Category Archives: Stellar sea eagle

More Osprey eggs…Sunday in Bird World

28 April 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

When I set off to check on the Stellar’s Sea Eagle at our local zoo, it was windy, and the temperature in Winnipeg was 5 degrees C. The clouds parted, and the dreary day hinted at in the early hours soon gave way to bright blue skies and sun. It was glorious. I am so grateful to be able to get out and about exploring. It is never taken for granted. Each day is a unique treasure filled with discoveries.

At the far end of the zoo in the Asian area is one very handsome Stellar’s Sea Eagle. I love standing and watching him. Today they were cleaning out a part of his huge enclosure and he was just perched paying no mind. I wonder how long this beautiful creature has lived in a cage?

You might recall that a Stellar’s Sea Eagle landed on the eastern coast of Canada in November 2021. The huge eagle eventually travelled to Maine before returning to Canada. How it got from its regular home in Russia is unknown.

Birders-scramble-for-rare-sighting-of-Stellers-sea-eagle-in-small-N.S.-community-CBC-NewsDownload

Red-tail Hawk

The male Reeve’s Pheasant has the longest feather of any bird globally at 2.4 metres. The layers and layers of curved feathers are quite amazing. I was mesmerised by the limited colour pattern and how using only black, white, and a golden orange-yellow nature created such spectacular plumage to attract a female!

A lone Grey Wolf captured a lot of attention.

I spotted a pair of Eastern Phoebes in the trees. They are classified as ‘flycatchers’ and are one of the first birds to arrive in Manitoba in the spring, normally in March. They depart in September after making their mud nests and raising their young. They incubate four to eight pure white eggs for 16 days. They normally have two broods every breeding season. They are gorgeous little birds with a grey-green-slightly brown head (like a light olive khaki colour) and back with creamy white underparts tinged with a slight yellow-green-grey. Their bill is black and distinctive.

Hugo Yugo is having a bit of a rest before getting into more mischief. She loves to carry objects in her mouth, including the tub stopper, any earrings that get left out, keys, bags of cookies, necklaces, pens and pencils, cables for computers and cameras, and earbuds. Nothing appears to be safe these days. She also likes to hide them.

Gosh, I adore this little ginger. She is such a character – there is never a dull moment and I cannot imagine, for a single second, my life without her.

You will remember agonising over whether Tuffy at Moorings Park would live or die. Today, almost fully feathered (if not completely), Tuffy is a prime example of why you never give up hope for these little ones. I think that it is also a good example of why you do not turn away. We will never appreciate the struggles that the raptors have if we do not hang in there with them through the good, the bad, and the sheer ugly.

Look at Tuffy’s eyes light up when he sees a fish dinner. What a darling.

‘H’ captured that feeding on video for us. Please have a look. You can watch this on YouTube by clicking the YT link at the bottom left.

Many do not make it. In 2023, out of 339 eggs ‘H’ and I monitored, fourteen died from siblicide. In comparison, eighteen starved to death due to circumstances not related to siblicide and 36 did not hatch.

Asha and Brodie have their third egg at Loch Garten. Proud Mum shows off those eggs!

Aran and Elen have their third egg at 0807 on the 28th – this morning – at Glaslyn. Aran was on the perch giving support.

Mrs O at Tweed Valley laid her third egg on the 27th.

Johnny and June have their second egg at Fenwick Island in Delaware at 0810 on the 28th.

The Ravens took the eggs of Milda and Hugo ending another sad year for this gorgeous Latvian female White-tail eagle. She is now free to find food and not sit incubating and starving – and allowing her health to deteriorate.

There is an egg in the nest of the Lesser Spotted Eagles, Anna and Andres. I have included the link Sassa Bird provided.

This is one of the most interesting articles about the Lesser Spotted Eagle and should alert any potential viewers to the fact that under normal conditions, if there is a second hatch, it is killed by the first even if there is plenty of food present. (I have posted it previously). It is the definition difference between siblicide – the killing of siblings when there is only food for perhaps one – and enough food but the first hatch, the dominant bird, kills the second for no apparent reason.

