today, All About Birds, and Openverse.

*Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to credit the individuals who provided the information in today’s posting. If there is something incorrect or there is an omission, please let me know.*

Who murdered Laddie?…Sunday in Bird World

5 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I am using the word murder because this is an isolated area, restricted during breeding season, and someone would have deliberately taken out a firearm of some sort to kill this precious bird. This is not an accident.

There is heartbreaking news coming out of Scotland. I am putting it in order as I receive it but it sounds as if someone has killed our dear Laddie and that his disappearance was not due to old age/natural causes. This is extremely disturbing if that is the case.

I want you to imagine a beautiful loch restricted for fishing and human activities from the time the Ospreys arrive to the end of the breeding season. I want you to imagine quiet. We hear of other raptors being killed near grouse moors, but when was the last time you heard of a fish eating raptor being killed in the UK? True, there have been some very ‘sick’ stories coming out of regions of the US where ospreys were targeted. The last incident I heard was the deliberate cutting down of the Llyn Brenig platform in Wales. One egg was on the nest. It disturbed the entire breeding season. At Loch of the Lowes, we have Laddie. He was the resident male beginning in 2012. He is unringed so we do not know his history. He probably did not get a mate and a nest until he was four. Let’s use four as a reasonable beginning point. That means that Laddie is approximately sixteen or seventeen years old when he was killed. In that time, he flew to his wintering grounds. Let’s hypothesise that he went to West Africa. That is a distance of 2951 miles from Perthshire to Senegal. If Laddie hatched in 2007, he made his first trip to Africa then and flew 2951 miles. He remained there until he was a two-year old returning to the area around his natal nest which would be Scotland. So another 2951 miles in the spring of 2009 (making it a total of 5902 miles per year for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and another 2951 on his return in the spring of 2024. That is a total flight distance just or a probably migration of 94,432 miles in total without incident. It is staggering and that is why I have listed the years individually.

Laddie left his nest and Blue NCO after delivering a fish at lunchtime on the 28th of April. He did not return.

He travelled more than most people and probably much more than the individual who lifted a gun and shot him out of the sky. It is unbelievable. He lived through the truly trying juvenile years when we lose almost 2 out o every 3 ospreys, he made at least 17 round trip migrations to be blown out of the sky doing what he did this time every year – delivering fish to his mate on the nest incubating their eggs, Blue NCO (the latest of his mates).

Laddie did not kill grouse. He did not swoop down and take chickens out of a coop. He fished quietly on a Scottish loch. It terrifies me for all the others who have eggs in the nest because someone out there thinks their lives do not matter. This is no different than someone sitting on a chimney pot and shooting Hugo Yugo or one of the other girls through the conservatory’s windows. They do it because they have the power to kill. It is time for the people to stand up for those who cannot defend themselves. Let Laddie be a symbol of the love and respect that we have for our raptors. Show these people that they are wrong. We do care. Force the Scottish Government to persecute this individual and make it meaningful, not a laughing stock.

“Police Scotland Tayside have posted on Facebook:

“We are appealing for information after the remains of an osprey were found near Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross, on Friday, 3 May, 2024.

The protected species is believed to have been nesting at Loch of the Lowes, close to where it was found.

Enquiries are at an early stage to establish the full circumstances.

Inspector James Longden said: “It is illegal to kill any protected species and we are working closely alongside partner agencies to confirm what has happened here and whether there is any criminality involved.

“Information from the local community could prove vital and it is important we speak to anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area, or who may know something which could assist our investigation.

“Any information can be passed to Police Scotland on 101 quoting incident number 3266 of Friday, 3 May, 2024. You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”

Scots-cops-appeal-for-information-after-bird-of-prey-found-dead-close-to-nest-Daily-RecordDownload

This news will send ripples of concern throughout the UK Osprey platforms. The platform at Llyn Brenig was cut down a couple of years ago and we know that Hen Harriers, eagles, and even Red Kites have been killed around the grouse moors intentionally. Why would anyone want to kill an osprey?

The remaining issue is Blue NCO and the eggs. This is a human caused tragedy. The police would not be investigating if Laddie had died from natural causes or a battle for territory. Since this is the case, do we not have an obligation to provide fish for Blue NCO and the eggs, if they hatch, until such time as Mum is able to care for them entirely by herself? The terrain and the location might make this difficult if not impossible but they do ring the chicks. Of course, the best situation would be that the eggs would be abandoned and Blue NCO would move on with no chicks to worry about starving.

And now news arrives of a Peregrine Falcon being shot. This is becoming more than troubling.

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This morning it was discovered that Maya and Blue 33 are only incubating two eggs. Here is the news from Rutland. We know they can count now we know that they can also spot viable and non-viable eggs. Brilliant birds.

Tuffy and Ruffie compare wingers. Hilarious. As funny as this video is there is something rather disturbing too and that is the state of the nest at Moorings Park. The rails appear to be sliding off and well, I don’t even want to think about either of these beautiful osplets prematurely sliding off or being blown off the sides. Is it too much to appeal to Moorings Park to do major reconstruction during the off-season like they do at some nests in the UK? Where the rails are secured? Nesting material enhanced?

The Captiva osplets are in the reptile stage! Thanks, ‘H’ for that FB video clip.

The oldest osplet at Florida-Gainesville and Mum are faring alright.

Samson’s new mate, Blue 500, has been named Augusta after she laid their first egg on 3 May 2024 at the Border Osprey nest. Samson’s former mate, Juno, did not return from migration.

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Annie is trying to keep her babies cool.

Through rain and snow….Annie and Archie deliver.

Monty and Hartley are doing the same.

Dorcha and Louis are being silly.

‘H’ reports that at Severna Park, Olivia and Oscar have their third egg.

‘H’ also checks in on Lake Murray and the triplets appear to be doing fine.

The two osplets at Frenchman’s Creek seem to be working their way through the fish that Dad brought.

A hatch at Surrey. I am posting this because of the unusual nature in the way that the shell cracked during hatch. The little one made it out safely!

Gorgeous Big Red and N1 and N2.

The female has been fish calling at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The male appeared later on Saturday but I have not seen any fish deliveries. Intruders? Anyone watching this nest closely?

Three beauties at the Venice Golf and Country Club Osprey Platform.

Lessons in plucking for those two big Decorah North eaglets.

Fraser Point eaglets doing fantastic.

The trio at the West End are real ‘treasures’.

Rescued chick back home at Bald Canyon and both have full crops.

The oldest and the youngest at Little Miami:

Checking on the Finnish nests:

Janakkala: Incubation

Paltamo: No eggs yet

Muonio: Unsure.

Ylläslompolo: No eggs

Beautiful female on her German nest.

For those looking forward to the Glacier Gardens Eagle Cam, there could be issues this year.

