Category Archives: protecting 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.

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

14 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hellgate-Osprey-Cam-Timeline-Cornell-Lab-Bird-Cams-Cornell-Lab-Bird-CamsDownload

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The three babies at Charlo Montana are soooooo tiny.

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

All of the osplets at Field Farm are accounted for!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Edith P caught the feeding on video.

Golden Eaglet in Bucovina România doing well.

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

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

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

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

One osplet so far at nest #1 in Finland.

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

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

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

N1 and N2 fledge…Tuesday in Bird World

11 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

So far, the news is good, but I haven’t heard from ‘H’ yet, and I fear chicks in the NE at Forsythe unless a miracle happens on Monday. Several items have come in my inbox to share with all of you and we will look at them first. I had intended to share one reader’s trip to Manton Bay today, but I hope to add some more information and will include that either Wednesday or Thursday. I had some wonderful Ramen with my son today. It is nice to have him visiting. It has been a long time.

Letter 1: ‘M and F’ write: “Hello dear Mary Ann, we have just had an intruder at t the Sydney Sea Eagle nest, it arrived at 08:03 and stayed until about 08:40. Not sure what it is, but looking at its head I would say it was a Tina Turner Eagle.”

I ran and grabbed Penny Olsen’s book on Australian Birds of Prey and this is a Wedge-tailed Eagle. Isn’t it a beauty?

Letter 2: ‘J’ wonders: “Do you have the odds numbers for 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 chicks to compare? I probably am not the only one who would be really interested in that. I really want Tiny Field Farm to fledge, he’s so brave.”

Well, I didn’t, at first, think I had this. There are fewer four hatch nests so it is easier to calculate even manually, but, hey, it is in the forms. This is the information for 2023 for 340 eggs from around the world that we monitored. Our 4 egg nests had a slightly better survival rate than the US study that showed 1 out of 100 surviving. Ours was 50%. (I apologise that this is small. I hope you can blow it up on your screen. If you would like me to send it to you via e-mail, just send me a note: maryannsteggles@icloud.com).

Letter 3: EJ sent us a great article form Audubon on the challenges to our urban raptors.

City-Life-is-Hard-for-Raptors.-Can-Removing-Rat-Poison-Make-it-Easier-AudubonDownload

Letters 4 and more: Thank you so much. I am so glad that you enjoyed the picture of Missey and Hugo Yugo in the basket. Your support and good wishes for ‘The Girls’ warms my heart. I cannot imagine my world without them. Of course, I might treasure a little sleep. So far, there are three piled in. The only one not on the duvet making me scrunch up in configurations I never dreamed possible is Hope!

I wish I could take in more, but I can’t. People are losing their homes, their apartments and well, just having a really rough time of it here in Canada. I don’t know what it is like where you live, but our Humane Society finds dogs, cats, rats, and all other species left at night at their door. People are ashamed they can no longer care for their precious pets. It is very sad. We are now feeding the two Boyfriends, a Grey Tabby with only one ear, and 4 Gingers. There could be others. These are the ones that come during the day. I am glad to be able to help these. Wish I could do more but one has to be realistic.

The Gold Medal nest this week has to be Poole Harbour. There are so many good nests with the males working overtime to bring in huge fish in the UK that it feels awkward to sort out one, but it is because there are four osplets. Just look at them. CJ7 and Blue 022 have been working overtime to make certain that there is fish and tranquility. When they ring them, I wonder if they are all little boys. We will have to wait and see.

I love the golden glow of the sun streaming down on these babies and Little Mini looking out towards us. It is getting to eat first.

Blue 022 is great at helping CJ7 with these four and is happy to top up Little Mini. One has to wonder if the males that are so eager to make sure the little late hatches are fed were also little late hatches themselves. Blue 022 is just amazing. When he landed on CJ7s platform three years ago we had no idea what a great Dad he would be.

