Category Archives: Golden Eagle

Iris the Swamp Cooler…Thursday in Bird World

11 July 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

The heat is still around. It was 29 degrees, which is cool compared to many places. I saw an idea that popped up on one of the FB pages. It was to freeze water in containers, then remove the solid ice and put it in your bird bath to keep the water cool. I am going to do this tonight!

Today was busy despite the heat. First was a walk at the zoo. The Polar Bears were ‘hot’. They were off in a corner where there was a bit of a breeze and shade, then a swim.

At home, we are making certain that there is always water and food. The birds and animals are coming out mostly in the early morning and later in the afternoon and evening until about 2100.

Mr Crow and all the family have been busy eating apple pieces along with his cheesy dogs and peanuts.

Washing peanuts in the water.

The baby squirrels, three of them, are in and out of the garden with their parents. They love those nut cylinders.

On Wednesdays, we have our local farmer’s market. It is now well-attended. Lots of local honey, veggies, ice cream, some great food, flowers, music, and neighbours. We have several ice cream companies. Fete is one of them. Delicious on a 29 C day.

The Girls have been busy chasing a fly that managed, sadly, to get itself in the house. They stalked, ran, jumped, and nearly broke their necks trying to catch it.

Hope thought she could stare it down.

Missey did, too!

Hugo Yugo (poor thing needs her eye cleaned) flew everywhere. She just about knocked everything off of anything it could be on. But the fly got away!

Calico thought they were all idiots running all over the place for a fly!

This morning the baby Cowbird landed on the sill of the conservatory and they all went nuts – including Calico. Good thing this lot will never be outside by the feeders.

Thank you to everyone that sent me a joke or a photograph to make me smile in the midst of all the tragedy lately. I really do appreciate it. I don’t know what I would have done this year withot these beautiful girls and all your friendship. So far there has not been a death on Wednesday that I am aware. Sadly there could be some today. We will see.

A smile before we move on. The magic of watching birds fledge!

Country-diary-A-young-kestrel-wings-its-way-into-the-world-Birds-The-GuardianDownload

Heat is on everyone’s mind and how it is impacting people of the world – as well as our dear wildlife

I wonder why more of the females do not do this? Swamp Cooling.

Finn delivers.

Cornell Lab posted a video showing Iris keeping her chicks cool.

‘H’ sends us reports: 7/10 Osoyoos osprey nest:  It was predicted to be a very hot and sunny day.  Olsen was at work bright and early, and delivered his first fish at 0448.  Little was beaked, but still managed to eat 32 bites of fish during this 13-minute meal.  Olsen brought a medium sized fish at 0522.  There was not a lot of aggression, but Little never found a good spot to be able to access Mom’s beak, so s/he did not eat at this 15-minute meal.  The next fish at 0940 was very small, and it only took Soo about 4 minutes to feed.  Little and Middle ate on opposite sides of Mom, until Big beaked Little.  Little ate 13 bites of fish.  More than 8 hours passed before the next fish arrived at the nest, and up to this point, Little had only eaten about 45 bites of fish.  My weather source indicated the Osoyoos temperature at 1500 was 104F/40C.  At 1800 Olsen delivered a very large whole fish.  I watched for nine minutes, and our view of the feeding was partially blocked, but there did not appear to be any beaking.  Little was behind the pack however, as the real estate near Soo’s beak was very limited.  Due to the size of the fish, I wasn’t too worried, knowing that Little would eventually get its chance to eat after Big was sated.  My time zone is three hours later, and I was tired, so I went to bed knowing that I could resume viewing the feeding early in the morning.  Well, I was wrong.  When I went to watch that meal, I found that the live stream had gone offline again.  Ahh…but fortunately, ‘A-M’ had posted in the Facebook group:  “Sleep well tonight little ones, all have full crops after nearly an hour long feeding.  Mum got lots too, kudos to Dad for being a great provider in the sweltering heat.”  Appreciate the update, ‘A-M’.   Weather for 7/11:  Sunny with slightly cooler temperatures, high 98F/37C, winds 15-22.

7/10 Patuxent River Park osprey nest:  We were thrilled to see the newest fledgling, when Chick #1 returned to the nest at 0759 after fledging yesterday morning.  Dad brought a few massive fish to the nest and everyone ate very well.  It was a good day!

7/10 Forsythe osprey nest:  At 50 days of age, Larry performed his highest hovers to date.  Larry is looking good to fledge in a day or so.


7/10 Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  The 24, 26, and 28-day-old osplets are doing quite well, and they are getting big!

Thanks, ‘H’.

I will be running through the Osprey nests again to check how our families are doing in the heat:

Clark PUD: At least several fish have come to the nest but the position of the camera doesn’t always catch their size. Hoping that enough food and hydration are coming in the hot days.

Charlo Montana: Another really hot day for Lola and the trio. Charlie has been bringing in fish. Thank you, Charlie!

McEuan Park: Hot and hotter. There are two chicks surviving. This nest really needs a lot of fish and a lot of positive wishes.

Mum left the nest and came in with a fish. Big ate. Middle is very submissive and needs to eat. Almost falling off the nest to get away from Big despite being ravenous.

Is the male at this nest missing? Are you watching this nest and can you let us know. Thank you.

Two moved up. Is there any fish left? Fish taken off nest by parent.

No fish for Two. Crop totally shrunken, head drooping. So sad. This was an original nest of four chicks. I just wonder if the deaths have been mitigated by no male, the heat and then, of course, no fish???

No sign of the male again. Mum off nest probably trying to fish. Poor babies.

Seaside: Bruce is delivering some big headless fish to Naha and the two osplets.

Pitkin County: The nest looks good. Weather is much different than in the Pacific NW.

More fish. Such beautiful babies on this nest at Pitkin County.

Boulder: Hot. Mum trying to keep Only Bob cool. Notice the difference in heat in Boulder than in Pitkin County.

Sandpoint: Keke doing a great job keeping River cool while Keo continues to bring in the fish. Mum and baby have a nice crop.

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum: Dad is bringing in the fish and everything seems to be alright.

Bridge Golf Course: Cooler there and very windy. Mum and Only Surviving Osplet appear to be fine.

Snow Lane, Newfoundland. I have tears in my eyes for this nest. Beaumont has been hauling in the fish, and Hope has fed her chicks this year. The oldest is getting into the Reptilian phase, and if you look carefully, so is the youngest. I want the weather and fishing to stay good for Dad. If Hope continues, we could have two chicks fledge from this nest. I am afraid to get hopeful.

Steelscape: Oldest is self feeding. Hope Mum steps in so all get some fish. The heat is much less later in the day!

Cowlitz: ‘PB’ reports that Little is continually attacked on the nest by the older sibling. So far it has had about 66 bites of fish on Wednesday. This nest is in a very hot area and this baby needs more fish to survive during this long heat dome.

Cowlitz PUD posted a video of one of the feedings on Wednesday. They really care about their ospreys. They put up the metal fish grates to protect them and they know that there is competition to steal their fish from the local eagles.

‘PB’ reports that Little had no fish this morning.

Geemeff reports for Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust:

Daily summary Wednesday 10th July 2024

Today was quite a contrast to yesterday with all its action going between the two nests. Instead we had Louis making just the one early appearance on Nest Two, and no sighting of Dorcha, Garry LV0, Affric or the dark female, just a banditry of Coal Tits making a couple of brief visits to Nest One. We did however get the news that our two chicks travelled safely over to Spain today, precious cargo entrusted to Heathrow Animal Control and then on to their new home. It’s very reassuring to hear that in just nine days, they’ve gained half their body weight again, going from 1.1kg on the 1st to 1.5 kg today, 10th. We wish them good luck and look forward to hearing more news in due course. Weather was reasonably settled, and the forecast is a dry night tonight with light cloud and light winds, and more of the same tomorrow.

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.35.23 (03.49.41); Nest Two 23.39.33 (03.55.36)

Today’s videos plus a late one from last night:

https://youtu.be/SRSKU62lfrE N2 Colourful sunset seen from Nest Two last night 22.00 (time lapse)

https://youtu.be/HOdzu0e6hQc N2 Skydancing is heard nearby then Louis lands on the nest 05.50.00

https://youtu.be/X7KHs2yg6EI  N1 A banditry of Coal Tits flitting around, no sign of any big birds 15.33.30

Bonus watch – bird stopped play at Wimbledon:

Bonus read – a good summation of the soap opera that is the Ospreys of Loch Arkaig:

https://12ft.io/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13612473/hapless-husband-nest-Scottish-osprey-soap-opera-Louis-dorcha-chicks-bird-camera.html

Watch the Loch Arkaig Osprey livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

It is a nest full of four apparently healthy osplets at Poole Harbour. Blue 022 and CJ7 will be one of only a couple of nests on streaming cams to successfully fledge four this year. What a feat!

The information on the Foulshaw Moss ringing of the chicks for 2024.

Ringing-2024-Cumbria-Wildlife-TrustDownload

In readying for the 2024-25 Osprey season in South Australia, Port Lincoln has set up a camera at Tumby Island for Marrum and Partner. Fingers crossed!

It is so wonderful when all of us, no matter what we do, consider the wildlife. Well done Hungarian farmers? Living in a farming province of Canada, this would be very helpful.

Mum delivered a Raccoon Dog pup to the surviving Golden Eaglet at the Estonian nest #2.

‘TU’ reports that the two Eastern Imperial Eaglets in RU were ringed today.

Two healthy osplets on the osprey nest in Latvia.

It looks like there are still only two little Dorsett Hobbys. I could be wrong.

Congratulations to the Roy Dennis Foundation and the Poole Harbour Ospreys. It is the 7th anniversary of the translocation project and just look – a nest of four osplets doing very well. Everyone has to be delighted.

Here are Louis and Dorcha’s two osplets in their new nest in Scotland. I am glad they were taken for the project. As you will undoubtedly know by reading all of Geemeff’s reports and seeing their videos, Louis continues to ‘not be himself’. No one is certain what is wrong but please send him good wishes along with all of our raptors under the heat dome and these two precious little ones.

More information: “The two young ospreys are settling in well to their new surroundings in Spain. They have been given Spanish rings which are yellow in colour. The dominant bird is 1JW. The submissive one is 1JR. The aviary contains nests made from woven sticks and foliage which the birds sit in together just as they did at Loch Arkaig. They can see the surrounding area and when the time comes to fledge the sides of the aviary will be opened up to let them come and go as they please. Food will continue to be provided in the aviary nest until they migrate which will likely be in August or early September. We hope to have some images to share today at some point. These will be posted on Woodland Trust Scotland’s twitter and facebook accounts. We will alert you here once they are up.”

Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care of yourself. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, announcements, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, PB, TU’, The Guardian, Montana Osprey Cams, Cornell Bird Lab, Clark PUD, Charlo Montana, Weather Network, McEuan Park, Seaside Ospreys, Pitkin County, Boulder County, Sandpoint, MN Landscape Arboretum, Bridge Golf Course, Newfoundland Power, Steelscape, Cowlitz PUD, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, BoPH, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Friends of Osprey Sth Aus, David Attenborough Fans, Eagle Club of Estonia, Imperial Eagles RU Cam, LDF, Osoyoos, Patuxent River Park, Forsythe Ospreys, Fortis Exshaw, Dorsett Hobby Cam, and The Woodland Trust.

Too many deaths…Monday in Bird World

8 July 2024

Good Morning!

Oh, Sunday was a joyful and a tearful day. My superb neighbours have moved. To their little daughter, I was the ‘Tomato Fairie’. She loved the little grape tomatoes and paper baskets of them appearing regularly on her front porch. I shall miss them terribly. Friends visited, and later, we took the grandson, who works too hard and who we don’t see so often, for dinner and then picked up his sister to go for ice cream. We found a new little ice cream shop – they are popping up everywhere. It was delicious. Then we went for a walk to check out the river, which has flooded the walks and bike paths down to The Forks. We spotted a family of ducks who seemed fine.

It was a good day to be outside and to be with friends and family. The killing of the second Golden Eaglet by the first, followed by the little Dunrovin chick falling off the nest to its death, and the discovery that all three Redding osplets were dead in the nest —–well, it was a difficult day. These deaths should always remind us to hold those alive close and to celebrate those who survived this year. So many didn’t. As one of my friends told me today, please don’t wait for the politicians and policymakers to do anything to improve the lives of our wildlife and environment. If we each do something good positive, however small, our planet will be a better place.

My posting may meander a little today. Several people are monitoring nests, especially for fish drops in this heat so there might be some later inclusions.

Was it true or is it just a rumour? I am still trying to figure this out. It was reported that the second hatch, Raider, at the Patchogue nest on Long Island fledged at 0511 with a successful return to the nest. Patches was flapping and Raider joined in hopping and flapping and away it went!

Not true.

Raider fludged later. See post below by Heidi.

Check out the look on Raidier’s face as he slides down the perch. Patches is paying no mind. That fish is good!

Also from Patchogue, ‘MP’ says “Chickie takes dad’s toe almost off thinking it’s a fish. Fish under green line.”

We have been worried about Blue at the Hancock Boundary Bay Nest. Deb Stecyk gives us an uplifting video showing Blue’s crop and a good ps. Relief.

At the Snow Lane nest in Newfoundland, Beaumont often brings fish to the nest and then flies to the camera pole to have a wee bit of a dinner for his efforts and returns the fish to the nest for Hope to feed their two chicks. She is doing much better than in previous years. Feeling hopeful.

Plenty of food continues to arrive on the Golden Eagle nest #2 after the eldest killed the youngest on the 7th of July. At one time, I hoped there was a shortage of prey. I even rationalised this to myself but, then, when the prey came on the nest, item after item, after the eldest had killed the youngest, it just confirmed that it was a strategy to get the one to kill the other. That second hatch survived the first attempt at killing it. Why not feed them both so close to fledge and see which one survives in the wild? Well, we will never know.

Great Bay nest is doing well. Osplets are really perfecting their self-feeding. I cannot confirm how much fish came on this nest on Sunday.

The males in areas where the extreme is going to be a factor appear to be going out fishing early and later in the day with success. Today’s high at Charlo, Montana will be 97 with 4 mph winds. It is forecast to be 99 on Wednesday. Let’s hope that the fishing continues to be good despite the heat.

This is Charlo Montana very early Sunday morning.

Finnegan also brought in an early fish at 0556.

In past summers, Iris would be in the shade catching her own fish. She is now trying to keep her two chicks cool while they wait for Finnegan to bring in another fish.

If Finnegan thought he was going to have some fish, Iris might have had another thought for him. She stuffed those two osplets to their little tiny talons and then back to the top of their heads. She knows it is hot. She knows they need hydration. Finnegan is making sure his family does not go without.

Just look at that crop!!!!!

The little one raises its neck and stands up and looks at the older sibling. It was hilarious.

Date Night on the Perch with Iris and Finnegan! (Thanks PB for alerting me to where they were!)

I did not see an early fish on the nest at Dunrovin but I might have missed it. The pair are enjoying a late breakfast or early lunch around 1130 on Sunday. This nest might miss much of the heat that other areas are getting. And then…the most horrific sadness hits the nest. The young one fell off the nest over the railing. Such a loss. A beautiful healthy osplet on a nest with food. Soar high, little one.

Note to self: I love how some nests are annual inspected and repaired by the owners of the property and the streaming cam. Glaslyn (if I remember correctly) checks the woven railing and rewires it if required when they do their annual renovations. Many nests could use nesting material, too. Thinking of MN LA. What if we helped the Ospreys this way? Could save a life or two.

Melbourne police rescue an osprey! Thanks, Geemeff. We need a good news story.

Melbourne Police Officer Helps Rescue Injured Osprey Friday Night

Steelscape is one of the nests in the high heat area.

