3 June 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
It was a scorching Sunday morning. I dedicated much of my time to tending the garden. I strategically planted hostas in areas with ample shade and moisture. The vegetable plants are thriving, and the vibrant red flowers of the annuals will soon bring immense joy. Despite the nuisance of mosquitoes and wasps, there’s nothing like the simple pleasure of being outdoors. It’s important to savour these moments while we can. By 1600, the clouds had opened, and the rain was pouring down. The garden will turn into an amazing jungle right before my eyes – heat and moisture are two great combinations. Not for ospreys, but decidedly for gardens.
Sol is the last of Annie and Archie’s chicks to leave the tower of The Campanile at UC-Berkeley. Fly safe Fab Four. What an amazing year it has been with you and Annie and Archie.
I want everyone to send their good wishes to Mini Little Bob at Field Farm. He is so tiny. Can you see him? There are four of them. I am so concerned for this wee baby but…
Now look. Mini Little Bob pushed himself right up to Mum’s beak! This is one you need to cheer for this season. Just like Little Mini at Patchogue.
Here is the link to the streaming cam at Field Farm:
https://www.youtube.com/live/HwzQ_9Eb8Rg?si=_3UEn7ZepOIRcnBS
Pitkin County’s first egg was April 28. We will be on pip/hatch watch from today.
Aran and Elen and their three beautiful osplets at Glaslyn. It is the couples second year together.
At the Port of Ridgefield (first year for this streaming cam), one egg was crushed and one did not hatch. There is a very lucky Only Bob on the nest. We can now see the top of its head.
CJ7 and Blue 022 are excellent parents to their four osplets. CJ7 feeds and feeds and fish are being kept on the nest so that they do not run out!
CJ7 and Blue 022 are brilliant. Tandem feeding – twice! That is how Mini Little Bob is going to survive.
Only Bob is doing so well at Rutland Manton Bay that I sometimes fail to report it. Bob is 24 days old today.
‘A’ sends news re Dyfi: “I spoke too soon – Baby Bob woke up full of beans and decided to bonk both Middle Bob and then Big Bob, a spat that Big Bob was forced to finish. This little one is far from cowed by its older siblings. The incident was short-lived and not particularly vicious – more tokenistic – and Baby Bob fairly quickly decided discretion was the better part of valour and lay down. Mum Telyn was not at all concerned, leaving the kids to it. I got the feeling she would have sat on them all, had that been required, but on this occasion, her intervention was not necessary.
You mentioned goshawks as potential predators for the UK osplets, and I assume they are daytime hunters? So far, the parents are not leaving the babies alone for very long, though there were a couple of occasions when both parents flew off the nest for a couple of minutes before one would return. Telyn seems to just stretch her wings occasionally, and Idris spends most of his day on the perch, heading off to fish periodically. He does not seem to take very long to return with a fish when he does decide the pantry needs replenishing.
These three osplets are looking extremely healthy. Cute round little bottoms, good-size PS’s, and all very active and eating well. Even Baby Bob can manage big bites of fish for one so young. The little one can find itself behind its older siblings, having trouble getting to the front of the feeding line and missing out a lot at some feedings, but at others, when it’s in front, it is allowed to eat without interference by its older siblings, which is a blessing. It is certainly not being prevented from getting food. Mum is sometimes a bit lazy about reaching over far enough for Baby Bob, which is frustrating, but it seems to be getting enough to eat and what it is eating is certainly high-quality nutrition. “
The Dyfi Moderator answered a question on the chat about how many fish are coming in now. The reply: “It’s about four fish a day now. They do not have a favorite but Sea Trout (Sewin) have been the most common this year.”
It is nice to have ‘A’ watching Ospreys! She comments on Dyfi, a nest that she has fallen in love with: “When I checked the nest this afternoon, there was a large fish for each chick. Mum had already fed them as much as they could eat, and then woken them up to feed them again, and still, when she finished the fish, there were still three other headless monsters on the nest. It was as if an inner ring of kiddie rails had been constructed of fish! Unbelievable. Oh how some of those US nests could do with just one of these gigantic fish Idris brings in. With two of these osplets already pretty much in their oily teenage phase, I am presuming that this level of bonking is as bad as it is likely to get (in the absence of a major food shortage). That, together with relative size, leads me to wonder whether we may have three boys on this nest. Time will tell. But they really are a very laid-back lot. Loving them, and Telyn and Idris.”
Three wiggly babies for Seren and Dylan at Clywedog and they are losing their natal down and turning into reptiles, too.
A gorgeous strong Bob for first time Mum Blue 372 at Llyn Brenig.
Oh, my goodness. It just goes to show me that I have to check on these nests, the ones that are not ospreys, a little sooner than I have been. Those two little fluff balls on the White-tail Eagle nest in the Tucholskie Forest in Poland have their juvenile feathers!!!!!! All wet from the rain but aren’t they beautiful?
There are also two healthy osplets in the Reptilian Stage in the Ramucka nest.
Boulder County has one difficult-to-see chick in that deep egg cup. There is plenty of fish.
Dad feeds Mum and Mum feeds Baby at Boulder.
Two healthy babies at the Bridge Golf Course.
Outerbanks chicks are alright.
Tuffy and Ruffie on the nest with Sally at Moorings Park hoping for a fish meal.
Poor Tuffy.
Big and Middle Bob are doing well at Western Maryland Shore. Both had nice crops Sunday morning.
