Category Archives: Long Island Wildlife

Iris second hatch, Lake Murray Osplet flies when hit by GHO, deaths at Forsythe…Saturday in Bird World

15 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Friday was a really beautiful day. The sky was a clear blue and there was no rain and little wind. The temperature was 24 C. It was a good day to check out the goslings and ducklings at the park later – I went around 1700 and they were coming out of their shady island nests to swim. Even with the sprinkler system, the rain and the heat are causing some algae/pond plant problems.

It was really hard to see the tiny ducklings.

Oh, I adore the little female Wood Ducks.

This Mallard had two surviving ducklings. Many had 12 or 13 and it was hard to tell as the Canada Geese do their ‘daycare thing’ so you might see several geese caring for nearly forty youngsters while the other parents forage.

Five beautiful and tiny little wood ducks.

My garden is lush. The water has caused everything to thrive in a year when I worried as the winter had been so dry. Some of you will recall that there was a peony plant and a climbing rose that were planted on my property in 1902 when the old two-story house was built by Italian rail workers. Both are still alive. The peony is full of buds that will bloom soon and the rose is simply bursting with buds. I coddle it as if it were the most precious thing and I often wonder who lived here and who the woman was who planted the roses and the peonies.

The roses now cover an area of approximately 3 metres by 5 metres. The area is absolutely thick with branches laden with these amazing buds. What a treat! I am already dreaming of what it will be like to sit next to the flowers and sip my tea when they bloom – imagine the scent!!!!!!!

I feel that I am such a bearer of bad news these days. There are so many issues that face our raptors and many of those are playing out around the world. You might recall that there was heavy rain and flooding around the nest of Liberty and Guardian. It was noted that the tree was dead. Today, Sol is dehydrated, and death could be imminent. FORE has tried to get a tree climber but the tree is in too bad of a shape for them to climb. Liberty tried to feed her eaglet but Sol was not interested.

Over the years the citizen scientists, like yourself, observing the nests of all avian species have noted issues with nests. If it isn’t happening (and certainly some places are diligent at inspections), nests should be inspected annually prior to breading season. Dead trees, sadly, should be taken down so that we do not find ourselves in the situation with Liberty and Guardian’s Sol. This might also help with nest collapses when the nests are simply too large and heavy rain would cause them to crash potentially killing eaglets.

Sadly Sol passed away Friday morning. He was 77 days old. Right ready to fledge.

For those concerned for Luna, boots on the ground found her and she is alive and well. What a relief!

At the Fraser Point Nest of Andor and Cruz, Reign has fell off a nest that is collapsing. She was found safe under the nest!

The full report of Ospreys on the Iberian Peninsula for 2023-24 is now available.

Aguila-pescadora-El-Corzo-2024Download

‘EJ’ sent us a news story to put a smile on our faces. We do need a good rescue right now!

Raptor-Resource-Project-Bald-Eagle-and-Bird-of-Prey-CamsDownload

What a beautiful Black stork nest in Poland!

Two juveniles on Tor – those West End fledglings are strong. Thunder and Akecheta got them a lot of high quality food. We see it in their spunk and in their flying. But, oh, to have such open spaces without buildings. They are blessed.

All three West End Eaglets – Koa, Treasure, and Sterling were caught on video soaring together. How lovely.

Idris and Telyn did a great dual feeding for the osplets at the Dyfi nest in Wales. They are looking for names. Need to be unused river and mountain names in Wales. Check it out! Dyfi Osprey Project.

Those Montreal falcons really want to fly! If you are missing the Cal Falcons and San Jose ones, then take a look at these three.

Things have still to settled down at Loch Arkaig. C2 still dominates all the feedings.

Blue 022 gets the fish to the nest for CJ7 to feed the Fab Four.

New dad, Finnegan, is actively involved in every aspect of the family including security, delivering food, feeding Iris, and feeding the chick plus being support. What a guy. So thankful you came along, Finnegan. This is an amazing story unfolding on the nest Iris now shares with you.

Good night, Iris.

‘A’ alerts us to the second hatch. Iris didn’t get much sleep!

“Darling Finn was in with a late fish last night (14 June) at 18:53:45. It’s a nice size and appears whole. When Iris stands up to claim it, we can see the second tiny head in the nest. It is still very tired from the hatch, and only wakes up because Big Bob disturbed it by standing up, getting ready to be fed. Big Bob is gigantic already, so this second hatch is going to need to be a strong-minded chick. Iris begins eating while Finn checks out his offspring. 

Finn stands and watches Iris feeding Big Bob, who is a great little eater. After a couple of minutes, he flies to the perch while Iris continues feeding. By 19:09 Big Bob’s face is covered in fish and he is falling into a food coma. Mum settles down to brood the pair. Finn flies down the nest, then at 19:16 heads off. Dad is back with a stick at 19:30:24 and leaves again immediately. 

Shortly after 19:29, Iris stands and begins alerting. She looks upwards, continuing to alert loudly. Intruder? She calms down relatively quickly but continues to glance upwards and to her left (towards the camera). It is at this point that Finn arrives (from the opposite direction) with the stick, which he nearly brains the chicks with. After he leaves, Iris remains standing and occasionally glances at the same spot again. 

Eventually, after a good rouse and another glance around, Iris goes to settle on the chicks but changes her mind and stays standing, looking around. Around 19:33:40 she has a good flap of her wings. Impressive.At 19:34 she carefully returns to brooding the chicks. At 20:06:30 Finn is back on the perch. He flies off again at 20:12:20.

This morning, Finn arrives on the nest just before 05:18, while it is still dark, to say good morning. He stands beside her. She is her usual very chatty self. He is silent. Having said only yesterday I’d never seen Iris sleeping tucked, she did so quite a bit last night (especially as morning approached). Shortly after 05:25, Finn set off to get breakfast. He returns soon after 06:30 but without a fish. Iris does not sound pleased by this development. 

He does a little busy work on the nest, but when Iris stands up at 06:3424, he immediately flies off. Iris stretches her wings and then flies off the nest herself at 06:34:40. She is back at 06:35:13, so obviously just did a circuit of the car park. Dad is back just before 06:38, again with empty talons. Iris leaves again. Finn is standing on his left leg a lot, which I presume is just resting but I am hoping he has not suffered any injury to the leg. I don’t think so. He wonders whether/how to brood the chicks and looks around for Iris. 

Eventually, shortly after 06:41 Finn settles down to brood the osplets. It appears Iris has taken breakfast into her own talons. Iris is back at 06:56:17. She has no fish. Finn gets up carefully and flies to the perch, allowing Iris to brood the osplets. Iris gets up, moves a large piece of bark, and settles down again. Why? Strange. After a good preen, Finn leaves again around 07:09, hopefully on a fishing expedition. Iris looks to have a good crop still but the chicks need feeding, especially the younger one. 

It is now 07:25 and Finn is not yet back. I do hope this new baby is not too tiny and that it is able to get fed. I also hope that it is a female and the first hatch a male, but I doubt that. This first hatch is precocious, physically and behaviourally. It is strong and a very good eater. I am fearful for the younger osplet, but then always was with the lengthy gap (a full week) between the laying of those two eggs. We will wait and hope.”

An absorbing article about Iris and Finnegan with interviews with Dr Greene and his helper Sharon Leigh-Miles.

‘Thats-a-great-mom-World-famous-osprey-welcomes-a-new-chick-Montana-Public-RadioDownload

‘A’ has finally fallen in love with Ospreys! She writes, “Iris carefully supervised Finn’s first attempt at feeding their chick yesterday morning (14 June) at around 08:55. Initially, he wasn’t very good at it, finding it hard to reach down far enough to put the food into the chick’s beak, but after two or three efforts, he successfully gave the chick a bite. And another. He was good at getting the pieces small enough but leaning down to get the food into the chick’s beak took him a little more practice. But he is learning. Iris standing behind him, watching closely but not interfering, was so sweet. She is happy to teach him how to be a good dad – I’m surprised she is not more protective of the wee one, but she obviously trusts this guy and he has already proven himself to her in many ways. Certainly, he has demonstrated an amazing level of devotion to his family. Let’s hope he remembers that his primary role is away from the nest – fishing for the family and keeping intruders away from the territory. Family time is a bonus. But I do adore how proud he is of Iris and their chick. I wonder how he will manage provisioning for two osplets, Iris and himself. 

By 08:57 Iris was a little concerned that far more fish was going into Finn’s mouth than into the chick’s beak and decided to intervene. When Finn tries to feed the chick a piece that is too large, Iris takes it from his beak and bends down to feed it carefully to the wee one. Finn continues to eat the fish, while Iris feeds the chick saliva several times. He keeps eating. She moves closer, obviously wanting more of this fish to be fed to the chick. (It is large and pretty much whole, so Finn is entitled to eat the head at least. Iris however is concerned only about feeding the chick.) When he turns to feed a piece to the osplet, she takes it from him again and feeds it to the chick. This is repeated several times, with Iris taking food from Finn to feed to the chick. This is SO sweet. They are not so much tandem feeding as team feeding. Iris is clearly teaching Finn about being a great dad. 

Finn now concentrates again on eating for himself, so Iris settles down to brood the chick, though it remains visible at her breast. She reaches out to nibble at the fish Finn is holding down, as he continues to eat beside the nest bowl. He feeds Iris a couple of bites, then continues eating. She continues nibbling at the fish too. When Finn flies to the perch shortly after, he leaves the fish beside Iris. He returns to the nest at 09:33:35 with eyes firmly on the leftover fish. Iris has a lot to say. He nibbles on the fish a little, but soon leaves without removing the remaining fish. 

He is soon back again (10:05), possibly with a stick, although Iris standing up obscures our view. She is very chatty. He is tall, dark and handsome, a man of few words. She settles back down to brood and he simply stands behind her on the nest, protectively. After a couple of minutes, he circles Iris and she stands up to show him his baby (and the hatching second egg, presumably). He looks down into the nest, obviously fascinated as always. She continues to chirp. Having closely examined his progeny, Finn flies to the perch. Iris continues chatting. By 10:19, she is settling down to brood again. Finn remains on the perch. There is still half a large fish (probably a fair bit more) remaining on the nest. “

We still have three chicks at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum! Mum provided good shade for much of the day and the three had some good fish.

Wow, that third hatch at Charlo Montana sure came quickly. Charlie looks on at this three kids and his new mate.

Little Mini had a bit of a crop earlier in the day from this feeding but was shut out later – something that bothered me a bit. It was rather submissive during a late feeding allowing the older Little Bob to lean over it and eat. I am hoping Little Mini was just full.

Only Bob at Sandpoint is a fat bottomed little cutie.

‘MM’ watched the Osoyoos nest for us on Friday and she reports: “It was offline again until about 9:30 this morning so not sure if there were any feedings before then but I have counted 6 so far today with the 6th one still taking place. For the most part they have been very small especially the first three or four. I’m almost certain at the first feeding(9:56 am) mom ate it all while the chicks bonked one another. The fish lasted all of 5 minutes, was so small you could barely see it. At 10:56 and 11:34 am dad delivered small fish again with each chick getting a few bites and mom also definitely wasn’t enough to fill their crops. At 1:26 and 2:51 pm he brought fish that were a little bit bigger but not by much. Again they each got enough to keep hunger at bay but still not seeing bulging crops like at other nests. Number 6 was delivered at 4:12 pm and was still ongoing when I started this email. It was definitely bigger than the others. As the chicks get older hopefully the fish will get bigger because there’s no way those tiny fish will fill up 3 growing chicks and mom has quite the appetite as well 😄 I noticed they are pretty well behaved whilst eating but not so much while there’s no food on the nest.”

The 6th fish of the day and the biggest. Thanks, ‘MM’

Two gorgeous feathered babes on the Patchogue nest!

The little one enjoying some fish on the Cowlitz PUD nest.

It is difficult to see if all the chicks are alright on the Oyster Bay nest because of the greenery.

Two surviving osplets at Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home are fantastic.

Smallie spent the night in the scrape. He is looking very well.