‘PB’ watches Cowlitz PUD and despite the heat it was a good day.

There is no end to sad news and I thought June was the worst month. The Osprey family whose chicks survived the fireworks in Redding have died.

Fireworks are not the only stressors. Humans around nests trying to take photographs, dogs, motorised vehicles, etc. have been known to cause great stress. I am sure there is a list as long as my arm.

Geemeff’s Daily Summary for Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust:

Daily summary Sunday 7th July 2024
There was an intruder but no fish today – Louis teased Dorcha again by appearing several times without fish and staying nearby within sight so she kept calling to no avail. The nest was overflown by an intruder who returned and landed on the nest next to Louis and was seen to be a dark female with striking markings, possibly the same one who intruded in 2021, see bonus video. Dorcha arrived and chased her off, all the way past Nest One where Dorcha dropped in briefly for her first ever visit to that nest. Weather was settled today, tonight’s forecast is partly cloudy and light winds, but rain is due again tomorrow.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.51.05 (03.18.25); Nest Two 23.54.50 (03.27.43)Today’s videos:
https://youtu.be/FrXbbUeLP1k N2 Louis arrives without fish – Dorcha yells at him 13.01.45
https://youtu.be/2OI2t67rNhU N2 Intruder overflies Dorcha on the nest 13.35.35
https://youtu.be/rzFuxemIvPE N2 Unringed intruder female lands next to Louis 13.55.40
https://youtu.be/LwP5OtDRWKY N1 Dorcha’s first ever visit to Nest One! 15.06.42
https://youtu.be/AX4rxHJaSWoN2 Louis arrives and coy mantles but no fish for Dorcha 15:21:08

Bonus video – compare and contrast today’s dark intruder with the very dark one seen once only on 27 May 2021, is it the same bird?:


Watch the Loch Arkaig Osprey livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Tuffy landed on the nest with a nice-sized fish he had caught. What a joy to see him. The camera will be turned off today. It could be already by the time you read this. At one point, we did not think Tuffy would survive Ruffie. Well, he did. Please notice the distinctive head marking. You will always know that it is Tuffy. There is a dark patch at the back of the head, too. Their heads and underwing markings never change in an osprey. So even without rings on their legs, if you know these, you can tell which osprey is which.

Tuffy is one of the good survival stories of the 2024 breeding season and we will always remember him (or her). What a great nest. Camera will be turned back on when Sally and Harry return to the nest.

See Heidi’s report below.

For the Decorah North eagle family, there is no place like home even if it is a dead tree without a nest. They are all fine. What a joy it is to see them, too.

Fish are coming in at Boulder. It is 46 F and 1 mph winds. The high this week will be 80 at the nest.

It is a lot hotter at the Seaside nest of Bruce and Naha. Bruce flew in with a really big Red-tail for Naha and the kids at 1649. This will keep them nicely. Temperature is expected to be 90 degrees F with 14 mph winds on Monday.

‘PB’ reports that a nice late fish came into Steelscape. They are in the hot zone, too.

Cowlitz has fish, too. The Dads on that Columbia River are really working hard to get fish to their nests in this heat.

‘H’ reports:

7/7 Osoyoos osprey nest:  It was a sunny day, and the temperature reached 100 F/38 C yesterday afternoon.  Olsen brought eight fish to the nest, but most of them were quite small.  When the ‘kids’ were little, that would have been ample, but now it may be only half (or less) of what they need.  Five of the fish were delivered before 0900, while the sixth fish was delivered at 1657.  Meal duration times were: 5, 7, 4, 3, 18, 5, 8, 5 minutes.  Our views of the feedings were partially blocked at times, making it difficult to determine how much Little was eating.  There was no aggression at the first three meals, and Little seemed to eat some fish at each of those meals.  Big beaked Little at the third meal, which consisted of a tiny fish, and Little ate one bite of fish.  The fifth fish, at 0849, was the largest.  Little was beaked, but managed to start receiving some bites on the other side of Soo at 0855 for a couple of minutes.  I could not tell how much Little was able to eat.  When we say the osplets are ‘at the table’ or ‘at the chow line’, we are referring to them being in a position to receive bites of fish offered by the parent.  When the ‘kids’ were little, the ‘table’ was small.  They could all fit side-by-side compactly in a small area, easily within reach of Soo’s beak.  But, at the current size of the chicks, the ‘table’ is wide.  There was no aggression at the sixth feeding, at 1657.  Little was skittish, and waited a couple of minutes before approaching.  When Little was ‘at the table’, s/he was positioned closer to Soo’s tail.  It was only a 5-minute feeding, and I did not see Soo reach back and offer a bite to Little.  There was an 8-minute feeding at 2058, and once again, Little hesitated to approach.  But when s/he did get to the table at 2103, he ate two bites, then was beaked.  The last meal of the day was at 2122, and lasted five minutes.  Little was beaked, and was not able to eat.  Little’s crop was noticeably hollow.   Unfortunately, Little did not eat much today, which is all the more serious due to the extreme heat which can hasten dehydration.  Little’s last good meal was around 11:00 on 7/6.  Middle was not prevented from eating today.  It’s going to be another hot sunny day on 7/8, with the high temperature predicted to hit at least 102F/39C.  Winds will be 14-22 mph.  Wouldn’t it be nice if Olsen could find a big whopper of a fish?  Surely, Little would then get a good meal.  Good luck out there Olsen…we know that you are doing your best.

7/7 Patuxent River Park:  The osplets are 57, 60, and 61 days old.  A few days ago, Big and Middle were making some progress with wingersizing and managing some brief hovers.  But, over the last couple of days, their activity has been reduced, possibly due to the extreme heat and calm winds.  The temperatures have been in the upper 90’s.

7/7 Captiva osprey nest:  Ding is 75 days old, and fledged 15 days ago.  On 7/6, Ding caught her first fish, and it was a needlefish.  This morning, on just her third fishing attempt of the day, Ding caught another needlefish!  After she finished her breakfast, she resumed diving for fish.  On her sixth fishing attempt of the day, Ding caught another needlefish, just 32 minutes after her last successful catch.  You go girl!  Ding may be known by some viewers as the ‘Needlefish Kid’.  Ding made numerous attempts at fishing over the next six hours.  Edie was not seen on 7/7.  Ding is expending a lot of energy with her fishing.  It would be wonderful if Edie would drop off a fish for Ding in the morning.

7/7 Moorings Park osprey nest:  Monday morning at 0900 the camera will be turned off for the season.  Tuffy treated viewers to some extended appearances today.  At 11:29 we witnessed Tuffy dive into the water to try to catch a fish.  He didn’t appear to come away with a fish on that attempt.  About an hour later, Tuffy flew to the nest carrying a tilapia.  Tuffy was wet, and shaking off water.  He took a long time to eat that tilapia.  How wonderful that we got to witness those events on the last day of the live stream.  We have been blessed to witness your life thus far, Tuffy… through all your struggles and your victories.  You are a survivor.  We wish you a long and prosperous life.

Studies identifying the extent of the bycatch problem and our beloved birds like those cute little Royal Cam chicks. We do not want them, their parents, or any of the colony ending up like the ones below. Those trawlers gather the fish to provide feed for salmon and chickens. Want to save our seabirds? Stop eating farmed fish and industrially grown chickens.

New study shows the real scale of seabird bycatch in European waters.-https://www.birdlife.org/news/2024/07/03/bycatch-tragedy-we-are-losing-200000-seabirds-annually/

Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, images, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, H, MP, PB, TU’, PSEG, Heidi McGrue, Deb Stecyk, Newfoundland Power, Eagle Club of Estonia, Great Bay Ospreys, Charlo Montana Osprey Cam, Montana Osprey Project, Dunrovin Ranch, Space Coast Daily, Pam Breci, FORE, Geemeff and the Woodland Trust, Moorings Park, Raptor Resource Project/Explore.org, Boulder County, Seaside Ospreys, Steelscape, Cowlitz PUD, Birdlife International, Osoyoos, Patuxent River Park, and Window to Wildlife.

Saturday in Bird World

6 July 2024

Good Morning,

As I write, it is 25 degrees C in Winnipeg, and it is mid-morning. The birds in the garden are taking advantage of the water, having had their seeds, peanuts, and cheese dogs put in dishes very, very early. I am hoping that the shaded tunnel areas we have created will help keep the birds and small mammals cool. I cannot imagine what it is like in the Pacific Northwest where temperatures will be as high or higher than 100 F.

Yesterday, with that horrid medication, I had a bit of a brain freeze. Smedley was at the Audubon Centre with Bailey – a long-term resident. Don’t tell me that ospreys don’t do well in care! Ridiculous. Sorry, I am on a rant. There is so much disinformation on the chats associated with the streaming cams. That, along with people who cross over into hyper-hyper-hyperbole, causes much damage and frustration in our understanding of avian behaviour.

The sunhine of the day was the first sunflower, a gift of the birds and animals. Every year they miss some seeds and the gift is a garden full of sunflowers blooming from now until the fall.

Everyone wants water or peanuts – or cheesy dogs. Notice this one is missing its crest. The adults are moulting. The new babies have their crest!

Mr Crow is watching me and wanting more dogs before the Starlings come and take them. He can see me. He knows I am sitting here taking his photo – and then he waits and the cheesy dogs appear! On Friday night we had eight crows visit for food.

Hugo Yugo says she prefers flowers.

Thankfully, the Hibiscus is in a place where The Girls cannot get to. Poison for cats, but oh, so beautiful.

It is a work in progress. The path to the feeder is now planted with bee and butterfly friendly perennials and a huge hosta! Can’t wait to see what it looks like at the end of the summer. Mulch will be going in this weekend!

It’s hot. And it will get hotter. Here is a message about the impact on songbirds. I will have a fan out tomorrow and we continue to top up the water!

I really want to give a shout-out to one of our readers, ‘EJ’. We can make a difference, and ‘EJ’ made a bold business move to save the raptors. She told me – “I used to be a co-owner of an agricultural sales business. I did not know about the harm rodenticides did to raptors until I read about it in your blog. At that point, we stopped selling rodenticides and explained to the farmers why. I don’t know if they stopped using them or not, but I wasn’t going to be responsible for the deaths of any raptors, like little Flaco.” Wow. Thank you, EJ. If everyone would do this, the world would be a better place.

We have a fledge at the Patchogue nest on Long Island. Patches made flying look easy and her return to the nest could not have been any better. Congratulations!

It is 80 degrees F with 2 mph winds and a 63% chance of rain. Babies you need to stay on the nest and not try any bold moves when the raindrops fall. Wet feathers don’t do well with a first or second or third flight. You need practice for that.

I love the look on the siblings face as Patches flies! They are going to want to join in the fun. Keep watching. Both chicks are more than ready to fly.

Fledgling rewarded with a nice big fish!

Patchogue adults sure make beautiful healthy osplets.

Patches took off again at 12:47. Oh, the other one is itching to fly. Wouldn’t be surprised if they go today, too.

Good news coming about Louis and Dorcha’s chicks in the Spanish Translocation Project:

I have been monitoring the Snow Lane nest of Hope and Beaumont and here is some interesting observations posted by Ian Winter who lives in the area on the FB page. Hope is also fishing and feeding her two babies.

I did not take screen captures of Hope’s head in last years and would be the last person to say that I could recognise her but, the behaviour of the female on this nest is very unlike the Hope that has been with Beaumont for past years where chicks have starved. So, please, I am not starting a rumour of a new female; just wondering what’s up. But happy no matter what the answer is! The chicks look good. Let’s hope the weather stays great for fishing.

There is also great news coming through Lucille Powell’s post about the second hatch chick at Hellgate Canyon and its eye.

Tuffy on the nest at Moorings Park before the heavy raindrops begin. Cam will stay on until Monday the 8th of July.

The four osplets at Field Farm are difficult to tell apart now. Little Mini grew and is probably a female – all that feist and sass that kept it alive – with those big siblings could only be a girl. They are now working on those wings and dreaming of flying like Patches.

Rain has come to Poole Harbour and the Fab Four of CJ7 and Blue 022. Oh, dripping wet osplets. Ever wonder what a really wet fish laden osprey nest actually smells like?

The rain and gale gusts have stopped at the Dyfi nest of Idris and Telyn in Wales.

It’s nice at Glaslyn, too. That nest is getting quite full with those big chicks!

All is calm at Clywedog.

Dad has delivered a tiny little teaser and a Starry Flounder (I think) to the Clark PUD nest on Friday before noon. Will watch for other deliveries. It is going to be hot there…Clark PUD could get to 98 degrees F. The heat warnings continue through Monday in the area of Clark PUD, Cowlitz PUD, Osoyoos, and other nests along the Pacific Northwest.

This is the fish that I think is the Starry Flounder.

There is good news coming from Kielder Forest after so many disappointments this breeding season.

‘MM’ reminds me today that Keilder Forest Nest 7 has a streaming cam. It was offline when I checked but here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/live/-1xNy-elK0Q?si=ESBdYq6o0Iy5Hx1N

The second nest at Llyn Clywedog Reservoir in an area maintained by Forestry England has just ringed two chicks – the first for the adults at this new nest! One girl weighed 1680 grams, and a boy weighed 1410. Congratulations! (They are not on streaming cam only the original Clywedog nest of Dylan and Seren is live streaming).

Dad is bringing in some nice fish at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. 74 degrees F. 10 mph winds.

Chicks at the Iowa DNR nest in Des Moines are doing fantastic. Lots of fish! How wonderful.

Cute little babies of Swoop and Winnie are enjoying their fish meal in Colorado. Looks like we have Reptiles. For those learning about Ospreys, the soft natal down gives way to the ‘Reptile phase’. Notice the black oily heads, the beautiful copper feathers at the nape of the neck. This is normally the time when they get ‘cranky’ and get serious about bonking if it is going to happen. Then you begin to see their pin feathers grow in along the wings and at the little tail and it won’t be long til they begin to look like juvenile ospreys. This stage they are growing very fast and often appear ‘lanky’.

Three cuties for Charlie and Lola at Charlo Montana. Little Three needs some more food – send good wishes.

Three much older osplets at nest #4 in Finland are doing fantastic.

White Storks for the London, UK metropolis?

Rewilding-plan-aims-to-bring-majestic-white-storks-to-London-Rewilding-The-GuardianDownload

Protecting Falcons. Thanks, ‘SP’ for the link.

‘Ive-known-some-of-these-peregrines-for-15-years_-protecting-Scotlands-raptors-–-in-pictures-_-Environment-_-The-GuardianDownload

Great news from the Oakland Zoo – a treated and released Condor.

Prey in the form of several voles and a Raccoon Dog have been delivered by both adults at the Estonial Golden Eagle nest 2. While the oldest gets the majority, the youngest has mantled the remains of the Raccoon Dog, after the oldest ate some, and has eaten. This is good. The oldest still attacks. The eaglets are hungry but now that both parents are delivering again we will wait and watch – with hope.

Another sunrise and two Golden eaglets at Estonia nest 2 alive. Hoping for another Racoon Dog for them today along with a basket of small voles.

‘PB’ is “mpressed with Steelscape! Dad just delivered a lunch fish 1230pm nest time and it’s 88 there high 95 today. All 3 babies look good!” This is fantastic news. Steelscape is in the heat area, too!

Learn all you can about Menhaden – the Osprey fish of choice in the NE US. Why they are important and then learn what is decimating the numbers and why coastal osprey in specific areas are suffering nest loss repeatedly.

Inshore-The-Atlantic-Menhaden-The-FishermanDownload

I am hoping that Little Mini at McEuan Park is still with us. Mum shading and I can only see three big ones but baby could be on the other side. No, sadly, Little Mini has passed at McEuan Park sometime during the late evening of Friday or early Saturday morning.