Thanks for all the alerts about Smallie. That little darling is back in the scrape! What a smart little fella to get itself back where food will come. And just look at the plumage. I am certain that those watching this Peregrine Falcon nest in Amersfoort Netherlands are feeling huge relief. What a character. Smallie pulls at all our hearts.

‘PB’ sent a video clip and I took some screen shots of Smallie figuring out how to get back up to the scrape.

On Tuesday morning, Smallie wakes up and is hungry and leaves the scrape box calling for food.

He is looking for the parents and siblings. Send positive wishes for food for this little one – and not big siblings doing a steal at the grate!

N2 was so excited. Both of the eyases had been flapping and jumping while watching the traffic. N2 flew first. A magnificent flight right across Tower Road to the trees in front of Fernow. In the image below you can see those legs leaving as it gets its wings going. N1 is curious and should fledge soon.

And then – N2 flies!

Some more tweets from Cornell showing the adventures of N1 and N2 after fledging.

And the concern for the new fledglings as they fly back and forth across Tower Road to the nest and trees.

Both ‘branched’ at the Syracuse University Red-tail Hawk cam of Ruth and Oren.

Not returns to the tower.

Moon_Rabbit_Rising has some images of the Cal Falcon fledglings!

Thunder and Akecheta’s three fledglings are well and being the juveniles that they are. Fighting for food!

I am so hopeful that Iris and Finnegan will have one healthy chick. Just hoping not two unviable eggs. Fingers crossed. Finnegan is a great mate and he will be a superior Dad! He has been feeding Iris, bringing in cot rails, and some greenery. (More below)

Little Mini right up there at the beak at Field Farm. They are all lined up – three to one side and one on the other at Field Farm later in the day.

The third chick at Island Beach State Park hatched on Tuesday.

Fingers crossed for the three at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Mum has been feeding, often with her back blocking the camera so it is hard to see if everyone is eating.

Dad watches over many of the feedings at the Landscape Arboretum nest. Hopefully he is helping Mum to understand that she can’t eat all the fish and not feed the babies!!!!!!!

The two hatches at Sandpoint seem to be alright.

The two older hatches at Bridge Golf are so much bigger than the wee one. Fingers crossed for another nest.

Three at Cowlitz PUD looking’ good.

Only Bob at Boulder County is changing! Fat little bottom on this reptile. You can see the pin feathers coming through, too. What a joy it is to see these healthy Only Bobs.

Two beautiful fledglings return to the Venice Golf Course nest wishing for fish! Oh, I keep missing seeing the three of the juveniles together. What a great season!

Leave it to Harry and Sally to ensure that both Tuffy and Ruffie have fish on the nest. Wow. Doesn’t this make you feel wonderful? No wonder the fledglings form this nest never want to leave. Poor Victor had to be chased off. He must have wondered what in the world was going on!

Both Golden Eaglets in Estonia being fed! This nest is such a surprise. Could we have two fledges? Oh, I am hoping so.

Edith P posted a video of this feeding. Gosh, I just want to be so hopeful.

White-tailed Eaglets in their nest in the Lower Kama National Park doing well.

The two Eastern Imperial Eaglets in the RU nest are well taken care of by the adults.

‘A’ comments on Lake Murray, Iris, and the WBSEs: “As night falls at Lake Murray and Surviving Bob settles down to sleep, duckling-style, on that nest on its own, I cannot help but take a deep breath and hope we make it safely to dawn. It is alert and looking around – I am certain it hears something nearby that is making it nervous. It stands up for a little crop drop. Lucy has a massive crop. She is preening and those lights are shining brightly on her. I only wish they lit up the nest itself a lot better. Surviving Bob is restless at Lake Murray. S/he is standing, preening, looking around. It has a gigantic crop to match Lucy’s. She is awake too, on the perch, where she is of no help whatsoever to Middle Bob. It is infuriating to me that she doesn’t stay on the nest, knowing she has now lost all but one osplet from two seasons. That really confuses me. “

Fish dinner at nest #4 in Finland.

