18 May 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
We are having another severe weather alert with intense rain, potential hail, and high winds. The ground is absolutely water logged. When I went for my walk today at the nature centre, the trails were partially flooded. Mind you the trees will grow, the grass is green, and potential for fires is low.
Baby Hope – she melts my heart. Her first birthday is coming up on 2 July and this time last year I was so busy trying to coax her Mamma, Calico, to being friendly. It all worked out. Baby Hope is the sweetest thing.
Hugo Yugo is a character. She loves nothing more than to snuggle under my chin and sleep there all night and sometimes during the day if a nap is in store. She is curious to the extreme and her and Missey will be the ones getting into mischief – not Hope or Calico. They are angels.
Hugo Yugo is still very tiny. She is nine months old! She must be finished growing – so nice. I will have a large kitten for years to come!
A wonderful and informative message and a reminder to vote on the New Guy’s name from Dr Erick Greene.
I think Dr Greene is really excited about ‘The New Guy’. Now – tell the truth – we all are, right? Whoever dreamed Iris would have a loving, dutiful, caring mate again? It is exciting! I never wanted Iris to have chicks again because they would starve to death or be predated. This summer just feels so hopeful.
The lovely couple.
It is all about falcons. Cilla Kinross gives us the first look at the feeding at the Montreal scrape.
Waiting for names at Cal Falcons.
One of Annie and Archie’s chicks is very intelligent and lively.
Copy cat. Another decided to venture out, too! Tomorrow all four will be wandering around – just wait and see!
‘A’ loves the Cal Falcons and Annie: “
These nests are such a joy to watch. At Cal Falcons this afternoon (17 May), the mid-afternoon feeding began with the older pair, but finally, our wee lad joined in, and immediately Annie began feeding him. Number three was last to the table, and Annie began feeding him too (I believe the boys to be the two younger chicks, though I could be wrong about number three). She tries to feed three and four exclusively, but four is very close to number one and number two, who sometimes grab bites Annie intends for the youngest. But to the best of her ability, she feeds the younger two, knowing the older pair have already had a fair amount.
She does this at every meal. As a result, the chicks are not in a rush to get to the table and all compete for bites at the same time. Rather, their confidence in mum to feed them is so great that they feel they’ll be okay as long as they get there while food remains. She is giving them the chance at a little self-feeding now, leaving a few scraps on the scrape occasionally for them to pick at, which they do. But effectively, these skills are secondary for falcons, who are not going to be scavengers as juveniles like the eaglets do. They will have to master a particularly difficult and dangerous hunting technique if they are to survive as juveniles, and there’s not really overly much they can learn about that in the nest, is there. “
Monty and Hartley raise some impressive chicks – often quite aggressive. Do you remember Soledad?
At Amersfoort, Smallie was right up at Mum’s beak or a nice feeding. Smallie is getting its feathers and will catch up! Can you see that full crop on that wee little one? Please take heart. Unless something terribly untoward happens, this little baby is going to fledge!
‘H’ reports on Lake Murray: “At 1048 Lucy arrived at the nest with a very small whole fish. Little did not get any.
Kenny brought a large whole fish at 1053. Little tried to position himself to Lucy’s left side away from the sibs, but was beaked. He was intimidated or beaked several times to keep him away from Lucy. At 1130, the fish was gone, the others had moved away, and Little was fed one bite before Lucy ate the tail.
At 1337 Kenny delivered a large whole fish, Little rushed to Lucy and the other chicks stayed back for a while. Little ate 12 bites, before Lucy moved to a new position, which left Little at the back of the pack. The older chicks ate, and they prevented Little from getting up to the line. Little finally worked his way to the other side of Lucy, and he ate the last 3 bites of fish before Lucy ate the tail. Total for Little = 15 bites.
At 1447 Kenny brought in another large whole fish, which looked like the same species as the last fish. Little was positioned on Lucy’s right and the other two chicks to her left, but those two did not seem very hungry. Little was fed almost exclusively during this meal, with a few more bites going to Middle the latter third of of the feeding. And, Big did not try to eat until near the very end, when he/she was behind Lucy, and was fed between Lucy’s legs. Little ate for 28 minutes straight.
Kenny delivered a medium sized whole fish at 1538. All three osplets still had big crops, and none were very hungry. Little had eaten 12 bites of fish by 1542 then he moved away. At 1547 Little returned to the table and had eaten a total of 28 bits of fish, when he was beaked by Big. Then, Middle and Big ate, and Little seemed content to lay down and take a nap. Meal over at 1601.