For those wondering about Richmond and Rosie, it is unclear whether there are two or three eggs. They sure didn’t make it easy for us this year!

The third egg at the Green Ledge Light Preservation Society on Long Island was laid on 2 May.

During the time that I conducted research in Mumbai for my PhD and later when I was writing all of that up, I met many Zoroastrians. They are often called Parsees (Parsi) and they immigrated to India from Iran after being persecuted by Muslims. They have unique traditions and, one in particular, the non-burial of their dead. They leave the bodies of their deceased for vultures to clean. The bodies do not contaminate the air, the soil, or the water. Today, this community is facing a particular challenge and it concerns a lack of vultures.

‘Our-culture-is-dying-vulture-shortage-threatens-Zoroastrian-burial-rites-Pakistan-The-GuardiaDownload

Let Jackie and Shadow be our inspiration.

Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care – there is a flu bug or something going around and it isn’t nice! See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, H, J, PB’, Scottish Wildlife Foundation (LOTL), Police Scotland Tayside, LOTL Visitor’s Centre, Val Gail, Daily Record, Geemeff, Raptor Persecution UK, Rutland Osprey Project, Heidi McGrue, Moorings Park Ospreys, Window to Wildlife, Border Ospreys, SK Hideaways, Cal Falcons, Severna Park, Lake Murray Ospreys, Frenchman’s Creek Ospreys, Hancock Wildlife Foundation, Cornell RTH Cam, Miami Landscape Arboretum, VGCCO, Raptor Resource Project/Explore, IWS/Explore, Gracie Shepherd, Little Miami Conservancy, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Green Ledge Light Preservation Society, and The Guardian.

*Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to credit the correct individuals for their contributions. If an error has been made, please let me know! I wish to fix it.*

Pip, pip, hatch…Saturday in Bird World

23 March 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I had to check first thing. More below. But isn’t a day-old osplet adorable? I wish every osplet could hatch into a wonderful nest like Sally and Harry’s.

Happy Saturday everyone – from all of us. Hugo Yugo is well and there are so many pips and hatches going to happen our heads will be spinning by next week!

I haven’t been staying up as late as I used to. Last year I was still watching the cams at 0100 and back up again before 0700. This year, I am being gentle until the ospreys start hatching all over the place so, sometimes I miss things. That is what happened with the hatch at Moorings yesterday. So grateful for ‘H’ – she fills in my gaps. Thursday night was also a difficult evening when I added up how many hours little Willow had not had any food on the Bluff City nest and observed the battering that Oliver was giving it. Food shortages cause many things for both raptors and humans. Sadly, Willow was too weak to eat on Friday and Oliver continued to thrash her about. It reminded me too much of Zoe. Sometimes we all need just to step back and breathe. Life is often extremely difficult and in instances like this, we feel very helpless.

Hugo Yugo is positively fine. The onesie went into the ether somewhere and the incision is fantastic, regardless. Thank you for all your get well wishes and positive energy.

It has been an excruciatingly painful year with the Bald Eagle nests that all of us have watched. We are only beginning to have the little osplets in the nest. Indeed, the majority of the adults have yet to return from migration. We can only hope that the weather and the quantity and quality of fish will be such that the chicks can survive to fledge – and then, we must hope that the larger raptors do not predate them. It is time to show we care, not just talk about it.

I intend to observe those nests that have had predation and send the owners all the information about the proactive folks at Cowlitz PUD. Yes, that is a public utility company in Washington State that cared enough about its ospreys to put up fish grates to protect the babies from the Bald Eagles. Last year, the family lost all three of their beautiful osplets to an eagle. We have seen other nests that could have benefited and outfitted their platforms before their resident ospreys returned this year. If I seem overly critical, well, I am. The ospreys put so much energy into the eggs, incubation, and feeding that to lose the chicks, often right before or right after fledging, is devastating, especially when mitigation might have altered the outcome.

I reported below that there was to be a walk around the Achieva Credit Union nest. This was posted within the last five minutes – so at 2100 Florida time Friday night. So, please send your concerns to the St Petersburg Audubon Society quickly and coherently.

Good news. The Achieva Osprey nest will have individuals looking at it and around the area as well as trimming the tree near the platform.

Thank you Barbara Walker. This is what she found when they looked around the Achieva nest at the base:

Mother Goose at Decorah has laid another egg – the third. Don’t you love seeing those day old goslings take that leap of faith?

The John Bunker Sands surviving eaglet is doing fantastic. Self-feeding and a lot of flapping and jumping are the order of the day. Mum appears to be improving slowly. I have to imagine that standing on the metal, especially on a hot day, does nothing but put stress on that foot/talon at times. Thankfully, and regardless, the eaglet has not suffered. Dad stepped in to help both and did a fantastic job.

There is a hatch – second egg, one eaglet in nest – in progress at the Cardinal Land Conservancy.

Pip watch began at the Redding Bald Eagle nest of Liberty and Guardian on Thursday. Please let them have one successful hatch! The weather is miserable.

We are on hatch watch at Berry College. This is Pa and Missey’s second clutch. The egg is 35 days old today. Wishing both Pa and Missey luck.

Both Ospreys have arrived safe and sound at the Bridge Golf Club Osprey Nest.

At Port Lincoln, Bradley continues to show us that he can catch puffers and fish! I am so glad that he chooses to catch them on the ropes of the old Natal Nest and then barge them so we can see how well he is doing.

Bradley and Dad have been spending time at Dad’s favourite fishing spot, Delamere. You might recall that Dad and Ervie spent much time there also – as do the whole family now.

I am not sure which bird it is but Threave have one on a nest in the UK! Most will return in a week (based on historical records).

There is a new Red-tail Hawk cam at Syracuse University. The residents are Oren and Ruth and they already have two eggs. Check it out!

Here is the link:

Big Red and Arthur continue to take turns. Big Red has been busy finding bark Friday afternoon.

Arthur returns, not Big Red.

Here comes Mama with more bark.

Snow began to fall gently on Big Red, her nest and the two eggs Friday evening.

The little osplet at Moorings Park is hatched and so cute. Sally has been busy having many small fish meals for her first hatch in 2024. At one time the remaining half shell from the hatch got slipped over the ‘orange’ egg (the one closest to you), but, thankfully, it later came off. Is there a pip in one of the other eggs? We wait to see. Hopefully they will all hatch quickly! Harry is such an amazing fisher and Sally an incredible Mum, they can handle three.

‘AE’ sent this adorable screen capture. Don’t newly hatched osplets melt your heart?

We have some tracking news about Ervie.

Food was scarce, and Oliver at Bluff City realised there was currently not enough, even with a rabbit coming into the nest. S/he has continually beaten little Willow, who has not eaten. The parent will not feed a chick they perceive as dying because it is a ‘waste of food’. Willow must be strong enough to get up and open its beak. Sadly, Oliver isn’t allowing this. This is a typical example of siblicide. And it is horrible to watch. Please note that Oliver has an enormous crop when he is beating Willow. You might recall Zoe at Port Lincoln. This will not end well, and I wish the little one speed in its release.