It is almost unthinkable to see an older sibling attacking a younger one on the UK nests. Yes, there were problems at the Loch of the Lowes but that was because of intruders and a lack of fish and then Louis’s short disappearance one year (prior to this year when he was found dead). But to imagine that the oldest Bob would be attaching Little Bob at Loch Arkaig when there is clearly enough fish to feed the entire family and another one, well, it is unthinkable. And yet it is happening. Geemeff chronicles the issue:

“The tab is open, and I know that if I hear Lucy alerting, we’ve lost our remaining osplet. Problem of course is the Hellgate tab is also open, and it is two hours earlier in Montana, where it is still light. So a vocal exchange between Finn and Iris can cause a momentary panic.

Around 18:43, Finn flies to the perch post with a HUGE fish. He has eaten at least a quarter of it from the head end and has a good crop but what is remaining is a massive amount of fish. He brings it to the nest. Iris vocalises and shifts on the eggs, standing and rolling them but then settling back down. She is very vocal as Finn stumbles around the nest, doing a little aerating and nearly stepping on Iris’s head! It is hard not to get the impression that she is being extra protective of those eggs and does not want to leave them right now, even for a massive fish dinner. 

Around 18:47 Iris stands up again, vocalising continuously, and checks the eggs again. She is still reluctant to leave. Eventually, at 18:50:25 Iris flies off the nest, without the fish, and Finn inspects the eggs. He seems fascinated and carefully settles down to incubate.  Hmmmm. Suspicious? I fear Iris may be able to hear a chick inside that first egg (the one laid on 5 May).  could be pipping, or at least that Iris can hear the chick inside. I do hope not. If it hatches, we will have to wait in fear that a second chick may arrive a whole week after the first. That would be awful. Stressful in the extreme.

Iris is back at 19:58. Finn takes 30 seconds or so to move, then carefully stands up and allows Iris to inspect her eggs. She settles down and Finn takes the fish with him as he leaves. Iris does not have a crop and makes no objection when Finn grabs the fish. She is not interested in eating right now. That is not very Iris-like, is it? That was one of her favourite whoppers too, the type we so often see her eating on her favourite pole in her solo seasons. But she was not tempted. Why? “

“In Australia, it is 12.22 and both Dad and Lady have just arrived back on the nest at WBSE. They look extremely healthy this season. Their plumage is gorgeous and their crops are full. Dad is working hard on the outer kiddie rails. I cannot believe how close we are to egg watch here. It really could happen at any time now. Certainly, the bonding behaviour has given way to nesting behaviour over the past few days, with more time being spent at the nest, more food gifts, and more matings. Dad brought in a lovely fresh medium-sized fish to the nest soon after 07:35 this morning (7 June) and waited for Lady, looking around. She arrived a minute or so later to collect her breakfast, taking it up onto the branch behind the nest to eat it. At 08:16, a duet, then they headed off. They have now lined the nest bowl with fresh green leaves (just leaves, not twigs or sprigs). This nest is ready to receive two eggs, thank you. So, soon we will have eggs at WBSE.”

Someone left a fish on that nest!

At another nest in Australia, this time in Griffin, Queensland, George and Hope, have laid their second egg on the 10th of June. The first was laid on the 7th at the Osprey House Environmental Centre.

Wings of Whimsy gives us a video of the stunning fledglings form the West End Bald Eagle nest.

‘H’ reports on the nests she is monitoring and today we have the first sadness at Forsythe as her and I have been predicting.

“6/10 Forsythe osprey nest: There were six fish brought to the nest by Oscar, and none were very large.  Big1 controlled the scene at all of the meals…the gatekeeper as to who was allowed to eat.  Little3 beaked Mini4, Middle2 beaked Little3 and Mini4, and Big1 beaked everybody, including Mini4 at times.  Little3 was allowed to eat now and then, and she managed to eat 153 bites for the day.  Little3’s best meal was the third meal when she ate 95 bites of fish.  Big1 just sat there and watched as Little3 ate, and kept the other two away from Opal.  Mini4 tried many times, but could not get up to the table all day, and s/he had only eaten 36 bites of fish in over 48 hours.  Mini4 passed away late on 6/10 or early on 6/11 at 16 days of age.  S/he was a brave and strong-willed osplet, and we will miss him.