The kids at Grand Lake want fish. Just look at that nice meal Dad just brought in. They were telling Mum to hurry up and quit messing about. “We want fish!”

What a gorgeous evening in Colorado at the Pitkin County Open Spaces and Trails Osprey Nest. One of those successful osprey rescues took place at this nest two years ago. The chicks were accidentally pulled off the nest with some straw. One died and one survived and was in care for awhile because the chick needed to get well before it could learn to fly. Yes, one of those ospreys who testifies that they do well in care! Saying that they don’t is an excuse not to rescue and try.

‘H’ reports:

7/5 Osoyoos osprey nest:  This family ended up having a pretty good day.  The temperature was predicted to hit 35 C.  After two very early fish, there was not another fish brought to the nest for the next eight hours, and I was starting to worry.  But, Olsen resumed his deliveries at 1446, and brought three more fish by 2032.  There were no ‘whoppers’ today.  The meal durations were: 10, 26, 9, 5, 7, and 8 minutes in length.  The osplets were all little angels, and they ate side-by-side as Soo fed them.  

7/5 Patuxent River Park osprey nest:  It was very warm at this nest, at least 97 F.  But, Dad was able to provide ample fish for his family, and everyone ate well.  The chicks are 55, 58, and 59 days old.  Chick #2 continues to be the leader in the race to fledge, showing off with a few mini-hovers.

7/5 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Capt Mac’s Fish House):  The little 21 day old osplet is doing well.  There were six fish meals provided, with one long stretch of six hours between meals.  Because the chick was ‘hangry’, I caught the lil’ one taking its frustration out on Mom.  S/he stretched and sat up as tall as it could and repeatedly tried to beak June in the face.  “I want fish, Mom!”

7/5 Colonial Beach:  Betty and David’s 10 and 11-day-old chicks are doing well.  For the most part, there is harmony and both are getting fed.


7/5 Captiva Ospreys:  We do not have a report from CROW as yet regarding the condition of Darling, since he was rescued from the water on 7/4.  Ding had two fish meals brought to him by Edie on 7/4, but we did not see Edie on 7/5.  Ding is trying his best to learn how to catch a fish.  She made at least eight attempts to fish from the platform on 7/5, with no luck so far.  Fingers crossed that Ding has a meal today, either from Edie, or perhaps when Ding catches her first fish.

Geemeff’s Daily Report for Loch Arkaig and the Woodland Trust:

Daily summary Friday 5th July 2024
Louis and Dorcha are still around, and reaffirming their bond – he coy-mantled and attempted mating, she rejected his advances, and later he brought her a fish. At the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, their chicks are settling in and WTS Jill gives us this update: RDWF reported yesterday that both birds are feeding well and seem to be settled in the lovely dry aviary. But it’s still too early to say they are out of the woods entirely. The final vet screening will happen early next week, we’ll get more concrete news after that.  Nest One had a visit from Garry LV0 bringing moss and doing a bit of housekeeping, several songbirds also visited and a Hoodie preened on Dorcha’s perch for a while. The weather was reasonably settled after a wet night but more rain is forecast for tonight, with thundery showers tomorrow. The chicks are missed but the consensus on the forum is that in the circumstances, they’re better off in the translocation programme.

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 00.06.53 (03.35.23); Nest Two 23.45.16 (03.43.32)

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/zakv38LnsXI N2 Dorcha’s not impressed: no fish and Louis tries mating 08.00.12

https://youtu.be/EamXrQ5Z1TYN1 Four little birds flit around investigating the nest 09.15.32

https://youtu.be/KM9WDj8AjRk N1 Does Garry notice the two birds chasing each other? 09.36.18

https://youtu.be/rX4DKIlw6dM N2 Louis brings a lunchtime fish for Dorcha 13.20.39

https://youtu.be/kzKHN0llDEE N2 A solo Hoodie flies onto the side of Dorcha’s perch and preens 20.24.30

Blast from the past, this day in previous years:
https://youtu.be/KmKrmLCYAdk  N1 The chicks Bring Jollity doing flight prep quick time 2020 (Classic Ospreys – Holst)

Watch the Loch Arkaig Osprey livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Both White-tailed eaglet fledglings on the nest resting in the Tucholskie Forest in Poland.

Bety and Bukachek’s only storklet is gorgeous.

Thank you for being with us today. Please take care of yourselves. Stay cool if you are in parts of Canada and the US. Remember to hydrate and for those feeling a little cooler down under, stay warm! Hope to have you with us again soon.

Thank you to the following for their letters, notes, posts, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, EJ, Geemeff, H, MM, PB’, PSEG, Native Songbird Care and Conservation, Mary Cheadle, Ian L Winter, Lucille Powell, Moorings Park Ospreys, Field farm, BoPH, Dyfi Osprey Project, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, LLyn Clywedog, Clark PUD, Kielder Forest, Minnesota Landscape Arobretum. Iowa DNR, Dunrovin Ranch, Charlo Montana Osprey Cam, Finnish Osprey Foundation, The Guardian, Oakland Zoo, Eagle Club of Estonia, Looduskalender, Steelscape, The Fishermen, McEuan Park, Grand Lake Ospreys, Pitkin County Osprey Cam, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Bielik On Line, Mlade Buky White Storks, Osoyoos, Fenwick Island, Colonial Beach, Patuxent River Park, and Window to Wildlife.

Wednesday in Bird World

26 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope that the first half of the week has treated you well. Thank you so much for your notes and the news that you sent that arrived in my Inbox this morning (Wednesday). I will put those great items in for tomorrow! So appreciated.

I could not believe the number of Blue Jays in the garden Tuesday afternoon. A pest control person would say we have an ‘infestation’ of Blue Jays – there were 16 in the garden at once. No, not some flying in and out and being counted twice, but sixteen! What an amazing feeling to see so many. Ever since I was luring Calico into the house and met people from another street near where I live, I realised that many people were feeding the birds and the feral cats. It has helped to increase the population numbers.

Below are some lousy images taken through the conservatory windows with the iPhone.

Too many choices!

This one loved digging in the plant pot.

This Blue Jay really wanted a peanut, but one of Dyson’s kits was on the table feeder. This one is also moulting but have a look at those beautiful markings especially around the eye. Looks like it has been practising the latest look with the kohl markers.

The markings around the eye are entirely different on this one. Gosh, I love Blue Jays. These images will go in the file form last summer to see if I can identify any of the birds.

Hope is almost ready for her first birthday and she has the most beautiful eyes. She has only to stare at me and I melt – not beautiful Baby Blues but Baby Greens.

Hugo Yugo has the most beautiful tail. It is as big as she is!

While Omega is taking record catches of Menhaden (its quota), the Ospreys in the Bay area are noted to be having difficulty finding food. This is the saddest thing I can think of. The ASMFC makes the quota and every state is represented. IF we want our ospreys to have food and not have their population completely decimated then the people that make quota decisions need to understand that commercial fishing of Menhaden needs to stop and stop now. The list of those decision-makers is below.

I also learned this: “The Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay are two separate ecosystems.Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) uses ocean only survey data from NOAA on Menhaden to set an Ocean and Bay quota. No wonder the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem is on the verge of collapse – the 112M lb Bay quota is set by throwing darts.” (Brain Collins, Menhaden – Little Fish, Big Deal FB).

Commissioners-Atlantic-States-Marine-Fisheries-CommissionDownload

‘EJ’ sent me some great news about the intentional release of balloons. In Florida, it is now against the law. You can still have balloons, you just cannot intentionally let them fly free. But what about those accidents? Now can we get an all out ban on the use of balloons for anything? Just ban them. People who leave them tied to the gate posts on their drive cause as much trouble as those who release them into the air. They still get into the environment. Just take the big step and ban them.

DeSantis-signs-law-banning-intentional-release-of-balloons-Fox-NewsDownload

A Himalyan Vulture has been photographed in Armenia for the first time.

Western-Palearctics-first-Himalayan-Vulture-photographed-in-Armenia-BirdGuidesDownload

England is getting another protected area in Cumbria. It may be baby steps to some but any success is worth the effort!!!!!

Englands-largest-rainforest-becomes-protected-reserve-BirdGuidesDownload

Waiting for hatch at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

All is well with CJ7 and Blue 022 at Poole Harbour and their four osplets. One is wanting to nibble and get that fish away from Dad!

The two Golden Eaglets at Estonian nest 2 Kaljukotkas are the sweetest things. Yes, you read that right! Prey was brought in and older sibling left some for the younger. Seriously it doesn’t get much better than that!

Aran and Elen’s trio at Glaslyn are marvellous. I can’t wait til they are ringed. What an idyllic spot to hatch! The sound of cows and sheep, the beautiful green of the Welsh countryside. They will be ringed shortly.

The two surviving chicks at Maryland’s Western Shore nest are really wanting to self feed. Mum still likes to control those fish!

They are very loud – oh, that beautiful sound of an osplet fish crying. And they are the size of their parents.

Nox and Annie – you might want to turn down the volume!

‘PB’ reports that in the late afternoon the third hatch at Steelscape finally had a crop! The little one has had trouble getting any food. We are concerned.

The baby had a tough time at Cowlitz PUD today, too, but ‘PB’ counted 50 nice sized bites of fish at the last feeding. That is not good but might be survivable providing more fish comes in early on Wednesday. A confirmed late evening large fish has arrived. The two older chicks ate their fill. Little three had nothing.

Marders Only Bob is doing very well.

I have to remind myself that those tiny third hatches can survive when I look at Blackbush. I am thinking of Tiny Little Blue 464 at Foulshaw Moss, Tiny Little at Achieva in 2021, Little Mini aka Tiny Dancer at Patchogue…but they have to have spunk and a bit of creativity to get to that fish.

Looking at the two osplets at Bridge Golf Course you might not notice that there is concern for the leg of the second hatch.

Geemeff sends us the Loch Arkaig Daily Summary – thank you, Geemeff!

Daily summary Tuesday 25th June 2024

A day with few fish but plenty of good manners, and confirmation of two chicks on the Bunarkaig nest (thanks Chaddie), whose parents may or may not be Prince & Affric 152. Louis only delivered three fish today, none of them especially big, so Dorcha gave the two chicks, who queued up politely and took turns, most of the fish and only took a little for herself. Louis’ tally rises to two hundred and forty nine (249), although judging by his bulging crop, he may well have caught more than three today. Dorcha took out her hunger on some sticks and the chicks paid close attention making sure to keep out of her way. Garry LV0 paid several visits to Nest One, bringing nesting materials and doing housekeeping as well as perching quietly and preening. The weather was settled today, and more of the same tonight with a forecast of light clouds, light winds and a low of 12 °C.

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 00.18.32 (03.29.13); Nest Two (04.08.47)

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/K3WvjHDOV-M N2 Fish number one, not much left for Dorcha 09.29.00

https://youtu.be/Z_3zm3AQWgc N1 Garry LV0 brings bedding but only stays a short time 12.04.22

https://youtu.be/Y2Gv_Oh4iNk N1 Garry returns and does some nest prep 14.45.25 

https://youtu.be/dFLYF7Ayh0E  N2 Fish number two, chicks queue politely 16.44.47

https://youtu.be/ySDyxYVtZpw  N2 Personages with long sticks 17.17.01 (Classic Ospreys – Saint-Saëns)

https://youtu.be/4vw_4rNXK2g N2 Fish number three, small headless trout, Dorcha gets hardly any 20.02.23

Bonus shopping – bag a bargain in Woodland Trust’s sale – every purchase made from WT’s shop funds vital work to plant and protect trees and woods across the UK: https://shop.woodlandtrust.org.uk/summer-sale

Watch the Loch Arkaig Osprey livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Oh, look at my guy. Blue 33! He is delivering fish #10 at 20:18 for Maya to feed their Only Bob. Oh, there are nests that could only dream about this number and size of fish. So what is the difference? Rutland has a stocked pond.

Blue 1H0 has the same ‘snake eyes’ as Daddy Blue 33. Just gorgeous.

Oh, Iris. You are looking tired to me. But you are taking such good care of those babies.

On Tuesday, it appeared that Finn had trouble fishing with only this very early morning fish. Will there be another? What is the problem?

Darling Finn brought in the second fish of the day for Iris and their babies. Thanks, ‘PB’. Was he on security duty all day? or was fishing particularly difficult? That was a huge gap in time.

SF Bay Ospreys are giving us a 26 day report – that is the age of the oldest of the two chicks of Rosie and Richmond. It is now half way to fledge. Gosh, time passes so quickly.

Anna and Andrew’s Beautiful Lesser Spotted Eaglet at Zemgale, Latvia, Ieva. Several voles coming in for food. I wonder how many small mammals are available in the forest for food? Have the population of small mammals changed in the area?

Selgas and Svinga have at least one miracle little osplet in that nest in Latvia. I strained my eyes to try and see if there were two of them on Tuesday.

And yes, it was a second little head. Thanks, ‘J’.

In Newfoundland, the first egg has hatched at the nest of Hope and Beaumont in Snow Lane.

It’s raining and it is unclear to me if the baby has been fed.

‘A’ keeps us up to date on what is happening with Dad and Lady in the Sydney Olympic Forest: “Meanwhile, an egg is surely just around the corner at WBSE: June 25: After some time on the nest, standing and keeping us in suspense, Lady went to her sleeping branch and slept quietly for the rest of the night. Both woke early, with several early morning duets and finally mating at 6:25. Both were away just before 7am. Dad returned with a small bream, head eaten, and left it on the nest at 7:13. Both eagles were seen from the river at 7:50, one at River Roost, the other near Ironbark Roost in the forest. Dad returned and took the fish himself just after 9am. He brought a stick in just before 10am, followed by Lady, and left again after a little work. Both returned just before 11am, Dad with another stick. Both left again, no prey. Dad was back again an hour later, followed by Lady – no prey – and off again. Then he brought a leafy twig, again followed by Lady – then she was off again. Dad returned with a big whiting at 16:19, quickly claimed by Lady and taken off to eat at Ironbark Roost. She returned the last scrap to the nest at 16:48. Later, at last light, both were on the nest, then moved to nearby branches for the evening. Will tonight be the night?

Syracuse University confirms that Oren and Ruth’s two Red-tail Hawklets fledged.

‘H’ sends her great reports!

6/25 Colonial Beach Osprey nest: Yay!  Betty and David now have two lil’ babies.  Their second baby hatched at approximately 17:48.  One more egg to go.

6/25 Fortis Exshaw:  Things are going very well for this family…Harvie brings in so much fish, that there is no feeling of food insecurity by the osplets.  Two years ago, Louise and Jasper fledged three chicks.  Last year, Jasper disappeared early in the season, and Louise had a difficult time fishing for her three young kids, while at the same time dealing with some really mean intruders.  Louise had some assistance for a few weeks by another male, Mr. O.  He brought fish and helped with nest security, but I fear that Mr. O may have also been a victim of the intruders.  Only one osplet of three fledged.  That was Banff.  Fingers crossed for Louise and her new family this year.

6/25 Osoyoos osprey nest:  In my mind, fish size is relative to any given nest.  A ‘whopper’ at Osoyoos would be considered a medium sized fish at many other nests.  Olsen mostly brings tiny, small, and medium sized fish to the nest, and rarely is he able to catch a large fish.  There are variables such as: is the fish headless, is the fish thin or thick (fish mass)?  I like to judge by how long it takes Soo to feed her three kids from any given fish.  From my observations: A feeding from a tiny fish only takes Soo 3-4 minutes to feed, 5-7 minutes for a small fish, 8-10 minutes for a medium sized fish, and 11-15 minutes for a large fish.  This is not a perfect system by any means…a tough fish will take longer to feed, and if Soo becomes distracted for a bit, that will prolong a feeding.  There were ‘only’ five feedings for the osplets today, down from their average of 7-9 meals per day.  No aggression was observed during any of the feedings.  The meals lasted (in minutes of duration): 5, 11, 5, 8, and 15 minutes.   The chicks are growing rapidly, and their appetites are increasing.  Due to the size of the fish, Olsen needs to catch a whole lot of fish for this hungry brood in order to prevent any food insecurity.  Fingers crossed.

