Category Archives: San Jose Falcons

Second chick for Iris and Finnegan…Monday in Bird World

17 June 2024

Hello Everyone!

We hope that you had a lovely weekend. Sunday was beautiful in southern Manitoba. Blue skies with lots of wind to keep the mosquitoes away. We did the 10 km walk, the long path, around Oak Hammock Marsh. The Red-winged Blackbirds followed us. There were songbirds, ducks with ducklings, goslings, Pelicans, and Swans. There was even Killdeer. It was a glorious afternoon spent outside.

They were clearly ‘white’ but, for the sake of saving my arm today, I went with my phone and not the long lens. Bad decision. They look like Snow Geese or Swans to me and not Pelicans, but they were approximately 30 metres away. Please feel free to disagree! The image when cropped and blown up is too faint to tell accurately.

I really hope that you got to spend some time outside, away from the computer screen. Hearing the birds, listening to the wind, feeling the sun – it all makes everything better and it has been a particularly rough week in Bird World.

First news for Monday: We have a second chick at Hellgate for Iris and Finnegan!

I am going to start with the sadness so we can move on to the gladness.

Geemeff sends us the report for The Woodland Trust and the Osprey nests at Loch Arkaig:

Daily summary Sunday 16th June 2024

Sadly, there’s only one story today – the death of little bob3 at 24 days old. The youngest chick succumbed to weather, lack of food, and stress from aggression by the middle chick. Although s/he did get some fish today, it was too little too late and two days of cold wet weather plus being left uncovered in a downpour this morning when too weak to crawl under mum was too much for the chick to overcome. It will be interesting to see how the other two chicks react to having one less competitor, but it looks like chick1 is already working out strategies to prevent chick2 getting all the food. Louis brought five fish to the nest today, taking his tally to two hundred and seven. No activity on Nest One except for a little songbird who pootled around for a few minutes. It was very dreich today but tonight’s forecast of partly cloudy with light winds and 9°C temperatures is slightly better. 

RIP little chick three: 24th May – 16th June 2024

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.42.37 (03.13.33); Nest Two  23.20.40 (03.51.29)

Watch the livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/kT2dGq0-2zs N2 Fish number one, small whole trout – C3 is looking weak  05.06.42

https://youtu.be/hlazHmk6Q64  N2 Fish number two, headless large trout – C3 gets a few bites 05.52.19 

https://youtu.be/boDKXOe820U N2 Fish number three, headless large trout – C1 gets a good feed, C3 doesn’t move 09.40.52

https://youtu.be/n7QT7THpK3M N2 Fish number four, whopper headless trout – has C3 lost its fight? 13.44.49 

https://youtu.be/zW4F9G1h224 N1 A little songbird visits 14.03.50 (zoom)

https://youtu.be/zN-GUwN08iM  N2 RIP Little bob3: the last day of Chick Three 05.54 – 19.02

https://youtu.be/ElWA0SIE6yM N2 Fish number five, whopper trout. C2 immediately moves in 21.29.27 

https://youtu.be/dCQU4Mrm4F0 N2  N2 Chick1 has a cunning plan to thwart C2 21.40.45

A thesis on osprey nest mortality.

rettew-thesis-Osprey-aggressionDownload

Geemeff’s tribute to little C3 at Loch Arkaig.

And now for the giggle of the day which comes form ‘A’:

In Sydney, the eagles have been on the nest this morning (in fact, Lady is there at the moment). The magpies chose Saturday to start mating all over Melbourne. Nature strips, medians, backyards. It’s avian pornography wherever you look. Even the noisy mynahs are joining in (not with the magpies, obviously!) so it seems it is about a week or two until egg-laying begins in southeastern Australia. We are keeping an eye/ear out for our falcons in Collins Street – they must be around their scrape by now if they are planning to use it this year. 

It is time for some good news! Smallie is flying. ‘PB’ reports that he was seen sitting on a bicycle and was flying back and forth to the nest. Smallie was the much loved Amersfoort tiny, tiny falcon with the humongous siblings. Many thought Smallie didn’t have a chance. The parents kept feeding and Smallie, by his/her own nature didn’t give up. She/he got out on that scrape and ate anything they could. Now Smallie is flying! Tears.

