Tuesday was cooler—21 C. Visiting the nature centre required a windbreaker and it was just so much more excellent walking. There were lots of Canada geese, wood ducks, and mallards at the pond, as well as a single Solitary Sandpiper – the first time I had seen one at the park!
All About Birds describes them: “The natty Solitary Sandpiper, with its olive-gray wings, black-and-white tail, and bold eyering, is a distinctive exception among the many lookalike sandpipers. Its helpful habit of bobbing the back half of its body or trembling its tail (and often feet) while foraging make it instantly recognizable. In flight, look for blackish underwings against a white belly, a pattern unique among North American shorebirds. As the name suggests, this species is normally seen singly. On migration, it turns up very widely, even in very small or temporary wetlands.”
From the map below you will see that this little bird is on its migration. What a distance it will go!
There is a small flower garden, and every blossom seemed delighted that the heat had passed. It feels like fall and even some of the leaves are changing colour.
It was a great walk!
News of fledglings from the UK in the Iberian Peninsula on their migration are reaching us. Threave’s 4B9 was seen and photographed on a stork nest in Portugal! These youngsters are making good progress. This is the first confirmed sighting of a fledgling from a public nest this year.
Geemeff sends us her daily summary for Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust:
Daily summary Tuesday 27th August 2024
A lot of rain, a bit of sun, and no visitors to the nests – the season appears well and truly over. However, LizB reports: “One osprey spotted flying west to east along Loch Arkaig yesterday afternoon. Possibly the Bunarkaig male heading back to the nest but no way of knowing.” Perhaps we may yet have a final Osprey visitor before this comments page closes to end this eventful season.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 21.22.18 (05.34.50); Nest Two 21.20.17 (05.44.14)
Today’s videos: None
Bonus opinion: State-sponsored environmental vandalism or a good idea? What does WTS think?
At Dunrovin, Junebug was knocked off the nest by a GHO. This caused great fear amongst avid watchers. Junebug did safely return to the nest and Mum Winnie rewarded the bravery of her little one with a nice fish!
Antali had an early breakfast fish on the nest and then Iris is fish calling. Finnegan flies around the nest once and returns with her dinner! Iris flies off. Iris is now taking care of herself – as is Finnegan – so she can prepare for her migration.
Iris and her family have suffered through the most extreme heat for long periods of time, hurricane force winds, and now some are saying the earliest snows are on their ways. We wait to see.
Some concern that the juveniles had not been seen on the Newfoundland Power nest at Snow Lane. Here they are. One had a nice fish! And then Beaumont came in at another time with fish for both! Things are going so well this year.
In Wales, everyone has departed the Dyfi Osprey nest, but Idris, the male, who is keeping his oldest daughter Gwenlais, Blue 6B1, full of fish.
All three fledglings were seen on Tuesday the 27th at the Glaslyn nest. Not sure Elen is still here but Aran is still delivering fish. Will try and find out!
All three fledglings at Fortis-Exshaw along with Dad.
The fight against Omega’s industrial fishing in Virginia waters. Write your Senator to stop this. Our Osprey depend on these little fish to live.
Look at the amount. 112 million pounds. An Osprey family of five needs, on average, 500 fish a season – let’s be generous 750 pounds. Come on!
The antics of Xavier and Diamond are endless. If you are not familiar with Diamond, she does NOT like European Starlings for her dinner! or breakfast. or lunch. or for a snack. Nope. Not a Starling.
‘A’ writes, “The first egg at Orange was laid around lunchtime today (timestamp 12:08:07. TOO exciting. Now we all get to watch Xavier bargaining for egg time (I don’t think starlings are going to cut it, Xavier) and talking to his egg. (He is the CUTEST falcon dad of them all – he has even been known to try and feed the egg!!!) I do LOVE these two. I hope Diamond only lays one more egg. She is not getting any younger and I don’t want her to be overly stressed, though unlike our precious Iris, she doesn’t have to suffer the stresses of migration. She gets to live here in her scrape with Xavier all year round, which is a huge bonus for them and for us! I am SO excited. “
Watching at Poole Harbour to see who is home. Three of the four juveniles along with Blue 022 and CJ7 were seen on the nest on Monday.
Collins Street Falcons are waiting for their second egg at which time hard incubation could start. They might lay one or two more eggs. It has happened at this nest. Until hard incubation begins, the egg will be left unattended now and again.