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E23 is still home and still learning about those annoying small birds.

Edie feeding the two osplets at Captiva. It will be easier when they are not bobbling!

The male brought in a fresh fish at the Frenchman’s Creek osprey platform. He called the female several times while one of the osplets played tug-o-war with the fish. When the female did not come, he began to feed the chick/s. This is good news! These chicks will, despite everything, probably fledge. Thank goodness.

There are three eggs at the Radford University osprey nest in Bradford, Virginia. Thanks, ‘PB’ for mentioning this nest!

This is the link to their streaming cam:

Still snowing at some of the osprey nests in Finland.

Lots of shift changes at the nest of Big Red and Arthur – with two wiggling chicks underneath!

Meal before bedtime. Arthur has the pantry nicely stocked.

There is quite a wiggly nest full at Cal Falcons and everyone is hungry!

Gosh, we have fallen in love with Archie.

‘A’ writes, “

dinner at Cal Falcons was a lengthy affair, beginning at around 17:58 and still continuing more than 25 minutes later, with mum e-chupping to encourage the chicks to open their beaks just one more time. The two youngest chicks were at the front of the pack for this feeding, and were fed first, which was great, as the youngest is often stuck at the back and can miss out altogether at some feedings. Annie is very diligent about feeding all four, though, most of the time. At this feeding, she brought in a very large piece of prepared prey (she was gone about five minutes, unusually, and of course Archie came in to keep an eye on the eyases while she was gone – he is ADORABLE). 

By 18:23, the younger ones at the front appear to have got a second wind and are again accepting bites of food. Annie is amazing. She has been feeding for 25 minutes, and remember this lot is under a week old. I cannot imagine how much work poor mum is going to be doing feeding these four over the next four weeks or so, until they begin to learn to self-feed. And so far, dad has been fantastic in terms of ensuring a pantry full of delicious well-prepared meat for the family. But of course that load is going to increase dramatically week by week, as these four grow rapidly. So both parents are really going to have their work cut out for them. I do wish them both well in this huge endeavour. Annie is not used to raising four, and we have no idea of Archie’s parental experience, if any. It will be a big task for them both. Annie is still feeding at 18:25. By 18:27, there are finally no more takers and Annie eats a bit herself before taking the carcass (not much edible remains) back to the pantry. We can hearing Archie vocalising in the background – he sounds displeased though I have no idea why (and whether that vocal is indeed one of displeasure, but it is certainly very much like the one Annie uses when she is ‘warning’ that she is not happy with or about something or someone). But surely, after that thorough a feeding, all four eyases will sleep with happy tummies tonight. “

Two little hungry osplets at Captiva.

Nesting material is finally coming in to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum nest. It even looked like Dad was telling Mum to incubate the egg that she kept wanting to cover up – it was the egg left out in the rain and uncovered on Friday.

‘AE’ shares news of Monty and Hartley. “From 6:05pm last night and until 6:38am today Monty was the one doing the overnight incubation duty. Hartley had visited the nest ledge. Monty never got up from the eggs so Hartley took herself over to the sunshade where she spent the entire night!”

Betsy and Frederick have three eggs. There was a wee break in the incubation to fix up some rails. Good idea!

Screen captures of Iris and Louis from Saturday. There was concern over an injury to Louis’s chest. You can see what could b e the injury on the chest close to the left wing. I realise that everyone in the world would like Iris to have a dedicated mate, but I don’t want Louis to be injured and possibly die due to an infection if that is a deep gouge with a piece of wood in it as some believe. Starr is at the baseball park, and if she doesn’t have eggs, she will soon. We know what will happen if Iris lays eggs, and that is fine – she will be free from the duties of raising chicks, which I clearly believe has lengthened her life. She eats well and cares for herself year-round. Most research indicates that female raptors lose at least 30% of their body weight, raising babies.

Swoop and the new female at Dunrovin are working on the nest. Look at that long strip of nesting material! An intruder was about and Swoop was in the nest quickly in protective mode.

