11 March 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
Sunday was just the most gorgeous day. Blue sky and a warm +5. Great to get outside as much of that ice is now gone.
It was a great day to go for a walk, weather-wise. When we got to our destination, there were approximately nine deer, several of them quite young, in front of us. Then, an individual with a Golden Doodle let their dog off the lead, instructing them to chase the deer. The dog began barking loudly and running at the wildlife, at which time I stood and spread my arms, and told it to go back. This was not before the deer were quite frightened and began to run across a road in the park that was rather busy today. Now, why on earth would someone do this?
The feeders were busy. There were a couple of Pine Siskins and a Dark-eyed Junco, along with the normal group of sparrows, the two Blue Jays, and a female Downy Woodpecker. The Crows could be heard but not seen. Little Red and more Little Reds were eating peanuts along with Dyson. It is always so good too see her.
Dyson looks good!
Sunday’s news is that Jack and Edie have their first Osprey egg together at Captiva. That egg and all that bark have caused a bit of an issue.
‘H’ reports: “Well, at 14.49.39 both Jack and Edie left urgently due to an intruder, and Edie accidentally kicked the egg out of the bowl when she flew off (that’s exactly what Flo did to egg #1 last season). Jack had been trying to roll the egg back to the center for a while, and finally had to move some bark, then rolled the egg toward the center by 17.08.38, but the egg was still on top of palm fiber. Jack sat on the egg to incubate at 17.10. Then a short while later Jack stood to move a bothersome stick, and since the egg was on the fiber, it rolled outward again.”
The egg rolled out again and ‘H’ reports that Edie is incubating palm fibre with the egg being covered by the material to her right. If they could get that egg under Edie by the time she gets to hard incubation of her other eggs, I wonder if it would be viable.
The saga of the egg continued during the night as Edie and Jack tried desperately to get it back to the middle of the nest. ‘H’ reports that the wind finally took the covering off. Now the egg is free! Wonder what will happen now.
We have a first egg at the Decorah Goose Cam!
Thunder and Akecheta welcomed their second hatch. This makes my heart beat a little lighter. Of all the Channel Islands eagles, these two have the best luck with eggs and raising chicks. They will need it this year. These two are already bonking furiously. Thunder appeared to get fed up with this and went back to brooding the pair.
Thunder makes sure they both get fed. Gosh, these two produce feisty chicks. It is a bonk fest.
Everyone continues to root for Jak and Audacity and Jackie and Shadow. The positive energy and love going their way is tremendous. If only it could produce eaglets.
Audacity.
Jackie.
‘A’ reports on Tom and Angel: “That nest of Angel and Tom’s looks very much ready to receive a brace of eggs (not three yet Angel – Tom is a bit inexperienced still to feed a family of five, I fear).”
The battle for the nest at Dulles-Greenway continues. Rosa’s mate, Martin, disappeared in December. They had raised three eaglets – Pi, Pat, and Flora in 2023 to fledge and the nest collapsed. It was rebuilt. Rosa’s new mate, Lewis, did not help and she quit incubating the two eggs she had laid on the 23rd of February, 9 days after she laid the first egg. Did she just leave? was she killed by another female wanting the nest? Currently, Lewis is on the nest with a new female according to the latest reports. I have now placed Rosa on the Memorial Page for 2024.
Lewis and new female in nest.
It looks like Swampy and Meadow have a possum to practice their self-feeding. Later, a parent helps them. They are now in training! These two just about gave me a heart attack today when they were both leaning way over the edge of the nest!
E23 wants to fly and is doing really high hover moves.
More fish stacked at the Duke Farms nest. This new dad is fantastic! There has been some concern about Jersey, the smaller eaglet. Leaper is the oldest. Comments on the chat seem to indicate that Jersey has had some good feedings on Sunday.
Very windy at the nest of Jolene and Boone in Johnson City, TN on Sunday. Eaglets are Little John and JC. I have had some concerns here, but that little one came back to eat after some pretty good bonks.
It is not clear how much food the second hatch is getting at Bluff City yet. Yesterday, Franklin made sure that BC 25 was fed. The chicks are Oliver, the oldest, and Willow, the youngest. Their parents are Franklin and Frances.
Isn’t this Osprey beautiful? Frank Borja took it while watching a Saturday track and field meet in San Diego. We are looking for more information. Osprey has a blue colour band on the left leg, with a numeric, either 61 or 19, depending on which way it is to be read. Do you know this osprey number? We are searching and have sent a query to USFWS and reported the band sighting. The osprey looks to be in very good condition with a nice fish dinner.
‘J’ sent news that Ojai is banning glue traps! This is great news if the stops and on line retailers will stop selling them! Despite a ban in my city, I continued to find these for sale in big retail chains.
Sharon Dunne reporting on the TF chick and its visit with Mum.
Love TF chick? His parents? All the other albatross and seabirds? PLEASE stop using plastic. It is bad for humans (you can find endless articles about forever toxins used in plastic), and it is deadly for Royal Albatross chicks whose parents forage in the sea and fill their babies with plastic! What a garbage dump we have created on our planet. It is time to do something about this. Refrain from purchasing plastic items. Do not use plastic in your microwave. Tell your shops to stop buying cheap imported plastic items that are thrown away. Start investing in buying less but better. The world will thank you.
A National Geographic article on the forever chemicals hiding in your kitchen.
What Kills An Albatross?
“What kills albatross” by Tatters ✾ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Milda and Mr H are working fast and hard to get that nest ready for eggs! I am thinking around the 25th.
I honestly cannot get enough of the Port Lincoln Lads hanging out together. This is pretty awesome.
Arthur was working on the Cornell nest for a few minutes before the snow started Sunday evening.
Off he goes over Tower Road.
We love seeing our falcons out and about the urban areas staying safe.
Olivia and Oscar are now both back at Severna Park’s Osprey Platform.
Dr Sharpe has cancelled his retirement. Please note his comment about the build-up of DDT in the older eagles in the Channel Islands – and this would apply to other areas such as Big Bear Lake where DDT was sprayed extensively.
As many as half a million barrels of DDT were discovered leaking in the Channel Islands in 2020. Leaking. Hidden at a depth of 3000 feet so that no one could discover them – the ocean and inlets are garbage dumps used by humans. Out of sight but not out of mind and certainly harming the wildlife.
Imagine. 500,000 barrels. Leaking.
We love Jackie and Shadow. Everyone sat and hoped that with three eggs one of them would be viable. As we close in on the final days that egg #3 might be, let us all applaud this couple who have laid 14 eggs together with 5 of those eggs hatching. It is known that 2 or 3 of that 5 have survived into adulthood. One of those most of you will remember as Spirit from two years ago. I hope that Jackie and Shadow will have another opportunity to raise an eaglet, but if they don’t, they can sure teach us much about getting on with life in the face of adversity. Send them your love!
Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care everyone. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, photographs, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, FB, H, J’, Window to Wildlife, Decorah Goose Cam, IWS/Explore.org, FOBBV, Dulles-Greenway Eagle Cam, Loudoun Times-Mirror, Eagle Country, Lady Hawk, Duke Farms, Sylvia, Johnson City-ETSU, Bluff City-ETSU, Rollin’ Rog, Frank Borja, Ojai Raptor Center, Sharon Dunne, NZ DOC, National Geographic, Open Verse, Biruta Lapa, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Cornell RTH, Linda McIlroy, Lucille Powell, Dr Sharpe, and The Los Angeles Times.