AE reports Willow had only 2 bites of food. Poor thing.

Poor little Willow. It is raining and she is still alive this morning. I feel so sorry for this family with so little food.

It is an entirely different story at Johnson City where there is plenty of fish. Both eaglets are thriving.

Sometimes I wish the other eggs on the nest would not hatch. Ellie and Harvey’s first eaglet on Farmer Derek’s property is a cutie pie.

The first hatch at Decorah North is on its way! We are going to have so many eaglets by next week!

It appears that Archie won the lottery – Annie and him have four eggs. Wonder if she will go for five?!

Archie incubates!!!!! Those four must be awfully uncomfortable for such a little falcon.

Looks like Lisa has returned to the Spirit Bluff scrape and is bonding with Newman. (I suspect she was injured and healed and has now returned to take her place). Exciting news.

As many of you are aware, I have ranted about humans providing fish for the ospreys in times of immediate need. I wrote the following to Geemeff in a big rant, “So I continue to ask myself – what would it hurt us to put up fish ponds near the raptor platforms?  I mean John Williams has figured out the number and type of fish that come on to Llyn Clywedog – and if I recall, it is about 450-500 fish for a great feed for a family of 4-5.  Would it really break the bank to ensure fish were there?  When the rivers and streams in places such as the NE US have nothing?  Humans did, after all, scoop all the surface swimming fish for the ospreys.” Geemeff reminded me of the following:  ” I like your rant, and remind you of Horn Mill trout farm in Rutland. They estimate they were losing about £60k in fish stocks annually to the Ospreys, and netted all their ponds. Then someone had the genius idea to un-net the biggest pond and install a hide nearby. Now they make more in photographer fees than they lose to the Ospreys. Win-win! Why don’t others do similar?” Geemeff is absolutely right. There is at least one or two other hides making a good income from people wanting to photograph ospreys catching fish. Mention this to anyone you know. All those golf clubs that have osprey nests where there is a dwindling amount of fish could cash in!

At Louis’s original nest at Loch Arkaig, the buzzards fighting for the rights to nest there have locked talons and fallen over the side in this thirty second clip by Geemeff.

Happy Birthday Super Star Kakapo Sirocco!

For the love of the Eider Duck – a Norwegian community and how it protects this precious waterfowl. Who are the Eider Keepers?

The-Eider-Keepers-Hakai-MagazineDownload

What has been the reaction to the Scottish Grouse Bill?

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BirdLife International shows us how cement was turned into wetlands in Cambridgeshire, UK. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.

Turning-cement-into-luscious-wetlands-BirdLife-InternationalDownload

Thank you so very much for being with me today. Please take care. We look forward to having you with us again very soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, screen captures, conversations, articles, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, AE, BA, Geemeff, H, MP’, Achieva Osprey Cam, Barbara Walker, Raptor Resource Project/Explore.org, JB Sands Wetlands, Cardinal Land Conservancy, FORE, Berry College Eagle Cam, Bridge Golf Course Ospreys, PLO, thrive Ospreys NTS, Red-tail Hawk Cam SU, Cornell RTH Cam, Moorings Park Ospreys, Bluff City-ETSU, Johnson City-ETSU, SK Hideaways, Ashley Wilson, Geemeff, Kakapo Recover, Hakai Magazine, Raptor Persecution UK, and BirdLife International.

Jack tries to save the egg at Captiva…Monday in Bird World

11 March 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Sunday was just the most gorgeous day. Blue sky and a warm +5. Great to get outside as much of that ice is now gone.

It was a great day to go for a walk, weather-wise. When we got to our destination, there were approximately nine deer, several of them quite young, in front of us. Then, an individual with a Golden Doodle let their dog off the lead, instructing them to chase the deer. The dog began barking loudly and running at the wildlife, at which time I stood and spread my arms, and told it to go back. This was not before the deer were quite frightened and began to run across a road in the park that was rather busy today. Now, why on earth would someone do this?

The feeders were busy. There were a couple of Pine Siskins and a Dark-eyed Junco, along with the normal group of sparrows, the two Blue Jays, and a female Downy Woodpecker. The Crows could be heard but not seen. Little Red and more Little Reds were eating peanuts along with Dyson. It is always so good too see her.

Dyson looks good!

Sunday’s news is that Jack and Edie have their first Osprey egg together at Captiva. That egg and all that bark have caused a bit of an issue.

‘H’ reports: “Well, at 14.49.39 both Jack and Edie left urgently due to an intruder, and Edie accidentally kicked the egg out of the bowl when she flew off (that’s exactly what Flo did to egg #1 last season).  Jack had been trying to roll the egg back to the center for a while, and finally had to move some bark, then rolled the egg toward the center by 17.08.38, but the egg was still on top of palm fiber.  Jack sat on the egg to incubate at 17.10.  Then a short while later Jack stood to move a bothersome stick, and since the egg was on the fiber, it rolled outward again.”

The egg rolled out again and ‘H’ reports that Edie is incubating palm fibre with the egg being covered by the material to her right. If they could get that egg under Edie by the time she gets to hard incubation of her other eggs, I wonder if it would be viable.

The saga of the egg continued during the night as Edie and Jack tried desperately to get it back to the middle of the nest. ‘H’ reports that the wind finally took the covering off. Now the egg is free! Wonder what will happen now.

We have a first egg at the Decorah Goose Cam!

Thunder and Akecheta welcomed their second hatch. This makes my heart beat a little lighter. Of all the Channel Islands eagles, these two have the best luck with eggs and raising chicks. They will need it this year. These two are already bonking furiously. Thunder appeared to get fed up with this and went back to brooding the pair.

Thunder makes sure they both get fed. Gosh, these two produce feisty chicks. It is a bonk fest.

Everyone continues to root for Jak and Audacity and Jackie and Shadow. The positive energy and love going their way is tremendous. If only it could produce eaglets.

Audacity.

Jackie.

‘A’ reports on Tom and Angel: “That nest of Angel and Tom’s looks very much ready to receive a brace of eggs (not three yet Angel – Tom is a bit inexperienced still to feed a family of five, I fear).”

The battle for the nest at Dulles-Greenway continues. Rosa’s mate, Martin, disappeared in December. They had raised three eaglets – Pi, Pat, and Flora in 2023 to fledge and the nest collapsed. It was rebuilt. Rosa’s new mate, Lewis, did not help and she quit incubating the two eggs she had laid on the 23rd of February, 9 days after she laid the first egg. Did she just leave? was she killed by another female wanting the nest? Currently, Lewis is on the nest with a new female according to the latest reports. I have now placed Rosa on the Memorial Page for 2024.