There is some concern over the GH owlet at Wolf Bay. It has been slightly lethargic most of the day.

‘AE’ got a great screen capture of JBS20’s feet! She said, “Gotta love those feet! I never appreciated orange bird feet so much until I started watching bird cams. He’s waiting for breakfast to be delivered.”

Prey delivered, JBS20 eventually arrives to eat leftovers.

Swampy appears to be doing just fine since he fell from the nest to the branch and fledged and returned. Everyone keep sending him good wishes.

Have you been watching the FOLFAN eagles? Here is the latest.

All three eaglets at Little Miami Conservancy are doing fantastic. Look at the nice crop on the third hatch.

The two eaglets at the ND-LEEF nest both went to bed with full crops. I did not notice any aggression at the last feeding of the day. They both look like they are doing well.

I have written ‘R’ who is observing the UFlorida-Gainesville Osprey nest of Talon and Stella. It looked to me that the two osplets had only one feeding on Saturday and that it was hot. Mum shaded them, but was on and off the nest. Is the Dad missing? One osplet, the third hatch, has already died of siblicide. At one time, Talon was bringing in plenty of fish. Something is amiss. Will another so-let’s life be in jeopardy? or both?

Bradley still loves eating his Puffer Fish on the natal nest!

The thawing of the permafrost is going to have a significant impact on birds and their migration. Many that travel to the UK for the winter from Scandinavia, Greenland, and Siberia, may stop migrating. What else is happening with the permafrost thaw?

Climate-change-is-impacting-bird-migration-patterns.-Heres-what-we-know-CBC-NewsDownload
The-Changing-Tundra-and-What-It-Means-for-Birds-American-Bird-ConservancyDownload
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Another deliberate killing of a raptor – this time a Red Kite.

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Incubation continues at Great Bay Ospreys.

Your smile for the day comes from the Venice Golf and Country Club Osprey platform where the nest is full. Aren’t those three gorgeous in their juvenile plumage? The oldest is almost as big as the female.

Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care. We want you back with us soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, observations, videos, articles, images, posts, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, AE, Geemeff, H, MP, PB’, CBC News, Moorings Park Ospreys, Heidi McGrue, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Tweed Valley Osprey Project, RSPB Loch Garten, LDF, Sassa Bird, Research Gate (B-U Meyburg), Frenchman’s Creek, Radford University Osprey Cam, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Cornell RTH Cam, Cal Falcons, SK Hideaways, Window to Wildlife, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, San Jose City Hall Falcon Cam, OBX Osprey Cam, Montana Osprey Project, Dunrovin Ranch, Wolf Bay, JB Sands Wetlands, Eagle Country, American Eagle Foundation, Little Miami Conservancy, ND-LEEF, UFlorida-Gainesville, Port Lincoln Ospreys, American Bird Conservancy, BirdGuides, Raptor Persecution UK, and VGCCO.

E22’s late Sunday afternoon crop…it is Monday in Bird World

6 February 2022

Good Morning Everyone.

More than 3600 people were watching. Around the world, tears of joy, amidst a strange almost disbelief, were flowing as M15 fed his youngest eaglet, E22. With each bite, 22’s crop seemed to get bigger and bigger. It was a sight that we have not seen since last week before his Mum, Harriet, disappeared after leaving the nest in the late afternoon on Thursday. We hoped for the best, prepared for the worst and when everything good came together just after 1600, none of us could hold back the joy.

The day did not start as hopeful. The pictures below are from the first fish feeding. 21 got all of that feeding but there was half a fish left on the nest. 22 managed to peck at some of the fish left on the nest.

22 even sat on it trying to get food. He is just not old enough and he was not strong enough to clasp down and pull out the fish but it did appear that he got some flakes.

