4 December 2024
Hello Everyone,
First thing. There is an egg for Ron and Rose at the WRDC nest near Miami in Dade County. 14:34 according to Heidi on Tuesday. Congratulations! Everything looks alright with that egg.

The video: https://youtu.be/sb71R6oInuQ?

In one day, we will celebrate the arrival of Hugo Yugo to our lives. We adopted her on the 5th of December believing that she was a male as we had been told (and requested). The vet would laughingly inform us that we had one of a handful of Ginger Girls. Her name became Hugo Yugo, and it took her nearly nine months to start growing. We would not have given her back for a New York minute.
Wrapped in her blanket, at 11 weeks old, she was all ears. And she was sick. Poor thing. Dr Green quickly put that to rights.

My pal and faithful osprey data collector, Heidi, is worried that I will compromise ‘The Girls’ by bringing Brock into the house. She knows that these four girls are ‘everything’ to me. Brock would need to be ‘caged’ (I have one), and he would need to go to the vet for testing before he could be cleared to come into the house. I do not believe this will ever happen. Brock is too ‘feral’. So, we provide him with high-quality food, water, and 2 warm and safe places to sleep that are dry if he should choose to use them. My Girls are the rocks in my life. They give me the same joy that walking in the forest does. I will do anything and everything to protect them just as if they were my human children.
Hugo Yugo is at the vet’s last year, the morning after we picked her up from her foster family. She was dreadfully ill.

It was terrible. We ached for this little one. A week later, she was still sick, but she was showing some signs of improvement. She loved cuddling in a pink baby blanket. I would wrap her tight like a tortilla and place her in the curve of my left arm to stay warm. That is where she still sleeps today, sans a blanket.

All well at the vet’s on the 18th! She is playing and the vet tells us she will survive.

By the 28th of December (23 days later), Hugo Yugo was ruling the cat tree. We never looked back. She continues to be the boss of the house. The respite worker commented today on how HY chased Calico back into the back corner of the conservatory from the living room. This little Ginger is fearless.

At the vet last week still getting into trouble. It is a small sink but Hugo Yugo did grow, finally.

Tuesday was Gifting Tuesday. This year was Calico’s turn the local charity that would get our funds and any other selections related to that institution. Last year, Missey had this privilege. Local wildlife rehab facilities, feral cat groups, nature centres, you name it, were there for the picking. The one that Calico put her paw on first was the choice. It was Wildlife Haven this year! Then, she had to select the ambassador to be adopted. She put her paw on the printout of Gus, the Turkey Vulture! There you go. Looks like a carrion eater is our adoptee this year! It is pretty fun. We had several others this year. Giving Tuesday is great if there is someone or some institution that will double the donations. It can have a huge impact.
Gabby and Beau spent almost all day at the nest on Tuesday. Thinking eggs? Oh, please!

She looks like she is thinking about it or geez, is this Beau? My old eyes are so bad.
‘J’ reports that an owl struck Gabby during the night but she is OK. Oh, these owls!

It is windy at Port Lincoln and the family is waiting for the first fish of the day.


Noon. No fish yet. Looks like a day when we will be wishing the fairy would appear.

Now that I have gotten it out of head that Kasse has the pink ring, here she is with her bright red ring doing some nice wingers.

Well, it is afternoon. Dad is in the man cave, and he appears to not be interested in fishing. Mum is off the nest. I wonder if she has gone to find fish for her and the two osplets.

Mum did bring in that fish. Then the fish fairy came with 6 fish and Dad rounded up the day with two after 4pm! What a day at Port Lincoln.
Royal Cam Dad RLK is home safely and ready to incubate his egg! Oh, isn’t it a relief when they return after foraging?

One of the eagles was seen on Tuesday.

Giliath!

Thunder and Akecheta spent the night at the West End nest and were there in the early morning.

Hey look who is at Fraser Point! Andor and Cruz.


I did not see anyone at the Two Harbours nest of Chase and Cholyn.

It was a gorgeous day at Decorah in Iowa!

One eagle at the NCTC nest and then two. Bella and Scout visit the old nest.https://youtu.be/F6ZwZg36Vtc?

Looks like the Eagles have the Hilton Head nest! Yeah, George and Gracie. https://youtu.be/kQnHDQbI7KM?

But wait a minute! Bailey the GHO is working on the nest after the Eagle leaves. This is not so good! https://youtu.be/sb71R6oInuQ?

In past instances, the GHOs have taken the nest from the eagles. Think Bonnie and Clyde at Farmer Derek’s. They are not cute and fluffy. GHOs are Apex Raptors, Predators of the highest level.
Bonnie and Clyde paid a visit to the Cardinal Land Conservancy nest on Tuesday.


Hawk Mountain migration update. There are some real concerning numbers there and there are some surprises. See if you can find the raptors that gained in numbers and then which one lost the most?

22 year old Red tail Hawk rescued!

‘J’ sends me a note that had me shaking my head: “I told you I had bought Geo Magazine from April 1978 because it had a long article in it about kakapo. It was a harsh read. Starts with quotes from people in the 1800s – I now know the best way to cook a kakapo, you never know when that might come in handy. When the author went over there were only 12 (!!!) kakapo left as far as anyone knew, and all of them were males. There were 24 humans watching and protecting them 24/7 and basically everyone was waiting for the species to die out. One, a 24 year old student fell down a cliff and died. But after the author came back home he got the call that 30 more kakapo had been found, so at least it ended with a positive note, everyone hoping that at least one of the 30 would be a female.”
Today, people are still working around the clock to care for these amazing birds. As of November 2024, there are 244 kākāpō alive. They are critically endangered. Fun Facts: The population has actually doubled since 2016. The programme to save the Kakapo was started by the New Zealand Government and the Maori tribe, Ngai Tahu. Conservation efforts include artificial insemination, supplementary feeding, and transmitters to help the staff locate the birds for their annual checks.
‘J’ sends us Rita the Eagle’s History Monday:

The visitor to the Achieva Credit Union osprey platform looks down and says, “What the heck is this mess?! And they want me to lay eggs, where?” Thanks, MP for the capture.

Tuesday is always a long day for me. Today was snow and really brisk winds. The roads were terrible. Calico has a project and I had to pick it up at our local photo store – which happened to be about 24 minutes across town on slick roads. I was not impressed with the way our winter is starting. Hopefully I didn’t miss too many events in Bird World!
Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, notes of concern, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Heidi, J, MP’, WRDC, Heidi McGrue, Hugo Yugo and the Anderson Animal Wellness Centre in Winnipeg, NEFL-AEF, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Sharon Dunne, Judy Harrington, IWS/Explore.org, Raptor Resource Project, NCTC, Deb Stecyk, Hilton Head Land Trust, Hawk Mountain, A Place Called Hope, Natural History Museum, Rita the Eagle, Achieva Credit Union


















































































































































































































































































































