17 November 2023
Good Morning Everyone,
Missey and I sit at the table (under the twinkling tree) in the Conservatory, watching the birds flit about at the feeder. There are Sparrows and European Starlings, and it looked like a few Crossbills and Junior, the Blue Jay. One of Dyson’s kits was here earlier. The big cotton ball flakes of snow have now stopped. The lilac bushes and shrubs look like they have been flocked like the old twinkle tree. Missey tried climbing into the branches. Last year, she and Lewis fit in there nicely – not this year!
Missey is very woolly and highly determined to lie down inside the container with the tree. It is ‘not’ going to happen.
Hope. Darling Hope.
Mamma goes to the vet tomorrow. Fingers crossed that there is nothing wrong. Calico just has not been herself…anyone who has a pet knows that each one is an individual, and you can usually sense when something is amiss. I did not with Lewis…I knew he wasn’t himself but did not know what was wrong. Continue to feel bad for that sweet little fellow. Miss him terribly. He was an energetic breath of amazing air racing through the house like his namesake, Lewis Hamilton.
Thanks to one of our readers, ‘EJ’, who wrote to me about their cat and the solution for its arthritis. Calico will get a heated cat bed, but to be fair to the other two, they will get heated beds, too. Indeed, that heating pad will make Calico’s legs feel much better. Thank you, EJ!
Oh, and Little Red is here, too. I can see him perched on the back fence, eating some snow. Fantastic. I always feel better when all the garden animals are accounted for…they made it through another day. With the City cutting down all the diseased Maple trees, the squirrels now have to cross the street using the pavement. They used to be able to go up one tree on one side and down a tree on the other. No longer. Soon, the Crows will lose their nesting tree, and the Woodpeckers will not have any old trees for their nests or to find insects. I do understand about diseases spreading from the trees. I wish there was a solution besides slow-growing replacements. Any ideas?
The best news of the day comes from Cathy Cook and Pam Allan, who filmed one of the sea eaglets on a branch near the Parramatta River! Tears. Just wonderful, joyous tears. What an incredible sight.
And another…
Jackie and Shadow were up early Thursday morning working on their nest. They usually lay their eggs in January and sometimes later. What will happen this year? They are the couple I am cheering for, along with Jak and Audacity. Yes, there is Gabby and V3 – those who did not get to raise eaglets last year. M15 and his new mate…all those with new mates. Send warm, warm wishes to them, but for those who were impacted by DDT and who tried so hard to raise a family like Sauces and Big Bear, my heart goes out to them.
SK Hideaways caught Jackie and Shadow working on Wednesday, too.
M15 stayed in the nest all night again trying to deter the GHOs.
Not sure where M15 is but the GHOs were back at the nest Thursday night.
V3 and Gabby were at the NE Florida nest. My goodness, they are pulling on those sticks! Then it started to rain.
V3 soaking wet protecting the nest he shares with Gabby.
Abby and Blaze were also moving sticks about at Eagle Country. Who is going to be nest after Superbeaks and then Captiva?
At the WRDC nest, a squirrel has its eye on the real estate. Ron doesn’t think that is going to happen!
Eagles working at Duke Farms.
Muhlady and Pepe are wet but they are keeping the two precious eggs set to hatch in three weeks warm and dry in Central Florida.
Some nesting at Decorah.
Cameras at KNF down until Monday so that they might recharge their batteries.
There is a contest on the chat at PLO to guess the gender of Giliath and #2. I am the odd one out of most…to me their behaviour is like the year we had Bazza, Falkey, and Ervie. A little bit of grief at the beginning and then settling down. Clearly the fish fairy has helped keep the ospreys alive – Mum and Dad, too – but I will stick with them both being male and accept lots of egg on my face when it is revealed they are both female! (Or will that change later when they see the osprey with a known female bird like Calypso???). Only DNA is 100%.
Banding will take place either the 5th, 6th, or 7th of December. #2 will get a name and one or both will hopefully get a satellite tracker.
The PLO kids are itchy with those feathers and they are anxiously awaiting breakfast.
10:14. No fish yet. Their legs are getting strong! There was some chatter about the colour of the leg bands. They are not red and blue for gender – the colour will depend on what the bander has in their box and could be different from any previously used. Remember, Falky had a yellow one, Bazza a bright red one, and Ernie’s was a very dark, almost black-green. The colour can peel off, sadly.