We have rejoiced at four hatchlings and cried last year when the female was injured and the eggs were not incubated. There are high hopes for this year as this article in The Guardian discusses.
Holly Parsons is a wonder of information. She has included a video with David Attenborough on how eggs are made. I think you might be interested. https://youtu.be/PcI72ldPvx8?
Great photographs of Mum and Dad’s Calypso and her mate, Bradley, on the Tulka platform in South Australia. They have survived quite a wind storm.
Fledglings are still at Llyn Brenig!
‘AR’ sends us some news items…when will the shooting stop? Don’t people realise that eagles (all living souls) have emotions, feel pain, have families, partners and deserve respect?
‘AR’ also brings us up to date on the stunning project to try and eradicate the mice that are eating albatross alive – young and adult. This is the plan:
“It is a joint endeavor between the South African Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and the environmental NGO BirdLife South Africa—is to deploy helicopters to drop 600 tons of pesticide-laced pellets across the island.”
I am still seeing SE34 being submissive and sometimes not eating because of SE33. The pin feathers are coming in, and surely SE33 will settle shortly. Dad and Lady are great parents.
The first egg for Mum and Dad at the Port Lincoln Osprey barge was 26 August. Today is the 29th in Port Lincoln. You know what that means – egg #2 is expected!!!!!!!
Dad has been making enquiries as to when this might happen!
And both juveniles are still at Osoyoos being fed!
‘The Girls’ and I have started a new book. It is a bit of a how to, but since they enjoy watching the birds and we want to make their lives in the garden as good as we can, there are some interesting ideas. These include making suet, plantings, upcycling items as bird houses and feeders, etc. Calico did listen to the beginning. She tends to like longer narratives so we will see, but for anyone interested in creating a wonderful spot for birds in their gardens, it is a good read. I plan to work on the various birdbaths and ponds next year! When I start you can follow my progress – or lack thereof.
Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, observations, videos, articles, books, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, AR, Geemeff, J, PB’, All About Birds, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Montana Osprey Project, Dunrovin Ranch, Newfoundland Power, Dyfi Osprey Project, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Heidi McGrue and Fortis Exshaw, Brian Collins and Menhaden-Little Fish, Big Deal, Holly Parsons, Birds of Poole Harbour, The Guardian, 367 Collins Street Falcons, Bazz Hockaday and Friends of Osprey Sth Aus, Brenig Osprey Project, Newsweek, Olympic Sea Eagles, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Dan Rouse, komu.com, thehill.com.
Don’t forget to send me a note or a long list with your favourite moments of the 2023-24 season (every bird counts, no matter the species). I will publish these on Wednesday, August 8th. We need to have some smiles and I just know that there are some surprises lurking out there that have not been mentioned! You can put the list in the comments or send me an email: maryannsteggles@icloud.com Make sure I get this before midnight CDT on Tuesday August 7. Thank you so much!
Another hot day. 32 C. The bird baths needed filling continually. The Crows and Jays kept quiet during the high heat of the afternoon and are just coming into the garden. Dyson should be joining them soon!
We are nearing the time when every osplet should be fledgling. They will then have time to gain their muscle strength and get lots of practice. Some very precious osplets might even catch their fish before they leave on migration, but most will depend on their parents and, in particular, Dad as Mum will be departing well before anyone else. The females lose from 10-15% (some even have been found to lose up to 30%) of their body weight, and it takes them extra time to build up for their long journeys.
The University of Toronto reminds us of the simple facts, “There are two distinct populations of osprey with respect to lifestyle, the Residents and the Migrants. Residents are the ones, which breed in the subtropical latitudes in winter; they either stay in the same area all year round or move only locally during the non-breeding season. The other ones are the Migrants, which nest in the temperate latitudes and fly off each autumn to spend the winter in the tropical regions. North American ospreys start migrating south to their wintering grounds in Central America and in the northern parts of South America, around mid-August. By early September, most nesting colonies in the northern latitudes are empty. The numbers of migrating ospreys observed at selected watch points along their southward route are at their greatest during mid-September and early October. They reach their wintering grounds by late November. During winter, the only thing an osprey does is to eat, rest, recover from the stress of the previous breeding season and prepare for the next breeding season. It has been observed that during winter, they become more tolerant of each other as they congregate in loose flocks and are even known to hunt together in small groups, a few birds hovering over water, looking for fish might also stimulate others to join in the frenzy. Adult ospreys start leaving their wintering grounds in early March, by late March, more than half of the wintering ospreys have left the wintering areas, for their natal nesting grounds. Yearling ospreys stay on their wintering grounds for another eighteen months, returning to their natal nesting grounds at the age of about two years. Two-year-old ospreys however, leave the wintering grounds much later than the adults, and may reach their natal nesting grounds as late as June, by then; they are already too late to breed. However, pre-adult ospreys may become a nuisance to the breeders, because they try to take over nest sites and may interfere with the breeding pairs, as they explore and search for nesting sites of their own. They are also sometimes known to replace a partner in a breeding pair if it dies or is incapable of performing its duties. Ospreys arrive back at their natal nesting grounds by early May.”