6/10 Captiva ospreys:  Jack, had not been seen at the nest since 6/7.  Edie had been doing a stellar job bringing fish to the nest to feed their two osplets.  Well…on 6/10 at 18:22, Jack flew in and landed on the nest.  He had an obvious wound to his left leg that did not appear to be fresh.  He was bearing weight on the leg okay, and he otherwise seemed in good health, albeit a bit slim perhaps.  His family was overjoyed to see him.  He only stayed a moment and flew off.  It seems as though Jack may have sustained an injury a few days ago, perhaps in a territorial battle.  We are so glad Jack is alive, and that he seems to be on the mend.

6/10 Osoyoos osprey nest:  There is a third baby at Osoyoos for Soo and Ollie.  Let’s hope fishing is good there this summer, so that all three youngsters will thrive.”


6/10 Patuxent River Park ospreys:  There were five fish and feedings for the day.  Little was shut out of the first meal.  For the second meal, Dad delivered a large whole fish at 1031.  By 1048 Big and Middle had already moved aside, and that allowed Little to have a 25 minute private feeding from Mom.  The third fish was smaller in size, and Little did not eat.  Meal #4 was a very large Koi fish delivered by Dad at 1627.  This fish fed everyone for nearly two hours.  Little had a private feeding from 1750 to 1818, then Big and Middle went back to be topped-off.  Little had the biggest crop of his young life!  A small fish was brought in at 2013…and Little didn’t even try to get to Mom for that one.

Thanks, ‘H’. It is tough to lose those little ones.

People see them. Those gorgeous green parakeets that call the streets of London their home.

How-parakeets-escaped-and-made-Britain-their-home-Birds-The-GuardianDownload

As I get ready to close, word has come from ‘BHA’ that Lucia was grounded again and returned to the scrape!

Thank you to everyone who sent in letters and thank you for being with us today. Please take care. Looking forward to having you with us again soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, queries, comments, videos, images, postings, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post this morning: ‘A, BHA, EJ, Geemeff, H, J, M & F, PB’, Audubon Magazine, BoPH, Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Cal Falcon Cam, Cornell RTH, Cornell Hawks, SU-RTH Cam, Lady Hawk, Montana Osprey Project, Field Farm, Island Beach State Park, Friends of Island Beach State Park, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Sandpoint Ospreys, Bridge Golf Club, Cowlitz PUD, Boulder County, VGCCO, Moorings Park, Geemeff, Eagle Club of Estonia, Edith P, White-Tail Eagle Cam of RU, Lake Murray Ospreys, WBSE, Osprey House Environmental Centre, Wings of Whimsy, Forsythe Ospreys, Window to Wildlife, Osoyoos Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, and The Guardian.

Friday in Bird World

7 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

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

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

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

American White Pelicans.

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

Nature is such a healer.

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

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

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

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

These are Common Goldeneyes.

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

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

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

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

https://youtu.be/ILLmt5olhHs ©BBC

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuffy was hungry!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Little Mini still with us Wednesday evening at Field Farm.

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

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

Still fighting for ‘Top Chick’ at Loch Arkaig.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the latest post from Cilla at Orange:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You just gotta love Little Bob at Loch Arkaig.

The Dyfi Trio are doing fantastic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And also at Bociany.

In Latvia,

A nest full at Bolewice.

One healthy storklet at Mlade Buky.

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

Concerns for the Osprey nests in the NE.