Lewis and new female in nest.

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It looks like Swampy and Meadow have a possum to practice their self-feeding. Later, a parent helps them. They are now in training! These two just about gave me a heart attack today when they were both leaning way over the edge of the nest!

E23 wants to fly and is doing really high hover moves.

More fish stacked at the Duke Farms nest. This new dad is fantastic! There has been some concern about Jersey, the smaller eaglet. Leaper is the oldest. Comments on the chat seem to indicate that Jersey has had some good feedings on Sunday.

Very windy at the nest of Jolene and Boone in Johnson City, TN on Sunday. Eaglets are Little John and JC. I have had some concerns here, but that little one came back to eat after some pretty good bonks.

It is not clear how much food the second hatch is getting at Bluff City yet. Yesterday, Franklin made sure that BC 25 was fed. The chicks are Oliver, the oldest, and Willow, the youngest. Their parents are Franklin and Frances.

Isn’t this Osprey beautiful? Frank Borja took it while watching a Saturday track and field meet in San Diego. We are looking for more information. Osprey has a blue colour band on the left leg, with a numeric, either 61 or 19, depending on which way it is to be read. Do you know this osprey number? We are searching and have sent a query to USFWS and reported the band sighting. The osprey looks to be in very good condition with a nice fish dinner.

‘J’ sent news that Ojai is banning glue traps! This is great news if the stops and on line retailers will stop selling them! Despite a ban in my city, I continued to find these for sale in big retail chains.

Sharon Dunne reporting on the TF chick and its visit with Mum.

Love TF chick? His parents? All the other albatross and seabirds? PLEASE stop using plastic. It is bad for humans (you can find endless articles about forever toxins used in plastic), and it is deadly for Royal Albatross chicks whose parents forage in the sea and fill their babies with plastic! What a garbage dump we have created on our planet. It is time to do something about this. Refrain from purchasing plastic items. Do not use plastic in your microwave. Tell your shops to stop buying cheap imported plastic items that are thrown away. Start investing in buying less but better. The world will thank you.

Toroaalbatross-chick-dies-from-swallowing-plastic-Media-release-11-March-2024Download

A National Geographic article on the forever chemicals hiding in your kitchen.

‘Forever-chemicals-are-hiding-in-your-kitchen.-Heres-where—and-what-you-can-doDownload

What Kills An Albatross?

“What kills albatross” by Tatters ✾ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Milda and Mr H are working fast and hard to get that nest ready for eggs! I am thinking around the 25th.

I honestly cannot get enough of the Port Lincoln Lads hanging out together. This is pretty awesome.

Arthur was working on the Cornell nest for a few minutes before the snow started Sunday evening.

Off he goes over Tower Road.

We love seeing our falcons out and about the urban areas staying safe.

Olivia and Oscar are now both back at Severna Park’s Osprey Platform.

Dr Sharpe has cancelled his retirement. Please note his comment about the build-up of DDT in the older eagles in the Channel Islands – and this would apply to other areas such as Big Bear Lake where DDT was sprayed extensively.

As many as half a million barrels of DDT were discovered leaking in the Channel Islands in 2020. Leaking. Hidden at a depth of 3000 feet so that no one could discover them – the ocean and inlets are garbage dumps used by humans. Out of sight but not out of mind and certainly harming the wildlife.

Imagine. 500,000 barrels. Leaking.

How-the-waters-off-Catalina-became-a-DDT-dumping-ground-Los-Angeles-TimesDownload

We love Jackie and Shadow. Everyone sat and hoped that with three eggs one of them would be viable. As we close in on the final days that egg #3 might be, let us all applaud this couple who have laid 14 eggs together with 5 of those eggs hatching. It is known that 2 or 3 of that 5 have survived into adulthood. One of those most of you will remember as Spirit from two years ago. I hope that Jackie and Shadow will have another opportunity to raise an eaglet, but if they don’t, they can sure teach us much about getting on with life in the face of adversity. Send them your love!

Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, photographs, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, FB, H, J’, Window to Wildlife, Decorah Goose Cam, IWS/Explore.org, FOBBV, Dulles-Greenway Eagle Cam, Loudoun Times-Mirror, Eagle Country, Lady Hawk, Duke Farms, Sylvia, Johnson City-ETSU, Bluff City-ETSU, Rollin’ Rog, Frank Borja, Ojai Raptor Center, Sharon Dunne, NZ DOC, National Geographic, Open Verse, Biruta Lapa, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Cornell RTH, Linda McIlroy, Lucille Powell, Dr Sharpe, and The Los Angeles Times.

Friday in Bird World

1 March 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Gosh, I am tired! Cannot possibly tell you why, but I would like nothing better than to snuggle up with Hugo Yugo for a long sleep. Is it from waking up all night to check on Jackie and Shadow? Maybe!

Today is day 36 for egg 1 for Jackie and Shadow. The average hatch day at Big Bear is 38-39 days. It sounds windy today at Big Bear.

Oh, it was a day for pictures. Hugo Yugo was into everything. She first decided to attack Baby Hope to become the ‘Queen of the Cat Tree’. Then she modelled her ‘onesie’ – which was returned. It is a great idea, but they need one for cats. I am thinking of a newborn onesie with cut-out arms and legs. Would that work? And then there is Calico and Hope. The image is blurry. I apologise. There is something magical about these two when they are together. I still tear up, thinking of the miracle of seeing Hope find all of us. But first, they have to watch the birds! Not the real ones outside all over the feeders and the lilac bushes, but on the screen. It sounds like humans when they walk in the woods and take their phones—watching a screen.

Hope goes to the front of the telly when she wants me to turn on the Bird Video. She lays there hoping to catch my attention. She never meows or anything. Just waits patiently.

Hugo Yugo loves to watch things on the big screen, too! Especially the Blue Jays. I keep telling her we have Blue Jays in the garden. She doesn’t listen!

Then Hugo Yugo got ‘antsy’. You can see it in her eyes. She’s ready to go!!!!!!!!! Hope follows. They get to the back and the Cat tree. Hope arrives first.

Hugo Yugo pounces.

Hope has so much patience with Hugo Yugo.

Hope was relieved when Hugo Yugo was distracted by a European Starling landing on the glass ceiling.

Hugo Yugo can get awfully rough. They throw each other into the sofa and the wall and run all over the place.

Now, they are friends again.

Then it was time to try on the onesie. It was made for a tiny Chihuahua. Didn’t fit right. Still, a great idea to keep the animals from licking their incisions. We will try something else.

The light coming in from the conservatory washed this image out. But there they are in their favourite spot to be together. It is a daily ritual – sometimes several times a day. These two could never be separated. Thank you to those who sent me stories and images of their rescue mothers and kittens who, like Calico and Hope, like the comfort of one another. It is so appreciated. Thank you for sharing.