If you are looking for interesting books on Osprey migration, here are my top two.
Soaring with Fidel by David Gessner is not your typical academic book and that is why it is my favourite choice for anyone wanting to understand the migration of ospreys and, in particular, those on the NE coast of the US. Gessner follows Fidel down the coast, to Cuba, and into South America. I promise you that you will want to travel to the mountains near Manzanillo, Cuba to see the hundreds if not thousands of ospreys that fly over heading south. It is the top of my bucket list. And I will get there!
The second choice is more for older chidren but Heidi expressly told me that it is not just for children, adults can enjoy it, too, and I agree. Belle’s Journey. An Osprey Takes Flight will touch your heart. It is the true story of a GPS tracked osprey. Rob Bierregaard takes us from Belle’s fledge, to her first successful fish catch, through a tumultous trip down the coast of the US to South America.
Which leads us into these amazing birds that are hopping, jumping, and hovering and will soon spread those wings with confidence and fly for the first time.
Oldest chick fledges from Saaksilvie nest #1 while the remaining chick gets some high hovers!
I haven’t reminded anyone about the benefits to birds of shade grown coffee for awhile. It is time to do that as we examine, on occasion, agricultural practices that can benefit not only humans but wildlife. The Snithsonian certifies ‘bird friendly’ coffee. They even sell it. In Canada, it is Birds and Beans. Yes, it is more expensive than brands where the tree canopy has been clear cut but, compared to other high quality small roasters in Canada, it is only about $3 more per 454 grams (one pound). It is discounted if you get a subscription. And no, I don’t get a commission! But I do support every effort to rewild and to make our planet more inhabitable for all living creatures so I cut back on the amount of coffee that I drink so I can purchase the bird friendly brand.
Ventana Wildlife is not all about Condors. They are a Species Recovery Programme. This is a recent video about the success of the restoration of the Bald Eagles in Central California. It is beautiful and short, 1:27 minutes.
Some news about Blue and a lot of flapping at Boundary Bay.
Food deliveries for Blue:
‘CG’ sends her report on Blue’s Day: Mere. Ha, ha. I’ll bet she was the twitterer I kept hearing yesterday. Blue knew she was there and was squeeing at her. I’ve seen this kind of thing happen before.
Blue greeting the day from her favorite spot. Wonder what she thinks of the fog.
I thought she had a pretty good day. She was very active all day long and did quite a bit of squeeing. I wondered if a parent was around but didn’t hear any adult twittering until later in the day. She spent the morning wingercising, hopping, and dancing across the nest. It was so cute that they put together a video.
Great Flapping From Blue on YouTube with a message from Hancock Wildlife regarding concern about Blue.
There was a food delivery of fish around 1000 hours. Blue pounced on it, and there was a struggle to release it from Mere’s talons. I’d called it a medium sized piece, and it was all gone by 1018 hours.
,During the afternoon, she spent time moving around the nest, looking out, preening, wing stretching, and more dancing, skipping, and flapping across the nest. She lay down a few times today but not for long except when she lay down in her favorite spot in the late afternoon. I think she was dozing.
There was another food delivery at around 1830 hours, and she accomplished a good clean snatch. It was a large piece. It looked like moist fresh meat, a little more work than fish, but she did a good job of holding it down and pulling pieces off and all the time was squeeing while eating. After dinner, she stood for a while, and after squeeing, she was answered by a lot of twittering. Someone asked about Pere. He is still around. In fact, it looked like he delivered the last meal. When chicks become “exuberant” trying to grab food when delivered, dads tend to retreat. All chicks are bigger than dad, especially the females. Poor Akecheta delivering food to his 3 eaglets at the West End Territory ended up on his back in the melee.