That half fish was left on the nest. M15 flew in with another fish. He fed 21 til its crop was about to pop. Because 21 had eaten and eaten and eaten earlier, when it got full this time, it went over to the rim of the nest and went to sleep. E21 was watching and listening. He moved around to the bottom of the nest close to Dad. Dad leans in to offer 22 food. 22 is very frightened and he is starving. He used the technique of snatch and grab, snatch and grab in order to get as much fish into his body as he can in a short period of time all the while worrying that 21 will come over and start beaking him. But, it didn’t happen. M15 coaxes his youngest eaglet. The longer 22 is fed – and it was a long feeding in excess of 14 minutes (was it 20?), 22 begins to relax more, moves closer to Dad. M15 beams. He has done his job. Both of his eaglets are alive. Harriet would be proud.

I videotaped the first 5 minutes of the feeding. See how he has moved around the nest and how M15 brings food to his baby. Most of you will remember that M15, in the past, had always managed to help the underdog on the nest. I always wondered if maybe he wasn’t that underdog himself. Today, though, he pulled the Rabbit out of the Hat and created a miracle. E22 finished the feeding with a large crop. He will not die today! — And 22 has the instincts of a survivor. Eating anything on the nest regardless of what it is – fur or bone. Eagles have to do that in the wild. Watching and waiting. Sometimes the opportunity doesn’t arrive. It did today at 16:03.

Here is 5 minutes of that very long feeding!

What a difference when 22 feels ‘safe’ enough to get up close with Dad and eat. You can almost sense that 22 has forgotten about 21 fast asleep on the other side. That fish must have tasted delicious!

The man of the hour, M15.

The sun is setting on M15 and the Es in Fort Myers Florida. It will be the 4th night without Harriet. Send this family all your good wishes.

M15 also had to defend the nest. Lady Hawk caught it! Thanks ‘A’.

There is a lovely article with some of the history of the Pritchett eagles.

Harriet-the-eagle-has-gone-missing-Search-continues-for-iconic-SWFL-starDownload

We must wait and have patience. It is hard to do. 21 is not going to immediately be nice and let 22 eat. Do not expect that. 22 on the other hand has some food and some strength and did, indeed, get enough food for the next 2 days. M15 also needs to eat. He has to be both Mum and Dad – a big job and he needs to care for himself.

Making News:

The Stellar’s Eagle is back in Maine.

Three Kakapo are celebrating hatch day today – with three names!

From the Nests:

There is happiness in other part of Bird World and today, we are going to focus on them, for the most part.

Zoe seems to be moving! If the fishing were good at the ponds that Marge located, would Zoe leave? So what is up with our girl? Now I just wonder if Mum and Dad shouldn’t get the fish ready for their girl?

Rosa and Martin at the Dulles-Greenway Bald Eagle nest in Virginia have their first egg of the 2023 season. Congratulations!

More first eggs – this time at the Osprey platform at the Venice Golf and Country Club in Florida.

At the Webster, Texas Bald Eagle nest Ringo is now out of the egg cup and crawling up to the table. Very good, Ringo!

It is always a good day at Superbeaks. Muhlady has brought in a huge fish in the last few minutes and Pearl and Tico have eaten well all morning (it is 1400 in Florida on Sunday). Just look at those beautiful wings. I hesitated to watch this nest and am so glad I did. It is on the top of my ‘to watch list’ for 2023-24.

Beautiful juveniles. Long curved beaks to tear the prey look as if they have been spray painted ombre, yellow smiles, piercing black eyes, and dark espresso feathers mark these eaglets as ‘juveniles’. So today the difference between a ‘juvenile’ eaglet and a sub-adult eaglet is age. A juvenile is an eaglet enjoying its first plumage. Remember those soft little white/grey downy nestlings. Well, that was replaced by the plumage you see below. An immature or a sub-adult is older than one year and has replaced this juvenile plumage for ‘immature’ plumage. When Pearl and Tico grow in new feathers next year, they will actually begin to turn a lighter brown. Sometimes the beaks will begin to change colour a bit. It is when they are 2 and a half that we should see more yellow on the beak and much more white beginning to appear, large white flecks, over their body. They will not, of course, have the pure yellow beak and white head with dark espresso body until they are adults at 5 years.