Prey continues to be provided for the Ns at the Cornell nest of Big Red and Arthur. Both fledglings appear to be flying strong.

‘H’ reports:

Dahlgren osprey nest:  Early on 6/14, viewers noticed that the 12-day-old chick was in a deep hole in the nesting, and sitting on a bottom wood slat of the platform nest.  The baby is surrounded by some articles of clothing, perhaps gloves (?), and can’t hardly move.  So far, Helen has been able to feed her baby in that position.  Viewers tried for hours to raise awareness with the nest owners.  Finally this morning on Facebook is the response:  Brigitte Schwurack Top contributor Thank you for your message, the owners of the camera are informed.

6/14, The weather started to clear, and it turned out to be a great day!  Due to poor fishing, the youngest osplet, Darling, had not eaten for over 3.5 days.  At 0917 Edie delivered a whole catfish, and Ding ate. Darling was not able to eat any of that fish.  At 1015 Edie brought another whole catfish and fed Ding.  While that was taking place, Jack arrived with a partial fish.  Ding grabbed Jack’s fish, and Darling was quick to grab Edie’s catfish, and ate his first bites of food for over 87 hours.  At 1024 Edie took the fish from Darling and began to feed him.  Darling ate for about 40 minutes.   At 1259 Edie landed with a partial ladyfish, Darling grabbed and mantled, but Ding took it away.  Ding ate until 1334, then walked away.  There was still a lot of fish left, and Darling self-fed on the ladyfish.  At 1337 Edie brought a whole ladyfish, Darling abandoned the other one, and Edie fed some of the new fish to Ding, but most to Darling. At 1428 Edie fed the remainder of the first ladyfish, mostly to Darling, and some to Ding.  Finally, at 1956 Edie delivered a partial catfish.  She fed Ding, and then Ding did some self-feeding.  Everyone’s prayers had been answered for tons of fish.  Darling had a large crop for most of the day.  We are so very thankful that the weather cleared and Edie and Jack were able to catch fish, and that our dear Darling is still with us!

6/14 Forsythe osprey nest: There are not enough fish being brought to this nest.  It has already undergone brood reduction once.  Mini4 died of siblicide/starvation on 6/11.  There were four fish brought to the nest on 6/14, and none were very large.  Big and Middle were both responsible for preventing Little from eating for the second straight day.  Little passed away overnight…COD siblicide/starvation.  Big also controls when Middle is allowed to eat, and Middle ate a total of 156 bites of fish the entire day.  This may end up being a one-chick nest, where once there were four of the cutest little osplets you had ever seen.

6/14 Fenwick Island osprey nest – Captain Mac’s Fish house:  Congratulations to Johnny and June on the hatch of their first baby at approximately 19:45.

6/14, Patuxent osprey nest:  There were six fish brought to the nest by Dad, and a couple were whoppers!  Everyone had a great day, and Little had several good private feedings.  Remarkably, at meal #5, Little was eating right beside Big…as if they had been best buddies their entire lives!


It was almost daylight, and I thought the osplet had survived another night without being hit by the GHO.  At 0538 C1 was standing up in the nest when she was struck hard by the GHO.  The GHO was not able to take her.  C1 managed to grab the rail sticks with her talons, but had been thrown  off balance, and she eventually fell off the nest.  That nest is very high, and we hoped that she was able to flap and float down to the ground.  Well, she did better than that….  The nest owner saw C1 flying across the lake!

‘J’ sent us an update on Connick, Connie and Clive’s eaglet from 2023.

‘J’ also sent us an update on Chance:

‘RP’ sent us a smile:

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

Thank you to the following for their notes, observations, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, EJ, H, J, MM, PB, RP’, FORE, Vicki Jacques, BVS Girl, Aguila Pesiadora, The Raptor Resource Project, BocianiMyBolewice, IWS/Explore, Dyfi Osprey Project, Friends of Loch Arkaig, Montreal Falcon Cam, Geemeff, BoPH, Montana News, Charlo Montana Osprey Cam (Owl Osprey Project), MN Landscape Arboretum, Field Farm, Sandpoint Ospreys, Osoyoos Osprey Cam, PSEG, Cowlitz PUD, Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home, Amersfoort Peregrine Falcon Cam, Audubon Centre for Birds of Prey, Lake Murray Ospreys, Forsythe, Patuxent River Park, Dahlgren, Fenwick Island, and CBS Sunday Morning.

Monday in Bird World

10 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. (Thoreau, Walden, 58).

The Girls and I are revisiting Thoreau’s Walden – I learn something every time I read this book! Mostly, it cements in me how fortunate we are if we can spend time with the trees, the animals living in the wild, even nature in our own gardens.

I hope that you had a really good weekend and found some time to spend with friends, family, or outside—or all three! We worked in the garden and are sore from the tips of our toes to the top of our heads. The heat and rain have caused everything to grow out of control! So far there has been no rain so it was a good day since everything is drying out. I would love to send this rain to places that are running out of water. It is frightening because there are not only implications for humans but also wildlife.

Wheres-the-Water-CounterPunch.org_Download

Two things to put a smile on your face today. The first comes from ‘T’. Watch ‘the cobra’ attack the Imperial Eagle. Then laugh. (Valid made the video and Rinur posted it).

The second comes from Missey and Hugo Yugo, who adore one another. When Missey lost her best friend Lewis last year, she was the saddest cat. Then Hugo Yugo came into her life and she took over the motherly duties the little ginger cat was longing for. Like Calico and Hope, these two are inseparable.

TWO Great Questions from the InBox:

Question 1. ‘NF’ asks: “Have a question…we had eaglets double fledge 6/7 in Kansas. Do you have any knowledge of that happening before? Many questions about that. Thanks in advance & keep up the good work!!”

Sadly, my data forms are for Ospreys but I could recall instances of eagles fledging close together, but not specifics. Thankfully, Elfruler came through and ‘NF’ sent me their response. I thought some of you might also be wondering. “Hi, Nina, it was fun watching your 2 juveniles take off yesterday!  Yes, there are several records of 2 juveniles fledging on the same day.  In recent years:

Maryland Port Tobacco, 6/4/23, three eaglets fledged on June 4, the first at 6:18, the second shortly after that (cam down, time uncertain), the third accidentally fell at 7:09.

Ohio Avon Lake, 7/7/22, one at about 6:22, the other at about 7:21.

Oklahoma Bartlesville 6/10/22, one at about 15:21, the other at 15:28.

Pittsburg Hays 6/10/22, one at 7:20, the other at 7:50.

Ohio Ashtabula, 6/24/20, one at 6:43, the other at 12:43.

British Columbia Surrey Reserve, 6/28/20, one at 8:15, the other at 10:18.

There are more in my spreadsheets, I’ve just searched the last few years, but from these you can see that it does happen.

Best to you,

-elf”

Question 2. From ‘PB”. “I saw your update on Seaside and #3 passed due to a wind/hail storm…but I watched their in memoriam video of #3 and they showed the storm so how did the little baby pass when under mom? Was it more lack of food?”

Yes, the little one was well protected by Mum. The death was not caused by anything human or by siblicide but was starvation and/or illness caused by a weather-related event. The storm was a mitigating factor in the chick not having enough food and also they get these terrible respiratory illnesses from the cold and damp. We won’t know precisely which it was.

If you missed it, Treasure at the West End nest of Akecheta and Thunder fledged on Saturday. Lady Hawks’ video shows the whole event clearing up many questions. Treasure is on a steep hill and has not been seen eating. Is this a place where the eaglet can get its footing to fly off? More questions than answers. The latest information is that Treasure is on a cliff face near the old nest.

‘B’ reports that Sterling has fledged on Sunday so all three of Akecheta and Thunder’s eaglets this year have taken their first flights.

Hats off to Dylan at Llyn Clywedog – he brought two HUGE trout (along with other fish) to the nest for Seren and chicks on Sunday. My goodness, gracious. Dylan does love his trout and if you don’t know, they stock the Clywedog Reservoir with 45,000 fish annually!

Dr Green just posted the following information as we are now on pip/hatch watch for the first egg at Iris and Finnegan’s nest.

I don’t know about you, but I am sitting on the edge of my chair in anticipation. I never thought Iris would have another devoted mate like Stanley.

Port Lincoln reports that Calypso and his new mate are checking out the Tulsa Platform. Could Mum and Dad be grandparents this year??? Things are beginning to heat up in Australia!

Little Mini right up at the beak for that fish dinner at Field Farm. One determined little osplet. This will certainly help with its survival. Don’t you just love these vivacious fourth hatches? They have to be clever and determined. Remember: It is only about 1 out of 100 fourth hatches that survive. Looks like Field Farm and Poole Harbour are going to be survivors if things continue as they are. Other nests are in trouble.

It rained some more. Each time there was a feeding Little Mini is there. No problems that I can see other than its size. The other three are rather ‘chill’ compared to many nests.

At Poole Harbour, Little Mini is right there. Sadly, Blue 022 has a love for black bin liners. I wish he didn’t bring them to the nest.

Two chicks for the WDNU Tower in 2024.

Two surviving chicks at Seaside.

The trio at the Salt Point Osprey Platform are all thriving. Do you know this nest at Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York? It is the home of Orpheus and Ursula. Here is some information provided by the Lansing Parks and Recreation Department.

“This nest was built by Orpheus in 2013, and with his two mates Ophelia (2013–2022) and Ursula (2022–current), they have reared many healthy fledglings over the years. The nest is ideally located within the Salt Point Natural Area in Lansing, NY, at the confluence of Salmon Creek, a fast-flowing trout stream, and fish-rich Cayuga Lake. Orpheus and his mate continually tend their nest built atop a 55′ dedicated nesting platform with a spectacular 360º view—and protection against marauding great-horned owls. This nest camera is a solar-powered camera operating in one of the cloudiest areas in the USA. After a streak of consecutive overcast or stormy days, the batteries drain and the recording may stop. After a few hours of sunshine, all will return to normal. High winds may also cause noise from the camera housing.”

Here is the link to their streaming cam. These chicks are doing fantastic.

Three at Pitkin County Open Trails and Spaces are doing well. We can just see the tops of their heads!

‘H’ sends in the reports for the nests she is monitoring:

“6/9, Forsythe NJ osprey nest:  This nest has become very unsettled and dangerous.  The nest dynamics continue to evolve for the worse.  The oldest of the four osplets, Big1, has become very aggressive and controlling.  Before today, Little3 was the primary aggressor, and would take out its hunger-frustration on Mini4.  Today, Big1 was beaking all of its siblings.  Every time LIttle3 would beak Mini4, Big1 would beak Little3.  But, several times at each meal, Big1 would beak all of them, including Middle2, so that Big1 would be the only one eating.  Quite often that would set off Middle2, and Middle2 would beak everyone.  There were six meals today.  Middle2 managed to make out okay simply because of its size.  Middle2 was able to position itself further away from Big1 at feedings, and still be able to reach Opal’s beak.  Neither Mini4 nor Little3 had very much to eat yesterday, as Little3 would keep Mini4 from eating, and Big1 would keep Little3 from eating.  Today, I counted fish bites for both Little3 and Mini4.  Mini4 ate a total of 36 bites of fish today, and Little3 ate a total of 17 bites of fish.  There is not enough fish being brought to this nest for three osplets undergoing a growth spurt, much less four osplets.  It’s going to take  A LOT MORE FISH.  This is very sad.”

6/9, Patuxent River Park osprey nest:  It was a good day for this nest.  There were “only” three fish and feedings, but a couple of the meals lasted so long, they should be counted as two meals.  The first fish at 0749 was a large live catfish, and that fish flipped and flopped all over the place.  No one was hurt, and I think the kids were mildly entertained, lol.  That meal lasted for 95 minutes.  Little still does get beaked and intimidated once in a while, but Little has learned to mitigate those occurrences.  S/he simply stays away from Mom in the early phase of a meal, so as not to incur the wrath of Big.  Little waited until about 0830 and then worked his way to the other side of Mom and she began to include her youngest in the feeding.  After a while Little had a bit of a private feeding, and had eaten a total of 80 bites of fish.  When Mom had given up on picking at the catfish skull, Dad moved on over, picked up the skull and pulled off 30 additional bits of meat for Little.  What a cool Dad.  The fish at 1118 was a small headless fish, and the meal lasted 10 minutes.  Big and Middle were not very hungry, and Little ate 55 bites of fish.  The last fish of the day at 1458 was a huge whole fish, that provided for another 95 minute feeding.  Little had a few separate private feedings and ate for a total of 30 minutes. 