There is shock for the new couple at Dahlgren when one of the three eggs, pecked by a crow and left unincubated, has hatched!
There are at least two bobbleheads at Collins Marsh. Anyone have better eyes than me to see if there are three???
Three chicks as of 2 June at Kielder 5A!
If every male delivered fish like Louis, there would not be a problem. If every lake and reservoir were full of fish, there would not be a problem. If overfishing was not allowed, there would not be a problem. The nests need large high quality fish for the ospreys to thrive. Look at the size of that fish.
Oren and Ruth’s hawklets have almost all their juvenile plumage at the Syracuse University RTH nest.
I love the peachy plumage on the chest of Big Red and Arthur’s Ns. Fledge is coming too soon for both of these RTH nests in upstate New York.
Anna and Andrew have their first hatch of the season. These are Lesser Spotted Eagles in Zemgale, Latvia. Isn’t that a gorgeous nest and what a bright eyed baby. Please be aware that there is a good cause for siblicide at the nest of Lesser Spotted Eagles. They practice obligate siblicide. –
Baby’s first feeding:
Prey continues to be plentiful at the nest of the Imperial Eagle in RU. Will both chicks survive?
Smallie is trying to get some food from the older siblings at the Amersfoort scrape.
Aurora and Sol together at Cal Falcons.
Charlemagne, the oldest Turkey Vulture, has died. What a sweetie.
These storklets are fortunate. So many died from the torrential rains in Western Europe over the past fortnight. So sad. Thankful to all those wonderful people who reached out to help when they could.
At Port Lincoln, Bradley joined Schultzie much to the delight of everyone listening and watching!
‘MP’ reports that Diane keeps her and Jack alive at the Achieva Credit Union nest. Is Jack unwell?? Just a thought. ‘MP’ says, “It looks as though Diane is doing much of the fishing now for them both. Although Jack does do some fishing, Diane is doing more on this day, 6/2/24. Here’s a pic of Diane bringing in one of two fish today.”
Many have written about Little at Patuxent and ‘H’ brings up the issue of the protrusion in her report: “6/2 Patuxent-1: We had some concerns with this nest on Sunday. Dad must have had some difficulty fishing, and he was only able to deliver four fish to the nest. The first meal consisted of a large headless fish, and the meal lasted for about 50 minutes. Little had a private feeding near the end of the meal, and he ate at least 86 bites of fish. The next two fish at 1158 and 1425 were smaller, and Big prevented Little from making it to the feeding line. As the afternoon wore on, we were worried…hoping that Little would get another meal.
In the meantime, chatters had been discussing something peculiar going on with Little. Starting Saturday evening, some noticed that Little was attempting to crop-drop way too often…several times a minute. The frequent crop-dropping continued on Sunday. In addition, Little seemed to have a protrusion at the right side of his crop. Something in his crop (a bone?) was causing an area to stick out, and was even causing a separation of his feathers showing a spot of white under-feathers. It was quite noticeable. The object in Little’s crop did not hinder his ability to eat at the morning meal, and he had a large crop after breakfast. By late afternoon, Little’s crop was empty, but still showed the protrusion. Little needed food in his crop, for more reasons than one. We assumed that food would help to dislodge the obstruction. We also knew that only a very large fish from Dad would allow for a feeding of Little, after the sibs had also not eaten for hours.
Finally…at 1945 Dad landed with a very large headless fish! Poor Little…Big was hangry, and took it out on Little several times. Little started to make his move toward Mom at 2016, but was beaked by Big. At 2019, Little ate his first bite of fish. Middle had moved away from the table, and Big was pretty much finished eating, but continued to hover near Little. With Big close by, Little ate slowly and with some trepidation. Finally, Big retired from the table, and Little was able to eat freely. By 2032 Little had eaten at least 140 bites of fish and moved away from Mom. We had a partial view of Little’s large crop, still with the white-tipped area of protrusion.
Thank you Dad for your tireless efforts to provide food for your family. We are all hoping for more fish on Monday. And, we are hoping that the object stuck in Little’s crop will be passed into lower parts of his GI tract where it can be processed.”
“6/2 Dahlgren: Helen and Doug, the new couple at the Dahlgren VA osprey nest, have a little baby osplet. Their first two eggs did not hatch. Congratulations!”
This is a bit of a miracle baby.
And to close it off, two things. Geemeff writes that she now checks the Lake Murray nest before the Scottish ones! Middle made it through another night. We are all relieved.
And always to put a smile on our faces, Louis at Loch Arkaig delivers a whopper of a breakfast fish. I cannot help but wonder if every nest had a Louis (or maybe a Finnegan) and there was plenty of fish what would the data on these nests be?
Thank you for being with us today. Take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me write my blog: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, MM, MP, PB’, SK Hideaways, Field Farm, Pitkin County, Bywyd Gwywd Glaslyn, Port of Ridgefield, BoPH, LRTW, Dyfi Osprey Project, Llyn Clywedog, Llyn Brenig, Tucholskie White-tail Eagle Cam, Ramucka Forest Ospreys, Boulder County, Bridge Golf Course, OBX/Outerbanks, Moorings Park, Western Maryland Shore OTH, Heidi McGrue, Collins Marsh, Joanna Dailey, Geemeff, SU-RTH Cam, Cornell RTH, LDF, Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Audubon Centre for Birds of Prey, Angie Nerf, Rene Alleman, Fran Solly, Achieva Credit Union, Patuxent River Park, and Dahlgren Ospreys.