‘PB’ reports that Smallie flew off the ledge like a pro! There he goes!

Another tragedy that has turned out alright. Both Decorah North eaglets are flying. Their nest collapsed Sunday morning and it was feared one might be grounded and couldn’t get up. But now they are together on a branch – the last news that I had. Mr and Mrs DNF are incredible parents and they will make sure these two are well looked after! No worries there.

The power on the camera at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum went down at 0530 on Sunday morning after the storms and rain went through the area.

All four osplets at Field Farm are doing great.

And smile. All four at Poole Harbour are doing fantastic, too. Little Mini is turning into a Reptile!

Reports from ‘H’:

6/16, Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  The third baby hatched at approximately 14:04.  Louise’s new mate, Harvie, has taken good care of her this season, helping with security, providing fish, and incu-brooding.  We know that he’ll be a great Dad.

6/16, Patuxent osprey nest:  There were six fish brought to the nest.  It wasn’t the best day for Little, but he still did okay.  There was no ‘whopper’ fish that would allow for a prolonged private feeding for Little.  S/he ate well at 0752 and 1237, but was only able to eat for about 9 minutes at the last four meals of the day.

6/16 Mispillion Harbor osprey nest:  Della and Warren, and their two 21 and 20-day-old chicks are doing great.  Warren is a fishing machine, and it seems like these two osplets are always eating. 


6/16, Captiva osprey nest:  It was another fish-filled day…and as you know, fish make ospreys happy…so everyone was happy!  There were seven fish brought to the nest by Edie and Jack, and Jack delivered five of them!  Oh, my goodness, what a great Dad…tirelessly providing for his family despite being injured.

We are on fledge watch for the last of the San Jose falcons! And SK Hideaways shows us how silly these kids are.

Food fight at San Jose!

Three beautiful babies at Cowlitz PUD protected by those fish grates by the PUD.

Three beautiful babies enjoying a fish dinner at Osoyoos.

More good news. The two Eastern Imperial Eaglets of Altyn and Nova in the RU nest appear to be very healthy.

I continue to hope that the two Golden Eaglets in the Estonian nest 2 will survive. They appear to both being doing well, also.

There was some concern about the osplet of Iris and Finnegan. It had gotten itself upside down in the nest, but that drama, thankfully, has passed and the chick is right side up again!

‘A’ comments: “Finn is still the perfect partner, feeding Iris and bringing in fish for her and the youngster. He just loves being on the nest when Iris is feeding the chick, which he is absolutely besotted with. He is fascinated and delighted by the little one and takes every opportunity to see it. He is very careful around the chick now, using his wings to keep his balance and ensure that he does not stumble or step on the chick – a major improvement on his initial clumsy clomping around the nest. 

Iris was a lot better today, feeding the osplet more often and generally looking a lot more alert and active. I wonder whether she was very tired from the first hatch,she had three nights (two that were particularly disturbed) when she was awake for much of the night while the first chick was hatching. She was aware on that first night of the activity beginning in one of her eggs, and over the following two nights she had a hatching egg, and then on the third night, a just-hatched chick. She had very little sleep, and she really did appear lethargic to me over the past couple of days. But today, she appeared much more energetic 

Meanwhile, that osplet is MONSTROUS. Surely it cannot possibly be only five days old. It looks twice that age, and it is growing so fast, it appears to be entering the dinosaur phase already. I am extremely nervous about a potential second hatch. This size discrepancy is ridiculous. Surely a hatch as tiny as this second one is likely to be has absolutely no chance against a sibling literally ten times its size. And I am not entirely sure Iris has the energy to give a new very tiny chick. Certainly, Finn will do his best to support Iris, and I love the way he feeds her on the nest. She sure is demanding! I never saw her with Stanley, but if he also fed Iris, then perhaps it is Iris who is dictating the behaviour of the males in her life. It is most unusual behaviour in my experience. Certainly, we have seen males occasionally offer a mouthful to a female on the nest, but I have never seen feeds of this length and this regularity. She is being feted by this handsome young man. Our Iris sure is an impressive cougar. “

And the news is still good. Richmond of SF Golden Gate Audubon is a Grand -Dad. Robin B caught Lassen and his family on video for everyone.

Sharon Dunne reports that both Royal Cam chick parents were in today! What luck!