Dahlgren osprey nest:  Being first-time parents, the new couple, Helen and Doug, continue to work out some issues with parenting.  There is a learning curve of course, and they are getting better.  Their single osplet is 8 days old, and is looking good…nice and plump!

Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  Louise and her new mate Harvie are expecting their first baby at any time.  Louise laid three eggs, but we’ve never seen three eggs at one time in that deep egg cup.  All the best to them!

South Cape May Meadows osprey nest:  On 6/8 a crow destroyed one egg, and pecked at another.  We believe that there is still at least one viable egg remaining.  From the nature of the contents of the destroyed egg, we believe that egg was definitely not egg #1, and was more likely egg #3 (not positive, though).  Eggs #1 and 2 would be 38 and 35 days on 6/10.  We are hoping for a hatch for Hera and Zeus.

Fenwick Island, Delaware osprey nest, at Captain Mac’s Fish House:  Johnny and June’s first two eggs were destroyed by crows.  Eggs 3 and 4 remain, and we are on pip watch!

Osoyoos osprey nest:  Soo and Ollie’s two little bobs are doing great.  The third egg is 36 days old on 6/10.

McEuen Park osprey nest: They have three little hatchlings that hatched sometime between 6/4 and 6/8, with one egg remaining.  There is no rewind for that cam, so it was difficult to find a view when the parents were not ‘incu-brooding’.

If you were following Chance, the Red-tailed Hawk that went to an eagle’s nest for dinner and got adopted, you might know that it fell from the nest. Chance is near-fledging. Chance was rescued and is in a wildlife facility. This is the latest from the photographer covering the story, Jann Nichols.

‘PB’ writes that Smallie has been seen and photographed – see image below – but there is no confirmation that the eyas has had any food since being returned after its fall.

Big siblings on the grate.

One of the chicks, the eldest, wasn’t looking good to me at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It seems to have rallied a bit. I do wish this Mum would spend less time eating fish and more time feeding her chicks. That is precisely how we lost the chicks last year! Send good energy to this nest!

‘MP’ has been watching and counting. He says, “I counted her eating five bites to one she attempts to give one chick but if they don’t take it immediately she retreats with it and eats it herself. One chick keeps rolling on their back.” MP continues, “The male appears to be bringing bigger fish maybe so she will have enough for her and the chicks? He does stand there and watch which I’ve never seen other males intently watch the feeding. My take is he’s seeing if she feeds them at all. It is hard to watch not knowing if you are watching the makings of mental illness on a nest of innocent babies leading to their death.”

This is the oldest chick that keeps going over. I fear that the babies are dehydrated. Mum leaves them exposed and the little things cannot regulate their temperature. It is very hot at times and they need many feedings, lots of little bites throughout the day to keep them healthy. So very, very sad. We have seen this same behaviour in Hope at the Snow Lane nest consistently. I once queried an old hand at osprey behaviour about mental illness and our discussions wound up around the theme of how chicks learn. We know that they have instincts and we also know that they copy parental behaviour. That is how they learn. We know that some osprey nests are simply better than others. The environment is richer with fish. The parents are more attentive. Did this female as well as Hope come from nests where the female neglected her chicks? or where there was a drought and the chicks suffered? We will never know the answer to that question because the birds are not ringed and we cannot track their history.

Let us hope that this nest has a turn around.

This was earlier.

Later:

Three eggs visible at the nest of Hope and Beau in Newfoundland at Snow Lane.

Two cutie pies at the Sandpoint Osprey platform. Looks like we have one egg that could be a DNH. We wait. These two are only two days old.

Trio at Great Bay doing fantastic, too. Is it my imagination or are the inland nests doing better this year in terms of survival rates? In my data forms, we have regions such as North America, UK, Europe, etc but we do not have North America divided up by regions. That might prove helpful in the future.

Patchogue osplets are doing very well despite the nest being full of garbage – the plague of being a nest in an urban environment.

Three beautiful babies at the Dyfi nest in Wales enjoying a fish dinner in the drizzle.

Three little ones at Bridge Golf being fed. Fingers crossed.

Two eaglets – still – at the Eastern Imperial Eagle nest in RU.

Still seeing two at the Estonian Golden Eagle nest.

Fledge feels eminent at the Cornell RTH nest of the Ns – two hawlets of Big Red and Arthur. Both have been flapping and jumping from one end of the nest to the other. Arthur has been busy bringing in prey close together to try and stop them from flying today.

Oren and Ruth’s two hawklets (one died) are preparing to fledge form their nest at Syracuse University, too.

Cal Falcon fledglings visiting the tower.

Many of you are travelling to see osprey. For the next couple of days I will be including images. Today is from Mobile Bay and tomorrow will be Rutland. ‘L’ had a lovely tour of the Alabama and Florida coasts and sent some images of Ospreys on their platforms and fishing that she saw and took with her phone for us. Thanks, ‘L’.

Some great news coming in late. One of two chicks fathered by 4K at Belvoir Castle near where I lived in the UK has been photographed in the UK on his return as a two-year-old. 4K was the subject of a book, If You Build It, He Will Come. He was also the focal osprey for Sacha Dench’s first round of Flight of the Osprey. Blue 4K is a mature male Osprey from Belvoir Castle, Rutland, hatched in 2013 and satellite-tagged in 2018. I wondered how he had died and Geemeff gave me the following information months ago, “Blue 4K’s tracker showed him in Guinea setting off north, then stopped transmitting. The tracker was fitted in 2018 so was coming to the end of its service anyway, therefore we just expected to see him back at his nest a month or so later. But after weeks went by, it was clear he wouldn’t be returning, and Simon has assumed he died in Guinea when the transmissions stopped. But of course, we don’t know.”

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

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, questions, photographs, comments, videos, articles, tweets, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, L, MP, NF, PB, TU’, Thoreau, CounterPunch, Elfruler, Lady Hawk, Llyn Clywedog Osprey Cam, Montana Osprey Project, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Field Farm, BoPH, WDNU, Seaside Ospresy, Salt Point Ospreys, Pitkin County, Jann Nichols Photography, isamersfoort.pl, MN Landscape Arboretum, Newfoundland Power, Great Bay Ospreys, PSEG, Dyfi Osprey Project, Bridge Golf Club, Imperial Eagle RU, Eagle Club of Estonia, Forsythe Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, Fortis Exshaw, Dahlgren Ospreys, SCMM, McEuen Park, Osoyoos Osprey Cam, and Fenwick Park Ospreys, Cornell RTH Cam, SU-RTH Cam, and Cal Falcon Cam.

Saturday in Bird World

1 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

It is bright and sunny and nearing 1800 on the Canadian Prairies. We had a lovely brunch with the entire family on the deck with warm sunshine blessing all of us. The grandson is on his way back home to Ottawa. Son is heading north to go fishing, and we will be going to check on the eagles at Hecla Island in the coming weeks – not sure when. It was lovely to see everyone. We will have a bit of a break and then the third round – looking forward. Most everyone lives at a distance so these times together are very precious.

The cats have come out of hiding. Well, Hugo Yugo and Missey like company. Calico and Baby Hope don’t. They are all sleeping. Worn out by the excitement! The rain has made the garden really lush. The European Starlings seem to have taken over the area. Mr Crow comes for his cheesy dogs and then they fly in – at least 8 or 10 of them. They have nest in the garden and I think they just don’t want to risk the Crows predating their chicks. Mr Grackle came for a nice bath today and there have been quite a number of House Finches flittering about. No more Baltimore Orioles. The homing bird feeder is up but I have not seen any visitors.

My Girls wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Visiting. One day we did get in quite a nice walk but most of the time it is good food and lots of conversation, catching up. My legs needed to move and it was off this evening early to count the goslings and ducklings at the park. 68 goslings!

Richmond and Rosie had their first hatch on Friday the 31st of May! Yeah. We have all been waiting for our SF Whitley Crane couple on their new light post nest to start their family.

In Montana, Iris and Finnegan are doing well. Gosh, aren’t you getting excited? We might get to see Iris raise a chick. Seriously, I would. be happy if there was only one healthy one. That would not wear her out. The females, as you know, are known to lose 30% of their body weight during incubation and raising chicks. Mind you, Finnegan is one good provider for Rosie. We haven’t had to worry about her. Finnegan believes his first egg was laid on 5 May. That means that we are at 27 days. Hatch watch 10 June.

Continued good thoughts, please, for Lake Murray. I checked and there are no strobes on at the time I am writing at Lake Murray. Oh, goodness. Why?

Mum was on the perch and at 23:01 she flies off and then returns to the nest where she stays with Middle. Did she hear the owl? or was it the woman walking under the nest pulling something – lights? The strobes went on by 2308. Thank goodness.

Beautiful fledglings at Venice Golf Course. With 26 areas to get fish, this couple once again pulled off a nice healthy trio of chicks to fledge.

MNSA trio looking good.

Looking Bleak. Concerns grow for Little at Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home. He has had less than 20 bites of food, some scraps Mum found, on Friday. Not looking good. Be cautious if you are watching this nest. Sadly this baby will probably not make it through the weekend, if that long. Starvation is terrible thing. If only the ospreys had one or two chicks. If only.

Prove me wrong. OR maybe. Put some fish on that nest or near it for this family. Do a Port Lincoln and help out!!!!!!!

We are on fledge watch for Cal Falcons! Can you believe it?

CJ7 and Blue 022 have a nest full – the fourth chick hatched on Friday and they are going to be very, very busy. How many still remember when CJ7 didn’t have a mate and she met Blue 022? They ‘romanced’ all over Poole Harbour! This is wonderful. Send good thoughts to the little one.

We all wish Jack and Diane the very best. They need to go and find fish and get their health back to a good state. The nest has its predator baffles thanks to Tampa Bay Raptor Centre – we wait for another year.

At Boulder, the chick, the Only Bob, is cheeping away for fish and at another time Dad wants Mum to feed him, too.

They are all reptiles with big crops at Radford University. Little Bob looks good today!

The camera at Cowlitz PUD is beyond frustrating. We know there are chicks. Once in awhile you can see a little head. Hope those fish grates prove that are the most reliable predator deterrent (for GHOs and eagles) for our ospreys.

If you use the overhead cam at Cowlitz, you will see that there are three osplets. One is so tiny. I am already worried.

The Only Bob at Clark PUD is one lucky osplet.

Field Farm seems to be holding its own with its trio of hungry beaks.

Fledglings still visiting the Frenchman’s Creek nest for fish.

Great Bay – has three Bobs – and so far, so good. Big Bob is in the reptile state while Little Bob still has fluffy down.

The two chicks at Patchogue are getting their feathers. Gosh, don’t you wonder what Little Mini is up to? I sure hope she survived – certainly deserved to!

The camera at Collins Marsh is almost as bad as what my mind tells me water torture would be. There is at least one little bobblehead (new) on that nest. Why do their heads have to look like an egg on these poor resolution cameras?

Flopping fish at Loch Arkaig. Who cares when you have three Bobs in the nest and they are all hungry for a fish dinner?!

When I say – which I often do – that I wish each osprey nest would have one really healthy chick. This is what I mean. Only Bob at Rutland Water is transitioning out of the Reptile Phase – just look at that beautiful copper plumage on the back of the head – into getting its juvenile plumage. Only Bob is getting the best of the fish, not the skin, as many of the later hatches in dubious nests have to eat. It is understood that some fish are more beneficial and that others and only getting inferior parts of prey (this would also include other raptors) does not provide the high quality nutrition that all need. Maya and Blue 33’s only chick this year has the best of everything. Oh, goodness. We wish this for all the nests, but sadly, many struggle like the Little Bob at Maryland Western Shore.