It is a gorgeous day in Florida. There are Brown and American White Pelicans in the water around the Captiva Bald Eagle nest of Clive, Connie, and Connick. Simply gorgeous. Oh, I cannot wait for spring and the pelicans return to Manitoba! About a third of North America’s American White Pelicans spend their late spring and summer with us on the Canadian Prairies.

Oh, Connick! You look like you are having ‘fish’ dreams.

What a happy little eaglet.

Little B16 is good. That eaglet is really growing…I love how Pa and Missy are so loving and caring for this wee one. You just know it is so special.

Sunday evening they both wanted to feed the baby.

The weather around Big Bear Lake has gone from calm, to blustery with what sounded like blowing snow or ice pellets, to sunny. Jackie is being very vigilant about those two eggs…9 days folks.

Turn the volume down! Indigo is home!!!!!!

Oh, it is chilly at the nest of Bonnie and Clyde on Farmer Derek’s property. Amazing camouflage. Could you see Bonnie in the nest if you didn’t know she was there?

I have been, sometimes, worried about Nugget at the KNF-E3 nest. Even with so many fish on the nest, Nugget will hold back if Valentine is up eating. Happy to say they both seem to be doing quite well. Valentine’s juvenile feathers are really coming in and you can tell the two apart easily. Today, Valentine stood on the rails!

The Norths have been at Decorah North today working on the nest, eating fish, and looking out over their territory.

The identical behaviour is taking place at Decorah, the Bald Eagle couple near the trout fishery.

I have not reported on Gabby with everything going on at the opposite side of the State of Florida. She is great. Just look at these images of her and her big crop! What a beautiful female.

You could fool me into thinking that this is that amazing male with the grey head. Handsome. Did he return for a visit? I don’t see a nick on the right side under the cere. Not V3. Interesting.

He is hanging around the nest…are we in for another season of ‘As the Nest Turns?’

It has been a good day. There are a lot more nests, eggs being rolled, eggs thinking about being laid. The relief at seeing M15 feed E22 for what was a good 15 or so minutes was overwhelming. There had to be tears flowing around the world. Many had given up and I have to admit that I did not believe that 22 was going to make it without some kind of miracle. Well, that miracle came. So I am going to stop here and just ask you to continue sending the most positive wishes you can to the SW Florida Bald Eagle nest of M15 and the Es.

Thank you for being with me today. Take care. See you soon.

If you would like to subscribe and be a member of our Bird World family, we would love it. There is normally only a single post in a day unless something special happens that you need to know about. No ads, no fees, just a group of people who want to make the world better for our feathered friends – with a focus on raptors. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Thank you to the following for their posts, tweets, videos, and streaming cams that make up my screen captures and blog: ‘A’, SWFlorida Bald Eagle Cam and D Pritchett, Lady Hawk and SWFlorida Eagle Cam and D Pritchett, News-Press, Joan Herzog and MAINE Birds FB, Kakapo Recovery, Friends of Osprey, Dulles-Greenaway Eagle Cam, Cathy Cohen and Ospreys (Pandion Haliaetus), Paul White and the Webster Texas Eagle Cam, Superbeaks, Window to Wildlife, Berry College, FOBBV, Elain and the Charles Sturt Falcon Cam and Cilla Kinross, Farmer Derek, KNF-E3, NEFL-AEF, Raptor Resource Project and Explore.org

Birds at the Zoo…and breakfast with the Australian nests

28 October 2022

Hello Everyone!

So happy to have you here with me. I set out ‘in my mind’ last evening that I would get up early and head out to find Snowy Owls sitting on large round hay bales near Oak Hammock Marsh. I got a text from a friend – ‘no’ owls seen. So, determined to see a Snowy Owl today, I did something entirely different! I went to the zoo.

How long has it been since you have been to a zoo? With all the criticism against keeping animals in small cages, our Assiniboine Park Zoo set out to try and make the enclosures for the animals considerably larger. At the same time they addressed issues of ‘boredom’ and the environments that the animals would live in if they were out in the wild. It was a much more pleasant place to visit because of those major changes.

