Category Archives: Great Horned Owl

2 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Saturday was a beautiful warm day and no time was wasted inside. My legs still needed a good work out. Is it possible one can get out of shape completely in four or five days? Everyone was happy so it was nice to be at the nature centre. There were five goslings but a host of songbirds in the forest. The 1700 rains have now started! So glad to have been outside earlier.

I am a little ‘upset’ at the garden birds. The European Starlings appear to have taken over the cheesy dog distribution centre to the woe of Mr Crow and family. I didn’t put any more hot dogs out late today. Will wait and see what happens tomorrow. They sure did love the leftover quiche from yesterday – the Starlings, that is. Yesterday at 1730, a Sharp-shinned hawk flew over the little weeping, curved back south and went straight into the trees at the back of the property. I have no idea if it had any luck getting dinner but it was a very focused flight pattern like the raptor had been doing this for some time. Oh, geez. Everyone knows when the babies are hatching.

There were some cute goslings, only five of them and these four found the only puddle big enough to stand in.

For all Dyson fans, here she is. I put out a new nut cylinder and Dyson quickly appears. She leaps form the lilac branches on to the big table feeder and begins getting the tasty nuts. She is doing really well. This iPhone image is not very good. Dyson is moulting and is a little ragged but in a week she will look so nice without that heavy winter coat.

Baby Hope and Hugo Yugo were too tired from playing to pay any attention to Dyson. They have been enjoying all the Starlings hopping around and eating all those cheesy dogs!

‘R’ sends us an article from the Washington Post – . It is what we do, we watch streaming cams and goodness, gracious, it can get pretty rough out there. Osplets beaking the whatever out of one another. Mothers killing their chicks and feeding them to their siblings. Nature is not Disney Land.

‘R’ also reports some concerns about Big at the University of Florida-Gainesville campus. He ponders, “Big appears to have injured her left knee.  Hobbling around the nest.  This seems to be a fairly frequent injury around this time in development!  I think in most cases they heal?  Frustrating nest this year! Wonder if the injuries are related to early attempts to hover/fly?  They are growing so fast their legs may be their “weak” point?”

‘R’ raises a good point. I have not been watching this nest closely as Stella has done a stellar job taking care of her only surviving osplet since losing her mate, Talon, early on after the three chicks hatched. Let us all hope she gets a super mate for 2025 – and that Florida stocks a pond for them. Now wouldn’t that be nice?

The wonderful news is that it looks like two of Annie and Archie’s four eyases have now fledged! Eclipse and Nox.

Pigeons falling from the sky?!

‘B’ sends us an image that a visitor to The Campanile took of Eclipse – he paused long enough to have his picture taken before landing and getting a meal with his siblings. What a fantastic fledgling. None of us have seen this happen before.

You might recall that a few days ago, ‘B’ wondered if nature tree nests were more prone to predation than human-made platform nests. ‘VV’ has been keeping close tabs on a group of ten osprey nests in the NE US for decades. She wrote to me about her observations of the nests she is monitoring. I thought it would be good to share with you – and she gave me permission to do so.

She wrote: “Keep meaning to send this, re query on  your blog, the osprey made vs  man-made nests. Here all osprey-made are in trees w/in copses, and some man-made platforms. Those w/in the trees and growth have not produced clutches down here. The two osprey-made nests I can see made gallant attempts last year and early this year but if they made it to eggs, varmints & probably crows got them. It seems too hard to defend the on-land nests., especially those in the trees.

The successful clutches (from what I can see this  year and extrapolate) are on the boxes made by our local electric company. The two shots below are Nest 9 on my chart. (hard to see but F9 incubating)  I hate them because I can’t see in, but they line the creek heading north. The two clutches I know that survive the April 28-30,2023 storms were both on these styled nests. Nest 9 fledged 2 last year.” Thanks, ‘VV’ for that very informative information.

Nest 9:

Nest 2

Llyn Clywedog is in a beautiful area of forests near a reservoir that is said to be stocked with 45,000 trout annually. Dylan and Seren have their nest there and this year they have three little Bobs. This nest has been subject to goshawk attention and last year one of the chicks was taken when Seren was doing a feeding! The nest is in a tree.

Hoping for luck to hold at Lake Murray tonight for Middle. ‘PB’ reports that there appear to be more lights out tonight under the nest. Send your best, best wishes for dear Middle.

As was sadly predicted, we lost Little Bob at the Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home late Friday night (around 2320). There was simply not enough large fish coming on the nest. The male is new. His name is Arthur. His fishing and understanding of the demands of a nest of triplets will hopefully improve – IF AND ONLY IF – there is enough fish in the area to begin with. Fly high Little Bob. We now must watch and see if there is enough for two on this nest as the osplets begin to really grow.

This quick rescue of osplets from a nest that had been hit by bad weather will make you smile. This is precisely what we want to read!

All babies at MNSA nest had nice crops Saturday morning.

Radford University osplets are doing really well.

Well, Louis isn’t going to let anyone on the Loch Arkaig 2 nest starve. Three fish in less than 24 minutes. My goodness. Some of the US nests would just like to have one of those in a day – the fish are just so much better in size and quality.

Ah, elevenses are always the nicest of breaks. I am sure Dorcha agrees.

Cute Little Bob begging for food at Loch Arkaig. Mum steps in and fills its tank.