1719, Kenny brought a half a fish to the nest. None of the osplets rushed to be fed, but they eventually gathered around Lucy. The bossy twins were to Lucy’s left, and Little was to Lucy’s right, and out of our view. Everyone got bites, including Little, as we observed Lucy reaching over to that side with fish bits many times.”
I love the look on Little’s face when he has Mum and the fish all to himself at Lake Murray.
‘H’ reports for Saturday at Lake Murray: “First feeding 0704 to 0714, small whole fish, one bite for Little. Second feeding 0737 to 0740, very small whole fish, one bite for Little. Third feeding 0844 to 0906, medium sized whole fish – Little was positioned to the right rear of Lucy and was fed both from her right side and through her legs. Total of 53 bites for Little.
Returning two year old Ospreys. 5H1 from the very first clutch of CJ7 and Blue 022, the translocated programme at Poole Harbour, was seen in Pool Harbour and now at the Usk Valley in South Wales.
‘H’ spent a lot of time monitoring the nests that are in trouble today and Captiva was one of them. CO8 needed fish! Here is her report: “5/17 – Captiva Osprey Nest: 0726, Jack delivered a very small whole sheepshead, CO7 ate, and prevented CO8 from eating. 1137, Jack brought a small whole pinfish, CO7 ate, and prevented CO8 from eating. 1520, Jack delivered a small whole pinfish, CO7 ate, and prevented CO8 from eating. 1554, Jack brought a small whole pinfish, CO7 ate, and prevented CO8 from eating.
And, then it happened… 1607 Edie went fishing and brought back a whole gafftopsail catfish…enough to feed everyone. CO8 made a beeline to Mom and had a private feeding for 39 minutes! Eat-a-lot, eat-a-lot, crop-drop-crop-drop, eat-a-lot, eat-a-lot, crop-drop-crop-drop, eat-a-lot. At 1647 CO7 decided it was time for CO8 to stop eating, and beaked him (a lot). CO7 was more interested in harassing CO8 at that point than eating. Edie was hungry, and she ate. At 1709 CO7 ate some more, then walked away from Edie at 1718. CO8 then had another 8 minute private feeding, and probably had the biggest crop of his young life. At 1750 Edie found some catfish scraps, and fed them to CO8.”
Thank goodness for a big catfish. CO8 got a nice feeding – which it desperately needed. Just look at that crop on CO7!
There are three and you can finally see them reasonably well at the Patuxent River Part I nest.
Louis is continuing to work on those cot rails at Loch Arkaig. Wonder where he found this? We are two days away from hatch watch at Loch Arkaig.
I wonder if the RAF jets disturb the ospreys? Geemeff says that there were five yesterday instead of the usual two.
We are a day away from hatch watch at the Dyfi Osprey nest of Idris and Telyn.
Four days from hatch at Poole Harbour!
More than a week until we can expect a hatch from Aran and Elen’s eggs at Glaslyn.
Dad brought a really nice fish to Mum and the chicks at Patchogue and proceeded to block the feeding! Gosh, golly. These two are just amazing parents and Dad is still fishing crazy even though he doesn’t have four chicks to feed this year.
Sadly, there are problems at Severna Park. I did not see a male bring fish all day on Friday. The female left the eggs unattended – she has to eat! Where are you Oscar? Are you pulling a Louis? For this nest to be successful – like all of them – the female relies on the male to bring her fish and later to her and the chicks she cares for. Without that, her health would diminish, and she would have to leave the nest. It would be impossible for Olivia to carry on. I hope that she abandons the eggs and has a lovely summer.
I saw a post that said that a car might have hit Oscar. Seriously. How many ospreys have you seen on the pavement? Carrion eaters like eagles, crows, hawks, etc., get killed because they get on the roads, as do geese and ducks crossing the highways, lanes, and boulevards, but Ospreys! Really.
Should we be concerned about the US Osprey population this year? Last year, in the NE United States, only a handful of nests had chicks fledged. The cause was the June storm and the overfishing of the Menhaden. Individuals monitoring nests in Maryland and New Jersey that are not on YouTube inform me that they hope 40% have a single chick fledge. At least 60% of the monitored nests are without eggs or bonded pairs. This is a considerable change. We have seen Barnegat Light fail, and now it looks like Severna will follow suit. Do you know of others?