Can you see Only Bob’s bursting at the seams crop?

At Goitzsche-Wildnis, Dad was feeding Mum. Osplets really growing. They have a Little Bob, too. Fingers crossed for all the ‘Littles’.

Betsy and Frederick’s two osplets appear to be doing alright.

Oh, goodness. There is a lot of flapping and hopping going on at the Cornell RTH nest of Big Red and Arthur. The Ns will fledge this month…too soon.

The strobes were not on when I checked Lake Murray. Hopefully someone will hit the switch or we could lose Middle Bob tonight. I am not saying strobes are 100% effective against predation. I believe the fish grate protectors are. I wish we could all go and make a lot of noise under this nest until such time as Middle Bob migrates!

May’s Ventana Condor Chat.

Monty and Hartley will be giving flying demonstrations to their Fab Four showing them what to expect when they spread their wings and dare to jump off the ledge.

We are on fledge watch at Cal Falcons…did I say that earlier? Look at the difference in plumage between the San Jose chicks and Cal Falcons – there is a week in age difference. Cal Falcons older.

‘J’ writes: “What a surprise when I checked the Cal chicks. They went from fluffy to falcon within two days! Gosh, were they cute in their woollen jackets. I’m keeping Archie in my thoughts, I really want him to be Annie’s forever partner. Did you see this video? It made me laugh so hard. That look: “what?!” You could write many memes for this video, so many expressions on those lovely faces.”

Adult in the scrape with the only falcon chick at Evergy Energy in Kansas.

Lots of prey on the nest of the Russian Imperial Eagles – and still two little fluffy white chicks. They raised two in 2023. Maybe again this year. Abundant prey is the key.

There are two of the most precious little bobbleheads in the Golden Eagle nest in Estonia. Wish for lots and lots of prey. Would love to see these nests be the exception to the norm of the oldest killing the second hatch! Wouldn’t that just warm our hearts from the losses at the osprey nests?

‘H’ reports: “The Captiva osprey family is doing very well.  Jack and Edie have been able to deliver plenty of fish.  Ding is 39 days old, and Darling is 37 days old.”

“Patuxent ospreys:  The osplets were 24, 23, and 20 days of age on 5/31.  At 0535 Dad delivered a ‘whale’ of a fish, that would last three meals.  The older and aggressive siblings actually ‘allowed’ Little to eat.  Little ate 98 bites of fish and had turned away from Mom by the time Dad removed a huge leftover.  Dad returned with the fish at 0922.  Little had a private feeding from 1019 to 1053, and ate 181 bites of fish!  Mom fed the large fish tail portion at 1118 and Little had an additional 30 bites of fish.  There were two additional fish brought to the nest at 1646 and 1721.  Little did not eat at those meals, but he did not seem hungry, and didn’t really try very hard to get to the table.  Little ate at least 309 bites of fish today.”

‘H’ loves Tuffy and Ruffie – and she wanted to add a photo of the two of them today. Thanks, ‘H’.

Just look at that face on our little Tuffy.

‘A’ checks on Smallie for us: “Check out Smallie a few minutes ago (from 11:05:43), when a sister allows him to grab a huge chunk of food from outside the scrape and pull it inside, where he then fights first her, then another sister who joins them, for his share of the food. With one sister holding it down, Smallie is able to self-feed with significant success, and then grabs at the food during a three-way tug of prey. 

My concern is that all three of the sisters are now spending a lot of time outside the scrape, where the food is being delivered. If Smallie joins the scrum out there, he is in danger of falling – the others are probably able to glide to the ground if they fall, with at least two of them looking ready to fledge, with virtually no fluff left. I am worried, though, that if he doesn’t get outside to eat, there won’t be food inside for him. So unless he can grab food from inside the scrape (which he did manage to do this morning), he will have problems. 

At least there is no chance that his sisters will mistake him for a meal – he is way too aggressive for that, and I’m sure at least one of his sisters is fairly wary of him. But he is determined to eat, and I suspect he will find a way to survive no matter what that takes. He is a very brave little falcon. Just adorable.”

Middle is still alive at Lake Murray. Relief. The lights held him off or some larger prey. Thank goodness.

Thank you so very much for being with me today. Please have a wonderful weekend. Spend some time away from the screens worrying – go outside and smell the fresh air and listen to some birds. We hope to see you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, streaming cams, images, and articles that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, J’, Montana Osprey Project, , VGCCO, MNSA, Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home, Cal Falcons, BoPH, Achieva Credit Union, Boulder County, Radford University, Cowlitz PUD, Clark PUD, Field Farm, Frenchman’s Creek, Great Bay Ospreys, PSEG, Collins Marsh, Geemeff, LRWT, Goitzsche-Wildnis, OBX 24/7, Cornell RTH, Ventana Wildlife Condor Chat, SK Hideaways, Evergy Energy, Imperial Eagle Cam RU, the Eagle Club of Estonia, Patuxent River Park, Window to Wildlife, Moorings Park, Amersfoort Falcons.

Friday in Bird World

31 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Oh, it is pitching down rain in Winnipeg. We had such a lovely sunny warm day yesterday. So glad I did not stay inside! The rule should be: Never put anything off. If it is a nice day, get outside and enjoy nature because you never know what is coming tomorrow. The Grackles, the Starlings, and the Crows are still trying to get cheesy dogs regardless. Their babies need to eat! Calico is on the top of the cat tree watching them.

Lake Murray is going all out with the lights to try and keep the GHO from taking the last osplet.

We still have a chick at Lake Murray. I really hope it is the lights and not the fact that the owl is so full form eating Big the other day.

Something to celebrate! World Parrot Day (a day behind, apologies). All the good work by the great folks at Kakapo Recovery have really increased the numbers of these gorgeous green flightless NZ parrots in two decades.

‘B’ sent a link to a great video on Peregrine Falcons with Sean and Lynn. Thanks, ‘B’. Really enjoyed that. We are sharing it with you.

CJ7 removes the last of the eggshell from chick 4 at Poole Harbour at 0113 Friday the 31st of May.

The second egg for Elen and Aran hatched at Glaslyn.

West Des Moines Iowa had two hatches.

First hatch for Mrs O and FKO at Tweed Valley.

Still one osplet at Clark PUD.

There are at least two osplets in the nest at Oyster Bay.

Beautiful Only Bob at Boulder County. Other two eggs presumed non-viable.

Some nice fish on the nest at Radford University Osprey platform. All had crops!

I have not seen Jack on the nest, but I could have mixed him up with Diane. ‘MP’ reports that “Jack is in the nest and has been every day. They are both thin…I don’t know if it is because of age, parasites or lack of food availability or all of them. There’s a new female spending time in nest. It’s the same female that came a month or so ago. Jack wasn’t very hostile to her a month ago either. They both just shooed her away then. It is true though that Jack is looking really bad. He left this day at dusk. Diane is furiously defending her eggs and still on them at night.”

Last year, the St Petersburg area of Florida suffered extreme drought conditions. I have not heard any news this year but it is quite warm. It would be a real shame for these eggs to hatch. These parents need some fish. We now that ospreys often have trouble with other raptors stealing their fish, too. Send them good thoughts.

Big Red and Arthur’s two hawklets are entering the month of June when they will fledge. They are learning about stealing prey and self-feeding under the watchful eye of Mum and Dad. When they fledge, Arthur and Big Red will take turns teaching them to hunt.

At Amersfoort Falcon scrape, Smallie has a nice crop. Thanks ‘PB’ for the image.

Louis has been delivering some very fine trout to Dorcha and the trio.

Cara, Yellow XKT, has a new mate, AKE, at the Janakkala nest in Finland this year. Her former mate Red CCL did not return from migration. The couple have three eggs laid between 5 May and 10 May.

An Osprey on the nest, but no eggs at Paltamo.

Very lonely nest at YLLÄSLOMPOLO.

Three beautiful eggs at Muonio.

So hard to see those babies at the Bridge Golf Club. So many couples this year opted for very deep egg cups.

I am so happy that Blue NCO has a new partner – young and enthusiastic! I was so afraid she was going to lose her beautiful nest at Loch of the Lowes but it appears that just might not be the case! (Video below)

Keep sending good positive energy to Lake Murray. Let us hope that this only surviving osplet gets so fat it can hardly fly – that would put that GHO off, too!!!!!!

There are three at Cowlitz PUD. Electra gave us a good look today.

Two fledglings – each with a nice fish – at the Venice Golf and Country Club.

Still two babies at the Imperial Eagle cam in RU.

‘H’ reports on Patuxent – all other nests doing great so how did they do? “5/30 Patuxent Nest-1:  The ages of the osplets were 24, 23, and 20 days.  There were 8 feedings from 5 fish.  A few of the fish were quite big, and Dad would remove a large leftover, and return later with a large fish tail.  Fish deliveries close together really helped little to be fed while the older siblings were still full.  And the very large fish were very helpful, as Little was fed after Big and Middle were sated.  One of the largest fish of the day was a huge headless fish delivered at 1745.  Little was able to eat for 13 minutes and ate 80 bites of fish.  Dad removed a large leftover, returned at 1933 with the fish tail, and Little ate 35 bites at that feeding.  Little ate at least 206 bites of fish today.  Go Dad!  Go Little!”

‘A’ brings us reports from ‘Down Under’: “At Olympic Park, the cold wet weather may have reminded Dad and Lady that spring is still a long way off. But no, apparently not. Things are instead heating up. I am giving you three days of reports because of the amount of nest-related activity now occurring. 

May 29: The eagles shared an early duet and matings – then off. Dad was back with the first stick around 7am. At 8:33am, Dad returned with a headless bream, which he left on the nest. Lady brought another bream herself at 8:50am but didn’t eat. Dad returned and ate one of the fish, then left at 8:12am, so one fish was still on the nest. Both brought in a few sticks and leafy branches, then flew off. Dad returned at 12:14 and sat for ages near the nest. He finally left at 14:21. He returned with a stick at 15:37 and took the remaining fish, eating on the branch. Where has Lady been since just after 11am? Dad returned the fish to the nest after a while. Then, there was a report of Lady near Ironbark Roost, soon returning to the nest beside Dad at 15:53. She still didn’t eat, and they duetted and mated. She appeared to have eaten elsewhere? Dad finally ate the second fish himself. He brought in a late stick just before 5pm and they moved things around on the nest, then settled nearby.

May 30: Both eagles were near the nest last night. They were awake early, and both brought in sticks and leaves. Before 9am they had brought eight deliveries. More sticks were brought in after a while, and they mated at 10:16am. Dad brought in half a large mullet at 12:40pm, which Lady claimed and ate shortly after. A few more sticks were brought, then both were away from 1:30pm. They returned just before 5pm with a couple of sticks, then shared a duet and mating at around 5:15pm, before settling close by for the night.

May 31: There was camera work being done on the nest cam in the morning. Our eagles were awake very early, with a clumsy mating attempt, but had more success a little while later, at 6:22am. Dad brought a couple of early sticks, then a headless fish at 7:32am. The cameras were not streaming then but Lady did not seem to get the chance to eat it. One eagle was spotted at Goat Island at 10:27am. The eagles were away all day, with one returning to the nest at 17:22. At dark though, it seemed only one eagle was home – and fish was still on the nest.”

‘A’ also reports on Smallie: “Smallie got some food at this morning’s early feedings, leaning out of the scrape for some bites too at one point. Then, when a parent brought food around 10:10 Smallie was competing for bites but eventually ended up jumping out of the scrape, where around 10:14 he is either being fed or is self-feeding or both. Certainly, he has had a relatively good morning, with quite a decent amount of food. When he’d had what was on offer outside, he jumped straight back into the scrape without difficulty. 

So far, I have not seen any of his siblings leave the scrape, while our wee Smallie is jumping in and out at will now. I am hoping this will represent a turning point for his feeding – if he does what he did this morning again, he may get a day or two before his siblings join him out there. At least one of the floofs (the oldest) is looking oh so ready to fledge, with virtually all her fluff gone and vigorous wingercising all over the scrape, which nearly knocks her fellow eyases off their feet at times in that restricted area. How lucky are the chicks at Cal Falcons, with unlimited room to flap and run? 