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

Wilding-movie-in-cinemas-soonDownload

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Tragedy strikes at Carthage! Friday in Bird World

23 May 2024

Good Afternoon Everyone,

It was a gorgeous sunny day and I set out to check the number of ducklings and goslings at our local pond. Little did I know the tragedy that was brewing in Tennessee with the recent thunder storms. I am glad that I got out in nature for awhile. To my surprise there was a Greater White-fronted Goose in the pond just paddling about. I was completely taken by surprise by this medium sized goose with its distinctive white face patch and light pink bill. It was a medium ash brown splotched. When it was paddling I noticed its very bright orange legs.

Not a great image. I have not colour corrected. It is migrating through on its way to the tundra in the Arctic region in the far north of our province.

There was a single female Mallard with 9 babies, lots of wood ducks but I did not see any ducklings. I counted a total of 65 Canada Goslings and approximately 250 adult Canada Geese.

They were so cute! The numbers are extremely good compared to previous years!

A new reader asked me why I felt that people needed to intervene to stop the GHOs from taking the Osprey chicks as prey. They reminded me that GHOs need to eat, too, and that this is nature, not a zoo.

My long answer: For me, Ospreys are treasures. They have been on this planet since the Palaeocene Era approximately 65 million years ago, just like the owls. Unlike the other raptors that eat all manner of prey and even carrion, Ospreys eat exclusively fish. There has been the rare occasion when fish stocks were not available and they have been seen to eat birds. Perhaps twice that I am aware of in decades. Osprey talons are made for catching fish, not other types of prey. They do not attack and take the chicks of the eagles and the other raptors. They leave them alone. Have you ever seen an Osprey knock an eagle or eaglet or an owl off its perch or in the nest? In addition, the extreme curved nature of their talons makes them poor fighters against eagles, goshawks, and large owls. Despite the siblicide, they are gentle creatures going on about their business hoping that humans stop overfishing and, of course, they will shortly begin to notice our impact on the climate if they haven’t already. GHOs can live on other prey. In fact, if we would change our agricultural practices and, not use pesticides and herbicides, and stop poisoning rats and pigeons, the owls would help us get rid of those and be quite well-fed and healthy. They do not need to eat Osprey chicks – and if my research is correct, in 2-3 years time, there will be an alarm sounded for a decline in the osprey populations. We will want every chick to survive!

I am a great supporter for intervention in all manner of raptor situations. Not just ospreys. Humans have ‘messed’ with nature so much that the old saying ‘let nature takes its course’ seems wildly inappropriate in the face of great habitat loss, warming seas and dying fish, overfishing to the point that more than 90% of the fish since the beginning of the twentieth century are gone. Because of what humans have done to the planet (our manipulation and control of nature) – including leaving our garbage everywhere – we have a responsibility to all wildlife, and that includes owls, to take care of them and in some instances, that also includes GHOs – but not if they are harvesting osplets.

But, specific to now. ‘H’ and I are intimate with the Raptor families (almost exclusively Ospreys) we monitor for our data information project. I am in my 8th year, and ‘H’ has been with me for nearly three years. The osprey families are a part of us. We understand and recognise their behaviours and can tell when ‘something is up’. We are probably closer to the ospreys we watch than to many members of our own family. Indeed, I can predict the behaviour of many osprey families better than I might my own kids. We sit with them when they are laying eggs, monitor their labour, cheer their hatches, and cry when other osprey intruders attack, such as at Fortis Exshaw last year, and they lose chicks. They are such a huge part of our lives. A piece of us disappears each time one of them dies. We might be accused of caring too much – not being too cold and ‘scientific’. We understand that Ospreys have emotions just like humans do (so do the other raptors/animals). We empathise with them. So, knowing that Lake Murray Mum lost all three of her chicks ast year and seeing how well she and Dad have provided for the trio this year – well, to lose one because the strobe lights or the fish grate protectors were not in place early enough knowing the GHO was there – makes me sad, disappointed, and angry. These osplets are their children like we have children. Do we want someone to steal them and eat them in front of us? That is what the GHO did to Lucy with dear Little.