6/25 Forsythe osprey nest: The live stream had been down for 2.5 days, and upon return of the stream just before noon today, we saw one of the osplets self-feeding.  And, after a while, the other chick stole the fish and also self-fed.  The self-feeding is a new development.  The 35 and 34-day-old osplets are looking good.

6/25 Mispillion Harbor osprey nest:  Della and Warren are doing a great job, and this family is doing well.  The 29 and 28-day-old osplets are simply gorgeous (this is one of my home nests…so I’m a little biased, lol).

In Oklahoma, excessive heat is killing songbirds. Many Robins found dead. Some people are putting frozen gel packs in their water bowls and bird baths to help keep the water cool. Please put out water for all the feathered friends and critters! Shallow dishes with pebbles help. Food if you can, but water is so important. Thank you and thank you to everyone who sent me a note to say they are doing their part with providing water. You are saving lives. Smile. Every little bit helps.

It is about that time. 1 July in Canada and the 4th in the US. And I am sure there are celebrations elsewhere. I continue to imagine celebrations without things that harm the wildlife – like balloons and fireworks. Just think what the money spent on fireworks could do to help non-humans and humans.

Persuade your community that there are alternatives – that might even include a free picnic for everyone. Anything but fireworks and balloons.

Final note: The little one at Cowlitz had no fish from the first feed at Cowlitz PUD and the same at Steelscape. So sad.

Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care! See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, posts, images, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: A, EJ, Geemeff, H, J, PB’, Brian Collins, ASMFC, FOX News, BirdGuides, Trent University, BoPH, Eagle Club of Estonia, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home, SK Hideaways, Steelscape Osprey Cam, Cowlitz PUD, Marders, Blackbush, Bridge Golf, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, LRWT, Montana Osprey Project, SF Bay Ospreys, LDF, Newfoundland Power, Sea Eagle Cam, SU Hawk Nest Cam, Colonial Beach, Fortis-Exshaw, Osoyoos, Mispillion Harbour, Forsythe, and Spay-Neuter Coalition of NM,

Monday in Bird World

24 June 2024

Oh, good morning. We are celebrating today. We have a late hatch baby osplet in Latvia!!!!!!!! Oh, tears and jumping up and down. Oh, please let this little one be safe. It appears the second egg has a hole in it. Just overjoyed. Ospreys are so rare in Latvia. Everyone must be celebrating. Congratulations Selgas and Svinga.

The Estonian Osprey nest of M1 and IIris has sadly failed. The ospreys continue to visit the nest on occasion. M1 has covered the egg on and off. The camera is now offline.

There is sad news coming from the Finnish Osprey nest at Seili. First two eggs did not hatch. The third did hatch and was predated by a Crow.

Look at those two beautiful osplets, fully feathered, in Napiwodzko-Ramucka in Poland.

The two Golden Eaglets in Estonia nest #2 are doing so well. It is late on Sunday and no food has arrived yet. They had good ‘ps’ early in the day.

The name given to the only Golden Eagle on the Estonian nest #1 is Diana.

The two gorgeous Eastern Imperial Eagles in Tatarstan RU are doing so well.

The Lesser Spotted Eaglet, Ieva, in Zemgale, Latvia is so cute. It is beginning to get its feathers. Mum Anna spends much time preening her little one. One thing I have found interesting is when Ieva casts a pellet, Anna will often share that pellet with Ieva as food again. There were lots of frogs on the menu for the 23rd, Sunday. After so many, many frogs, Andris shows up with a vole. I have not seen him on the nest recently so this is fantastic.

The first time the chicks in the Tweed Valley nest of Mrs O have seen the sun in 21 days. It must feel wonderful and it will dry out that nest. So many lost to weather. Glad to see these three nicely feathered and surviving!

The three osplets at the Oxford, MA nest (camera run by Oxfordma.us) look to be almost completely feathered and extremely healthy. A little older than the ones in Tweed Valley.

The four osplets at Field Farm are drying out after heavy rains.

Dad got the fish in and Little Mini is at the beak at Field Farm!

At Bridge Golf, both osplets had a nice fish lunch.

Fish on the nest at Moorings Park and Ruffy watches the water.

At the US Steel Bald Eagle nest of Irvin and Claire, their only eaglet, Lucky, fledged on Sunday! Congratulations everyone.

And now there is concern for Lucky. Send positive wishes.

Three babies at Blackush so far looking good. Weather is off and on miserable.

Last breeding season, the lovely Marders nest failed. All the chicks died for no apparent reason. The owner of the property followed all advice and protocols and had them picked up for a necroscopy. It is possible they were too decomposed. This year, the family has one two week old osplet and two DNH eggs.

Two beautiful fledglings returning to the nest for fish at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science platform.

Mum at Pitkin County working hard to keep her three osplets cool in the rising heat of Colorado.

Rainy, hot, and humid at Great Bay. It finally dries up. Three gorgeous osplets.

‘H’ hasher reports for us!

6/23 The Osoyoos osprey nest continues to do well.  The 13, 15, and 16-day-old chicks are looking good.  There were 8 feedings that I saw.  There was no sign of sibling rivalry or aggression.  Some of the fish were tiny, but some were medium in size.  Little missed out on the first meal that consisted of a small fish, because he was sleepy and waited to approach…”He who hesitates….”  Little only ate two bites of fish at the second meal, because the fish was so tiny.  Later, Little ate his/her share at the other meals, right up at Soo’s beak, side by side with the big kids.

6/23 Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  Harvie is an excellent fisher, and he delivered three whoppers and a smaller fish today.  There were 8 meals, some of which consisted of leftovers from the whoppers.  There was no sign of aggression at the meals.  Little is handicapped…well, by being little, lol.  S/he simply cannot reach as far toward Louise’s beak as the bigger kids, but he manages to get fed, especially toward the end of the meals.  Little did not eat at the last meal of the day, simply because the fish was small.  All is good at this nest.

6/23 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Capt Mac’s Fish House):  There were six meals provided for the 8-day-old babe, which was an improvement.  The meals were also a little longer in duration.  Male ospreys usually wisely remove leftover fish from the nest to avoid enticing predators, and Johnny is very diligent about that.  At 1350, it had been 5.5 hours since the last meal, and June fed from a nice sized fish.  This time, June prevented Johnny from taking the leftover piece of fish.  June fed the osplet again in an hour, and the kiddo had a very nice crop!  In fact s/he had a nice crop a couple of times today.  Good.  Now, if Johnny could just deliver more fish…

6/23 Audubon Boathouse osprey nest:  The 9 and 5-day-old siblings are doing well.  There is never a shortage of fish provided by Skiff.  And, Dory is a great mom, always ensuring that both of her youngsters are fed.

6/23 Captiva Osprey nest:  This family had a very good day.  The new fledgling, Ding, made several flights off the nest, and she made some very nice landings back on the nest, and also onto the perch.  Darling performed her first hover high enough that s/he was out of our view.  And, Darling walked up onto a perch for the first time.  There were five fish delivered to the nest, and Jack brought four of them.  Overnight 6/24, the kids had a 

There has been an accidental fledge at the Avon Lake Bald Eagle nest with three eaglets. More information to follow.

Even rehabbers, especially rehabbers, need to remember. IF you can PICK UP a Peregrine Falcon and hold it and you are not doing that to put on its bands, then THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE BIRD. It truly is that simple. You don’t want that raptor rendering your arm useless.

Oh, Monty and Hartley’s chicks are soooooo cute.

Iris and Finnegan have their hands full with these two osplets. You can immediately tell the difference in development just looking at them. But, oh, so cute! Finnegan spent Saturday night on the perch protecting Iris and the babies. Gosh, I love this guy.

‘PB’ reports that some bonking/dominance is taking place between Iris and Finnegan’s chicks. The oldest is in the Reptile Stage. Maybe it is a female. Iris is good, though. She makes sure both of those babies get stuffed to the top!

Bless his heart. Finnegan just keeps bringing in the fish for the family!

Cute little babies at Charlo Montana.

The camera is not great but we can now clearly see three osplets on the Collins Marsh nest on top of a relocated Wild Fire Watch Tower in Wisconsin.

Cowlitz PUD is looking good!

Geemeff’s summary for Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust:

Daily summary Sunday 23rd June 2024

Calm was the order of the day, the weather was settled and the two chicks behaved impeccably. Dorcha had a bit of fun with an unwieldy stick which, after causing chaos, was lost overboard. Garry LV0 paid a flying visit to Nest One and a little bird did a quick flit round too. The star of today was Louis, who loomed up out of the darkness at 14 minutes and 23 seconds before midnight with a record-breaking latest delivery fish, to take his total for the day to five fish and his season’s tally to two hundred and forty one. Tonight’s forecast for Inver Mallie which includes the nest area, is partly cloudy and light winds. Perhaps Louis will do a spot more fishing – it will be interesting to see what time he delivers the first fish tomorrow.

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 00.09.26 (03.09.37); Nest Two 23.30.31 (03.43.42)

Watch the livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/Mw1wYciPyBg  N2 Fish number, one live trout, chicks line up politely 06.28.23

https://youtu.be/NiluW_gKrG0  N2 Fish number two, headless trout, chicks still polite 08.26.17

https://youtu.be/e1DJpaL8Dlo N2 Dorcha causes chaos with a stick, tbut it soon goes overboard 11.02.20

https://youtu.be/e3oZRUuHIzs  N1 GarryLV0 visits for just seven seconds 13.31.19 (zoom)

https://youtu.be/gZDgFJrJfMo  N2 Fish number three, smallish headless trout, Dorcha doles out evenly 13.47.14 

https://youtu.be/0yXwS1_ft18 N2 Fish number four, whole flatfish, chicks are not very enthusiastic but queue up anyway  15.48.34

https://youtu.be/kqS35fIdnn8 N1 A little bird makes a brief flit around and underneath 20.38.30

https://youtu.be/35Zn71fWiCg N2 Fish number five, headless trout – breaks all-time latest delivery record! 23.45.37

Bonus watch – Woodland Trust’s video for World Rainforest Day 2024:

Oh, wonderful news coming from ‘AM’ and Port Lincoln: “Ervie arrived at the nest at 11:42 in Port Lincoln! He was kicked out by his mother at 12:17:43!”

I was just able to rewind. Ervie on the nest and then on the perch. There is some suspicions that Ervie is a female because Mum kicked ‘her’ out. Mum did not respond that way to Calypso (2019 hatch) who was believed to be female but turned out to be a male. The pair mated on the nest.

Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their posts, notes, comments, pictures, articles, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, AM, Geemeff, H, J, PB’. LDF, Eagle Club of Estonia, Seili Osprey Cam, Pybolowy Online, Tatarstan Eastern Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Tweed Valley Osprey Project, Oxford MA Ospreys, Field Farm, Bridge Golf, Moorings Park, Deb Stecyk, Blackish, Marders, VIMS, Pitkin County, Great Bay Ospreys, Iowa Bird Rehabilitation, SK Hideaways, Montana Osprey Project, Montana Osprey Cam, Charlo Montana, Cowlit PUD, Window to Wildlife, Fortis Exshaw, Osoyoos Ospreys, Kent Island, Fenwick Island, Greemeff and The Woodland Trust, Port Lincoln Ospreys, and Collins Marsh.

A better day…Thursday in Bird World

20 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Wednesday was a tough day. Little Smallie was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’. Bless his heart. I wonder what his chances would have been if he had been taken into rehab after being found in the moat? ‘J’ said this reminded her ‘of Rubus all over again’ and I consistently say if you can pick up a raptor and hold it, they are sick!!!!!!! Unless you are ringing them. So, that should be something known by everyone —- if you can pick up a falcon or an eaglet or an osplet and they don’t tear your arm off, they are unwell and should go to rehab. Period. No questions asked. Just do it.

‘B’ sent me a great quote and agreed I could share it with all of you. This came after hearing about the passing of Luna after Sol: “About the only halfway positive thing I can say is that it is a reminder to us all how fragile life is out there in the wild.  And to all wildlife, not just our bird friends.  It’s not a reminder that I enjoy hearing, but it is one we need to appreciate.  We humans live very sheltered lives.  All the more reason why it is so unfair that we humans add so many risks to the health and survival of wildlife.”

Thankfully we have some good news.

There is some really good news coming from our friend ‘R’ who has kept an eye on the University of Florida-Gainesville osprey nest of Stella and her former partner, Talon. We can certainly use some news to raise our spirits! ‘R’ went for a good look around the nest of Stella and her beautiful daughter and discovered that “Stella is bringing in some huge fish and immediately flies off. Big sits there and carries on for a while and then finally decides Stella isn’t going to feed her and she devours the fish.” ‘R’ wonders if Stella is fishing in a different lake than Talon or is questioning if the local water source has been stocked. He will check and find out for us.   Then he went to check the nest and discovered “There is another nest nearby and Big and “someone” in the other nest take turns vocalizing back and forth.  I doubt it is Stella.”   Then ‘R’ gives us some really good news! “I found another nest not far from the two I knew about.  It was fairly good size and sitting in it was a nice large osprey!  That makes 3 nests in the vicinity and probably a few others.  The new nest can’t be very old as it is in the new light poles!”  ‘R’ will take some photos for us on their next visit. An acquaintance also went for a drive near Bowling Green, Florida and in a two mile stretch all the poles had osprey nests! Wow. Can you imagine? The thinking is that the ospreys relocated after Hurricane Ian.

What a beautiful sight! Iris and Finnegan and their two osplets at Hellgate Canyon in Montana.

OK. I am obsessed with Iris and Finnegan. This nest gives me hope.

‘A’ writes: “Finn is doing such a good job. I’m not sure about breakfast this morning – Finn brought a nice fish in at 09:50, which is late for him but I don’t think there had been an earlier feeding because both chicks were hungry as Iris waited for Finn to arrive. She was very vocal about calling for breakfast too. 

He is such a darling. Both the chicks are super active and really good at holding up their heads. Little Bob is half the size of his sibling but is holding his own. Iris spends the first couple of minutes feeding Big Bob, although Little is hungry and pushes his way forward to a position beside and slightly in front. Mum is taking any aggression out of Big Bob, I think, and she slips Little a small bite but then returns to feeding Big Bob. Finn has left the nest, and the fish was a decent size and whole, so there is plenty for mum and the kids. 

Once Big Bob has a respectable crop, Iris turns to Little Bob and concentrates on getting food into his beak. He is eager and grabbing for the food, falling flat on his face a few times and failing to hold his head still in the excitement. But mum is patient with him and gets the food to his mouth. She is such a good mum. It seemed to me that she had three days of exhaustion following each hatch, after which she perked up and seems to show great effort and care in feeding both her chicks. Finn is making sure she gets fed, even if he has to do it himself, and he is looking after her wonderfully well. He spends a lot of time on the nest or on the perch, just staying close. I have not once heard him vocalise. Not once. He listens. He acts. He shuts up. What a man! “

This morning Alison notes, “At Hellgate, the kids were hungry, and Iris nagged Finn much of the afternoon for fish. Finally, he brought in a nice fish late in the day (about 20:45) and the chicks played nice, sitting up side by side at the table. As always, mum satiated Big Bob’s hunger and then turned to Little Bob. I saw no bonking at any point today, which was a huge relief, and Big Bob made no attempt to stop Little Bob from eating or from participating in the feeding line. These two are active and are doing well. They both seemed to be born very well developed, as if they had spent an extra day or two in the egg. They were large in size and seemed precocious in both physical development and behaviour. This is a huge bonus, as they began life with a bit of an advantage. Finn is doing a wonderful job. He is a devoted dad. He does need to learn to fish more often and/or leave leftovers on the nest while these two are still so young, but he is obedient to Iris’s demands, and eventually goes out to fish even in a downpour if she nags him enough. He’s going to become a great dad as the seasons progress – I can see him getting into feeding the chicks (he has already had a couple of goes at this, with varying success) and he just adores Iris. “

It is a hot day in Ithaca, New York. One of the Ns is resting in the shade of the natal nest.