Mum is definitely not ignoring Smallie or refusing to feed him, as some chatters continue to suggest. She fed him while he was in the doorway of the scrape this morning, and then later on fed him outside the scrape in something of a private feeding (see above). Obviously, it is flat enough outside for mum to prepare food and feed the chicks from there, and Smallie had no problems out there both being fed and self-feeding. So I am surprised that the others are not yet exploring beyond that doorway. Still, it is a temporary advantage Smallie may be able to take advantage of today. “

Thank you so much for being with us today. We hope that your week has been a good one and that you will have some time to get outside over the weekend and listen, we hope, to some songbirds. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, letters, posts, images, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog this morning: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, MP, PB’, Lake Murray Ospreys, Kakapo Recovery, Cal Falcons, BoPH, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Tweed Valley, Clark PUD, PSEG, Boulder County, Radford University, Achieva Credit Union, Cornell RTH, Amersfoort Falcons, Geemeff, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Bridge Golf Club Ospreys, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Cowlitz PUD, VGCCO, Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Patuxent River Park, and Sydney Sea Eagle Cam.

Thursday in Bird World

30 May 2024

Hello Everyone,

Today’s posting is very short. I got to spend all day Wednesday with my grandson, Zak. It was just marvellous – way too long since we connected. Oh, he has grown into such a lovely young man. (We seem to be having a big spontaneous family reunion!) We spent a lot of time walking the Chickadee Trail at the provincial park near where I live. Of course, I was busy telling him how the birds would land on your hand to take seed. I don’t think he believed me. The foliage is all out, and the birds have enough natural food. They don’t need birdseed. We could hear them and saw one while getting eaten by mosquitoes. Still, what a great day with blue sky and sun.

It is that time of year. Graduations, weddings, birthdays and just general family and friend get togethers. Please do not use balloons to mark your property, to give to children, or to decorate. They are absolutely deadly for our wildlife and, like fireworks, there is no need for them. There are many wildlife-friendly environmentally friendly options.

This albatross was lucky.

Agreement-on-the-Conservation-of-Albatrosses-and-Petrels-A-Black-browed-Albatross-survives-ingestiDownload

The OntarioSPCA says: “Balloons are also hazardous to wildlife, because balloons can float into their habitat as well. When wildlife is scavenging for food, balloons (especially Mylar) can resemble other food sources, such as fruits, berries or bright flowers. Rodents and rabbits can be browsing for dandelions or greenery and consume bits of balloon wrapped up in their regular food source and eat it accidentally. The string or ribbon tied on a balloon also presents a risk to wildlife. An animal can get its legs or wings caught, essentially trapping the animal and making it unable to get back to its nest or safe place. Sometimes we need to make sacrifices and change our behaviour in order to protect companion animals and wildlife. While you enjoy summer celebrations, remember to use balloons indoors and never release balloons outside to keep critters safe.”

Help our wildlife by educating your friends and neighbours. They will thank you as do we!

 I got a tip off from ‘MP’ and I will be keeping an eye on the MNSA Osprey nest with its trio. If you are watching this nest, please send me notes on any feedings that you see, etc. Always helpful.

Much concern for the third hatch at Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home. The little one slipped in and got quite a bit of fish earlier but did not get up to the beak after the two big siblings ate an evening fish despite fish being left. I was a little bewildered. We will see if this Little Bob makes it.

The earlier feed. Big ones ate. Little one to the right of Mum eating. Got much fish, thankfully.

Shut out of this feeding.

CJ7 got fed up with that black bin bag on the nest at Poole Harbour. During a feeding she took it off the nest! Yeah!

As I head to bed, the fourth egg at Poole Harbour for CJ7 and Blue 022 has a little egg tooth pecking away. It looks like there will be four of them! My goodness.

First hatch at The Bridge Golf Course on Wednesday 29 May.

I am also keeping a wee bit of an eye on Radford University’s trio for any mischief.

At Loch Arkaig, Dorcha is very careful to make sure that Little Bob gets enough fish!

Telyn is doing the best she can with three little ones and the Welsh rain.

We are on hatch watch at Cowlitz PUD for the third egg. Electra has been doing a gallant job keeping the two little bobbleheads on the nest happy. Let us hope those metal grids hold for another year.

There is a cute little chick at the Port of Ridgefield. You can just barely see it because it still has its egg tooth. One egg was broken and I believe the other to be non-viable. But we wait to see.

Outer Banks doing alright.

Hard to tell if Balgavies Loch has one or two osplets but there is definitely one!

‘H’ reports:

“5/30 Audubon Boathouse osprey nest:  Dory quickly flew off the nest at approximately 02:30, and a GHO landed on the nest.  After a minute or so, Dory dive-bombed the GHO.  Dory and Skiff’s only chick was predated by a GHO last July.

5/29 Patuxent-I osprey nest:  Things were looking rather bleak for Little.  Little was shut out of the first two meals, and was only able to eat 16 bites of fish at the third meal.  Then at 1833 Dad arrived with a very large headless goldfish.  Little stayed tucked and did not even attempt to approach the feeding line for 45 minutes.  Big and Middle were finished eating, Dad had arrived back in the nest, and Mom walked away from the fish. Little was slow to go to Mom, and we feared that Dad was getting ready to remove the large leftover fish.  Little made his way over to Mom, and she got the message.  At 1930 Mom picked up the fish again and fed Little!  At that point our view was blocked by Dad.  At 1942 we could see Little lie down.  Was the fish all gone, or did Little stop eating voluntarily?  We waited…all of us waiting to see the size of Little’s crop.  Finally, Little stood and we saw that he had a huge crop, yay!  Dad removed the large leftover piece of fish from the nest.  At 2044 Dad returned with a small fish tail and Mom fed Big and Middle.

5/29 Forsythe osprey nest:  This family is doing well…Oscar is providing plenty of fish, and Opal continues to impress with her feedings, ensuring that all four of the osplets are fed.  There is some bonking, but so far it does not seem to be during meals.”

“5/29 Captiva ospreys – All was good for this family, and Edie delivered two of the eight fish brought to the nest.  Darling and Ding were practicing some wingers, and Ding even threw in a couple little hops!”

‘PB’ wrote with questions and observations about the Achieva osprey nest. Diane has had to leave the eggs to go and get food for herself. The first egg of the second clutch was (sadly) laid on the 30th of April. Jack has not been seen for some time. Is he MIA? is he no longer with us? Hard to say. But it was very late for a second round of osplets in an area that had drought last year and is very hot now. I am thrilled for Diane that these eggs will not hatch. I hope the Crow will come and get them.

‘J’ writes that the second egg at the Russian Imperial eagle nest has hatched. We have had two eaglets survive due to lots of prey deliveries. We wait and see.

Keeping an eye on Smallie. Some worried he would be lunch for an older sibling. Should not happen! ‘A’ writes: “I think the parents will return to feed Smallie, and I’m looking forward to a couple of those giant sisters fledging and giving him a chance at the food. He is so determined, and works so hard on those leftovers. He is getting some quality food from some of them – it just takes him a long time. But at other times, he’s literally eating feathers and bones. My hope lies in his aggressive determination when it comes to food. I think he will beg loudly and continuously for food, and the parents will feed him. I am hopeful of that, though they do seem to be having problems feeding these four at the moment.”

The single eyas at Evergy Energy in Kansas is doing well.

I haven’t been lucky checking on Larry’s eyases at Alcatraz. They are never in view!

Monty and Hartley raise very energetic and sometimes wonderfully aggressive little eyases. Think Soledad! Check out the four this year.

Have you been watching the falcon scrap in Kansas City called Shook? Oh, those three are cuties. Link to streaming cam below.

https://www.youtube.com/live/grylXMT82Yc?si=FT5YaP8EyHUaGlZ2

Oh, no! Annie and Archie’s chicks are thinking about flying.

Someone started a rumour that Gigi at the ND-LEEF nest is now missing along with Dad. It is not true. She is doing everything – security, hunting for the babies, feeding, and caring. You might not see her on the nest all the time because she has to be both Mum and Dad and – hunting is not easy! Gigi has fish on the nest, too, for the eagles to peck at and self-feed. Gigi is doing a good job as a single Mum.

The middle osplet at Lake Murray is still with us!

Thank you so much for being with us today. Please feel free to report any news or concerns with the osprey nests. It is always appreciated. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, comments, videos, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, H, J, MP, PB’, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, Ontario SPCA, MNSA Jay Koolpicks Osprey Cam, Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home, BoPH, Bridge Golf Course, Radford University, Achieva Credit Union, Superbeaks, Forsythe Ospreys, Audubon Boathouse, Patuxent River Park, Window to Wildlife, Russian Imperial Eagle Cam, Geemeff, Dyfi Osprey Project, Cowlitz PUD, Port of Ridgefield, OBX Osprey Cam, Balgavies Loch, Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Evergy Energy, ParksConservancy, SK Hideaways, Shook Falcon Cam, Lake Murray Ospreys, and ND-LEEF.

Tuesday in Bird World

28 May 2024

Good Morning All,

I apologise for being late with the Monday posting.

At Lake Murray, Mum came down from her perch to sleep with her only surviving chick. Did she hear the GHO. Oh, if this chick can only put on some good weight and if the beams from the strobes were the same as they were Saturday night, Middle might stand a chance. (Note: Little was taken the first night and it appears that Big was taken Sunday night.)

Baby was safe this morning. Oh, please, let this nest keep one!

As we recover from the second GHO predation at Lake Murray, we must – where possible – advise the osprey and eagle nests of the success of the Cowlitz PUD experiment with the metal fish grids. I keep talking about the economical cost. Two fish grids with a welded rod attached to opposite sides of an Osprey platform. That is all you need! It works. A baffle at the base of the pole for raccoons would always sweeten the deal. If you know of a nest that suffers predation from other raptors, please advise them. You can feel free to copy this. They can contact Cowlitz PUD and they will happily tell them how they did it. We need to be proactive. No sense osprey parents working hard to fledge chicks only to fatten them up for owls and eagles who can find other meals.

‘B’ wrote with a very good question. I want to go through my files and put my ‘thinking cap’ on with ‘H’. It is not a topic that we have put into our data forms which are related to ’causes of death in ospreys’ and, specifically, siblicide, but it is worthy of some good notes and someone might be working on this research and I am unaware.

I wonder if there is a statistical difference in predation from osprey nests on platforms that humans have installed specifically for them, as opposed to predation from nests on natural sites that the ospreys have selected?  (That is, are the ospreys somehow better able to select a site from their own choices among natural sites than when they receive implicit encouragement to use a site selected by humans?  Have the ospreys built up some sort of knowledge from experience and historical patterns?)

I have not seen a difference.  In fact, if I think of overall predation by other raptors for the past three years, it ‘seems’ higher on natural nests in the UK and Finland than on platoforms in the US – the deaths there were mostly caused by weather related events or eggs that DNH.  The major predator in the UK and Europe appears to be the goshawk that lives in the nearby forests.  These nests are not in urban areas as a rule like many are in North America.

A goshawk came and took one of the osprey chicks at Llyn Clywedog right when Seren was feeding them in 2023!  

This is a comment by John Williams who cares for these ospreys: ‘This blog was never going to be easy to write, but yesterday at just before 16:30 a goshawk attacked the nest and took one of our young ospreys. It was blue 8B1, the attack was very quick and out of the blue. Both juveniles and Seren 5F was on the nest eating the fish when it happened. All distracted by the food their guard was down. You could see Seren 5F looking down to the ground as if she could see him down there.’ (I have placed a file at the end of this, the entire sad report by John Williams. I was glad to see him refer to the birds as ‘family’ because that is, of course, how ‘H’ and I feel about those we monitor).

A young goshawk took a female chick that had just been ringed at Kielder Forest in 2023 from the nest of Mr and Mrs UV. The couple are raising chicks again this season on that very nest.

Goshawks also attack ospreys in Latvia and in one nest in particular the male has failed to attract a new mate because of this. The rumour, this great sadness of chicks taken, must have spread. It was the nest of Theo and Vita.