I hope that answers your question.

The storms going through the central US (or is it the Midwest or both? I forget) have caused havoc for the raptors on the streaming cams and off. We will never know the full extension of the destruction and deaths. In Europe, the gorgeous little storklets, so healthy and happy, have drowned in their nests due to torrential rains. Any that survive are precious and need to be protected.

As all of you know the Denton Homes Bald Eagle nest collapsed. It was rebuilt by the company about 8 feet off the ground, similar to the nest at Fraser Point. The trio of eagles were in care and returned. At least two of the eaglets are observed to have trouble standing or walking. The male came to the tree but did not come down and feed the eaglets. They are now in care. We will never know why the adult eagles rejected the nest and/or their chicks. Human speculation is useless in these situations.

On Friday, storms pounded Tennessee. The Mum at Carthage was doing the best to protect her Only Bob when the nest collapsed with her own it. From the looks of the scene it was not a proper platform but something more makeshift on top of a pole. My breaks for this Osprey family that had done so well this year.

I want to show you images of the Only Bob who could not have survived this tragedy from earlier in the day. ‘H’ has a done a video of the collapse.

It is obvious that all osprey platforms in areas impacted by heavy storms such as the Central and Midwest US should have category 5 hurricane platforms. If anyone wants those specifications, talk to Connor at Window to Wildlife. Poor Mum was holding on tight when the nest just flipped. Additionally, these nests need to be inspected annually and rebuilt, if required.

This is news from Iowa but it might represent many other regions like Tennessee.

Things appear safe at the Johnson City ETSU Bald Eagle nest.

Little Miami Conservancy is OK.

Bluff City is offline and I am concerned as that fast moving storm that hit Carthage is heading right towards the Bluff City-ETSU nest.

One of the eggs at The Port of Ridgefield Osprey Platform has broken and was eaten by the male later on Thursday.

Thank you Lake Murray for keeping those strobes going! It could save their lives.

Strobe lights might help Iris. They could be set up in the parking lot. Too late to install the wonderful fish grates of Cowlitz PUD.

Hatch watch at Cowlitz PUD.

Few Bald Eagles in the Channel Island this year. That baby below is precious.

Gracie Shepherd caught up with the Trio at the West End – my goodness. They really messed with the stats in the Channel Islands because it looks like they are going to fledge three healthy eaglets. Look at that hover!

I was caught off guard. They ringed Monty and Hartley’s Fab Four on Thursday – FOUR GIRLS! Monty must be run off his feet. No wonder feedings are a frenzy!

There is good news out there. And we have to celebrate all these little miracles.

Banding Day Highlights.

‘H’ and I are both worn out from the recent tragedies. Her report for Captiva and Patuxent are below. They are short and this newsletter will probably be short also.

I think I missed a feeding later at Patuxent, but from what I had seen earlier, Little was beaked now and then, but had eaten 243 bites of fish in the first 4 meals.

Captiva: I missed the last two meals, but CO8 was very well fed today; had a bigger crop than CO7 at times.

Louis and Dorcha appear to have another precocious and quite lively Big Bob on their hands this year.

The two osplets of Betsy and Frederick are doing fine.

It is a good thing that Idris and Telyn are very experienced parents and that there is plenty of fish at Dyfi – Big and Middle Bob are already going at it. I hope it is just because their eyes are not focused yet and any beak represents potential fish! And guess what? Three hatched early Saturday morning. Bring in the fish Idris!!!!!!!

And now there are three at Dyfi.

Waiting to see if there is another hatch at Poole Harbour. There was a second pip noticed.

Flora and Harry now have two Bobs at Alyth!