At 2200 hours, Blue was up and started doing a lot of preening. I had seen a lot of moths on previous nights, but tonight, as well as the moths, there were lots of tiny flying insects. Had to be annoying.
I checked in at 2244 hours, and she was asleep lying down with her head to one side. She looked so adorable. Funny, the flying insects and moths were gone.
WEATHER: Thursday, 8/1, at 1715 hours, it is 82F, mostly sunny, wind 8 mph, humidity 63%, feels like 90F, low tonight 61F.
Friday, 8/2 through Monday, 8/5: Highs ranging from 79F to 82F with lows ranging from 50F to 62F.”
If you missed it, Finnegan and Iris’s chicks were named. This article includes the overwhelming numbers of people who voted and how many chose the winning names.
Iris, Sum-eh and Antali see Finnegan coming in with a fish!
This nest just makes me smile. Thank you and good night Iris, Finnegan (wherever you are), Sum-eh, and Antali.
‘RP’ found this on X. So cute.
When fish deliveries come, everyone wants in on the action and some of that nice dinner! Fledglings who have been civil to one another on the nest take on a new energized stance as they prepare to live independently in the world.
Dyfi Osprey Nest.
It is precisely the same at every nest.
Glaslyn.
The baby, 5H6, claims the fish at Poole Harbour!
Later, other siblings want some fish, too.
At McEuen Park, the fledgling is enjoying a fish dinner all by itself.
It feels like things are finally settling down in the nests. The last of the osplets will be fledging and then they will need to eat and fatten up a bit – so will Mum and Dad – before they begin their migrations (if they migrate, some don’t). What a year it has been.
Annie and Archie are finally getting some quiet time after successfully fledging four! Dear Nox, the fourth hatch that landed in the water at the marina is improving. Great news. If I had a list for cutie pies this year I bet Nox and Smallie would tie. Interesting that they are both Peregrine Falcons!!!!!
Geemeff’s daily summary for Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust:
Daily summary Thursday 1st August 2024 Not much action today but after a quick pop in on Nest One from a pair of Warblers, we did have the pleasure of seeing an Osprey – Garry LV0 arrived and spent a few quiet minutes looking around and preening before flying off again. Chaddie 14 gave us the exciting news that the chick at Bunarkaig has fledged, this chick is thought to be the offspring of Affric 152 & Prince. Link to his update: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam/?ht-comment-id=15536809. WTS George says we would really appreciate people signing our Living Legends petition to protect our ancient trees: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam/?ht-comment-id=15532685. The weather was settled today, but tonight’s light cloud and light winds will change into heavy rain tomorrow. Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 22.32.55 (04.30.46); Nest Two 22.32.34 (04.38.42) Today’s videos: https://youtu.be/9LKihnfJAjo N1 A pair of Warblers visit 10.31.12https://youtu.be/QTRqeePpg8I N1 Garry LV0 arrives, stays a while, and preens 13.07.21
Bonus watch – Soar with a Golden Eagle as it flies over Scotland wearing a go-pro eagle cam:https://youtu.be/JDmgtkaKx6c
Watch the Loch Arkaig Osprey livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:
Royal Cam Chick is loosing all his baby down and transforming into a beautiful albatross that will be fledging in another 5-6 weeks. Isn’t he lovely?
Everyone is still home at Blackbush.
Morning rained stopped. Minnesota Landscape Arboretum chick is certainly ready to begin some great hovering and flapping. My goodness, I hope some fairies bring some soft material to this nest next year to help the ospreys get a head start.
Fledgling at McEuen Park waiting for Mum to bring some fish! This is actually a bit of a miracle, too. It is hard enough for a single parent to take care of chicks in a perfect world. Then imagine a single parent with four chicks, intense heat, and babies not able to thermoregulate. I think we are lucky that we had one survive on this nest in Idaho this year.
My goodness. The two chicks at the Latvian osprey nest in Kurzeme seem to have grown even more overnight! Look at the wing spread and look at that healthy ‘ps’. Another miracle nest and congratulations to Singa and Svings. The chicks were ringed on the 30th of July. The oldest is Red 59T, a female weighing a whopping 1750 grams. The second is Red 59V, a male weighing 1400 grams. The third egg DNH.
It’s very windy there.
Dorsett Hobby scares everyone by climbing to the rim of the nest. Is chick hungry?