Suzanne Arnold Horning caught up with Big Red and Arthur’s family.

Thankful for the two gorgeous osplets at Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home.

Wet osplets at the Goitzshe-Wildnis nest in Germany are waiting for a fish delivery.

The three at Charlo Montana look like they are doing well.

Mum and Dad feeding one another at Blackbush at Old Tracadie Harbour – then they feed the kids. This behaviour of the male feeding the female who, in turn, feeds the chicks, appears to be more common than once believed.

‘H’ will have a better report for us (at the end) but the trio at Osoyoos are getting their crops full with a nice sized fish. Relief.

Nox visits Mum! Oh, no. Eclipse comes!

San Jose Girls seem to be doing very, very well.

In Montreal, Polo and Hugo (yes, another Hugo) playing around.

Suffering from falcon withdrawal? Try the Weston Power Plant scrape in Wisconsin. One chick, one unviable egg it seems.

Wings of Whimsy tribute to Sol and Luna.

Three beautiful babies for Aran and Elen are growing strong and watching the cattle and the rest of the Welsh countryside near Glaslyn.

Three fat chicks at Dyfi waiting to be named. Idris and Telyn have done a superb job, as usual.

Geemeff gives us the Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust summary:

Daily summary Wednesday 19th June 2024

What a difference a day makes! Not only did fabulous fisherbird Louis swoop in with four fish in 26 minutes then follow it up with another three, breaking various records along the way, but there was absolutely no aggro from either of the two chicks today. The reptilian phase appears to be over, and while there will still be the odd fight, especially when they start accepting the fish deliveries themselves, the instinctive aggression of the rapid growth stage seems to have ended. The bundle of feathers that was tragic little chick3 is still visible but is melding with the nest floor and if not removed by Dorcha soon, is likely to just disappear and become part of the nest. Louis’ magnificent seven took his tally to two hundred and twenty three, a remarkable achievement although the wait to see if he breaks his nine-fish record goes on. Nest One had another visit from Garry LV0 who was seen flying to perch on Pole Tree before popping in for a brief visit. The weather was as settled as the chicks’ dispositions, but tonight’s forecast is a damp night with light rain and light winds, with the prospect of a drier day tomorrow. 

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.59.35 (03.07.48); 

Nest Two 23.23.40 (03.45.50)

Watch the livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/tysEIpOpLAY  N2 Fish number one, small whole trout – no fighting! 03.49.37 

https://youtu.be/Q0EGdJY0uLw  N2 Fish number two, another small whole trout – 7 minutes 12 seconds N2N between F1 & F2! 03.56.59 

https://youtu.be/rzoZoHCbQic  N2 Fish number three, another small whole trout – still no aggro 04.07.04

https://youtu.be/RruBa6SD1qs  N2 Fish number four, large whole trout, flapping – 8 minutes 19 seconds N2N between F3& F4! 04.15.39 

https://youtu.be/k3QtoOOPyGk  N2 Fish number five, large whole flapper trout looking surprised 04.51.25 

https://youtu.be/FRf9mHWRQ7Y  N2 Fish number six, headless trout – lovely calm feeding 06.10.10

https://youtu.be/RbzwLU7h1H8  N1 Garry LV0 flies in from Pole Tree for a quick visit 11.30.20

https://youtu.be/FTgfA522SzI N2 Fish number seven, but everyone’s too full 14.11.59

Blast from the past, this day in previous years:

The legendary queen of the mountain gave us an unforgettable moment on this day in 2020: Aila has a brain fade and decides to move an awkwardly shaped stick from one side of the nest to the other, apparently oblivious to the presence of her chicks. They duck this way and that trying to keep out of her destructive path, and when Aila finally leaves the nest, one of them delivers a parting shot with perfect emphasis.

https://youtu.be/g-T2vcO-j0sIn the Hall of the Mountain Queen 2020 (Classic Ospreys – Grieg, quicktime)

The female at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum was much more attentive to her only surviving chick on Wednesday. The little one had several feedings, each with a resultant crop.

No hatch yet for Beau and Hope at Newfoundland Power’s Snow Lane nest. This is another problematic female who prefers to eat the fish and not feed her chicks. I do wonder if she is modelling her behaviour after the nest where she hatched?

A family portrait (of sorts) at Field Farm. You can still tell Little Mini as it has only a few feathers unlike the three older siblings. Nest is doing well. Bravo!

Blue 022 delivers a fish and CJ7 immediately begins feeding their quartet.

‘PB’ reports that Little Bob at Cowlitz had a good day! Fantastic. This nest had been concerning me.

There are two beautiful Golden Eaglets on Estonian nest 2 at Kaljukothkas. This nest is getting enough food that the obligate siblicide did not occur. This is a good thing. One of those beautiful miracles of a year filled with much sorrow.

Bety and Bukacek had one storklet this year. It is alive and healthy. Another life to be thankful for.

Let’s end on another smile. World Bird Sanctuary, home to Murphy the Bald Eagle who incubated a rock and got to raise an eaglet, has a great story for us. Thanks, ‘J’.

World Bird Sanctuary

Last year, one Bald Eagle couple’s nesting season ended in tragedy when a tornado destroyed their nest, killing one of their chicks and sending the other to our hospital. That chick was 23-126, and we all fell in love as we watched him grow and be fostered by Murphy. This year, we are delighted to report that 126’s parents have rebuilt! Their new nest is only about 100 yards away from their old one and they have 3 healthy eaglets! We’d like to thank 126’s finders for passing on the good news and Frank Melliere Photography for taking and allowing us to share this photo of the 3 eaglets.

Oh and one last smile – I feel like we need lots of them. Ruffie and Tuffy are still knock out gorgeous fledglings, coming to the nest for fish. This is Wednesday. Both look to have nice crops.

‘H’ reports:

6/19, Osoyoos osprey nest:  Oh my, they had a great day.  Ollie brought eleven fish to the nest, wow!  The meal times remain peaceful between the siblings, and everyone ate their fill, including Soo.  There were some ‘minnows’, some medium sized fish, and one ‘whale’.  At 2105, Ollie brought in a very large whole fish.  I overheard one of the kids ask: “Mommy is that a whale?”  Soo: “Yes Dear, Daddy caught a whale for you.”  Soo only fed the whale to her kids for a few minutes, then walked away from the fish, so Ollie removed it.  He returned the partial fish to the nest at 2137, but Soo did not feed at that time.

6/19 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Captain Mac’s Fish House):  June and Johnny’s 5-day-old chick seems to be doing well, and June is providing shade from the sun.  There were seven meals provided to the lil’ one, which was an improvement.  Very warm temperatures are predicted in the upcoming days, so keep those fish coming in, Johnny!

6/19, Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  Louise and Harvie are great parents, and are taking good care of their three chicks.  Bonking has started…the eldest has been bonking both of its siblings.  Ages: 7, 5, 3 days.

6/19 Dahlgren osprey nest:  ‘Hope’, the 17-day-old only chick of Helen and Doug, is doing quite well.

6/19 Patuxent osprey nest:  There were only three meals for the osplets, but the first two fish were very large and provided for long meals.  Each chick ate multiple times.  It appears that Little’s feathers are finally starting to grow better, but s/he remains far behind the older sibs.  Big has been doing some impressive wingers!

6/19 Captiva osprey nest:  Edie and Jack delivered five fish to the nest.  Jack’s injury seems to be healing, and he is functioning normally, but the ‘spike’ is still embedded under his skin.  Darling performed a nice mini-hover for the first time, and Ding continued to perform hovers out of our view.  One of these times, Ding’s hover may just turn into a flight!

Geemeff sent us the ringing video of Blue 33 and Maya’s chick at Rutland:

I am getting word from ‘J’ that a Peregrine Falcon female with chicks in the scrape appears to have died from something poisonous in EDE. Will confirm with more news tomorrow.

There is more news from FORE today and I have abbreviated this. Please go to their FB page for the entire post.  🙁

“As we mentioned, we were able to retrieve Luna’s body since she passed away on the ground & not up in the Nest. But, we still don’t know yet if they can perform a necropsy or not? In this Redding heat decomposition sets in quickly. 🙁 And, if they can do a necropsy, we may not get the results of those tests for several months. So, this is going to take some time. Try to breathe & heal while we wait for those answers…Rest assured our Liberty & Guardian are doing fine, so please don’t worry yourself sick about them right now. We will continue following them & sharing their journey until they leave the area, as we always do. We don’t know when that will be this year since their work is now done… 🙁We will not know the cause of death without the necropsy results, but we are looking closely at several indicators pointing to severe dehydration brought on by a variety of mitigating factors. Some of the factors that we are looking into include; extreme sustained heat including several consecutive days of 100+ degree temperatures in a row in June, no canopy or shade above the Nest due to a completely dead nest tree, and numerous fluctuations in nearby river levels beginning in late Feb/early March which may have affected the eagle’s typically bountiful rainbow trout supply in April & May 2024. We did not see nearly the number of trout, which has a lot of hydration for the eaglets, coming into the nest during those crucial months as we typically have at this nest. 🙁“

Thank you so much for being with us today. Take care! We hope to see you soon.

Thank you to the following for the comments, observations, notes, posts, videos, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, PB, R’, Montana Osprey Project, Montana Osprey Cam, Cornell RTH Cam, Suzanne Arnold Horning, Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home, Fischadlerwebcam, Charlo Montana, Blackish at Old Tracadie Harbour, Osoyoos Ospreys, SK Hideaways, de’Montreal Falcons, Weston Power Plant Peregrine Falcon Cam, Wings of Whimsy, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch, Newfoundland Power, Field Farm, BoPH, Pam Breci, Eagle Club of Estonia, Mlade Buky, Osoyoos, Fenwick Island, Dahlgren Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, Fortis Exshaw, Window to Wildlife, World Bird Sanctuary, LRWT, and FORE.

Second chick for Iris and Finnegan…Monday in Bird World

17 June 2024

Hello Everyone!

We hope that you had a lovely weekend. Sunday was beautiful in southern Manitoba. Blue skies with lots of wind to keep the mosquitoes away. We did the 10 km walk, the long path, around Oak Hammock Marsh. The Red-winged Blackbirds followed us. There were songbirds, ducks with ducklings, goslings, Pelicans, and Swans. There was even Killdeer. It was a glorious afternoon spent outside.

They were clearly ‘white’ but, for the sake of saving my arm today, I went with my phone and not the long lens. Bad decision. They look like Snow Geese or Swans to me and not Pelicans, but they were approximately 30 metres away. Please feel free to disagree! The image when cropped and blown up is too faint to tell accurately.

I really hope that you got to spend some time outside, away from the computer screen. Hearing the birds, listening to the wind, feeling the sun – it all makes everything better and it has been a particularly rough week in Bird World.

First news for Monday: We have a second chick at Hellgate for Iris and Finnegan!

I am going to start with the sadness so we can move on to the gladness.

Geemeff sends us the report for The Woodland Trust and the Osprey nests at Loch Arkaig:

Daily summary Sunday 16th June 2024

Sadly, there’s only one story today – the death of little bob3 at 24 days old. The youngest chick succumbed to weather, lack of food, and stress from aggression by the middle chick. Although s/he did get some fish today, it was too little too late and two days of cold wet weather plus being left uncovered in a downpour this morning when too weak to crawl under mum was too much for the chick to overcome. It will be interesting to see how the other two chicks react to having one less competitor, but it looks like chick1 is already working out strategies to prevent chick2 getting all the food. Louis brought five fish to the nest today, taking his tally to two hundred and seven. No activity on Nest One except for a little songbird who pootled around for a few minutes. It was very dreich today but tonight’s forecast of partly cloudy with light winds and 9°C temperatures is slightly better. 

RIP little chick three: 24th May – 16th June 2024

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.42.37 (03.13.33); Nest Two  23.20.40 (03.51.29)

Watch the livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/kT2dGq0-2zs N2 Fish number one, small whole trout – C3 is looking weak  05.06.42

https://youtu.be/hlazHmk6Q64  N2 Fish number two, headless large trout – C3 gets a few bites 05.52.19 

https://youtu.be/boDKXOe820U N2 Fish number three, headless large trout – C1 gets a good feed, C3 doesn’t move 09.40.52

https://youtu.be/n7QT7THpK3M N2 Fish number four, whopper headless trout – has C3 lost its fight? 13.44.49 

https://youtu.be/zW4F9G1h224 N1 A little songbird visits 14.03.50 (zoom)

https://youtu.be/zN-GUwN08iM  N2 RIP Little bob3: the last day of Chick Three 05.54 – 19.02

https://youtu.be/ElWA0SIE6yM N2 Fish number five, whopper trout. C2 immediately moves in 21.29.27 

https://youtu.be/dCQU4Mrm4F0 N2  N2 Chick1 has a cunning plan to thwart C2 21.40.45

A thesis on osprey nest mortality.

rettew-thesis-Osprey-aggressionDownload

Geemeff’s tribute to little C3 at Loch Arkaig.

And now for the giggle of the day which comes form ‘A’:

In Sydney, the eagles have been on the nest this morning (in fact, Lady is there at the moment). The magpies chose Saturday to start mating all over Melbourne. Nature strips, medians, backyards. It’s avian pornography wherever you look. Even the noisy mynahs are joining in (not with the magpies, obviously!) so it seems it is about a week or two until egg-laying begins in southeastern Australia. We are keeping an eye/ear out for our falcons in Collins Street – they must be around their scrape by now if they are planning to use it this year. 

It is time for some good news! Smallie is flying. ‘PB’ reports that he was seen sitting on a bicycle and was flying back and forth to the nest. Smallie was the much loved Amersfoort tiny, tiny falcon with the humongous siblings. Many thought Smallie didn’t have a chance. The parents kept feeding and Smallie, by his/her own nature didn’t give up. She/he got out on that scrape and ate anything they could. Now Smallie is flying! Tears.

‘PB’ reports that Smallie flew off the ledge like a pro! There he goes!

Another tragedy that has turned out alright. Both Decorah North eaglets are flying. Their nest collapsed Sunday morning and it was feared one might be grounded and couldn’t get up. But now they are together on a branch – the last news that I had. Mr and Mrs DNF are incredible parents and they will make sure these two are well looked after! No worries there.

The power on the camera at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum went down at 0530 on Sunday morning after the storms and rain went through the area.

All four osplets at Field Farm are doing great.

And smile. All four at Poole Harbour are doing fantastic, too. Little Mini is turning into a Reptile!

Reports from ‘H’:

6/16, Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  The third baby hatched at approximately 14:04.  Louise’s new mate, Harvie, has taken good care of her this season, helping with security, providing fish, and incu-brooding.  We know that he’ll be a great Dad.

6/16, Patuxent osprey nest:  There were six fish brought to the nest.  It wasn’t the best day for Little, but he still did okay.  There was no ‘whopper’ fish that would allow for a prolonged private feeding for Little.  S/he ate well at 0752 and 1237, but was only able to eat for about 9 minutes at the last four meals of the day.