Sara and Sota at the Sun Coast Osprey nest had two fledges this past week. Congratulations! (screen capture by Lucille Powell)

The two chicks at the WDNU Tower in South Bend, Indiana appear to be doing well. No rewind so it is hard to catch a great image of the entire family!

Charlie and his new mate at Charlo Montana have three beautiful osplets. Mum is not too happy with the delivery of ‘something’ – it certainly wasn’t a fish! She uses her beak to push it to the rails.

There are many benefits to having only one osplet to feed. Parents do not use up as much energy. There is normally enough fish for three. The Only Bob usually grows big and strong. Boulder County is a good example.

Only Bob at Manton Bay is doing fantastic. ‘She’ – seriously I believe this is a nice big female – will be ringed this week. Blue 33 and Maya doing well after Maya’s earlier sickness. (I still owe you the entry for Manton Bay. I have not forgotten. The deaths and tragedies seem to have overtaken everything lately).

After the issues at the Dahlgren nest, Sandpoint’s platform is starting to worry me. Old fish, new fish. Baby gets fed.

There are growing concerns for C3 at the Bridge Golf Club. We have already lost Mini Little to siblicide and it looks as if we could lose Little on this nest. It would appear that the supply of fish might only be enough for two chicks, not four and maybe not three.

The two osplets at Ferris State University have all their beautiful juvenile plumage. One egg DNH.

The trio at Radford University are at the same stage as those at Ferris in their plumage development. Aren’t these babies beautiful?

Two little sweeties at Blackbush. Hoping those eggs continue to be DNH.

Is it dangerous to be a fledgling eagle parent? Ask Akecheta!

There are so many people who have helped wildlife. At the moment I am completely behind Isabella Tree and rewinding. I am hopeful that what she has done at Knepp Farm might translate into urban and suburban gardens. After adding more trees to our property, we added more annuals to attract the pollinators. Every little bit helps. You can do it with a single pollinator friendly potted plant!

Conservationist-Isabella-Tree-‘Rewilding-is-vital-for-the-UKs-agricultural-future-Food-The-GuDownload

Thank you so much for being with me today. Have a great week. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, J, MP, PB’, Geemeff for The Woodland Trust, Sea Eagle Cam, Amersfoort Falcons, Raptor Resource Project/Explore, MN Landscape Arboretum, Field Farm, BoPH, Patuxent River Park, FortisExshaw, Window to Wildlife, Mispillion Harbour, SK Hideaways, Cowlitz PUD, Osoyoos Ospreys, Eastern Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Eagle Club of Estonia, Montana Osprey Cams, SF Bay Ospreys, Robin B, Sharon Dunne, Sun Coast Ospreys, Lucille Powell, WDNU Tower, Charlo Montana, Boulder County, LRWT, Sandpoint Ospreys, Bridge Golf Club, Ferris State University, Radford University, Netflix Memories, and The Guardian.

Thursday in Bird World

13 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I had been saving that tiny bottle of champagne for Jackie and Shadow’s hatch, but Iris having a chick after so long, well, it really is a time for celebration! So here’s to Iris and Finnegan and to their new baby! May they all live long and strong lives with lots of fish and no intruders.

So many nests got ignored today because of the happiness for Iris and Finnegan and the hope that we might get a glimpse of this little miracle chick. I will continue to provide the posts by Dr Greene who must be simply over the moon today with excitement.

Finnegan and Iris are very devoted. He has been so protective. I hope he doesn’t forget his other role is Daddy Door Dash with all those fish dinners. Look how proud he is on that perch protecting his new ‘family’.

This baby is strong and hungry and Iris and Finnegan are ready with the fish!

What a gorgeous family. Finnegan feeds Iris and Iris feeds their chick. Gosh, does this remind you of Stanley? Iris must feel like the Queen that she is. Isn’t this wonderful?

The tiniest bites of fish go into the baby’s mouth.

Waking up on their second day of parenthood – Iris and Finnegan and little Miracle baby.

The pair at Charlo Montana are not giving much away but there was a nice pip in an egg on Tuesday.

Welcome, little one!

And now there are two at Charlo!

There are two cute little osplets at the Blackbush Beach Osprey Platform!

All is well for our Little Mini at Field Farm.