Chatters have expressed some concern over what appears to be a wing problem with the chick on nest #1 in Finland.
Many of you will know that the largest wildfire in California history is burning and could be a threat to many nests. Here is an update on Liberty and Guardian.
Russian Imperial Eagle fledglings waiting at the nest for prey deliveries.
‘A’ sends the latest posts from Australia if you have not seen them:
At the Olympic Park, we are very close to hatch:
August 1: The 35th day since the first egg was laid. Early duets, and then Dad came in and took the fish tail off himself. He returned and sat for a short while. Lady returned after only 31 minutes. Another shortish shift each, then Lady came in at 9:20 with leaves and incubated again. During the morning, both were in for short shifts, with calling and duets. Later, both took their turn at incubating during some light rain. Late afternoon, Dad relieved Lady briefly, until she returned for the evening at 5:20. Lady spent some 7 hours on the eggs today, and they were uncovered only briefly during changeovers. No prey was brought to the nest.
August 2: A cold wet night for Lady. After a few calls, Dad came in at 6:30, and Lady was off for a break but heard close by. She returned after only 33 minutes – a quick break for her. There was some rain in the morning, and several changes. Lots of calling off the nest. Some rain on and off. Dad had a long (two-hour) shift from just before 9am, and again in the afternoon. Is Lady out getting prey for herself? Both brought some greenery in today, though again, no prey was brought to the nest. Lady was home from 15:35, and other than a few short stretches and rolls, she sat on the eggs until evening- though there was quite some muttering from the nest. A few late ups and downs, then settled. Both parents spent a similar time on the eggs today, with the eggs only uncovered for brief periods.
‘H’ sends her reports:
8/1 Osoyoos osprey nest: Breakfast consisted of the large leftover fish from yesterday. Soo fed her youngsters for about 18 minutes. The first new fish of the day did not arrive until 1221, when Olsen dropped off a very large partial fish. That fish provided for a 46-minute feeding for the osplets. I did not see any more fish brought to the nest the rest of the day, but I noted that the chicks both still had large crops late in the afternoon. It was a very warm day, with the temperature reaching 101F/38C. Soo was acting as Mombrella to help shield her big kids from the sun most of the afternoon. Weather forecast for 8/2: mostly sunny, high temp 102F/39C, light winds.
8/1 Colonial Beach osprey nest: It was a better day for this nest. Four fish were brought to the nest, three of from Betty. And, David delivered a fish after he had not been seen on cam for three days. So, little Cobey ate pretty well today. Betty was even seen acting as Mombrella for a while to shade Cobey from the hot sun…that’s progress! Forecast for 8/2: mostly sunny, high 95, winds 16 mph.
8/2 Mispillion Harbor osprey nest: There is a patch on the ground at the very top of our nest-cam-view where the marsh grass is thinned-out a bit, and I have seen both fledglings fly to that spot on occasion. There’s something they like about being on the ground, and they think they are hidden by tall grass. It was getting dark, and at 2030 in the evening on 8/1, I saw both of the fledglings fly from the nest to that spot. I could make out one of their heads, while the other one was just out of view. I have not seen a fox this season, but I have in the past. They roam the marsh at dusk. I didn’t like the fledglings being on the ground at that time of day. How would they learn to stay up high out of harm’s way from ground predators, especially as darkness approaches? Shouldn’t it be instinctual? Or, is it something that they would somehow learn from their parents? Certainly learning from experience doesn’t sound like a very good idea. Well, I worried all night, and I was very grateful to see those silly juvies fly to the nest early this morning. I wonder where they actually spent the night.
If you happen to be near St Louis, Missouri, there are celebrating Murphy at the World Bird Sanctuary (Thanks, J)
And they continue…Omega will be there til they get the very last Menhaden. Perhaps it is time for a world wide boycott of Omega!
Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care! See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their wonderful reports, posts, pictures, videos, articles, books, and streaming cams that helped me write my post today: ‘A, CG, Geemeff, H, J, PB, RP’, Amazon (book covers), David Gessner, Rob Bierregaard, Nesting Bird Life & More, Oxford Brookes University, Ventana Wildlife Society, Hancock Wildlife Foundation, All About Birds, Dyfi Osprey Project, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, BoPH, Pam Breci, SK Hideaways, Geemeff and the Woodland Trust, Blackbush Beach Ospreys, MN-LA, McEuen Park, LDF, Finnish Osprey Foundation, FORE, Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Olympic Park Eagles, Sharon Dunne, Montana Osprey Project, DancinLionHeart, and Menhaden-Little Fish, Big Deal.