Please note the following fundraising from Dr Sharpe and the IWS team:

Want to save birds and do something really beneficial, then get people to either stop using sticky tape on trees or cut it off!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for being with me today. If you are in the area of storms, please take extra precautions to stay safe. We hope to have you here with us again soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, images, announcements, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ‘BHA, Geemeff, H, J, PB’, Denton Homes, DTC-Carthage, Heidi McGrue, 9ABC News Iowa, Johnson City-ETSU, Little Miami Conservancy, Bluff City-ETSU, Port of Ridgefield, Pam Breci, IWS/Explore, Gracie Shepherd, SK Hideaways, Patuxent River Park, Window to Wildlife, Geemeff, OBX Cam, Dyfi Osprey Project, Birds of Poole Harbour, IWS, and Wild Mountain Birds.

Bobbleheads everywhere…Thursday in Bird World

23 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I want to thank everyone that send a note to Lake Murray. They have installed some strobe lights and will turn on music. I hope it works but I would encourage Lake Murray and all nests that have the chance of predation by eagles or owls to look to Cowlitz PUD for the solution – cost effective fish grates on poles positioned on opposite sides of the platform. It is so cheap. They are permanently positioned. No energy is used. The larger raptors cannot swoop to get the chicks!

Your kindness and caring mean so much!

Two beautiful babies. I hope they are not ‘sitting ducks’ tonight.

Lake Murray has the strobe lights on! Lucy is on the perch not in the nest.

Tears. There are two ospreys at Lake Murray this morning. The strobes worked!

Two other females on eggs being attacked regularly by GHOs need strobe lights installed now – Moraine Park where hatch is imminent and Iris at Montana.

I took time on Wednesday to decompress from the predation of Little at Lake Murray. That brave little soul. Sometimes we just have to go out into nature and that is what I did to rebalance myself. It has been a staggering year. Today’s post is going to be rather short. I hope that you will go outside and listen to the birds, stroke your favourite pet or pets, and marvel at the good in the world – it is out there. Sometimes we have to look hard to find it.

‘A’ writes, “I could not stop crying after watching that footage. Did you notice that Baby Bob seemed to have some kind of instinctive warning of the impending attack. He stirred and woke up, moved, snuggled back down, looked up again, and then swoop. Mum immediately woke and alerted, but all too late. Why weren’t the strobes on LAST NIGHT? Why have they not been used since the evening Lucy decided to sleep on the perch instead of on the nest with the osplets? And of course Baby Bob was still alive when taken, and I’m not sure how (or if) the owls really kill their prey or just ‘inhale’ it like a snake. I do love GHOs and their owlets are just the cutest things, so I tried to remind myself that mama and papa owl are only trying to feed their own baby (or babies), but it didn’t help much because I adored that osplet. From the moment he hatched, his courage and determination won my heart. He was a darling little man and I remain convinced he would have had the skills needed to have a great wild life as a fledgling. RIP Baby Bob. Another for the 2024 rainbow bridge memorial wall. Brutal.”

There is so much news in Bird World and today, we will look at a few nests.

First hatch at Poole Harbour for CJ7 and Blue 022. Congratulations.

Dylan and Seren welcomed Bob Two at Llyn Clywedog and Dylan made sure they had a nice trout dinner. Precious little ones. These are great parents with a good return rate and, sadly, a goshawk that lives in the forest who is brave.

In Scotland, Louis and Dorcha welcomed their second hatch! Bobbleheads everywhere! Now if we can keep the predators away from them that would be wonderful.

Thie was Big Bob’s first dinner at Loch Arkaig.

It is snowing in Montana. Poor Iris.

Colonial Beach have their third egg.

Forsythe have their third hatch. This nest was hit badly last year with lack of food during the June storm.

Smallie remains outside the scrape at Amersfoort. Adults place food inside scrape for food tug-o-war by oldest. Will they feed Smallie?

Oh, my goodness. This little one is determined to live. Smallie jumped back in. Now let’s get this baby some food.

Smallie was rewarded! We can all sleep a little better tonight.

Smallie in the corner sleeping with its siblings.

‘PB’ sends us an image of Smallie’s crop today! Lovely.

At Cal Falcons, Little got the prize.