At Loch Arkaig, C2 finally allows C1 and C3 to have some food! This female reminds me of Zoe. What do I mean by that? Well, she is full to the top of her crop and more and doesn’t want to share the fish with her two siblings. Someone asked if it is too late for siblicide. No, it is not. The worst behaviour begins during the Reptile phase and should end as the chicks get their feathering. We will wait and see. Louis is an excellent provider and there is has never been any concern that all three would not fledge. C2 just needs to ‘cool her jets’.

C2 reminds me too much of Zoe from Port Lincoln in 2022.

Slow motion video of the owl attack directly on Dorcha last night.

Only Surving Bob, Middle, at Lake Murry is a beautifully plumaged osplet. So big. Thank you Lake Murray for all the efforts to save this one.

CJ7 makes sure her precious Little Mini is being fed. Things are going very well on this nest. No concerns. The osplets are all passing through the Reptile stage and getting their beautiful juvenile feathers.

Growing concerns for Jack, the male at the Captiva Osprey Nest, mate of Edie, who disappeared for several days and returned with an injured leg. Window to Wildlife says if he can be captured they would take him to rehab.

At the Golden Eagle nest 2 in Estonia, the food was not as plentiful on the 12th of June as it was when the fox cub came in. Portions of a crane leg and a small bird. Both eaglets were fed but the second hatch is hungry and calling for food. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better hunting day for the family.

It is a miserable day for the Golden Eagle nest in Bucovina, Romania. We must remember that weather plays a significant role in the lives of our raptors (as well as the songbirds that visit our gardens). Small mammals get shelter and cannot be caught for food. If the weather persists, chicks can die. The nests get damp and the babies can get lung issues and also die. Life can be extremely challenging. Heavy rains are not just going to impact Florida. They have already accounted for the deaths of hundreds of storks in Europe and for some of our wee ospreys. Send good wishes to all nests – and thankfully there is some food on this nest!

Sometimes I fail to mention this nest. It is one that is wonderful to watch – Llyn Clywedog. Dylan is a master fisher and the reservoir is stocked with fish. He loves to bring trout to the nest! Seren Blue 5F is an amazing female. She winters in The Gambia and can be found on the same post year after year.

Three osplets transitioning into the Reptile phase at Cowlitz PUD.

The Great Bay trio are getting their tail feathers and juvenile plumage.

It is remarkable how fast these little ones grow. The surviving two osplets at Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home are doing fantastic. Just look at that plumage.

Triplets at Eschenbach nest have their plumage and are doing fantastic.

The newly hatched chick at Finnish Osprey nest #3 died right after hatch. This was the first hatch for Nuppu and Ahti. Condolences to all.

The trio at the Goitzsche-Wildnis platform in Germany are also doing well, just like Eschenbach.

Big Red heads to the nest to feed the two fledglings at Cornell.

The San Jose chicks still have to fledge and they are getting antsy.

It is mayhem at San Jose!

The three chicks on the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum nest are still alive. It rained Wednesday morning and then it was a humid heat. The babies need food to get hydration. They are often left uncovered in the blazing heat of the MidWest.

Dad was in with a small fish after 1500.

Keo and Keke are taking good care of their surviving hatch, River, at the Sandpoint osprey platform. Roan passed away on Tuesday the 11th due to a nest accident. Condolences to this family for this tragic loss due to wind and then just bloody bad luck. Fingers crossed for this baby. It appears that the remaining egg will not hatch.

Lots of fish deliveries to the Bridge Golf Course osprey platform on Wednesday. Everyone ate well!

The rains that are hitting Florida are at Moorings Park. Both of our fledglings, Tuffy and Ruffie are on the nest, hoping to get a fish dinner. It would appear that one had an early fish and the other found a fish on the nest. Do not ask me which one is which! They are both strong osplets.

Sunnie Day captures the changes in the growth of the trio at Crooked Lake, Iowa.

The weather is now having a huge impact on the Florida nests. ‘PB’ says that Captiva is in for 7″ of rain in two days. This is going to have a very negative impact on that Captiva nest coupled with Jack’s injury. Send them your good wishes!

‘PB’ sent a late video made by Toni Hoover – I took screen captures to show you this amazing little falcon. It took prey from one of the sisters on the grate and jumped and pulled it into the box to eat. This kid is a survivor.