Thank you to everyone for your lovely notes. We must continue to find the happiness, the miracles, and as ‘B’ says, ‘the treasures’ in this breeding season. And there certainly are miracles and the most amazing events happening. Iris and Finnegan continue to get top billing with managing to keep themselves alive during the heat and not having been blown off to Las Vegas during the winds! And we still have two chicks at Osoyoos despite the odds being so against Soo and Olsen. Fledges are happening. Take the smiles when they come and as one reader ‘J’ said, ‘I hope Blue falls off the nest’. (There is a rescue in place if he does)
It is hot and humid. 31 degrees. It rained just enough to make it more humid. The birds in the garden frantically ate their breakfast and it i snow after 1600 and they are starting on the last feeding of the day. Their behaviour makes me think a storm is coming despite the weather network saying ‘no’. One day they said ‘no rain’ and it was raining when I checked! They are not always very accurate, but the animals are. Frantic eating means a storm….And it did rain and a thunderstorm was predicted for today and tomorrow. Not bad for a ‘Murder’. They should hire Mr Crow!
What will he choose? Enchiladas? Cheesy Dogs? Peanuts?
I am so very, very sad. Both of the fledglings of Big Red and Arthur of 2024 are dead. N2 died from a window collision, and N1 died from an illness after being seen by BOGs behaving oddly.
A White-tail eagle has taken the smallest osplet, Yellow UPU, off the Finnish #4 nest, to the dismay of all of us that loved that osplet family. The time was 18:11:56. Thank you, ‘AM’ for alerting me. The Ilomansti chick was 55 days old.
Screenshot
The following morning, at 0510, the oldest osplet, Yellow, URA, a male, flew off the #4 nest and was chased by the Eagle as it flew. You could hear it calls. The Middle osplet, a female, is in the nest, scared to death.
There has been an incident at the Patuxent River Park. An osplet/osprey fell off the nest at 1445 and it was not until after 1100 that anyone went to check. Earlier flapping could be heard but high tide came in and all went quiet.
Feeling so grateful. Iris is the poster child of osprey miracles this year and if something had happened to her or her family, I think we would have crawled into a hole and stayed there. Thankfully, Iris and Finnegan and their kids survived category 2 hurricane force winds.
Please help name Iris and Finnegan’s chicks. The site where you vote gives the meaning of the two pairs of names to select from -.
Cornell gives us a fantastic video of Iris’s kids and their amazing juvenile eyes!
Welcome back, ‘A’ who is so happy to be checking on Iris’s nest and the WBSE for us: “I checked our gorgeous boys at Hellgate today – they are looking wonderful and Iris is so proud of them. They had a naming competition underway – I believe it ends on 31 July – so the time has come to name this pair. Fledging is on the calendar and we will soon lose our Hellgate ospreys until next season. I do hope that the bond between Iris and Finn will persist next season and that they will return to each other. This has been a love story for the ages, and I have adored watching his devotion to her.
Gorgeous boy brought in a large headless fish around 06:39 and there was something of a melee. Iris grabbed and took control of the fish. Finn did some arrangement of the baby rails, which are huge (as are the babies) and then flew to the perch while Iris arranged the feeding of breakfast. As usual, Baby Bob is given the first bites, with both osplets sitting up nicely at the table, side by side, without any aggression. I have adored watching the fraternal behaviour on this nest. Not once has there been any bonking or even any intimidation. Even direct eye contact has failed to prompt dominant behaviour from the larger sibling. The situation remains peaceful, although I sense we are about to enter the ‘fight for food’ period as the osplets begin to claim and mantle delivered prey from their parents. So far, though, Iris is maintaining control of the food distribution.
Baby Bob is fed for some time before Big Bob is offered a bite, but the older sibling is perfectly prepared to wait its turn. Based on size, I am again thinking that Big Bob is female, with a younger brother, but if that is the case, then the behaviour from both has been exemplary and civil at all times. If we do have a big sister and a little brother, then I can only put the excellent nest dynamics down to Iris’s control on the nest and Finn’s regular deliveries of huge fish to the nest. As far as I can see, the only logical explanation is that these two have not been hungry.