We are going to start with Eagle Country. The images say it all. I hope they put a huge smile on your face.

Second. What a couple of feisty eaglets. Johnson City. Goodness. There was even a dual feeding by Jolene and Boone on Thursday.

Waiting for eggs to hatch is nothing short of agonising. I am not even sure that I wouldn’t like long fingernails being dragged across a chalkboard more.

We are still waiting for a pip at Big Bear Valley. Jackie and Shadow do not know that more than 21,000 people watched their every move today. We checked every piece of dirt and espresso-coloured feather to see if it was a pip. We drove ourselves crazy. Is the microphone sensitive enough to pick up the cheeps from the eaglet like some others?

The eaglet at Duke Farms trying to hatch from the crushed egg has survived. It still has some shell attached as of Thursday early evening. It is breathing. The hope is that the shell will dry and break off and that the eaglet will be alright. There is a pip confirmed in the second egg at Duke Farms.

The latest: (Oh, BTW, the AI that is associated with this site seems to change the spelling for Rollin’ Rog. I do spell it correctly. Apologies for all that!)

It was not until 20:32:52 Thursday night that the little one had its head completely free of that shell. Will there be any lasting injury? Let us all send positive energy. (I was a little surprised at how Mum moved that chick about…oh, please, let us hope it is OK).

I cannot tell if the first hatch has survived at Duke Farms (I am hesitant to say that it died, but it really might have). There is nesting material all matted around. The second egg has a large pip – by Mum’s beak. We wait to see the status of hatch 1.

Avon Lake Eagles have their first egg.

Just look at that eaglet at J B Sands Wetlands. Did that juvenile plumage grow over night? Big and strong with gorgeous feathering coming in. Beautiful surviving eaglet. Glad that all is well here in Texas.

R6 is big and strong, too. ‘H’ tells me he isn’t as proficient at self-feeding as I thought he was – too bad. But, he will get there! Ron and Rose will make certain he is prepared for the wild.

Cal is doing very well. Likes to look out over the world form that branch and still loves to be fed by Mum and Dad.

Another huge and healthy eaglet is E23. Check out the size and the wingspan. How many of you are thinking female?

At Redding, Liberty and Guardian have one of their three eggs crushed on Thursday. This brought a ripple of sadness through their many fans.

Jak and Audacity’s egg looks fine. Fingers and toes – and all talons crossed, please!

The embryonic development of an eagle by Dr Sharpe. You might find this very interesting.

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Lots of information about Rita, the Bald Eagle, Ron’s former mate at the WRDC nest, that I bet you didn’t know! I learned a lot. Great little video.

I am so glad that people are realising the value of a nest’s history. Often we do not know it. So in addition to the one by Rita, there is also now a slideshow history of the Centreport Eagles.

The new Dad at Pittsburgh-Hays is so funny. He reminds me of Shadow at times.

Canada Geese. They are starting to arrive in Vancouver, and the City of Vancouver seeks to ‘lethally cull’ the geese. The Animal Alliance of Canada is against the measures proposed by the City because it, the City, is not following the guidelines they set up. In addition, Geese are protected under the Migratory Bird Act! Permission has to be given and I hope those that receive the City’s application check the accuracy of their claims.

Those who often benefit and scaremonger the public are the pest companies who financially benefit. So please read the following article. If you live in the area and this issue touches your heart, get involved. The Geese are only on land that was historically theirs. We are taking away their habitat everywhere. So, Educate yourself. Then with knowledge, not emotion, write to your local councilperson and the City Parks department. You will have to use their online forms. Please Google: Vancouver City Parks Department for those. For those living outside of Vancouver, you can voice your concerns over the lethal culling without first using the non-lethal measures set out in their own documents.

There is no proof that the number of geese will rise. Geese are susceptible to HPAI. We still have Avian Flu. I have written to Cornell Bird Lab to get the statistics on Canada Geese, their growth or decline population, and future projections. I will let you know what I find out if they answer my query.

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The Canada Geese are also now arriving in Manitoba amidst cold temperatures and snow. Is this early for Oak Hammock Marsh? Here are the statistics for the last 25 years.

‘H’ tells me that Lori Covert has decided to name the new female at the Captiva nest despite the fact that she has not laid an egg. Her name is Edie after Edith. If you can’t read the text below from Lori’s Instagram, she says that she is keeping with the tradition of naming the birds after family relatives. So this is Edie pronounced ‘eedie’ which is for her Uncle Jack and Aunt Edie.

There is some good news coming out of EuroNatur but, as Geemeff, asks, what is the point of designating an area a national park and then stealing its water? Doesn’t that sound quite wrong to you?

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As we move into osprey nesting season, it is good for us to conjure up the images of Dr Greene and his teams in Montana clearing osprey nests and trying to save the osplets bound up in baling twine. Baling twine is used to secure hay and straw bales in farming areas. It is made of various materials, but it is deadly to ospreys. They gather it up – it seems they love the plastic orange twine, and they take it to their nests. It is there that their chicks get wrapped up in this deadly mess.

There must be an inventor out there – maybe it is you reading this – who can figure out a way to secure hay and straw bales without using twine or any plastics that would injure or kill wildlife. Just imagine if some of the billionaires spent some money on working to save our wildlife instead of sending rockets into space. I wonder what we might discover!

Ahead-of-ospreys-return-Flathead-Audubon-raises-alarm-over-bailing-twineDownload

Everywhere we turn, there is something ready to kill our wildlife, our insects and bees that pollinate our plants that help us to survive. And there are government agencies that continue to approve such toxins as Neonicotinoids. Please note, “Despite nearly 15,000 people calling for better support for farmers and wildlife, the UK Government recently approved the use of a bee-killing pesticide (known as a neonicotinoid or neonic) on sugar beet crops in England for the fourth year in a row. For our February edition of Wild LIVE, we will be discussing why more than a third of sugar beet farmers chose to not use the chemical in 2023, and how we can support more to make that transition and stop the reliance on these hugely damaging pesticides.”

In this instance, this is about sugar, sugar beets, and British Sugar. Here is an interesting discussion on how easy it is to ban this pesticide and still have sugar. (Manitoba grows a lot of sugar beets – now I wonder if they use these deadly poisons on their crops. I must check that.)

If you live in or near NYC (or just want to be there and live half way around the world), think about joining the others in a tribute to Flaco – an Owl who brought many together through its hope and resilience.

From Port Lincoln, Giliath has been filmed bathing near the Yacht Club and Ervie has been visiting Boston Island frequently.

Spring is in the air in San Jose! If you don’t believe me, just ask Monty and Hartley!