‘H’ reports:

6/12 Fortis Exshaw osprey nest:  Congratulations to Louise and her new mate Harvie, on the hatch of their first baby.  There are two more eggs to go.  

6/12 Captiva osprey nest:  The stormy weather continued for the second day.  Fishing for Edie and Jack has been difficult, and Jack has an injured left leg as well.  The last time the 50 and 48-day-old osplets had eaten was the evening of 6/10. Edie was out fishing most of the day when weather permitted.  Jack was not seen all day, until 1634 when he landed in the nest, dropped off a small live pinfish, and he quickly left.  His leg still looked swollen, and the foreign object was still protruding from it.  Edie was out, and the youngsters did not act quickly enough to secure the fish.  The small fish wiggled in between some sticks and disappeared.  It’s too bad they were not able to get a meal from Jack’s efforts.  We had not seen Edie for hours, but finally at 2033 Edie arrived with a partial catfish.  Darling grabbed and mantled the fish, but Darling is not adept at self-feeding.  Ding soon managed to take the fish from Darling, and s/he ate all but the tail.  The rain and wind is expected to persist intermittently for the next several days.  Everyone is hoping that Edie will be able to deliver a fish this morning, and that she will feed Darling.

6/12, Forsythe osprey nest: Oscar delivered 10 fish to the nest, Including 9 fish in the morning, but most of the fish were on the small side.  The first meal was peaceful between the three remaining siblings, and they all ate.  After that, the eldest osplet ‘Big’ ruled the meals, although ‘Middle’ prevented ‘Little’ from eating at times as well.  Little only managed to eat 80 bites of fish at meals two through six.  The seventh fish, brought at 0922 was a large whole fish, and Little managed to eat 96 bites of fish at that meal.  Little did not eat at meal #8.  The ninth fish was delivered at 1032, and Little ate 55 bites of fish.  Ten hours went by without a fish delivery.  Then, Oscar dropped off a headless fish at 2022, and Little was shut out of that meal.  Overall, Little did well today, thanks to the efforts of his dad. 

6/12 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: The first fish of the day at 1009 was a medium sized whole fish.  Twenty minutes into the feeding, Little managed to work his way over to the other side of Mom to be fed, and managed to eat a total of 32 bites at that meal.  The next fish was delivered by Dad at 1214, and was a small whole fish.  Little was not able to make it to the table.  More than five hours passed, and we were worried that Little may not get any more to eat.  Then at 1753, Dad showed up with one of his huge goldfish that provided for a 90 minute feeding.  Little’s first bite of fish was not until 1847.  Little was fed for 30 minutes and he ate 158 bites of fish.  Go Dad!

McEuen Park osprey nest:  All four eggs have hatched, and there are now four little osplets!

We do not have them where I live but there are some breeding pairs of Porchards in the UK that stay.

Birdwatch-pochards-are-one-of-Britains-rarest-breeders-Birds-The-GuardianDownload

Just another horrible way that humankind is destroying habitat for wildlife and especially our feathered friends.

Rare-birds-at-risk-as-narco-gangs-move-into-forests-to-evade-capture-–-report-Birds-The-GuardianDownload

Thank you to those who offered to watch the Osoyoos Osprey cam! The stream went offline Wednesday morning around 10am. It is now 1623 nest time and it is still down. Keep checking on YouTube!

Thank you for being with me today. What a grand celebration. We wait to see when Iris and Finnegan’s second egg hatches. I hope soon. This first one is strong! Take care all. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, H, PB’, Montana Osprey Project, Geemeff, Montana Osprey Cams, Charlo Montana, Blackish Beach Ospreys, Field Farm, Lake Murray, BoPH, Sunnie Day, Heidi McGrue, Eagle Club of Estonia, Bucovina Wild, Llyn Clywedog, Cowlitz PUD, Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home, Eschenbach, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Goitzsche-Wildnis, Cornell Bird Lab, SK Hideaways, MN Landscape Arboretum, Sandpoint Ospreys, Bridge Golf Club, Moorings Park, The Weather Authority, Toni Hoover and Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Fortis Exshaw, Window to Wildlife, Forsythe Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, McEuen Park, and The Guardian.