Looks like Clark PUD and Port of Ridgefield are destined to have only one chick this year on each nest. Gosh, golly. Those will be blessed little osplets.

Mum had better rest because she knows that there is a hatch happening as I write this at Llyn Brenig in Wales.

There are two little cuties for Aran and Elen at Glaslyn. When Aran goes fishing Sunday morning, there will be a third! That little one is just about out of its shell right after midnight Sunday).

Idris and Telyn’s osprey nest at Dyfi in Wales has three and they are doing well.

Our friend ‘A’ writes, “I blame you entirely for this, but I somehow found myself on the Dyfi livestream today – so much to love about this nest. Idris (Daddy Long Legs, as I believe he is known) is a wonderful provider – the moment there is less than half a large fish on the nest, he heads off for more. And I love that he is happy to feed the chicks himself, even when mum is on the nest. If she is not feeding and he has brought food, he will start feeding the kids. Lovely. 

Also adorable is the youngest chick, who is still white and fluffy and SO cute. There appears to be minimal bonking on this nest, despite there being a couple of mini dinosaurs in the brood, and any bonking there is seems to be between the two elder hatches, who leave the little one alone altogether. Mum is careful to feed the youngest, often beginning a feeding with the little one. All three get along well and snuggle up together – that wind sounds freezing despite the sunshine. 

Oh they are sweet, and I am aware that there are two or three other UK nests that are similar to this one in that there are three well-behaved and well-fed Bobs with experienced parents. And some of those fish are HUGE, even after Idris has eaten his fill of the head end. No wonder it is easier to keep the bonking down. The only bonking I did see was minor and provoked by the second hatch staring down the oldest, who quite obviously had no choice but to remind it of the nest pecking order. Baby Bob does not need reminding – it just ignores everything but the adult with food, and waits with open beak for a parent to reach it, which inevitably it does.”

Idris and Telyn are incredible parents!

‘H’ reports on Patuxent: “6/1 Patuxent – Dad brought six fish to the nest for his family, and most of the fish were a pretty good size.  There were a few meals where Little was prevented from eating by Big, or he was only able to eat a few bites of fish.  Little was able to eat 89 bites of fish at the second meal.  But, Little’s big feast of the day came during the last meal.  Dad brought a large headless fish at 1908, and 30 minutes later Little began a long private feeding that lasted 17 minutes.  Little ate 121 bites of fish at that meal, and at least 272 bites of fish for the day.  Fingers crossed that Dad can keep up his excellent fish deliveries to this nest.”

Dylan and Seren have three Bobs at Llyn Clywedog. Sometimes you can’t see all of them for those wings that are getting longer and longer.

CJ7 makes certain that Mini Little Bob (#4) gets a fish meal – often when the others are full and in a food coma.

The outpouring of love in my ‘inbox’ and in Messenger for Smallie, the tiny Amersfoort falcon, is quite incredible. Concerns grow as the older siblings grab prey on the perch. Will Smallie survive? Perhaps the question is – will someone in Amersfoort ensure that Smallie survives if the oldest ones take all the prey? Do we know?

Smallie looks like he has crop in the images above. ‘PB’ reports that Smallie was busy self-feeding when Mum was feeding one of the older siblings. Bless its heart.

Iris and Finnegan taking turns incubating. If those eggs are viable, we should be looking at pip watch for an egg laid on 5 May around the 11th of June. (Our data form average is 36.5 days but it could be a little longer, up to 38 days).

We have what is believed to be the first hatches in the Finnish Osprey nests at nest #4 on Saturday. It is the nest of Nuppu and Nemo. Welcome little ones.

Three eggs waiting at nest #3.

Babies are fighting at the Imperial Eagle cam in RU.

Tragic news coming out of Border Ospreys this morning.

My friend ‘S’ sent us an article on the havens that we can create to help wildlife not harm them. “We cry habitat loss, but it’s theft, really – no one is so careless as to lose their home. We call it progress, but how dare we? How many people, throughout the planning process, will have thought of or cared about hedgehogs? Or considered any of the other residents, both human and wild? The management company would have conducted an ecology survey, no doubt. But, as is often the case, it was probably done in winter, when the hedgehogs were hibernating. Did any residents other than Choel and me know there were hedgehogs on that estate? Did anyone care? The council paved over the gardens to save money on maintenance. The trees and park were lost because the car parks that replaced them can be a source of income. The residents placed there by the council would not necessarily have known or thought about those habitats, making them so much easier to destroy.”

Birding Tourism benefits everyone. Wonder why more countries do not do this

While some protect, there are others that destroy. Unbelievable. This man destroys more shorebird eggs in an instant.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2024/05/31/egmont-key-state-park-helicopter-landing-birds

Thank you for being with us this morning. Take care! Send positive wishes to all our birds!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post this morning: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, PB, R, S, VV’, The Washington Post, University of Florida-Gainesville, Sharon Pollock, Cal Falcons, VV, LLyn Clywedog, Lake Murray Ospreys, Audubon Centre for Birds of Prey, MNSA, Radford University, The Woodland Trust, Geemeff, Clark PUD, LLyn Brenig, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, Patuxent River Park, BoPH, Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Montana Osprey Project, Finnish Osprey Foundation, The Guardian, TampaBay.com, and Border Ospreys.