Thank you so much for being with us today. We hope that you enjoyed about hearing the comings and goings of some of our favourite raptors. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for your notes, posts, articles, videos, screen captures, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, H, J, N’, Eagle Country, Johnson City-ETSU, FOBBV, Gracie Shepherd, Duke Farms, Avon Lakes, JB Sands Wetlands, WRDC, Window to Wildlife, SW Florida Eagle Cam, FORE, Baiba Graustina, Raptor Resource Project, Marathon Wild Bird Centre – Crane Point, Bald Eagles of Centreport, PIX Cams, Animal Alliance of Canada, Oak Hammock Marsh, Lori Covert, Euronatur, Flathead Audubon, WILD LIVE, Dimi Belchev, BK Dave, Port Lincoln Ospreys, and SK Hideaways.

Thursday in Bird World

29 February 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Well, I haven’t been able to concentrate. Despite the freezing temperatures, a walk seemed like a good idea. It was so cold and slippery that the trails did not give much joy on Wednesday, so today, I am heading to a pool to go for a good long swim while we wait to see if any of the eggs at Big Bear are viable.

Will this mini bottle of champagne get opened this year? We wait to see. I bought it last year to celebrate the hatch at Big Bear, and it has sat in the cupboard waiting just like Jackie and Shadow have to try again for a family.

10,731 were watching the nest at 1534 on Wednesday. I just wonder what the numbers will be when the Pip starts. So many people love this couple. They are the epitome, like Jak and Audacity, of resilience and hope.

Rolling the precious eggs.

Singing together.

11, 784 and growing at 0700 watching for a pip as Jackie rolls the eggs leaving us to wonder.

JC23 and JC24 are quite the characters – and strong. My goodness the necks these two have!

Boone feeding these babies. Gosh that one is so strong. It appears the bonking has waned for awhile. Hoping it stays that way.

Abby and Blaze have fed Swampy and Meadow all day on Wednesday – full-to-bursting crops were the order of the day. It is a wonder either of these eaglets can move.

Starting to look like the new fleece jackets!

Proud Mamma Abby with her two beautiful eaglets.

Have a look at Swampy’s fat bottom and a huge PS!

Two eggs for Andor and Cruz at Fraser Point.

News coming in of the South Australian ospreys.

Beau and Gabby have been mating and working on the nest. Could I seriously hope that these two might have another clutch of eggs? at this date?

Mum is still incubating the eggs at Duke Farm and it appears that there will be at least one little one as hatch is underway. Congratulations.

The Bald Eagles on the Hanover, PA nest now have two eggs. It was a breezy rainy day there on Wednesday. HDonTap says, “With the recent arrival of the second egg, the plot thickens as two male eagles fiercely vie for the coveted space. As observers eagerly await the hatching, speculation mounts, adding an extra layer of suspense to this captivating avian tale.”

There are two eggs at the ND-LEEF nest in South Bend.

Everyone wants to incubate (except Beau and Lewis)…

Arthur and Big Red worked on their nest with Arthur in and out with sticks several times. At 17:45 he arrives with a vole (or mouse) for Big Red and calls her but she did not fly in. He took the prey and left!

Notice how many sticks Arthur has accumulated. Those rails look pretty good. Is he expecting 3 or 4 eggs this year?

The eaglet at JB Sands Wetlands is really changing its plumage. Just squint and you can see the dark feathers starting to come in with the charcoal thermal down.

Food delivery at the Hilton Head GHO nest that I missed! Aren’t they cute?

More bonding at Anacapa with Lena and HJ.

Is Archie inviting Annie to come down to the scrape with him? Does she join him? Watch and see!

Not sure I this is before or after Annie discusses Pocket Gophers and Rodenticide with Archie!

I am imagining the most famous raptors all over giving lectures on dangers to their existence.

Only one Kakapo was born on Leap Year Day – Tau Kuhurangi. Happy Birthday!

Frustrated by the camera at FORE and wanting to watch Liberty and Guardian, here is some news.

And now…for some really good news. With population numbers declining rapidly for some species, the Eastern Imperial Eagle is having a comeback in Austria!

“Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca)” by Bernd Thaller is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Eastern-Imperial-Eagle-population-soars-in-Austria-BirdGuidesDownload

Conservation efforts to stabilize populations elsewhere while the clearing of pine forests and lost of habitat continues to threaten.

Researching-the-Eastern-Imperial-Eagle-NABU-beyond-bordersDownload

In 2020, there were only three recorded nesting pairs of Imperial Eagles in Serbia. The reasons for the total decimation of the population were:

“Loss of habitat, poisoning, and poaching are the problems that brought the eastern imperial eagle to the edge of extinction. The european ground squirrel [Spermophilus citellus, native to Eastern Europe and Asia Minor], a favourite food of the eagle, lives in open grassy fields, most often pastures that have been plowed over due to the dying off of traditional animal husbandry. There are no cows grazing, no pastures, no ground squirrel, no old trees that can withstand the nests of these large birds, so there are no imperial eagles. When you add in pesticides and poaching, the state of the population is not surprising,” he says.

Reckless pesticide use is very bad for the birds, but Serbia also faces the issue of intentional poisoning of wildlife.”

In the last article, more discussions of how humans have made the Imperial Eagle decline so rapidly. I hope by reading the article on the growing numbers in Austria that you will appreciate how difficult it was – because almost everywhere these gorgeous raptors are in great decline.

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Eastern Imperial Eagle having a bath.

More tributes continue to pour in to Flaco.

Death-of-Flaco-NYCs-Celebrity-Owl-Calls-Attention-to-Bird-Strikes-The-New-York-TimesDownload

Do you live in NYC?

Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care and remember – all eyes on Big Bear starting tomorrow.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, screen captures, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post this morning: ‘H, J, SP’, FOBBV, Johnson City Eagles ETSU, Rollin’ Dog, Eagle Country, Lisa Yen, Brooke Copp, NEFL-AEF, Duke Farms, HDonTap, ND-LEEF, PIX Cams, Cornell RTH, JB Sands Wetlands, Hilton Head, SK Hideaways, Cal Falcon, Kakapo Recovery, FORE, BirdGuides International Openverse, NABU, Emerging Europe, Birdlife International my-mriya, Kathy Robles, and The New York Times.

Hatch watch for Duke Farms…Monday in Bird World

26 February 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

The sky was blue on Sunday and the temperature was -5C. Not as warm as it was on Saturday, but still nice. It meant a trip north of the City to check on eagles and, wow. We lucked out. Sitting there quietly in a tree minding its own business was an adult Bald Eagle. The second image is heavily cropped. All taken with my iPhone from a distance.

People were ice fishing on Lake Winnipeg at Gimli. The marina where the Osprey fishes from spring to fall was silent today. Everything awaiting the thaw.

‘The Girls’ did not get into too much mischief on Sunday. Hugo Yugo held her own and kept command of the top of the smallest cat post. Baby Hope was on her favourite sofa. Calico was no where to be found and Missey was by her window on arrival home. It looked like it was a lazy Sunday afternoon for them. No one wanted to pose and neither of these two were particularly happy that I was bothering their nap.