The ‘Only Bob’ at Carthage is being fed well by its attentive parents.
Little Bob at Venice Golf and Country Club is the only one who has yet to fledge. He is getting good air on Friday and the hovers are improving. Look for a flight soon!
Colonial Beach has its first egg as of Friday 17 May.
At Carova Beach, Betsy and Frederick have two chicks. One is twice as large as the other. The third egg has not hatched. Betsy does stretch to get that little one some fish. Makes me slightly nervous.
The couple at Hammonasset have their third egg on the 17th.
It was a beautiful day at the Bridge Golf Club Osprey platform.
Keke and Leo continue to exchange incubation duties at Sandpoint.
Everything is looking good at Cowlitz PUD including those fine and simple metal fish grates to protect the nest from predation from the local Bald Eagles. I am always grateful for the concern that Cowlitz PUD expressed for their birds and the efforts they made to protect them. Why aren’t we seeing this at other platforms? It was proven to work last year. Simple. Drill a hole in the platform. Insert a metal pole attached to the fish grid. It is that simple.
Port of Ridgefield still looking good.
We are on hatch watch for Green Bay, NH ospreys!
The nest at Oceanside MNSA Osprey nest is so full of human garbage and there are three little ones. One of them is quite tiny. Is anyone watching this nest? And if so, could you please send me news. (Thanks)
The first egg hatched at BUND-Goitzshe on the 16th while the second hatched on the 17th. We wait to see about the third egg.
When tragedy strikes an Osprey nest, does the news spread and there are no takers and it stays abandoned? Certainly I have seen that in a certain area of my province. Then there is the Cape Henlopen State Park platform where tragedy struck two years ago when the Dad was killed, the Mum fought intruding ospreys trying to protect her three feathered babies, to no avail. The chicks starved on the live stream. The couple left and didn’t return. It was all for nothing.
Beaumont and Hope are at the Snow Lane, Newfoundland Osprey platform. No eggs yet. The female that had been at the nest earlier has dispersed.
I wonder how big the Red-tail Hawk nest is at Syracuse? It looks small – what an advantage big Red’s kids have to work their legs on that grid of the light stand. It is like having a private runway!
There is likely to be a shortage of squirrels on the Cornell Campus. Arthur seems intent on covering the nest with them for N1 and N2. The feathers are coming in nicely and the ears are now covered. The eyases are looking out to the larger world. In June they will fly. Hard to believe.
Please, please prevent window strike. For a couple of dollars you can get Crayon Window Markers and reveal the artist you need knew you were. If you are handy you can take a thin strip of wood the width of your window. Drill holes every 5 cm or 2 inches. Run a nylon cord – I have only seen grey and black used – and tie it tight making sure it is the length of your window. Do this for every hole and attach to the outside of your window. This is what they use at our nature centre along with the Feather Friendly window dots. Or you can apply the Feather Friendly window dots. They say they last ten years. Mine are a year old and still fine. Everything goes on the OUTSIDE of the window not the inside. You need a lot of butterfly or hawk decals as the spacing needs to be every 5 cm or 2 inches to prevent strikes.
Do it so this doesn’t happen!
One of the things that we might possibly forget are the food chains that support our bird populations. Without insects, many birds are seeing swift population declines, particularly smaller birds. Without those smaller birds, some of our raptors do not have prey. Their numbers drop. I think you get the picture. Modern agricultural practices are certainly to blame but looking closer to home it is those perfect green gardens, the sprays used on your roses to keep the ‘bugs’ off that kill the small birds. We need to begin to think of our gardens as meadows instead of golf courses. Imagine walking out and picking your own wildflower bouquet for your table. It could happen. For now, encourage people to be pesticide free, please.
Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care! See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, observations, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, PB’, Montana Osprey Cams, Montana Osprey Project, Cilla Kinross, Cal Falcons, Amersfoort Falcons, Lake Murray Ospreys, Birds of Poole Harbour, Window to Wildlife, Patuxent River Park, Geemeff, Dyfi Osprey Project, Poole Harbour Ospreys, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, PSEG, Severna Park, DTC- Carthage Ospreys, VGCCO, Colonial Beach Ospreys, OBX Osprey Cam, Bridge Golf Club Ospreys, Sandpoint Ospreys, Cowlitz PUD, Port of Ridgefield, Cape Henlopen State Park, Syracuse RTH, Cornell RTH, Acadia Wildlife, and The Guardian.