6/16 Mispillion Harbor osprey nest:  Della and Warren, and their two 21 and 20-day-old chicks are doing great.  Warren is a fishing machine, and it seems like these two osplets are always eating. 


6/16, Captiva osprey nest:  It was another fish-filled day…and as you know, fish make ospreys happy…so everyone was happy!  There were seven fish brought to the nest by Edie and Jack, and Jack delivered five of them!  Oh, my goodness, what a great Dad…tirelessly providing for his family despite being injured.

We are on fledge watch for the last of the San Jose falcons! And SK Hideaways shows us how silly these kids are.

Food fight at San Jose!

Three beautiful babies at Cowlitz PUD protected by those fish grates by the PUD.

Three beautiful babies enjoying a fish dinner at Osoyoos.

More good news. The two Eastern Imperial Eaglets of Altyn and Nova in the RU nest appear to be very healthy.

I continue to hope that the two Golden Eaglets in the Estonian nest 2 will survive. They appear to both being doing well, also.

There was some concern about the osplet of Iris and Finnegan. It had gotten itself upside down in the nest, but that drama, thankfully, has passed and the chick is right side up again!

‘A’ comments: “Finn is still the perfect partner, feeding Iris and bringing in fish for her and the youngster. He just loves being on the nest when Iris is feeding the chick, which he is absolutely besotted with. He is fascinated and delighted by the little one and takes every opportunity to see it. He is very careful around the chick now, using his wings to keep his balance and ensure that he does not stumble or step on the chick – a major improvement on his initial clumsy clomping around the nest. 

Iris was a lot better today, feeding the osplet more often and generally looking a lot more alert and active. I wonder whether she was very tired from the first hatch,she had three nights (two that were particularly disturbed) when she was awake for much of the night while the first chick was hatching. She was aware on that first night of the activity beginning in one of her eggs, and over the following two nights she had a hatching egg, and then on the third night, a just-hatched chick. She had very little sleep, and she really did appear lethargic to me over the past couple of days. But today, she appeared much more energetic 

Meanwhile, that osplet is MONSTROUS. Surely it cannot possibly be only five days old. It looks twice that age, and it is growing so fast, it appears to be entering the dinosaur phase already. I am extremely nervous about a potential second hatch. This size discrepancy is ridiculous. Surely a hatch as tiny as this second one is likely to be has absolutely no chance against a sibling literally ten times its size. And I am not entirely sure Iris has the energy to give a new very tiny chick. Certainly, Finn will do his best to support Iris, and I love the way he feeds her on the nest. She sure is demanding! I never saw her with Stanley, but if he also fed Iris, then perhaps it is Iris who is dictating the behaviour of the males in her life. It is most unusual behaviour in my experience. Certainly, we have seen males occasionally offer a mouthful to a female on the nest, but I have never seen feeds of this length and this regularity. She is being feted by this handsome young man. Our Iris sure is an impressive cougar. “

And the news is still good. Richmond of SF Golden Gate Audubon is a Grand -Dad. Robin B caught Lassen and his family on video for everyone.

Sharon Dunne reports that both Royal Cam chick parents were in today! What luck!

Sara and Sota at the Sun Coast Osprey nest had two fledges this past week. Congratulations! (screen capture by Lucille Powell)

The two chicks at the WDNU Tower in South Bend, Indiana appear to be doing well. No rewind so it is hard to catch a great image of the entire family!

Charlie and his new mate at Charlo Montana have three beautiful osplets. Mum is not too happy with the delivery of ‘something’ – it certainly wasn’t a fish! She uses her beak to push it to the rails.

There are many benefits to having only one osplet to feed. Parents do not use up as much energy. There is normally enough fish for three. The Only Bob usually grows big and strong. Boulder County is a good example.

Only Bob at Manton Bay is doing fantastic. ‘She’ – seriously I believe this is a nice big female – will be ringed this week. Blue 33 and Maya doing well after Maya’s earlier sickness. (I still owe you the entry for Manton Bay. I have not forgotten. The deaths and tragedies seem to have overtaken everything lately).

After the issues at the Dahlgren nest, Sandpoint’s platform is starting to worry me. Old fish, new fish. Baby gets fed.

There are growing concerns for C3 at the Bridge Golf Club. We have already lost Mini Little to siblicide and it looks as if we could lose Little on this nest. It would appear that the supply of fish might only be enough for two chicks, not four and maybe not three.

The two osplets at Ferris State University have all their beautiful juvenile plumage. One egg DNH.

The trio at Radford University are at the same stage as those at Ferris in their plumage development. Aren’t these babies beautiful?

Two little sweeties at Blackbush. Hoping those eggs continue to be DNH.

Is it dangerous to be a fledgling eagle parent? Ask Akecheta!

There are so many people who have helped wildlife. At the moment I am completely behind Isabella Tree and rewinding. I am hopeful that what she has done at Knepp Farm might translate into urban and suburban gardens. After adding more trees to our property, we added more annuals to attract the pollinators. Every little bit helps. You can do it with a single pollinator friendly potted plant!

Conservationist-Isabella-Tree-‘Rewilding-is-vital-for-the-UKs-agricultural-future-Food-The-GuDownload

Thank you so much for being with me today. Have a great week. 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, J, MP, PB’, Geemeff for The Woodland Trust, Sea Eagle Cam, Amersfoort Falcons, Raptor Resource Project/Explore, MN Landscape Arboretum, Field Farm, BoPH, Patuxent River Park, FortisExshaw, Window to Wildlife, Mispillion Harbour, SK Hideaways, Cowlitz PUD, Osoyoos Ospreys, Eastern Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Eagle Club of Estonia, Montana Osprey Cams, SF Bay Ospreys, Robin B, Sharon Dunne, Sun Coast Ospreys, Lucille Powell, WDNU Tower, Charlo Montana, Boulder County, LRWT, Sandpoint Ospreys, Bridge Golf Club, Ferris State University, Radford University, Netflix Memories, and The Guardian.

Pip in Iris and Finnegan’s second egg…Friday in Bird World

14 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

The rain clouds came Wednesday evening and watered the garden and they are rolled in again from the West Thursday morning. Hugo Yugo is afraid of the thunder and lighting and the minute it starts she scatters to get under the duvet on my bed. Poor thing. Friday is a different matter. There are no clouds in sight. The sky is a pure beautiful blue with the bright emerald green from the trees decorating it. Everything is so lush. I have never seen trees and shrubs grow so much in such a short time. It just shows how much we need the water and how dry our winter had been.

I spent about three hours walking at the zoo on Thursday and about an hour sitting and having tea and watching the polar bears. It was the most glorious day. I am hoping to be a good example to all of you to get out and about, but I have to admit that I was pretty sore and tired after that!

The bears had been fed and were swimming in the icy cold water area before they left to go into their den. They are so gorgeous and are extremely well cared for. (I am still not sure what I think about zoos).

Besides spending time in the research centre learning how climate change is hampering the ability of these iconic bears to get food, I also found out how the staff at the zoo determine if one of them is ill. They put different coloured sprarkle bits in their food. So Bear A might have green, Bear B red, etc. Then they check their poop. Reminded me of the movie, The Last Emperor of China.

Polar bears are most active in the winter and hibernate during the summer. Churchill, Manitoba, is the Polar Bear Capital of the World. I do not know when they gave that small town on Hudson’s Bay the moniker, but today, if you want to see Polar Bears, you must go out in boats at two specific times of the year – spring and fall. The times are getting later and later as the sea ice gets smaller and smaller and further away from land. The bears have great difficulty getting food. They must fatten up in the winter to live on the fat all during hibernation. Sadly, they are hungry because of fewer and fewer seals. Some bears are catching seals in open water, and in the fall, they are desperately hungry. They come into Churchill and feed on garbage, which causes the citizens to get upset and the bears to be shot. Life is becoming desperately hard for them.

Sad news coming in this morning. One of the four fledglings at San Jose, Luna, has been found dead on the ground following a building collision. Thank you ‘SP’ for alerting me.

As I ready for bed, there is serious concern over the Captiva Osprey nest. Connor from Window to Wildlife posted the following letter. This is one of the nests that ‘H’ monitors and she notes that Darling has had nothing to eat (but perhaps a few scraps) in 75 hours. This is because of the weather. We are hoping for a miracle but are realistically expecting Darling to pass away.

‘H’ reports on Captiva which is a nest she monitors: “6/13 Captiva ospreys:  The stationary tropical wave weather pattern that extends all across south Florida is expected to continue for the next few days, albeit with conditions predicted to be a little less severe in some places.  The two osplets, Ding and Darling, had eaten a meal the evening of 6/10.  Then fishing became impossible due to the stormy weather, not just because of the wind and rain, but due to the effect it had on the water surface and water turbidity.  The evening of 6/12 Edie brought a partial catfish to the nest which was eaten by Ding.  The morning of 6/13, Jack delivered a partial needlefish that was eaten by Ding.  In the afternoon, Edie brought a partial catfish, and that was eaten by Ding.  And, in the evening, Jack delivered a partial sheepshead that Ding ate.  The shortage of food has rekindled Ding’s ultimate dominance over Darling, and Ding wins the battles for the fish.  If enough fish is brought to the nest, Darling will win some of those battles, and Ding may also allow Edie to keep a fish to feed Darling.

In my opinion, if Darling passes, it will have nothing to do with Jack’s injury.  This is about the weather.  It is a prolonged weather event that a young unfed osplet cannot endure.  And, I’m sure this scenario is being played out at many osprey nests all across south Florida that have been impacted by this nearly-stationary tropical wave.

This is exactly the same effect that the Nor’easter had in New Jersey last June.  Certain adverse weather systems simply hang around too long, causing poor fishing that lasts for too many consecutive days…not just one day, or two days, but three days or more.  The end result is the starvation/dehydration deaths of many young ospreys.  In some cases, the prolonged stormy weather may cause the deaths of the adult ospreys as well.  For example, at the Ocean City, NJ nest, where the parents disappeared after the June 2023 storm, intruders took over the nest, and the osplets died in the nest.   

When the weather begins to improve after such a prolonged adverse weather event, and the adult ospreys are able to catch a fish, they must eat at least part of the fish to ensure their own survival, before bringing the remainder of the fish to the nest to feed their young.  Then, the dominant osplet in the nest will eat first.

At Captiva, Edie was providing for her two osplets just fine for three days in Jack’s absence, while we were unaware that he had been injured.  Then the storm hit, and made fishing impossible for an extended period of time.  Now that fishing has started to improve, and both Edie and Jack have been able to bring a few fish to the nest, the eldest osplet, Ding, has first dibs on the food.  If Darling dies, it will not be because of Jack’s injury.  It will be due to the storm, and because s/he happens to be the youngest osplet in the nest.  

By 07:00 on 6/14, Darling will not have eaten for 84 hours.  Pray for enough fish this morning to feed both Ding and Darling.”


6/13, Forsythe osprey nest:  After 10 fish were brought to the nest by Oscar on 6/12, this nest took a nose dive…with no apparent explanation.  At 0822, Oscar delivered a medium-sized headless fish.  Little was not permitted to eat at that meal, and Middle only ate a few bites.  After many hours, Opal decided to go fishing herself, and she returned with a large whole fish at 1530.  That feeding lasted for 40 minutes, and yet Little only ate 4 bites of fish.  He was prevented from eating by both Big and Middle.  We saw Oscar on the perch, but perhaps he wasn’t feeling well.  Little ate pretty well on 6/12, so he is not in immediate danger of starvation.  

6/13 Patuxent: There were six fish brought to the nest by Dad.  Little did not manage to eat at the first meal, but had a nice 12 minute private feeding at the second meal.  Little was not able to make it to Mom’s beak during the next two meals.  Little usually automatically assumes his tuck-and-surrender posture when a fish is delivered to the nest, and he has learned to wait his turn until Big and Middle are full.  But, at meal five, he fell asleep while waiting, lol.  The meal began at 1600, and by 1616 both Big and Middle had dropped back…queue Little…calling Little…where’s Little?…Oh my goodness, he had fallen asleep!  Mom ate some of the fish, and all of a sudden Little woke up at 1621 and said, “Oh, here I come Mommy, save some for me.”  But, there were only two bites of fish that Mom had left to feed her youngest.  Ahh, but Dad wasn’t finished…he delivered a large headless fish at 1822, and Little had a mostly private feed for 23 minutes and ate 145 bites of fish. 

6/14 South Cape May Meadows osprey nest:  We knew that the crow most likely destroyed egg #3 on 6/8, and it pecked at another egg.  One egg hatched on 6/11 which could have been either the first or second egg.  Well…another egg hatched overnight on 6/14!  So, the first baby was from egg #1 at 39 days, and the second baby was from egg #2 at 39 days.  “Now, you two must get along..Ya hear!”  Congratulations to Hera and Zeus!

6/14 Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  The second baby hatched overnight.  Congratulations to Louise and Harvie!  (I do not have any good photos yet) 

6/14 Boathouse osprey nest:  Congratulations to Dory and Skiff on their first baby of the season.  The lil’ one hatched just after 8 a.m.

Gosh, that is a cute little baby, Heidi! Look at those dark eyes.

Thanks so much, ‘H’. We love your reports!

One of my readers said this morning that ‘the Montana nest might bring us the happiness we need this year’. With all the worry about Jack at Captiva with ‘the something’ sticking out of his leg (looks like part of a fishing spear to me), and all the nests that have four chicks, and now Loch Arkaig with the ferocious C2, well. It is going to be nice to sit and watch Iris live out a wonderful summer. She always had the best nest in the country. She would work on it right after she arrived from migration and then stop and make sure it was in tip top shape when she left. Just look at it. Perfect. This is just the best ‘icing on the cake’ for this female. A devoted male after so many years. When did Stanley die? 2014? If you look at the timeline below, you will see that the fledge in 2018 was just a fluke. It has been ten years since Iris had a clutch of chicks that fledged! So this really is a miracle year.

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So far, Finn is delivering on his promise to continue to be a good mate and dad. A huge fish came on the nest for Iris and baby Thursday morning.

The enthusiasm for a big fish for the babe and Iris caused some concern Thursday afternoon. ‘MB’ writes, “Some clumsy/scary looking moments at Iris’ nest 14:50 ish.  A large fish arrives complete with head.  The two adults both seem keen to wrangle it, more interested in the fish than the chick.  The wee chick is trodden on a few times.  It goes down and stays still for a while, and I am holding my breath.  By 15:00 ish the chick is back up and begging and the fish has been taken over to the perch to be sorted out. Hopefully it will arrive back for a more civilised feeding.”

Goodness me. We do not need a nest accident! Iris and Finnegan with that whole fish and wee babe wanting fish!

Finnegan looks down at the wee babe while Iris feeds. Oh, I wish I could see what he is thinking.

‘A’ adores Finn: “Finn does appear young, but if he has never done this before, he sure is a natural dad. He adores Iris and worships this tiny creature in the nest. He watches it with absolute fascination, and spends quite a bit of time on the perch, guarding his family with obvious pride. Adorable. 

You should see the size of the afternoon fish he brought it – it is MASSIVE (timestamp 14:51:15). Iris is happy! She starts to eat, but Finn decides he’s hungry too, so there is a bit of a tug of war over the fish, with the chick rapidly moving out of the way for fear of being squashed by this giant fish. Iris returns to brooding the chick and Finn starts eating the head of the fish. The chick is confused! 

Finn takes the fish to the nest perch and continues eating. And eating. And eating. By 15:32 Iris is getting impatient, and Finn brings the fish back to the nest. He stands beside Iris, looking very proud, until 15:40, when he grabs the fish and brings it around to Iris’s head. She is periodically vocalising at Finn but not getting up for the fish! 