The Bald Eagle nest in Johnson City, TN is blowing so hard. I was afraid the tree was going to go down…This was during pip watch and then…

The eaglet hatched! Congratulations Jolene and Booth on this feisty new born.

The egg at Duke Farms is 35 days old. We are officially on hatch watch. Did you know that Duke Farms “is located on 2,700 acres near Hillsborough, New Jersey” and “is one of the largest privately-owned parcels of undeveloped land in NJ state.” Isn’t that fantastic! (For clarification, 600 acres is a square mile to give you an idea of the size).

We are THREE days away from pip/hatch watch at Big Bear Valley with Shadow and Jackie. Eggs are still in tact as of Sunday afternoon. Their nest is in a Jeffrey Pine, some 145 feet from the ground. It is one of the highest Bald Eagle nests in the US in terms of elevation at 7100 ft above sea level.

Watchers of the Captiva Osprey nest are hoping that Jack and F07 will have their first egg on Sunday.

No egg yet on Sunday.

It is not all smooth sailing at the tower of Diamond and Xavier. Cilla Kinross notes some altercations with the Kestrels. The falcons have also been hunting at night! You might recall that Annie’s mate, Alden, was a great nocturnal hunter.

Will Newmann pick Julie? There is some action at the Great Spirit Bluff scrape on Sunday that might suggest romance is finally in the air.

Archie and Annie spent Sunday in and around the scrape at The Campanile.

Clive delivered a large fish to Cal on Sunday. Dad demonstrates ‘unzipping’ the Pompano for Cal and leaves the fish for his youngster to self-feed after he gets some good bites.

Sunday morning at Flaco’s roost tree in Central Park. I have to admit that I am captivated by the outpouring of love for this owl and how his plight of being in a small cage resonated around the world. People wept for his death and also for the joy they believed he felt in the year that he was free. Flaco spoke to something deep in our own souls. Can YOU imagine sitting in a cage watching life walk by? or fly by? Or flying yourself? Is this the heart of what is happening?

You can see and listen to Flaco’s ‘hoot’ here:

https://twitter.com/birdcentralpark/status/1761549232769581213…

I will only mention products that really work in my post and that I have either used or, in the case of books, read. I do not get a penny for mentioning Feather Friendly but it works. So do Crayon Window Paints. The key is to put these on the outside of your windows (decals and all other items, too) including the window paint. The lines for the window paint need to be 2 inches a part in every direction. You can clean the paint off at the end of migration season with White Vinegar that does not harm the environment. The Feather Friendly are expensive but they are supposed to last a number of years. The window markers are the cheapest of anything you could use.

I use the Feather Friendly on the Conservatory. We can watch it save lives.

A lovely article on birds and aging. It is two years old and still a good read. Found it on a FB feed this morning and wanted to share. Please note that Wisdom is now 72 years young! She was dancing on Midway Atoll but did not get a mate and is back foraging at sea.

Why-Birds-Are-Anti-Aging-Superstars-AudubonDownload

Preparing the nest in Durbe County, Latvia – Milda, the White-tailed Eagle and her new mate. The first year I watched Milda she laid her eggs the third week of March.

It looks like an almost two-and-a-half-year-old eagle landed on the nest of Beau and Gabby late Sunday afternoon. What a beauty! The only hatches from this nest that might come close would be Jasper or Rocket. The larger amount of hot chocolate brown could account for the slight difference from the image below.

Beau wasn’t happy and chased the youngster off.

Two successful GHO fledges on the SW Florida property of the Pritchett’s that is shared with M15 and F23.

Meadow and Swampy were both well fed on Sunday…no problems here except for the flies.

Everything looks good at Superbeaks. That little one is right up there in front. Pepe and Muhlady have a catfish and is it a bird? in the pantry.

Thunder was attacked by a hawk while incubating her three eggs at the West End on Saturday. My heart sank.

The first Cahow has hatched in Bermuda.

“bermuda petrel, cahow, pétrel des bermudes” by Miguel A Mejias, M.Sc. is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

They are the Bermuda Petrel – known on the island as a Cahow. They are also the national bird of Bermuda and are one of the rarest seabirds on Earth according to the Cornell Bird Lab.

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Here are some facts about the Cahow that you might want to know.

Amazing-Cahow-Facts-The-Endemic-Bermuda-Petrel-—-The-Nonsuch-ExpeditionsDownload

Thank you so much for being with me today. We hope to see you soon – take care everyone!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, articles, photographs, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A’, Duke Farms, Sara A, Gracie Shepherd, FOBBV, Window to Wildlife, Holly Parsons, Cilla Kinross, Ashely Wilson, Cal Falcons, Birgit Nanette, @BirdCentralPark, Marion Savelsberg, Feather Friendly, Audubon, LDF, Biruta Papa, NEFL-AEF, Lisa Russo, Eagle Country, Superbeaks, Janntonne, Nonsuch Exhibitions, and OpenVerse.

Flaco dies from building collision, Third egg at Florida-Gainesville Ospreys…Saturday in Bird World

24 February 2024

I am not sure it is a ‘Good Morning’ but Hello to everyone,

My focus has been entirely on the JBS Wetlands Eagle family. I have not seen both eagles on the nest since Wednesday and this has been concerning. However…any concerns have now dissipated.

JBS Wetlands has also written to MP: “

“Thank you for reaching out! The other adult eagle has been spotted several times this week activity hunting and spending time on the top of the tower on the lookout. We spotted the adult yesterday several times as well, twice on top of the tower while the other parent was on the nest with the eaglet!”

Finally, I caught a feeding at 16:03 and JBS Wetlands contacted me to tell me that both eagles were on the nest at 1832 with a feeding in progress. Relief.

Sadly, this morning, the world woke to the news that Flaco, the Eurasian Owl that escaped from the Central Park Zoo just a year ago, has died from injuries after colliding with a building. Oh, I loved this little guy – like all of you.

Flaco-the-Eurasian-Eagle-Owl-Has-Died-NewsroomDownload
Flaco-Escaped-Central-Park-Zoo-Owl-and-Defier-of-Doubts-Is-Dead-The-New-York-TimesDownload

We are now five days away from pip/hatch watch at Big Bear. Jackie and Shadow are too funny. Shadow persisted, going in and out all day Friday, wanting turns to incubate! At one point, I looked at the eggs, which were intact. I returned for a screen capture and couldn’t find that split second. Jackie is being ever so careful. Extremely careful.

Five days. That is next Thursday. Mark your calendars. I have my tiny tiny bottle of champagne ready. At 1600 nest time on Friday there were 8595 people watching. I believe we will hit 10,000 when there is a hatch. Incredible. Bells should be ringing around the world in celebration.