The new fledgling, Sacha, named after Sacha Dench and The Flight of the Osprey, was attacked by a goshawk at Tweed Valley. To my knowledge, the ospreys are still breeding there.

CJ7 and Blue 022 are still using their nest in Poole Harbour despite the goshawk taking their fledgling H52 on 5 August 2022.

In the US, people will remember Steve and Rachel and the attacks on their nest. Rachel did not return from migration and Steve and his new mate, Callie, refuse to use the on-camera Hog Island nest despite restoring it and mating and having fish gifts.  “Last year, the rangers posted a photo of a very remote nest on Hog Island that they believe was used by Steve and Callie (H)”. ‘H’ also adds, “Dory and Skiff had Skipper that was predated by an owl in July 2023, but they did not change nest sites.  The primary nest that I know of is Hog Island.”

There was a spate of killings in Finland and I do wonder if some of the nests without families this year are those. I would have to do some more research and check for certain.  

Della and Warren have their first hatch of the 2024 season at Mispillion Harbour.

There is the first hatch at Clark PUD.

Olive and Oscar’s little chick at The Port of Ridgefield is peeking up – look under Mum’s fluffies -. So cute. This nest will be getting lots of predator protection for the 2025 nesting season.

Cutie Pie baby at Boulder County.

And another one at Cowlitz. Let us hope those fish grates hold this year against predating raptors in the area like they did last year.

There is a hatch at Moraine State Park on Monday.

Idris and Telyn are celebrating the hatch of their third chick. It is the 15th year for Ospreys at Dyfi in Wales.

All-Three-Chicks-Hatch-Without-Delay-Dyfi-Osprey-ProjectDownload

There are now three for CJ7 and Blue 022. CJ7 is making valiant efforts to get that little one some fish.

Beautiful Dorcha is feeding her three chicks. Louis keeps that pantry full despite in climate weather.

Louis delivered six fish on Monday. SIX large fish!!

And there is the first hatch for Elen and Aran!

The three osplets at Smallwood State Park in Maryland are doing very well. Like Manton Bay they are right on the water and I hope it is full of fish!

The three at Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home are getting a little rowdy, especially the two older ones. Arthur needs to being in many more large fish – if they are even available, maybe not. Or lots and lots of fish deliveries very close together! Fingers crossed for this little one.

Patchogue Nest is so full of garbage you can hardly see the chicks.

Radford University has two babies. Here is the link to their camera in Virginia.

There are four osplets at Field Farm.

At the Loch of the Lowes, Blue NCO lost her chance for a family when Laddie was killed/died. She had two suitors – a Pale Male and a Dark Male. Now Mrs G’s (Glaslyn matriarch did not return in 2023 from migration) granddaughter 7C1 has been battling with Blue NCO for the nest and she was on the nest with the Dark Male on Monday. It is not going to be nice this nest attempted take over.

Archie is working over time to keep his four babies fed!

The trio from the Denton Homes nest are doing very well at SOAR. As well as can be expected when they are being raised in care. Safe, well fed, nice vet care.

Across Europe firefighters work tirelessly to save the lives of storks – whether it is fishing line or floods or just abandonment.

Other ordinary individuals adopt storks and feed them. Makes my heart warm up!

Bety and Bukacek had only one hatch out of two eggs at Mlade Buky this season.

Iris and Finnegan hoping for a family.

The fledglings still visit the nest at the Venice Golf course in Florida while that nest that was loaded with fish at Fisherman’s Creek appears to have no more visitors.

It is very difficult to tell how much food Smallie is getting at Amersfoort. ‘PB’ reports that Smallie was very clever and jumped out of the box to get fed and then back inside. Yeap for Smallie.

Larry’s eyases are getting pretty independent and not sure they want Mum telling them what to do!

Pip/Hatch watch at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum coming up in 3-4 days.

‘H’ reports on the nests she is monitoring:

“5/17 Patuxent osprey nest – There were six fish brought to the nest by Dad.  After two days with very little to eat, chick 3 “Little” finally had a couple good meals on Monday.  At 0715 Dad brought a medium size whole fish, and Little was not allowed to eat.  It’s not just ‘Big’ that is aggressive toward Little, but also ‘Middle’ at times.  Dad quickly brought another fish at 0805, while the two older chicks were still full, and Little was able to eat 52 bites of fish. Little was shut out of the third feeding.  At 1336 Dad brought a very large headless fish, for a feeding that lasted nearly an hour.  Little ate 70 bites of fish at that meal, and had a nice crop.  There were two more fish deliveries from Dad of small fish, and Little was not able to get any bites of those fish.”

“5/27 The Mispillion Harbor Delaware osprey nest of Della and Warren has their first baby of the season.  One egg remains.”

“5/27 Captiva ospreys:  They had a better fishing day with 8 fish brought to the nest, including a partial catfish from Edie.  Darling (CO8) was only completely shut out of one short meal, and s/he managed a couple nice crops.”

Could this Golden Eagle nest be the exception to the rule of ‘Cainism’? There are two healthy eaglets at the Golden Eagle nest in Estonia. The first chick always eats first but there is enough food for all and second chick eats well, too along with Mum. Fingers Crossed.

The camera has been on and off with ‘Highlights’ at the West End. I have been told that Koa has branched. I did not see it! They are so big!

It was yesterday but we can celebrate today. One of my heroes.

Thank you so much for being with me today. This was a quick check on all those hatches and some coming up. It is a busy week and there are still eggs to hatch – lots of them! Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, questions, posts, videos, articles and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, B, Geemeff, J, H, SP, PB’, Heidi McGrue, Clark PUD, Port of Ridgefield, Boulder County, Cowlitz PUD, Moraine St Park, Dyfi Osprey Project, BofPH, The Woodland Trust, Geemeff, Smallwood State Park, Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home, PSEG, Radford University Ospreys, Field Farm, The Scottish Wildlife Trust (LOTL), SK Hideways, SOAR, CS, Mlade Buky Stork Cam, Montana Osprey Project, VGCCO, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Amersfoort Falcons, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Patuxent River Park, Mispillion Harbour, Window to Wildlife, Eagle Club of Estonia, IWS/Explore, and USFWS History Archives.

Sunday in Bird World

26 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Thank you for your wonderful notes. I am so glad that you learned something about why ‘H’ and I are so protective of those osplet chicks in nests if there is a GHO about! We also, of course, get more than upset when osplets attack one another and that is when we step in and start counting bites of food they get. We can almost predict which osplet will exhibit this behaviour and when. It certainly eats at us. Sometimes we need to step back, just like the rest of you, and go outside. It is essential to our well-being smelling the fresh air (hopefully), walking through the trees, sitting quietly and watching a squirrel play, or marvelling at the gorgeous colour in a flower.

The temperature has dropped in Manitoba, and in some parts of the province, there is quite a bit of snow. Thankfully, we are just having light rain with the promise of some sunshine tomorrow. Oh, we need to dry out a little! I would happily ship water to any of you who need it. The Crows, Blue Jays, and Starlings have simply been waterlogged all day, carrying food back and forth to their nests for all those starving babies. It is certainly keeping me busy! I am so ever proud of the wilding of the garden. It was nothing but grass two decades ago with a single peony bush and some wild roses that were both planted in 1902. They still thrive – the roses even better since the area was cleared of all other creeping vines that seemed to be choking them out. It is now a haven. The woodboxes have been given over to the squirrels (the inside) and the birds who make their nests with the twigs from the vines on top or make their nests cradled inside those overlapping thick vines. There is barely any grass remaining and in a week another five trees will be planted. The Korean Maple put in last fall as part of the City’s Re-Leaf programme is doing very well with the torrential rains. That plain grass has now been transformed into a haven for the animals.

Do you know the first nature reserve in the world? It was Waterton Park in West Yorkshire created by Charles Waterton. He was a naturalist and a conservationist and inherited Walton Hall where he immediately went about forbidding shooting, fishing between autumn and early May and even barring dogs during the nesting season of the birds. He planted trees, created habitat for the animals and turned the lake into a marsh pond for herons and all manner of waterfowl. To keep away foxes and poachers, he “abstained from alcohol in order to save up to build a stone wall, more than 8ft tall and three miles long.” It worked. In five years he had transformed the land. Waterton is known for “creating a prototype for the modern nature reserve, where wildlife and humans can exist in harmony for their mutual benefit” (Country Life, 3 April, 2024, 34).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

“File:Walton Hall Lake and Sundial – geograph.org.uk – 40964.jpg” by Humphrey Bolton is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

“Walton Hall and lake, Walton” by Humphrey Bolton is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

At Loch Arkaig, Louis and Dorcha went from incubation to a family of five in 24 hours!!!!!!! We might not be able to tell them apart! Way to go, Dorcha, on that delayed incubation. Louis must be delighted. I wonder if the trout in the Loch will thank all those eggs for hatching! Gosh, they are cute.

Louis is an excellent provider.

First hatch at Loveland, Colorado. Another little cutie pie.

Dylan and Seren Blue 5F admiring their three Bobs at Llyn Clywedog in Wales.

Dylan is an incredible provider. There won’t be a lack of fish on this nast.

We are waiting for Aran and Elen’s eggs to hatch.

Idris and Telyn are busy with their three at Dyfi! Hat Tricks for UK nests Dfyi, Loch Arkaig, and Clywedog.

CJ7 and Blue 022 still have two chicks. Two other eggs will either hatch or not….

At Rutland, Maya and Blue 33’s Only Bob is growing and growing and is now in the Reptile phase. What a joy to see so much fish for one deserving little one.

The first glance at the first hatch for White YW and Blue 25 at the Foulshaw Moss nest in Cumbria.

We are on hatch watch for Richmond and Rosie in SF.

Iris has not raised a chick since Le’le in 2018. That was six years ago. She is getting ready to make history as the oldest osprey raising babies with her new mate, Finnegan. Finnegan is attentive. He is an excellent provider. (And bless his heart, Louis, doesn’t seem to care. Thank goodness.)

It will be a short wait at Crooked Lake for Whitney and Noble to have their first hatch. I had egg 1 on 22 April, so we are on day 34.

All three chicks are doing well at Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home.

The only surviving chick of Stella and Talon – being raised exclusive by Mum Stella – is in really good health or so it appears. She often fish calls while Mum is away trying to fill the pantry.

Full crops at Lake Murray. Lucy is on the perch, the strobes are on and well, we live in hope like everyone rooting for these two surviving chicks.

You can hardly see them but there are two osplets at the PSEG Patchogue nest on Long Island and they are doing well.

What is with all the trees in the nests??? PSEG Oyster Bay has one, too. You cannot see the babies for it!

Fledglings Ruffie and Tuffy are being fed at the nest.

Hatch watch at Seaside.

He’s clever, determined, and is receiving so much love from people around the world. He has been tagged ‘Smallie’ and he can jump inside and out of the box, he can grab food and was even self-feeding. We want Smallie to survive to fledge.

At San Jose, Monty and Hartley are teaching their Fab Four how to survive.

‘A’ writes, “I spent some time today watching our four at Cal Falcons. How do I forget every year just how gorgeous that juvenile plumage is, especially on the breast and stomach. The most exquisite shades of coffee and milk chocolate. Interestingly, one of the two little males appears to me to be one of the older two, based on how little fluff he has left and the length of his tail. The youngest male is still the little dynamo he was when he hatched, first to head off exploring and very confident. I do find the bands incredibly difficult to see most of the time and distinguishing green from blue is not easy – I am still trying to match a band to each chick and have not managed to do so. I presume Cal Falcons has put out some sort of video labelling them all. I have picked up the green band easily and, I think, the blue but have zero clue re the yellow (and presumably the fourth one is red although they have only mentioned three colours). But certainly, these four, and Annie’s valiant efforts to feed them whilst not losing her face in the process, was entertaining in the extreme and relieved a lot of my stress. These four just make me laugh out loud, which was exactly what I needed today. “

Raining on Big Red and the Ns.

Raining on Ruth and Oren’s babies at Syracuse, too.

To warm your heart, a great rescue.