Fledge at Duke Farms on Wednesday. It was Snickers!

All eyes at Denton Homes as we await the return of the eaglets. Was informed by gr8lakes that all three are good. One might have a sore leg. If that is the case then this was a real miracle. So grateful for the quick action by Denton Homes.

One great family taking care of another that could not care for themselves. The nest was checked for structural soundness and comfort. Hats off to Denton Homes! Babies returned and waiting for Mum and Dad to come to the nest. The goodness of these people brings the most joyful tears to my eyes. Send them a thank you in their comments if you have not done so!

One adult has been on the tree but none have returned to the nest. There were storms all over the area last night with the possibility of many other nests being lost.

‘JH’ sends us news about the Peregrine Falcon family in Harrisburg, PA – thanks ‘J’.

Falcon-WireDownload

If you follow the Grand Lake Ospreys, their first egg was laid today.

Does anyone follow the Blackbush at Old Tracadia Harbour Osprey nest?

https://www.youtube.com/live/_5Oyw-Za2xg?si=g7By8APN9C6RTIHP

Gorgeous Ruffie (fledged) and Tuffy (yet to fledge) at Moorings Park. Life is good for them. Wonderful parents.

What is happening at Patuxent nest 1? ‘H’ tells us, “5/22 – Patuxent River Park (nest one):  The three osplets are 15, 14, and 11 days old.  The oldest chick, ‘Big’ is very dominant, and aggressively beaks both of its siblings during feedings.  ‘Middle’ does manage to eat at most meals, but there are many meals where ‘Little’ does not get fed.  The days where Dad is able to catch at least one of his specialty giant goldfish, Little and Middle are both able to eat well.  There were 7 feedings on 5/22, and Little was observed to eat at least 69 bites of fish.  The latter part of meal #5 was blocked from our view, but it appeared that Little was eating.  When Little came into view, it was evident by his small crop that he indeed had eaten some fish.”

All three on the nest at Venice. Yes! We know they are safe and sound and are now fighting over fish deliveries. Excellent news.

We are on pip watch at Seaside!

Three sweeties at Maryland’s Western Shore Old Town Home are still alright.

The trio at Goitsche-Wildnis appear to be fine also.

‘H’ reports on Captiva: “5/22 –  Captiva ospreys: CO7 is 29 days old, and CO8 is 28 days old.  They are only 36 hours apart in age, but CO7 has always been the dominant one.  Today wasn’t quite as good a day as yesterday for the youngest osplet, but there were 7 feedings, and CO8 still managed to eat quite a lot of fish.  Thanks to Edie and Jack (Mom and Dad), their two chicks are doing very well.”

I sometimes give shout outs to organisations that are fundraising. Today I want to draw your attention to the Friends of South Australia. That is that wonderful group that provided the fish for the osplets at the Port Lincoln barge – the fairies that saved the lives of the babies in 2023-24. They build platforms, put lights under the water at Port Lincoln so that the adults can fish at night. They put trackers on the osplets like Ervie, Giliath, and Bradley. For $20 AUS you can help them continue their good work.

Thank you so much for being with me. It is 2200 in Winnipeg on a Wednesday night and I hope to wake up in the morning and see two osplets on the nest at Lake Murray. If so, then the lights worked. Now leave them on Lake Murray! You cannot – until they disperse -turn them off. We know this from the predation of goshawks against fledged osplets in the UK (Poole Harbour). Take care all. See you soon!

Thank you so much to the following for the notes, posts, images, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, JH, PB’, Lake Murray Ospresy, Poole Harbour Ospreys, Llyn Clywedog Ospreys, Geemeff, Montana Osprey Project, Heidi McGrue, Amersfoort Falcons, SK Hideaways, Duke Farms, Denton Homes, Falcom Cam news, Diane Lamberson, Moorings Park, Patuxent River Park nest 1, VGCCO, Pam Breci, Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home, Goitsfche-Wildnis, and Fran Solly.