One of the zoo volunteers saw me looking at the map and asked me what I wanted to see. The answer was Snowy Owls and Birds. I wonder if they were disappointed that I didn’t say ‘tiger’ or ‘cougar’. As it happened we were very close to the Snow Owls and it was feeding time. Fluffy yellow chicks raised specifically for the purpose were being dished out. For several seconds, it seemed that a woman standing near to me was going to pass out she was so overcome by seeing the owls eat the chicks. I stood in wonderment trying to figure out if she thought that they ate lettuce – our zoo purchases an inordinate amount of Romaine lettuce – or fruit. It is a good thing that she was away from the cougar or the Stellar’s Eagle compounds at that specific moment.

The real character of the entire four hours was the Toucan. He made eye contact immediately. What an incredibly beautiful bird he is.

This is the Toco Toucan. They are the largest of the species at 62 cm long with a bill/beak that is 17 cm long. Their lifespan is approximately 20 years. The Toco Toucan is native to South American rainforests where its numbers are decreasing due to deforestation.

I wish we could have had a conversation. This chap was a real cutie pie.

These little Sun Conures were tiny in comparison to the Toco Toucan. No wonder they have the ‘sun’ as part of their name. Oh, those faces ranging from yellow to orange to red are the colours we painted the sun as children. They are native to northeastern South America. They are approximately 30 cm in length but these certainly did not look that big unless you count that long olive green tail in the measurement! These little cuties were using their bill and their feet to dig around the edge of their enclosure. They have a stubby quite muscular tongue that helps them move their food around in their mouth.

This beautiful Golden Eagle was finishing up its breakfast and not the least bit interested in anyone looking at it. What a beauty. It is one of the largest birds of prey in North America, about the same size as a Bald Eagle. Unlike a Bald Eagle whose legs and talons are bare, the Golden Eagle has feathers on its legs. In Canada, they are ‘at risk’. Their meals consist of small mammals such as rabbits and squirrels.

The Stellar’s Sea Eagle is the largest of the sea eagles. With its striking bright yellow beak and legs and its espresso brown/black and white plumage, it is easy to recognize this raptor. It has a wedge-tail and fine pointed wings. They are rare. In the northern areas they will stand on the ice and fish and love the salmon in the north. It is thought that they almost exclusively breed in the north of Russia. You may recall that there is a Stellar’s Sea Eagle that has come to Newfoundland, Canada travelling south to parts of New England. I believe it is back in Newfoundland.

There were so many little Red Squirrels. This one is eating a ‘helicopter’, the seed of the Maple Tree.

Little Red stuffed these Maple Tree seeds in every part of the old shed. There were boxes full. Never knew if he used them for insulation to stay warm as well as eating. There is a large box full of them in his new home if he ever moves in!

It was great fun. Lovely to see families out with small children running about. Next time you are looking for a place to go – think the zoo!

A very small fish landed on the Port Lincoln Osprey barge at 061847. Middle got some of the tail but Big got most of it at 062652.

Breakfast arrived at 0618 on the ledge of 367 Collins Street for the Melbourne Four. Another plucking lesson, too!

This big one has run off with a nice piece and is self-feeding.

After eating it was running to get those legs strong, finding scraps of prey, and flapping those wings. What a brilliant place for these eyases to get exercise! I wonder how being able to run and flap freely – running a great distance – might give these falcons an edge in terms of physical strength that would help them survive? Just a thought!

This is the Recap for the morning feedings at Orange. Goodness Xavier has been busy hunting!

BirdieCam​ RECAP: 6:07:33 starling, X leaves, 6:20:58 D feeds; 6:38:31 X w/RRP?, he feeds; 09.13.33 X w/Noisy Friarbird, D feeds

Everyone has had breakfast, some more than others. Wish for fish – a big one for Port Lincoln.

Take care all. This is just a quick check and all are doing well at the 3 nests we are watching in Australia.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Port Lincoln Ospreys, 367 Collins Street by Mirvac, and Charles Sturt Falcon Cam and Cilla Kinross.