There are so many ways that we can help wildlife – and it isn’t just squirrels that get caught in those plastic loops, birds get caught in them, too. Cut them up, cut the plastic bread tabs in half, cut elastics (rubber bands) in half, shred mesh bags (better yet refuse to purchase produce in them) – make the landfills and our environment a much safer place. Did you know that one of the major places for eagles to find food in urban areas is a landfill?

So many nests that failed for one reason or another. Laddie died at LOTL.

The Great Horned Owls used Wolf Bay.

Duke and Daisy leased their nest to the House Sparrows this year at Barnegat Light.

Oscar abandoned Olivia and their three eggs at Severna Park.

We were all so hopeful for Angel and Tom.

Will there be a hatch at Achieva with the second clutch?

We are on hatch watch at Boulder.

Three beautiful osplets in Germany!

There are ‘four’ at Forsythe. Opal will try but, I would say be very cautious if you are watching this nest.

‘H’ sends her reports:

“5/25 Patuxent-1 osprey nest:  After the great feedings late in the day on Friday, the three osplets all still had small crops this morning.  There were fewer fish brought to the nest today, and they were smaller in size.  The first fish of the day was brought by Dad at 0605, and it was small.  Surprisingly, there was no beaking, and Little was ‘allowed’ to eat 14 bites of fish.  The next fish was larger, and allowed for a 20 minute feeding, but Big was aggressive and in the mood to attack her siblings.  Middle was able to eat a fair amount, but Little only ate 16 bites of fish.  There were three more fish delivered by Dad at 1126, 1434, and 1739, and they were small to medium in size.  Little was not able to eat any bites of fish during those last three meals.  Little only ate 30 bites of fish today.  We were hoping that Dad would be able to catch one of his whoppers.  We know there are many osprey nests in the Patuxent River Park, and I’m sure there are bald eagles, and we observed a large female osprey steal a fish off this nest on Friday.  It is conceivable that Dad may have his catch stolen from him at times.  The ambient temperatures are in the mid- to upper 80’s, and Little really needs to have a couple good meals today.”

“5/25 Captiva osprey nest:  The fish count was down today, six fish for the day, and overall the size of the fish was smaller.  It wasn’t the best of days for the youngest sibling, CO8, but s/he did okay.  CO8 was able to eat for about 15 minutes at the first meal of the day, but only for approximately 1 minute, 2 minutes, 1 minute, 7 minutes, and 3 minutes at the subsequent meals.  It is quite warm in Captiva, and for multiple reasons, the osprey season started much later than usual this year, pushing it toward summer.  As we know… with some exceptions… success of osprey nests depends on good fishing.  It’s really all about the fish.”

‘J’ sends us some news about another Red tail Hawk on an eagle nest published in the FORE chat:

To put a smile on everyone’s face, Jackie and Shadow showed up at the nest to work on the sticks on Saturday! So nice to see you both.

Hatching at Boulder County!!!!!

The third chick has hatched at Alyth SS. Yeah for Flora and Harry!

The second chick has hatched for White YW and Blue 35 at Foulshaw Moss on Sunday (and maybe the third, I am having a hard time seeing) and the nest is now full at Esthwaite!

Thank you so much for being with me today. We are always so happy to have you with us! We hope to 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 blog today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, J, PB’, Country Life, OpenVerse, The Woodland Trust, Geemeff, City of Loveland, Llyn Clywedog Ospreys, Bwywd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, BoPH, LRWT, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, SF Bay Ospreys, Montana Osprey Project, Timothy Dygert Live Stream, Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home, University of Florida-Gainesville, Lake Murray Ospreys, PSEG, Moorings Park Ospreys, SK Hideaways, Cornell RTH, SU-RTH Cam, Amersfoort Falcons, Linda McElroy, Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, Feral Cat Project, The Scottish Wildlife Trust, Wolf Bay Osprey Cam, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ, Severna Park, Window to Wildlife, Achieva Credit Union, Ute GroBe, BUND Goitsche-Wildnis, Patuxent River Park, FORE, Boulder County, FOBBV, KEEN Esthwaite Ospreys, and Jeff Kear.

Tuesday in Bird World

21 May 2024

Hello everyone!

The Baltimore Orioles were enjoying their grape jelly and oranges in the garden on Saturday and Sunday. The males are black with the bright orange and the female is the lighter yellow-orange. Taken with my phone and heavily cropped so soft edges.

‘The Girls’ and I are watching a male American Redstart in the garden. This species is passing through going North but this little fellow seems to have a bit of an injury. Like the others, it would be nearly impossible to catch him and the outcome would be bleak at the wildlife centre where they are full to running over with ‘babies’ at the moment. I will let him heal and see how things work out.

Isn’t he a beauty!

I could get on a soapbox today, but I am afraid I would give each of you a headache and you would never return. Last week a woman stole two goslings from in front of a shop in my City. She just took them from Mamma Goose. First it is a wildlife crime and second, why on earth would anyone do such a thing? How would that woman feel if someone stole two of her children?

There was a positive event when some goslings were saved recently and orphans added to another family. It is nesting season and we need to care for all the wildlife.

First up – please vote!

The four in San Jose are keeping Monty busy hunting!

For several years, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we have wondered what will happen and how will this military conflict impact the birds. Many of us tracked and marvelled at the late Karl II and his mate, Kaia, as they flew through Ukraine and then, at times, diverted to other countries. Scientists have now discovered that the birds use different flight paths to avoid the conflict.

Eagles-shifting-flight-paths-to-avoid-Ukraine-conflict-scientists-find-Birds-The-GuardianDownload

I missed the pip/hatch at Llyn Clywedog for Dylan and Seren in Monday’s post. We are also on pip watch at Loch Arkaig.

This little one of Dylan and Seren’s is doing so well with its egg tooth that by Tuesday when I publish this post, it will have hatched.

Loch Arkaig’s nest 2 – Louis and Dorcha – is on pip watch.

Keeping an eye on Dyfi’s eggs. There is the little one!!!!!!!!

I saw the 0919 fish come in to Lake Murray and Little was positioned perfectly to be fed. The older ones do not seem that interested in eating first thing in the morning which allows the baby to get a nice start on the day. Little had at least two other good feeds during the day – I did not follow with a microscope. They are getting all their plumage and the aggression should be stopping as long as Kenny continues with fish deliveries.

There are still three osplets on the nest at Lake Murray.

Beautiful Ruffie and Tuffy. Ruffie has fledged and takes some short flights – returns to the nest quickly if she spots a fish delivery! Dear little Tuffy has yet to fly and that is OK. We love seeing both of them on the nest – so healthy and such amazing parents. That Harry is a really good provider just like Kenny at Lake Murray.

Parents continue to bring fish to the Venice Golf and Country Club nest and today Little Bob had a private feeding.

Thankfully Olivia has abandoned the eggs at Severna Park.

It appears that Blue NCO is accepting the dark plumaged male as her new mate after Laddie’s passing at LOTL.

At Rutland’s Manton Bay, Only Bob – that got flung out of the egg cup by a fish and returned to the centre by generous caring staff – is now in the Reptile stage!

At Loch Arkaig, Dorcha is caught off guard by the Tawny Owl.

Did Larry’s eyases fledge? or are they in another area?

‘H’ reports on Captiva: “First meal started at 0657 with a whole sheepshead delivered by jack.  CO8 was able to eat first, and ate for 4 minutes before s/he was beaked by CO7.  CO7 ate until 0719.  Then CO8 ate again from 0720 to 0736, for a total of 20 minutes at this meal.

The second feeding at 0900 was a partial sheepshead.  CO7 ate.  CO8 ate one bite at 0910, and also ate a large piece at the very end of the meal at 0915.

Feeding #3 was a small whole needlefish.  The meal lasted for 5 minutes, and CO8 ate for about a minute.

The fourth feeding was whole fish that lasted 38 minutes, and CO8 was only able to eat 4-6 bites of fish at this meal.

The next fish was a small whole pinfish.  CO8 was fed the whole fish including the tail (minus Edie’s bites), in about six minutes.

Jack’s sixth fish of the day was another pinfish, and at 1512 CO8 started to eat on Edie’s right side, and eventually CO7 worked its way over to Edie’s left, but was mostly hidden from our view.  It did appear that CO8 was offered the most bites of fish during the 6-minute feeding.

Fish #7 at 1745 was a partial fish, and both osplets still had moderate crops to start out.  It was a 16 minute meal, and CO8 was fed the first 14 bites of fish from Edie, before CO7 exerted its dominance.  At 1759 CO7 moved away and CO8 ate 11 more bites of fish to end the meal.

Overall, it was a good day, with Jack delivering ample fish for his family, and CO8 had his/her crop filled a few times.”

Beautiful Iris. Her new mate will get his name today. I sure hope nothing happens to him before these babies fledge.

At PSEG’s Oyster Bay nest, Dad is determined to put up privacy rails so we cannot see the babies! I wonder if someone is pruning their trees?

‘H’ reports on Patuxent River Park and their trio of osplets.

‘R’ reports that there was water in the camera box that was causing the problems at University of Florida-Gainesville. Once it was back on there was Stella doing a good job providing for Big Bob. Beautiful plumage. Grateful that one survived after Talon went missing.

Screenshot

As you will have noticed, I do not report on the eagles as much as I did before the Ospreys began laying eggs and hatching. Murphy has another foster eaglet and it looks like he is showing it how much fun you have in a puddle pool.

Jasper and Leaper, at Duke Farms, have branched higher and higher into the tree, but have yet to fledge. Their first flight will be soon.

The third eaglet at the George Sutton Avian Research Centre in Oklahoma has died of siblicide on 19 May 2024.

All three at Little Miami Conservancy survived.

Are Jackie and Shadow building a new nest?

At the ND-LEEF nest in South Bend, Indiana (St Joseph’s Park), Gigi, the new female, is the sole provider for the eaglets as Dad has been missing since 8 May. Oh, this is sad.

Big Bob hatched at Llyn Clywedog at 2208 Sunday evening the 20th of May.

Port Lincoln is trying another experiment. They have placed underwater lights so Mum can see the fish and catch them! It is working. You really have to appreciate all the things that are being made by this group in South Australia to not only protect the Ospreys but to help them if there are difficult times in getting food. Three beautiful fledges in 2023 can be attributed to their tenacious efforts in getting fish on that nest for the osplets.

There are two beautiful white fluffy Golden eaglets at the Bucovina nest in Romania. I wish there was a possibility that the second would survive the historical ‘Cainism’ that drives this species.

Later, Mum removed the second eaglet from the nest, killed it, ate part of it and fed the rest to eaglet 1. Sadly, the little one was still alive and had a slow and agonising death.

At Amersfoort, Small has a good crop and appears to have grown some.

Smallie has gotten out of the scrape. Will he be able to return to be fed

‘J’ brings us good news about the Kakapo Recovery efforts: “The kākāpō population has increased almost fivefold since the programme started in 1995 and has doubled in the last 10 years. There are 247 kākāpō alive today. This is great news, especially since kākāpō only breed once every 2-4 years when the rimu trees are fruiting.

The last breeding season was in 2022. To help predict the next breeding season, we compare seasonal temperatures year-on-year and collect rimu samples from the predator-free breeding islands to count fruit tips. 

We know some kākāpō will breed if more than 10 percent of rimu tips bear fruit. It also seems that a greater number of kākāpō breed as the percentage of fruit increases.

Data so far tells us that there will be no large breeding event in 2025 and the difference in seasonal temperatures indicate a likely breeding season in 2026. After further fruit tip counting early next year, we will be able to confirm this predicted season and may even have an estimate of how many nests to expect in 2026!”

Now isn’t this interesting? Raptors are gaining immunity!