Finn continues eating the fish head, occasionally offering a bite to Iris, who ignores it. Just before 15:43, he feeds a bite to Iris, which she accepts. She finally stands up, and slowly moves around to the fish. It is 15:44 and the chick is hungry. Finn stays on the nest, and the chick is not sure which parent to turn to for food. Iris is eating. Finn is watching his chick from the other side of the nest cup. Finally, around 15:45 Iris starts feeding Bob. The chick is good at this part! It is a voracious little feeder and can hold its head up, and steady, very easily indeed. It is strong and it is healthy. Such a blessing. Iris is giving her baby the smallest pieces – just right for a newborn osplet. She is such an experienced mum – calm and diligent. In fact, this chick seems to have inherited some pretty good genes all around. 

Oh I love this little family. Finn is proving to be a perfect dad, He could not be prouder of his osplet and he adores Iris. I know how many people are just over the moon for Iris. Every girl deserves a Finn in her life! I adore the way he feeds her on the nest. SO sweet. I have never seen a feeding like yesterday’s – yes, a few bites, but not a full eight-minute feeding that involved at least 50 bites of fish. That really was something very special indeed. I love this guy. Not just delivering fish but breakfast in bed for the new mum. He’ll be bringing flowers next! “

A pip in the second egg of Iris and Finnegan has been confirmed Thursday evening. Tears. Get the tissue boxes out!!!!!! The champagne is already gone.

The three babies at Charlo Montana are soooooo tiny.

C2 finally let up and everyone, including Dorcha, got some fish out of the sixth delivery of the day. Did I say that C2 is a big female and behaves like Zoe, the osprey, at Port Lincoln of 2022?

All of the osplets at Field Farm are accounted for!

A flurry of a tandem feeding at Poole Harbour with CJ7 and Blue 022 trying to keep the four osplets alive and healthy. They are doing an incredible job.

Blue 022 is great at feeding. Both adults were rushing to get the four fed as heavy rain was coming into the area.

One surviving Osplet, one deceased by a nest accident, and it looks like a DNH egg at Sandpoint.

Those three are tough little osplets at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. They are still alive!

It is extremely difficult to see how many or how little fish are coming to the Osoyoos nest with its three osplets. Soo and Olsen have had a tough time of it in recent years. The area has been hit with heat bombs and the local lake and river that supply the fish appears not to have enough fish – or it is so warm that they are diving deep – that Olsen cannot catch them.

I noted three feedings on Thursday. At 1034, 1536, and 1656. This is not enough to sustain this family.

If you have the time, the Osoyoos cam is up and running. Any help in establishing how many fish come on this nest would be ever so helpful. Thank you.

It’s hot at the Cowlitz PUD nest. Three osplets. We need lots of fish to come on this nest!

Perhaps it is my imagination but it seems like the fish deliveries at some of the nests with small babies – that need to be fed a little but many times over – are slow.

Waiting for pip/hatch watch at Captain Mac’s Fish House Osprey platform.

Maya keeping her Only Bob dry from the rain at Rutland. What a great Mum she is. So sad she was sick at the beginning of the season. The ringing of the chick is scheduled for June 21.

At the Golden Eagle nest #2, Mum has brought prey in a couple of times on Thursday. Both chicks ate.

Edith P caught the feeding on video.

Golden Eaglet in Bucovina România doing well.

Some images from the nest of Big Red and Arthur and the new fledglings, the Ns.

The two hawklets at Syracuse have both branched and the nest is bare. I am thinking they both might have fledged.

‘H’ is watching for a pip Thursday evening for Dory and Skiff. Will see what she reports in the morning.

Hatch at nest #3 in Finland. (One egg had nest accident and one other egg left to hatch)

One osplet so far at nest #1 in Finland.

Some of you will have read the book Beauty and the Beak. I am sorry to inform you that Beauty has passed away.

Thank you so much for being with us today. There is joy tinged with great sadness. Please take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, posts, images, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, PB, SP, T’, Connor and Window to Wildlife, Patuxent River Park, Forsythe Ospreys, SCMM, All About Birds, Montana Osprey Project, Cornell Bird Lab, Charlo Montana Ospreys, Geemeff, BoPH, Sandpoint Ospreys, MN Landscape Arboretum, Osoyoos, Cowlitz PUD, Pitkin County Open Spaces and Trails, Captain Mac’s Fish House, LRWT, Eagle Club of Estonia, Edith P, Wild Bucovina Association, Cornell RTH, Heidi McGrue, Nesting Bird Life and More, Finnish Osprey Foundation, and Birds of Prey Northwest.

Thursday in Bird World

13 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I had been saving that tiny bottle of champagne for Jackie and Shadow’s hatch, but Iris having a chick after so long, well, it really is a time for celebration! So here’s to Iris and Finnegan and to their new baby! May they all live long and strong lives with lots of fish and no intruders.

So many nests got ignored today because of the happiness for Iris and Finnegan and the hope that we might get a glimpse of this little miracle chick. I will continue to provide the posts by Dr Greene who must be simply over the moon today with excitement.

Finnegan and Iris are very devoted. He has been so protective. I hope he doesn’t forget his other role is Daddy Door Dash with all those fish dinners. Look how proud he is on that perch protecting his new ‘family’.

This baby is strong and hungry and Iris and Finnegan are ready with the fish!

What a gorgeous family. Finnegan feeds Iris and Iris feeds their chick. Gosh, does this remind you of Stanley? Iris must feel like the Queen that she is. Isn’t this wonderful?

The tiniest bites of fish go into the baby’s mouth.

Waking up on their second day of parenthood – Iris and Finnegan and little Miracle baby.

The pair at Charlo Montana are not giving much away but there was a nice pip in an egg on Tuesday.

Welcome, little one!

And now there are two at Charlo!

There are two cute little osplets at the Blackbush Beach Osprey Platform!

All is well for our Little Mini at Field Farm.

At Loch Arkaig, C2 finally allows C1 and C3 to have some food! This female reminds me of Zoe. What do I mean by that? Well, she is full to the top of her crop and more and doesn’t want to share the fish with her two siblings. Someone asked if it is too late for siblicide. No, it is not. The worst behaviour begins during the Reptile phase and should end as the chicks get their feathering. We will wait and see. Louis is an excellent provider and there is has never been any concern that all three would not fledge. C2 just needs to ‘cool her jets’.

C2 reminds me too much of Zoe from Port Lincoln in 2022.

Slow motion video of the owl attack directly on Dorcha last night.

Only Surving Bob, Middle, at Lake Murry is a beautifully plumaged osplet. So big. Thank you Lake Murray for all the efforts to save this one.

CJ7 makes sure her precious Little Mini is being fed. Things are going very well on this nest. No concerns. The osplets are all passing through the Reptile stage and getting their beautiful juvenile feathers.

Growing concerns for Jack, the male at the Captiva Osprey Nest, mate of Edie, who disappeared for several days and returned with an injured leg. Window to Wildlife says if he can be captured they would take him to rehab.

At the Golden Eagle nest 2 in Estonia, the food was not as plentiful on the 12th of June as it was when the fox cub came in. Portions of a crane leg and a small bird. Both eaglets were fed but the second hatch is hungry and calling for food. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better hunting day for the family.

It is a miserable day for the Golden Eagle nest in Bucovina, Romania. We must remember that weather plays a significant role in the lives of our raptors (as well as the songbirds that visit our gardens). Small mammals get shelter and cannot be caught for food. If the weather persists, chicks can die. The nests get damp and the babies can get lung issues and also die. Life can be extremely challenging. Heavy rains are not just going to impact Florida. They have already accounted for the deaths of hundreds of storks in Europe and for some of our wee ospreys. Send good wishes to all nests – and thankfully there is some food on this nest!

Sometimes I fail to mention this nest. It is one that is wonderful to watch – Llyn Clywedog. Dylan is a master fisher and the reservoir is stocked with fish. He loves to bring trout to the nest! Seren Blue 5F is an amazing female. She winters in The Gambia and can be found on the same post year after year.

Three osplets transitioning into the Reptile phase at Cowlitz PUD.

The Great Bay trio are getting their tail feathers and juvenile plumage.

It is remarkable how fast these little ones grow. The surviving two osplets at Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home are doing fantastic. Just look at that plumage.

Triplets at Eschenbach nest have their plumage and are doing fantastic.

The newly hatched chick at Finnish Osprey nest #3 died right after hatch. This was the first hatch for Nuppu and Ahti. Condolences to all.

The trio at the Goitzsche-Wildnis platform in Germany are also doing well, just like Eschenbach.

Big Red heads to the nest to feed the two fledglings at Cornell.

The San Jose chicks still have to fledge and they are getting antsy.

It is mayhem at San Jose!

The three chicks on the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum nest are still alive. It rained Wednesday morning and then it was a humid heat. The babies need food to get hydration. They are often left uncovered in the blazing heat of the MidWest.

Dad was in with a small fish after 1500.

Keo and Keke are taking good care of their surviving hatch, River, at the Sandpoint osprey platform. Roan passed away on Tuesday the 11th due to a nest accident. Condolences to this family for this tragic loss due to wind and then just bloody bad luck. Fingers crossed for this baby. It appears that the remaining egg will not hatch.

Lots of fish deliveries to the Bridge Golf Course osprey platform on Wednesday. Everyone ate well!

The rains that are hitting Florida are at Moorings Park. Both of our fledglings, Tuffy and Ruffie are on the nest, hoping to get a fish dinner. It would appear that one had an early fish and the other found a fish on the nest. Do not ask me which one is which! They are both strong osplets.

Sunnie Day captures the changes in the growth of the trio at Crooked Lake, Iowa.

The weather is now having a huge impact on the Florida nests. ‘PB’ says that Captiva is in for 7″ of rain in two days. This is going to have a very negative impact on that Captiva nest coupled with Jack’s injury. Send them your good wishes!

‘PB’ sent a late video made by Toni Hoover – I took screen captures to show you this amazing little falcon. It took prey from one of the sisters on the grate and jumped and pulled it into the box to eat. This kid is a survivor.

‘H’ reports:

6/12 Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  Congratulations to Louise and her new mate Harvie, on the hatch of their first baby.  There are two more eggs to go.  

6/12 Captiva osprey nest:  The stormy weather continued for the second day.  Fishing for Edie and Jack has been difficult, and Jack has an injured left leg as well.  The last time the 50 and 48-day-old osplets had eaten was the evening of 6/10. Edie was out fishing most of the day when weather permitted.  Jack was not seen all day, until 1634 when he landed in the nest, dropped off a small live pinfish, and he quickly left.  His leg still looked swollen, and the foreign object was still protruding from it.  Edie was out, and the youngsters did not act quickly enough to secure the fish.  The small fish wiggled in between some sticks and disappeared.  It’s too bad they were not able to get a meal from Jack’s efforts.  We had not seen Edie for hours, but finally at 2033 Edie arrived with a partial catfish.  Darling grabbed and mantled the fish, but Darling is not adept at self-feeding.  Ding soon managed to take the fish from Darling, and s/he ate all but the tail.  The rain and wind is expected to persist intermittently for the next several days.  Everyone is hoping that Edie will be able to deliver a fish this morning, and that she will feed Darling.

6/12, Forsythe osprey nest: Oscar delivered 10 fish to the nest, Including 9 fish in the morning, but most of the fish were on the small side.  The first meal was peaceful between the three remaining siblings, and they all ate.  After that, the eldest osplet ‘Big’ ruled the meals, although ‘Middle’ prevented ‘Little’ from eating at times as well.  Little only managed to eat 80 bites of fish at meals two through six.  The seventh fish, brought at 0922 was a large whole fish, and Little managed to eat 96 bites of fish at that meal.  Little did not eat at meal #8.  The ninth fish was delivered at 1032, and Little ate 55 bites of fish.  Ten hours went by without a fish delivery.  Then, Oscar dropped off a headless fish at 2022, and Little was shut out of that meal.  Overall, Little did well today, thanks to the efforts of his dad. 

6/12 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: The first fish of the day at 1009 was a medium sized whole fish.  Twenty minutes into the feeding, Little managed to work his way over to the other side of Mom to be fed, and managed to eat a total of 32 bites at that meal.  The next fish was delivered by Dad at 1214, and was a small whole fish.  Little was not able to make it to the table.  More than five hours passed, and we were worried that Little may not get any more to eat.  Then at 1753, Dad showed up with one of his huge goldfish that provided for a 90 minute feeding.  Little’s first bite of fish was not until 1847.  Little was fed for 30 minutes and he ate 158 bites of fish.  Go Dad!

McEuen Park osprey nest:  All four eggs have hatched, and there are now four little osplets!

We do not have them where I live but there are some breeding pairs of Porchards in the UK that stay.

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Just another horrible way that humankind is destroying habitat for wildlife and especially our feathered friends.

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Thank you to those who offered to watch the Osoyoos Osprey cam! The stream went offline Wednesday morning around 10am. It is now 1623 nest time and it is still down. Keep checking on YouTube!

Thank you for being with me today. What a grand celebration. We wait to see when Iris and Finnegan’s second egg hatches. I hope soon. This first one is strong! Take care all. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, H, PB’, Montana Osprey Project, Geemeff, Montana Osprey Cams, Charlo Montana, Blackish Beach Ospreys, Field Farm, Lake Murray, BoPH, Sunnie Day, Heidi McGrue, Eagle Club of Estonia, Bucovina Wild, Llyn Clywedog, Cowlitz PUD, Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home, Eschenbach, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Goitzsche-Wildnis, Cornell Bird Lab, SK Hideaways, MN Landscape Arboretum, Sandpoint Ospreys, Bridge Golf Club, Moorings Park, The Weather Authority, Toni Hoover and Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Fortis Exshaw, Window to Wildlife, Forsythe Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, McEuen Park, and The Guardian.

Friday in Bird World

7 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Thank you so much for all of your holiday good wishes. I had a wonderful time. It is amazing how just a wee break can revive one’s batteries! ‘The Girls’ survived the 54 hours I was away. Missey and Hugo Yugo did well with the cat sitter, but Calico and Baby Hope did not. They hid. While I am certain that they came out when the individual left, it did take them twenty minutes to show their precious faces when I got home. Six hours later and all is well.

On Tuesday, the skies driving north were churning black. Torrential rain had been predicted, but by the time I got to Hecla Island the sun was coming out. A lone Tundra Swan swam with some Common Goldeneyes in the marshy areas. Eight-five Canada Geese flew in a huge formation overhead while American White Pelicans were fishing while Red-winged Blackbirds flitted around trying to catch – I hope – all of the mosquitoes that I would be complying about later. What an amazing welcome!

83 Canada Geese flying in. They will feed on the grass that you see in the images.

American White Pelicans.

The Red-wing Blackbirds were everywhere. Lots of insects for them to feast on.

Nature is such a healer.

The Girls and I are reading a new book, Wild Service. Why Nature Needs You edited by Nick Hayes & Jon Moses and published by Bloomsbury. The illustrations are stunning woodcuts (Lino?) by Nick Hayes. The author is a member of the Right to Roam Action Group in the UK. While I might not totally embrace some of the politics in the book, I want to read it again quietly after we finish the first ‘go’ and try and absorb more of what the pair are advocating. What did strike me, right at my heart, is the notion that we are stewards of nature and that we must care for it, not exploit it.

Sitting on the rocks or on the porch of the cottage and listening to the waves as the sun set over the horizon, I was struck by some of the ways in which people are so alienated from the natural world. We know that being in the forest, taking walks, or stroking our pets or someone else’s helps our mental and physical well-being. On average, 94% of the population spends their time indoors in front of a screen! This includes children.