This is a recap of Friday’s nest activity at Big Bear.

Chase and Cholyn have their first egg at Two Harbours!

Isn’t she the most beautiful 25 year old Bald Eagle? If you do not know, she is Thunder’s mother (Thunder the partner of Akecheta at the West End nest). And if this is Cholyn, my apologies!

The Canada Geese are back! Will we have a nest and be delighted when there is a hatch, and they all jump down to go to the stream?

Two eggs for Mr North and DNF laid on the 15th and 18th of February. Pip/hatch watch 35-36 days from then. Both taking good care to do incubation duty!

M15 feeds E23 as F23 looks on. They will relish these last weeks before their first eaglet takes flight.

I wasn’t expecting to see them, but Beau and Gabby did spend the night at the nest tree on Thursday. Gabby stayed longer in the morning and even went down to the nest. I wonder what she is thinking?

Lewis needed to help with the incubation at the Dulles-Greenway Nest. He did not. Rosa knew this and was half-hearted in doing her share. On Friday, the Crows did what was necessary – they pecked holes in them when left alone. It is best this happened now, not when there are eaglets.

Everyone is being fed at Eagle Country. There is some unidentifiable prey o that nest and piles of bits and bobs of fish and mammals. No one could go hungry. I do keep saying this, but some nests are prey richer than others. This is a good one!

Much smaller feedings, but more of them at Superbeaks. Mason and Dixie are so tiny compared to Swampy and Meadow!

At Captiva, Cal continues to be fed and is standing on the rim of the nest looking around. It appears that Connie and Clive will leave Lusa to become part of their nest. So sad to know how big that beautiful bird was and not to know what caused its demise.

Look how big E23 is. Anyone think this eaglet is a female besides me?

Everything continues to look good for Jak and Audacity at Sauces. Could this be the year that both Sauces and Big Bear have eaglets?

A big milestone. R6 caught self-feeding! He got some really good bites, too!!!!!

The deer and bunnies are keeping the eagles at Decorah North company while they incubate their eggs.

At the University of Florida-Gainesville, Stella and Talon have their third egg of the 2024 season. Thanks, ‘R’.

Big Red and Arthur were at the nest on Friday. Big Red stayed and spent a lot of time in that nest bowl making people think that today could be the day. It seems it wasn’t but we are moving into a window where we can begin to anticipate…think 13 or so of March.

So far, everything has stayed the same at the Patchogue Osprey platform. When the crew came to clean the nest of harmful objects, they flipped it over after more fishing line was noticed. It has created a mound that would cause – potentially – the eggs to roll. The Ospreys will have to create a nest cup in the mound and build off the sides, which we know that they can do watching Richmond and Rosie do this many times. Still, it would be helpful if the crew got the bucket, flipped it over and fixed the sticks along the edges to help Mum and Dad!

PSEG has posted that the ospreys will fix the nest the way they want. In other words, nothing will be done.

I received an update from Australia. Those adorable Lorikeets that used to check on Daisy the Duck at the WBSE nest have had paralysis issues. Here is the latest news on their treatment. I thought you would be interested. It is long. I could not post a PDF, but we all learn something every day. These rehabbers at WIRES are so dedicated!

Lorikeet Paralysis Syndrome

Further to our update a fortnight ago, we are now thankfully seeing a reduction in the number of Rainbow Lorikeets impacted by Lorikeet Paralysis Syndrome.We were able to provide prompt medical treatment for several hundred affected Lorikeets, and well over 400 survivors are now in recovery with their WIRES carers. We’ve included a little clip below. 

Why did this happen? 

Lorikeet Paralysis Syndrome has occurred more frequently over the past four years, with this season being the most serious. Thousands of Lorikeets were impacted and had more serious and immediate symptoms. It appears to be a toxicity that affects a Lorikeet’s kidneys, liver and muscles. We believe it could be caused by a fungus or bacteria following heavy rain events. 

Dr Bishop treating an affected Lorikeet

Our Wildlife Veterinarian Dr Tania Bishop, treating a Rainbow Lorikeet affected with Lorikeet Paralysis Syndrome.    

Can it be treated?  

When a Lorikeet is rescued early enough, a vet can flush out the kidneys with fluids and provide glucose for energy to support getting the toxin out of their system. They can also provide medication for any complications like aspiration and pneumonia, and lubrication to make sure their eyes aren’t permanently damaged. 

Whilst affected birds are extremely hungry and thirsty, it is impossible for them to swallow whilst the toxicity is in their system as it affects their muscles.

When the Lorikeet can start swallowing again, a wildlife carer needs to support-feed them until they can feed themselves, and then provide up to eight weeks of dedicated care before they are fit enough to survive in the wild.  

Two Lorikeets after receiving fluids with glucose

The photo above shows two Rainbow Lorikeets who had started to revive after receiving fluids with glucose. The towel is supporting their necks.

The photo below shows Lorikeets after receiving treatment. They’re no longer using their neck supports and whilst they’re still very wobbly and weak, they’re starting to get up, hop and chirp. 

Recovering Lorikeets after treatment

What was WIRES’ response?    

Since the first build-up of cases many weeks ago in south east Queensland and northern NSW; local groups, WIRES volunteers, and veterinarians have been managing this crisis, including rescuing, evaluating, and providing immediate care. 

When the event escalated, we deployed four Emergency Responders with Wildlife Ambulances to assist vets and carers with the rescue, transport, and immediate care of thousands of birds. 

We opened a temporary Community drop-off centre in Grafton, the worst affected area, and deployed our Wildlife Veterinarian Dr Tania Bishop to personally treat large numbers of Lorikeets on site and provide treatment advice for local vets.  

Hundreds of recovering Lorikeets are now in WIRES’ care. They will require many weeks of rehabilitation before they are strong enough for release. Below is a clip from just one of the pre-release aviaries erected at our carer Robyn’s property. Robyn has hundreds of recovering Lorikeets currently in care. 

Rehabilitating Lorikeets in WIRES care

And continuing on with learning. Do you know the 8 birds that mate for life? Make your list and then read this article by Audubon. How well did you do?

Till-Death-Do-Them-Part-8-Birds-that-Mate-for-Life-AudubonDownload

Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care. Looking forward to seeing you soon! (And please ignore that Pop Up Subscribe – it irritates me, too! I am trying to get it removed).

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Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, screen captures, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘AE, B, Geemeff, H, J, MP, R’, WC# News, The New York Times, FOBBV, IWS/Explore, Raptor Resource Project/Explore, SW Florida Eagle Cam, NEFL-AEF, Dulles-Greenway, JB Sands Wetlands, Eagle Country, Superbeaks, Window to Wildlife, Gracie Shepherd, Heidi Mc, UFlorida-Gainesville, Cornell RTH Cam, PSEG, WIRES, and Audubon.