As-bird-flu-spreads-to-dairy-cows-Minnesotas-raptors-show-signs-of-building-remarkable-immunityDownload

Thank you for being with us with this morning. Please take care! See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, images, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post this morning: ‘Geemeff, H, J, PB, R’, Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, Sharon Pollock, Cal Falcons, John Williams, Geemeff, Dyfi Osprey Project, Lake Murray Ospreys, moorings Park, VGCCO, Severna Park, Scottish Wildlife Trust (LOTL), LRWT, ParksConservancy, Window to Wildlife, Montana Osprey Project, Heidi McGrue, UFlorida-Gainesville Osprey Cam, World Bird Sanctuary, Deb Stecyk, Jonathan Coleman, Little Miami conservancy, Cindy Alicno, ND-LEEF, Llyn Clywedog, PLO, Bucovina Wild, Amersfoort Falcons, Kakapo Recover, and The Star Tribune.

Hatch in Progress at Dyfi…Monday in Bird World

20 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

There is a hatch in progress at Dyfi!

Sunday was a glorious day, and instead of sitting in front of my computer in the conservatory with the girls, I took a trip to a small town in southern Manitoba and paid a visit to their greenhouse. They had helped with a fundraiser (plants) for my grandson’s choir tour, and the quality of their flowers and herbs amazed me. So off I went. It was a wonderful half-hour drive with the sides of the road full of Red-wing Blackbirds flitting about the bullrushes and geese in ponds created by the recent heat rains. Everything was green and beautiful, and – it was quiet. If you live in the centre of a big city, the silence of the rural areas does not go unnoticed! This evening, all those herbs – including two Curry plants – will be put in their containers on the two decks with the hope that Dyson & Co will have pity on me and not usurp them while caching their peanuts. I live in hope.

It is interesting. The garden is not mine OR, rather, I have chosen to give it her to the animals which means that I feel that I am intruding when I am outside. I spent only an hour planting and will finish tomorrow. The heavy rains of the last days have meant that many birds might not have eaten well and it seemed cruel to be out there during the evening buffet period. The fledgling Red-wing Blackbirds are flitting about. One is causing concern. It does loops and I fear that it has a wing problem. I am not able to catch it and to be honest, the Wildlife Centre would only put the darling to sleep so I am going to let it live its life around the wood boxes where there is lots of food and see what happens. It has certainly entertained Calico and Baby Hope. The Baltimore Orioles – and this year more females than males – have been eating oranges. Lots of oranges! For some reason they are not at all interested in the grape jelly. Will try again tomorrow. But what an exciting late spring it has been – baby sparrows galore and now these little Red-wing Blackbirds. Their nest is inside a 30 cm high stack of vines that grow on the back woodbox. A perfect place that is well protected from the Crows and Grackles. Their Mummy was very smart!

Sad news is coming out of Glacier Gardens. Freedom was found Dad. He is the mate of Liberty and the Dad of those wonderful chicks Kindness (2021), and Peace and Hope (2023).

‘H’ and I just want to make everyone aware of what we desperately hope will not happen at Lake Murray. The ages and dates for the predation by the GHO in 2023 were: “Big was taken by GHO on 5/15 at age 26 days. Middle was taken by GHO on 5/23 at age 33 days.” Little died from siblicide. Today, the Osplets are 29, 27, and 24 days old. Mum is not sleeping on the nest at night and is away during the day. The GHO is aware of the nest. I hope that the owner has lights and loud music playing regularly now and will not stop thinking the owls have forgotten! Those efforts might help.

Little ate reasonably well on Sunday. I am no longer counting bites unless behaviours or fish deliveries (or both) change on this nest. For now, we have to stay strong and hope the GHO does not take these precious babies.

There are such simple solutions to protect our beautiful birds from harm – by us or other predators. At Lake Murray, for example, the fish grates or lights – GHOs do not like lights – would help. Right now, lights are the only solution. During migration, dimming or turning off lights can save the lives of millions of birds. You just have to flip a switch. Is that so difficult? Geez, it could save hydro costs!!!!!!! Do you remember the Brown Outs of the 1970s? It really is easy. Geemeff found us a good article.

Lights-Out-Turn-off-lights-to-save-birds-lives-newscentermaine.com_Download

The two chicks on the German streaming cam Goitzsche-Wildnis appear to be doing well.

And then the third one hatched on Monday – so a trio!

We have all been worried about CO8 at Captiva. ‘H’ gives us her report for Sunday. “0722 The first meal of the day consisted of a small partial mullet.  CO8 simply decided to sit this one out, and did not approach Edie.

At 0845 Jack delivered a whole sheepshead.  CO8 was beaked, or intimidated several times over the next several minutes.  While Edie ate the fish, C07 simply hovered over CO8 until 0855.  Then CO7 decided to eat.  CO7 ate until 0901 and then moved away.  Edie then started to feed CO8, and ate until 0913, when CO7 returned to the table.  At 0920 CO7 again stopped eating, and CO8 ate for the next 6 minutes.  CO8 was fed for about 18 minutes at this meal.

Feeding #3 was a partial sheepshead at 1003.  CO7 beaked CO8, then CO7 ate until 1011.  CO8 had a short private feeding until 1017, when CO7 returned and they ate side-by-side for one minute until CO8 was beaked.  CO7 ate until 1023, then CO8 returned and ate for 2 more minutes.  CO8 ate for approximately 8 minutes at this feeding.

At 1557 Jack delivered a large live gafftopsail catfish.  CO7 intimidated CO8 and ate first.  By 1602 CO8 had worked his/her way to the other side of Edie, but was beaked by CO7.  At 1617, CO7 was taking a break from eating, and CO8 was fed…but only for 2 minutes, when he was beaked by CO7 who resumed eating.  CO7 ate for at least the next 30 minutes, and CO8 was only able to grab one or two bites.  At 1651 Edie was alarming and flew off with the fish.  She soon returned with the fish still in her talons, and CO8 ate for 1 minute before being intimidated by CO7.  At 1710, CO7 once again retired from the meal, and laid down to take a nap.  CO8 was able to eat for the next 8 minutes, before being pushed from behind by CO7.  CO7 ate until 1725, then CO8 was at the table and waiting, but Edie was distracted, presumably by an intruder.  At 1728 Edie flew off in a hurry.  Edie returned 5 minutes later.  There was just a small amount of the catfish remaining, and CO8 ate for the next 3 minutes.  CO8 was able to eat for a total of approximately 14 minutes, and only had a small crop after a fish that lasted roughly 90 minutes.  Overall however, CO8 did fairly well today, and had a large crop a couple of times today.”

Dr Ericke Green continues to post good information about Ospreys which I will share with you in case you are not on FB. This is an exciting year and we will know the name of Iris’s New Guy soon!

I had so many lovely letters today. There is news that I want to share with all of you.

‘AM’ has discovered a new Peregrine Falcon nest. It is Kingston College. She tells me, “The mother was badly injured and euthanized and the father is raising the young alone. Recently, a new female has started coming in.”

Here is the link to their streaming cam:

‘MM’ reassures us that the Dad at the MNSA nest is doing a fantastic job! She comments, “Mom seems to feed the littlest chick first and in the few days I’ve been watching there has been one episode of bonking that I’ve seen and it was between the two oldest chicks and it wasn’t at meal time. “

‘MM’ asked about Mum at MNSA begging Dad to feed her. Many of you might not have seen it before, but there are a number of Ospreys that either like to be fed or do the feeding. Iris has been begging New Guy to feed her while she is incubating just like her Stanley did. Several UK nests have the male feeding the female. I wish I had images. This is the screen capture of Dad feeding Mum at MNSA.

I am always happy to get your letters. Please do not ever think for a moment that I do not like hearing from you!

Annie and Archie have really provided a lot of ‘light’ to everyone’s lives this year. ‘B’ writes: “…just to say how much fun it is watching the Cal Falcons this year, and how impressed I am with both Annie and Archie. Annie is even more impressive every year, and she’s lucky to have Archie, too. I wasn’t expecting the fourth egg to hatch, and I was a bit worried when it did that it would be just too much. But Annie and Archie are just not skipping a beat with four chicks. Archie just keeps the prey coming, and Annie is so skilled at distributing the food to the chicks. And wonderful to see Archie again yesterday joining in to tandem feed the chicks.” 

What a shocking difference in size between Small at Amersfoort and one of the two older siblings.

Big Red loves her Ns. They are getting their juvenile feathers and their interest is shifting beyond the world of the nest on the light tower. We can expect fledging in June.

Rose and Oren’s sweet babies at Syracuse University. This nest is going to get really crowded.

Another location for Red-tail Hawks to raise their young – New York City! Yolton commented in his blog, urbanhawks.com, that the female had been picked up earlier in the week and taken into care. She was released and returned to her nest to the delight of her growing community of human well-wishers.

I am so happy that Bruce Yolton is posting his videos on FB for everyone to see.

Other Red-tails are nesting on Governor’s Island.

All three osplets have fledged and returned to the nest at the Venice Golf and Country Club platform. Adults continue to deliver fish – six or seven today!

Waiting for hatch at Boulder County.

Day old osplet at Great Bay doing well.

It looks like Dad will be fishing for two chicks this year at PSEG Patchogue.

Frederick keeps bringing in the fish to Betsy and the two chicks at Outerbanks.

Hebert and Hermine’s trio at Eschenbach are a little older than the chicks at Goitzsdhe Wildness.

For all Ervie lovers, myself included, he is still hanging around Port Lincoln! With all these boys, Mum and Dad could have grandchildren close by in a year or two.

‘A’ sends us the latest on Mum and Dad, the WBSE at Sydney Olympic Park:

“Speaking of which, I am intrigued by Lady and Dad and wondering whether this is their usual schedule and I just have been unaware of it (not checking the nest basically until eggs are due to be laid or have been laid, I think) or whether they are very early in nest-building and frequent mating behaviour this year. I suppose time will tell. We’ll know by the date the first egg is laid. 

Here are the reports for May 18 and May 19.

May 18: The eagles were by the nest last night and came in early, at 6:22am, with a duet and mating soon after. They brought a couple of sticks in, then were off. At 11:10am, a duet could be heard coming from Mangrove Island, though the eagles were out of sight of our observer. Then one was seen soaring overhead – in the picture. It was a windy day. Unknown where they were for the rest of the day. Then at dark, at 5:30pm, both arrived at the nest and settled nearby. Very few sticks were brought in today – Lady two and Dad one.

May 19: A fine day. Our eagles were awake early, with mating. Then both were in and out during the morning with sticks and leaves – five for Lady and seven for Dad. From about 11am, neither was seen at the river or nearby. Finally, at around 4pm, at least one was seen at Goat Island. Then at dusk, at 5:19pm, Dad showed up at the nest with leaves. He settled nearby. Where is Lady?”

More news about Laddie – and yes, I am thrilled they issued an appeal and were on top of what might have happened to our beloved male at Loch of the Lowes. (As Jeff Kear notes, “If the shot went straight through, it would not show up on an X-Ray”. Laddies body was found eight days after he went missing.

Update on death of Osprey ‘Laddie’ from Loch of the Lowes Reserve in Perthshire

If you are lucky enough to live in London, UK you might wish to take in the new exhibition at the Natural History Museum that focuses on how birds survive – and do not.

Vampire-finches-and-deadly-tree-snakes-how-birds-went-worldwide-–-and-their-battles-for-survival-Download

Thank you so much for your letters and for being with us today. Lots of excitement coming up in the next fortnight as we continue with fledges and hatches. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, AM, B, Geemeff, H, MM, MP’, Dyfi Osprey Project, Steven Bowery, Glacier Gardens Nest Cam, Trudi Kron, Lake Murray Ospreys, Animals, Goitzsche-Wildnis, Eschenbach, Window to Wildlife, Montana Osprey Project, Montana Osprey Cams and Dr Green, Kingston Campus STCG, MNSA Ospreys, Cal Falcons, SK Hideaways, Amersfoort Falcon Scrape, Cornell RTH, Syracuse University Hawk Cam, Bruce Yolton, VGCCO, Boulder County, Great Bay Ospreys, PSEG, OBX Osprey Cam, Eschenbach Ospreys, PLO, Sydney Olympic Cam, Raptor Persecution UK, and The Guardian.

Saturday in Bird World

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.

Swallow-swift-and-house-martin-populations-have-nearly-halved-finds-UK-bird-survey-Birds-The-GDownload

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.