There will be more about the book in the coming days, but I want to challenge you to get outside more. I know this is very difficult for some of you, but I suggest you use your creative mind to see how you might get out for half an hour each day. Listen to nature. If you are in a wheelchair, get someone to take you for a walk. It will benefit them, too. If you are in the City, find a safe little spot to sit. Perhaps take a friend or family member. If you have a garden, spending thirty minutes a day 5, days a week, is as beneficial as having a gym membership. All that bending, pulling, and lifting is really good exercise. This challenge includes spending less time in front of your computer watching the birds — yes, you heard that right. I am not saying stop altogether – of course not, but when the weather is good, and you have the opportunity, spend it with nature. (There are far too many articles from various academic and medical sources on the Internet on this topic. To find them search for ‘The benefits of being outside in nature’.)

My second day on the island was full of crashing waves and more birds including another ‘V’ of Canada Geese, more Common Goldeneyes, the Swan, American White Pelicans, a Bald Eagle and, yes, a Grey Wolf running across the road that caused us to stop dead in our tracks.

These are Common Goldeneyes.

The Pelicans fascinated me. It seems that they are a good marker for where fish are located and some of the local fishers pay close attention.

It was hard to say goodbye to the island. The little ducks and the Pelicans became my good friends while sitting on the rocks listening to the roar of the water. It is always good to be away and it is always good to get home!

TWO DAYS UNTIL PIP WATCH AT THE MONTANA OSPREY NEST AT HELLGATE OF IRIS AND FINNEGAN! MARK YOUR CALENDARS. FINGERS CROSSED. THIS COULD BE AN AMAZING SEASON.

Geemeff sent us a real treat. “BBC Springwatch 2024 episode 8 with Osprey hero Roy Dennis – I’ve recorded it for any overseas viewers who can’t access BBC IPlayer:

https://youtu.be/ILLmt5olhHs ©BBC

This is a must-see for anyone remotely interested in Ospreys and Eagles and raptors in general. Roy Dennis is an absolute legend in conservation, and at 80+ years old, is still working. This episode of Springwatch with Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams features an in-depth interview with Roy Dennis. Copyright BBC, but they do allow recordings, like this one, to be made.”

I hope to bring you a few highlights of the week; many through the eyes of those who kept tabs on your favourite nests. I really appreciate the kindness and the help – all of these reports allowed me to have such a nice serene break!

‘B’ was delighted when all of the Cal Falcons fledged! He writes: “All four of Annie and Archie’s chicks have now fledged.  I have been out hiking this morning (Tues), so all my info is from the Cal Falcons FB posts.  It sounds like Sol was the next to go after Eclipse, following Eclipse off the runway when he went for a morning flight (from the time of the post, maybe about 8 or 9 am) and landing near Eclipse on a neighboring building.   Then Aurora was next, perhaps at 11 am or noon, landing near Sol on that same neighboring building (which makes it sound like Sol had stayed in place on that building).  And then Nox (the last to hatch) finished off the morning, flying off the runway perhaps not long after Aurora.  No report yet on where he has landed.  Congrats to Annie and Archie and their fabulous four young ones!!” That is certainly wonderful news.

The third hatch at Patuxent, with the protrusion that had made a hole in the chick’s neck/throat area, was removed from the nest and taken to a wildlife rehabilitation centre on Tuesday. Thanks to all the chatters—our citizen scientists—who monitor these nests so closely and those who alerted Patuxent of the initial concerns. Thank you, Patuxent River Park, for your diligence in caring for your ospreys. We wait to see if Little can be returned.

Little Mini at Field Farm was tucked in under its much larger older siblings Tuesday.

The size difference is the same at Pool Harbour for Little Mini who got a really nice private feeding. My goodness.

Tuffy was hungry!

As of Wednesday night, Middle is still safe in the nest at Lake Murray.

Both Golden Eaglets in Estonia and both of the Imperial Eaglets in RU are still alive. (This is part of a thread that I will continue while I am away).

My goodness. Hartley and Monty have four lively eyases. Just check out how much bigger those girls are than Dad who is trying to feed them! Don’t you love how their eyes look around. What a grand family!

Fledge is coming soon at the nest of the Ns on the Cornell Campus.

Jackie and Shadow never give up hope. We could learn a lot form them and their struggles to have a family in the high mountains of Big Bear Valley.

Smallie has been eating – looks like leftovers from the big siblings, but what the heck? It is food. Perhaps not the best quality but Smallie’s feathers are coming and his crop was somewhat full.

The oldest Golden Eaglet at the Kaljukotkas 2 nest has been attacking, as predicted, the younger sibling and it has an injury. Caution should be exercised if you are watching this nest as obligate siblicide is the norm for Golden Eagles.

Many of you will remember the saga of Golden Eagle Spilve and her chick, Klints, who died of starvation in their nest in Latvia a few years ago. It was a tragedy that struck many people. It appears Spilve did not return to use that nest but has been in the area. She has been caught a couple of times on camera on the nest where she tried to raise Klints alone.

Little Mini still with us Wednesday evening at Field Farm.

We need to send good wishes to Little Minis – both at Field Farm and then also at Poole Harbour. These two are so much smaller than their siblings!

Frederick and Betsy’s two osplets are doing alright despite the size difference. Enough food and the second sibling seems to almost always have a crop.

Still fighting for ‘Top Chick’ at Loch Arkaig.

First hatch at the Minnesota Arboretum Landscape Osprey Platform on Wednesday 5 June. This appears to be egg #3. Egg #1 was left uncovered and it got wet. It would have been 42 days old today with the second being 39. Egg 3 was 36 days.

Three sweet babies at Bridge Golf. Wishing for lots of fish this year.

On Wednesday, ‘B’ wrote and brought us up to speed on two California nests: Cal Falcons and the West End.

“No new fledges since Tuesday noon at the various falcon and eagle (and a few osprey) nests I have watched.  

Cal Falcons had another Q&A session today (Wednesday) at noon on youtube, featuring Bridget Ahern (moon_rabbit_rising), who takes those great photos of the Cal Falcons.  They answered general questions, in addition to the photography questions directed to Bridget.  They report all four fledglings are doing well.  Eclipse (who fledged four days before the others) seems to be doing particularly well, chasing the parents at times and making longer excursions than the others.

One tidbit that I found interesting from Lynn and Sean is that they said that, in the cases of some falcons elsewhere who were taken in for care for specific reasons that were NOT avian flu, antibodies for avian flu were detected in the birds.  Which they took as evidence that some birds have been building resistance to the avian flu without being known to have the flu.

There may not be any fledges at the IWS nests, but there has been some mild drama at West End.  I mentioned when I wrote midday Tues that Treasure and Sterling were preventing Koa from re-entering the nest.  Koa tried again mid afternoon on Tuesday and got very firmly chased off in a big kerfluffel of flapping wings, but once Koa was gone Treasure kept being aggressive to Sterling, to the point that Sterling went into submissive posture and kept his/her distance.  (I suggested last time that the sense was that both T and S were female, but now I am hearing some thinking Sterling could be male.)  Then, late in the afternoon, maybe 5 pm, Koa managed to land in the “basement” of the nest when Akecheta delivered food to the nest, which distracted Treasure and Sterling.  Treasure grabbed the fish and ate nearly all, as Koa watched closely but knew he couldn’t approach without drawing Treasure’s ire.  It is not clear if Koa had eaten at all since fledging early Monday.  As soon as Treasure turned and took a step away, Koa jumped on the remaining fish and ate ravenously.  And then picked up scraps around the nest.  When done, Koa drifted down to a rock adjacent to the basement, keeping his distance from his siblings, seemingly not trusting them to be aggressive again.  Then Thunder flew in with a fish at 8:08, and we were all amazed that Koa flew/leaped up to mantle on the fish.  Treasure was probably still full and didn’t threaten, and Sterling was interested but was not assertive to try for it.  Then just four minutes later, Akecheta flew in with a fish, and Koa grabbed that one, too.  So our boy ate very well late Tuesday.  Some were saying Koa was now the new alpha.  Not clear to me, but he has regained his “right” to be on the nest without aggression from his sibs.

When done with the fish, Koa again drifted down to his rock next to the basement and spent Tuesday night there.  He was quick to get up to the nest for at least some share of the breakfish today (according to reports — I did not see this one), and I saw him getting a good share of an evening fish today.  Koa has more confidence, even if still wary of his sibs, is asserting himself, and is flying very well.  Oh, yes — Koa did a ps right in Treasure’s face in the afternoon.  Like right at point-blank range — Koa’s rear was right on Treasure’s head.  Chatters called it “payback”, but I don’t think they are that scheming.  But it was funny, given Treasure’s past aggression.

Thunder and Sterling both look like they could fledge soon.  Maybe tomorrow.”

The big news on Thursday was the return of Little Bob to Patuxent Nest 1 after a clear check from the wildlife rehabber and a few great meals!

‘A’ sends us news of the Sydney Sea Eagles: “June 4: Our eagles were awake early, with duets and mating in the morning mist– great to hear them. Both were away and brought in a couple of early sticks. The nest now has a good leafy lining. Dad brought in a good-sized fish, headless, just before 11am. Lady was there quickly to take it to eat. Then both were off somewhere – not seen from the river at 12:40pm. They both returned before 4pm, with more sticks and leaves. Then Dad brought another fish, a whiting, again claimed by Lady, while he arranged a few sticks on the nest. When she had finished, she left the rest of the fish on the branch and settled nearby. A busy day with lots of sticks and two fish.”

June 5: A cold, misty morning, with early duets and mating. Dad delivered leftover fish to the nest at 5:22am, which Lady took to eat. He brought in the first stick of the day at 6:52am, then both brought more, placing them just so. They were gone from around 10:30am. We heard that there were two eagles at Burns Bay and that they have been visiting around midday for the past couple of days. Both returned around 4:15pm, with sticks. After a while, with a few soft squonks, Lady bowed forward, inviting mating, with a duet at 4:33pm. Lady then spent time arranging sticks, with Dad chewing in the base to settle leaves and twigs. There was another mating at dusk. Dad brought eight sticks today and Lady also brought eight, with several matings seen.

It is nearing time to turn our attention South and ‘A’ also reminds us of the two wonderful falcons at the Orange scrape: “Speaking of Diamond, she is as I type (it’s nearly 1am on 6 June in southeastern Australia) sleeping on her usual place on the ledge of her scrape. When she turned up at the scrape shortly before 4pm this afternoon (5 June) she had the most MONSTROUS crop. I’m not sure whether that came courtesy of Xavier or whether she did her own hunting this afternoon, but certainly, she is looking happy and healthy. I wonder whether the peaceful life at Orange with the smorgasbord of bird species on the menu has helped Diamond live a long and healthy life. She has gradually laid fewer and fewer eggs as the years progress, so we will see how this season goes. She is a true matriarch of the falcon world. I love that these two not only stay together and maintain their territory throughout the year but actually use their scrape on a daily basis. I wonder how rare that actually is. Cal Falcons springs immediately to mind. I presume there are others and we just don’t see them. I wonder what happens at Collins Street in the ‘off’ season. I must ask Jonathan whether he sees or hears them at the moment. He has not done so over the past six months so they obviously don’t live where they breed. 

Here is the latest post from Cilla at Orange:

As winter has arrived, courtship displays start to ramp up. We have already had two matings (a week earlier than last year) and other activities, such as scrape preparation, prey bringing and pair bonding displays, are also starting to increase in duration and frequency. Here the pair bonding lasted 22 minutes.. Video: https://youtu.be/SEsXle_iMy8“.

And, of course, everyone is getting excited for Iris and Finn: “At Iris’s nest, we must be approaching hatch watch for that first egg, laid on 5 May. I continue to be incredibly worried that there is a second (or technically third) egg laid on 12 May – that gap is HUGE. One hatch only, please! I do not want either Iris or this new partnership to have the stress of more than one osplet. I would prefer a spoiled and well-fed Only Bob here and truly hope this first egg does not hatch. We will know one way or the other within a week. I am nervous for them. 

This morning, Finn arrived as usual to say good morning, this time with empty talons. Iris flew straight off the nest at 05:44:35 to stretch her wings. Finn settled down carefully on the eggs. He has really become a lot more gentle around the eggs – he was very clumsy early on and continually threatened to accidentally trample on the eggs, but now he has worked out that he needs to tread delicately. Iris is back around 06:09. She does not appear to have eaten. I do love the way they chat quietly to each other. Iris really does seem very happy. Let’s hope Finn proves worthy of this very special lady. Finn has gone fishing – we see shots of the river, Finn perched beside the river on a tall pole, then Finn diving and returning wet to his pole but with empty talons. The river appears to be moving fast, and there is a small section of waterfall where the water flows over a rocky outcrop right across the river. This should provide a good fishing area, though when the water is moving this fast and looks this dark, it may be hard to see the fish. (from ‘A’)” NOTE: EGG IS 33 DAYS OLD TODAY. PIP/HATCH WATCH WILL BEGIN ON MONDAY.

At San Jose, the Fab Four are thinking of flying.

Hartley has to break up the food fights that are now constant between the four.

The Forsythe Four are also doing very well. Much better than I expected after the dismal season last year. Fingers crossed.

They should be giving out awards to raptors. Louis would certainly get one for his fishing abilities!

You just gotta love Little Bob at Loch Arkaig.

The Dyfi Trio are doing fantastic.

Aran and Elen are coping well with their three as well. So far, almost all of the nests in the UK are doing well.

Both Golden Eagles at Kaljukotkas 2 are still alive and are getting their juvenile feathers. Is it possible both will survive? We must wait. It would be unusual.

I would really like to see some more big fish come to the MNSA Jay Koolpix Osprey nest.

CJ7 makes sure that Mini Little Bob gets some fish dinner.

Maya with her Big and Only Bob at Manton Bay. She was unwell and nature was kind with just one chick to look after.

What a gorgeous sight. Three healthy storklets! The torrential rains have caused so many nest deaths this season.

And also at Bociany.

In Latvia,

A nest full at Bolewice.

One healthy storklet at Mlade Buky.

On Thursday, the Ns were a little wet at the Red-tail Hawk nest on the Cornell Campus. The average day of fledging at Cornell is 46 days. Keep your eyes open next week.

Concerns for the Osprey nests in the NE.

I also want to share with you the newsletter from Knepp Farm with the trailer for the Wilding movie!

Wilding-movie-in-cinemas-soonDownload

For those following the remaining members of Karl II’s family, Waba continues to travel north but is going through Russia – thanks ‘T’ for that news!

As of Friday morning, Middle is still with us at Lake Murray! S/he is getting so big. Let’s hope the GHO cannot lift this beautiful only surviving osplet.

Thank you so very much for being with me today as we did a brief catch-up on some of the nests we have been monitoring. Looking forward to some more fledges and hatches in the coming week. Take care! See you soon.

Thank you so much to the following individuals who so graciously and generously sent me comments and links for these updates as well as those who created videos, made FB and Chat postings, and, of course, to the streaming cams where I took my screen captures: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, PB, T’, Geemeff and BBC Springwatch, SK Hideaways, Field Farm, BoPH, Heidi McGrue, Lake Murray Ospreys, Eagle Club of Estonia, Cornell RTH, Amersfoort Falcon Cam, LDF, OBX Osprey Cam, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Bridge Golf Club, IWS/Explore, Patuxent River Park, Sea Eagle Cam, Cilla Kinross, Montana Osprey Project, The Woodland Trust, Geemeff, Dyfi Osprey Project, MNSA Jay Koolpix Osprey Cam, LRWT, Kirchzarten Stork Cam DE, Bociany Carne Online, Bocian Czarny Online, Mlade Buky, Diane Lambertson, and Knepp Farms.