Nearing 2pm and no fish deliveries form Dad. The chat says that the fish fairy is on their way. Thank goodness! The chicks are amazingly civil despite hunger. I wonder if Dad has enough fish to give him the energy to go out and look for fish for the family sometimes. It is hard to know precisely what is happening. Is it weather? lack of fish? a combination of both? These are beautiful babies….incredible. They so remind me of the year of Bazza, Falkey, and Ervie. Gentle little souls.
The fish fairy arrived with 5 supplementary fish. Mum took the Red Mullet first! Everyone ate. Dad came and took a fish. He is hungry, too. Fishing for ospreys is a physical feat often requiring 13 or 14 dives (on average according to experts who have closely observed the raptors fishing) to get a single fish. The males require much energy. I am glad to see that Dad got a fish! He requires this to keep up his strength if he is to find food for the family.
Osplet nibbling on fish.
By 15:15 all the fish appear to be gone.
Ah, ‘A’ adds her thoughts on the gender of the osplets: “It’s hard to tell isn’t it? I’ve been saying for ages that from size, it looks like Giliath is a female and Little Bob is a male, but the temperaments are the exact opposite – Little Bob is the pushy one who starts nearly all of the (very limited) bonking that occurs on this nest and Giliath is SO laid back. Therefore, I would not be at all surprised to find that they are both male – Giliath is just older and can fit more food in. I don’t think they take any DNA when they band them, so we’ll still be guessing.”
Here are the times from the observation board. Note that Dad brought in no fish at all yesterday. Again, so thankful for the fish fairy. I think we all can imagine what this nest would be like without the food security of the fairies.
At Orange, feedings are taking place on the roof. This is awesome. That is some feat flying ‘up’ to the ridge! Impressed.
‘A’ sent us the time stamps from Orange: “RECAP 6:46:46 ledge-kangaroos; 8:27:24, 13:02:48 bond; 8:49-9.17 juvie calls; 8.55.21 ledge-adult flyup w/juvie; 16:27:43 D w/pigeon, quickly leaves with the prey. 17:27:06 D returns with a HUGE crop. TOWER: 12:29:31 juvie on roof, 13:18:01 roof walk to adult, 14:58:13, 15:57:23, 16:30:34 prey; 17:08:15 prey and feed. Query if prey at 15:24:49; 18:00:03 ridge walk.”
How exciting is THAT news? If at least one of the juvies at Orange has the strength to now fly up to the roof of the water tower (it’s Marri on the roof btw), then all they now have to perfect is landing on that small ledge. We may see a juvie back in the scrape within a week. Indigo made it back to the scrape relatively quickly (only about four days, from memory), and Marri sure is a big strong girl who may very well get up there soon.
Ever get a tingle in your arm from something so wonderful you can barely believe it? Spix Macaws breeding! They are known as the Blue Macaw and they are critically endangered.
“In 1995, conservationists and scientists embarked on a desperate attempt to save the world’s rarest bird, a blue-gray parrot called the Spix’s macaw. The bird had scarcely been spotted since scientists first described it in the early 19th century, and it had taken on an aura of mystery, making it irresistible to parrot lovers—and to poachers. “For well over a century we just had this very, very weak information that there was this kind of mythical, rather beautiful blue bird,” says Nigel Collar, a conservationist at BirdLife International. By the mid-1990s only a single individual remained alive in the wild, close to this dusty, small town in northeastern Brazil.”
“Spix’s Macaw” by Tim Green aka atoach is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Deer Hunters in New York are opting for non-lead ammunition.
My son tells me that many fishers are switching to tungsten fishing equipment instead of lead. Yahoo! Everyone switching over helps our wildlife.
Two calls for help in Winnipeg but – both could also apply to your local community! So please ask around. (Remember – clean sheets, old clean towels, bleach, laundry detergent, working tools…..all of these things the wildlife centres appreciate!). Keep this in mind if you are doing spring cleaning (or winter) or clearing someone’s home.
Check your cupboards. Did you buy food that your pet doesn’t like? This is your chance to help someone who cannot afford to get food for their beloved companion. Please help if you can.
Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their comments, notes, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog this morning: ‘A, EJ’, Cathy Cook, Pam Allan, FOBBV, SK Hideaways, SW Florida Eagle Cam, Lady Hawk, NEFL-AEF, Eagle Country, Duke Farms, Superbeaks, Tulsiducati, Darleen Hawkins, PLO, Penelope Clarke, Openverse, BirdGuides, Science, Cornell Chronicles, and Feed the Furbabies Canada.