I do wish they were banding these two osplets, given how incredibly special they are – It is a long time since Iris raised a chick, let alone two. They are healthy and they have inherited some pretty special genes from both parents, it would seem. I would love to know their genders, for obvious reasons, and we would all love to know how they fare as juvenile fledglings and hopefully, later, as adult ospreys. I suppose we will never know for certain if and until they find a mate. But I have wavered backwards and forwards on the gender question, with the size indicator contradicting the behavioural one much of the time. “
July 26: After some rain overnight, it was fine for early morning duets. Lady was off at 6:36. Dad was in shortly after, then incubated for an hour and 25 minutes, giving Lady a good early break. Dad then left the nest, as Lady was close and returned to take over incubating. After a couple more changes, Lady appeared around midday with a good crop – she had caught her own prey it seems. Then she spent the afternoon on the nest, incubating for nearly three hours until Dad bought in a late fish. She grabbed it and took it to the branch to eat. The eggs were uncovered for some time as Lady ate, then dad incubated for a short while until she finished eating. She then settled for the night. Today she spent a total of 6h27m on the eggs, while Dad incubated for 5h7m.
I love to see how this pair shares the workload so evenly – check the daily division of incubation duties between them, giving each plenty of exercise and the chance to hunt, although Dad does sometimes bring prey to Lady on the nest. But they are a tightly bonded team and I am looking forward to seeing two small fluffy heads appear on this nest. Perhaps THIS year, we will get two successful fledges, with fledglings safely returning to the natal nest despite the attempts of the smaller birds to drive them from their nest and their forest.
They have not yet hatched and yet already, we are worried about their chances of successfully fledging at this location. I have no idea how we can protect them from this fate, but it is hard to watch season after season after season. Two cute, happy, healthy little sea eaglets are effectively sacrificed every year. It is a tragic waste, of the babies and of the devotion and time the parents put into raising their eaglets. “
Three healthy chicks at the Castle Bolton Estate in Yorkshire – two females and a male!
Kristel fledged, as predicted, at 81 days old on the 26th of July from the Golden Eagle nest in Estonia. You might know that this nest is in a military zone in Estonia where active military exercises take place daily. Many can hear the gunfire in the background. Despite this, the area is large and normal humans cannot enter it. It actually makes this forest area safer for the wild animals and raptors like Kristel and her family who are used to the military exercise sounds.
Richmond and Rosie’s PAX caught on video!
Everyone is home at Field Farm and hungry. Flying uses up a lot of calories!!!!!!!!
Geemeff sends us her daily report for Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust:
Daily summary Friday 26th July 2024
The Lochenders saga continued today with a game of musical nests – after an absence of two days, Dorcha turned up paying a visit to Nest One while Garry LV0 was there, and then Affric 152 and Garry LV0 visited Nest Two, flying off very quickly when Dorcha appeared. Where were Louis and Prince while this was going on? Was Prince back at Bunarkaig looking after his and Affric’s chick? Was Louis having a leisurely fishing session? Is he still around? As usual, the only answer is ‘wait and see’. RAF jets did a flypast but both nests were empty at the time. More good news from Spain with a tweeted photo of our chick 1JW out and about exploring the neighbourhood, and the message “We are told all the birds are continuing to feed well after taking to the skies for the first time yesterday.” 1JW is certainly better off in sunny Spain – it rained throughout the day here, there’s a chance of rain tonight and tomorrow with a high of only 17°C.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.01.49 (04.04.45); Nest Two 22.58.14 (04.15.15)
Bonus tweet – photo of Loch Arkaig Osprey chick 1JW in Spain exploring his new neighbourhood:
It is so great to see #1JW looking strong and thriving in Spain, having fledged yesterday. it's been a strange sad season for the #ArkaigOspreys and many other nests here and in other countries too. Stay strong 1JW, all your fans are cheering you on. @RoyDennisWF@FundacionMigreshttps://t.co/SuCmVBVmW1
‘CG’ has been monitoring the Hancock Wildlife Nest at Boundary Bay. She sends us the following from the forum:
On 7/25, Blue received food and ended the day with a nice crop. She also received food Friday morning which she was eating. She has also been doing wingercises and reached a good height yesterday. PSs that were seen were good. There are pictures with the comments.
It is painstaking reading all the comments; you need lots of time on your hands. People are questioning the lack of food being brought by the parents (Pere and Mere). Apparently, there was plenty of food at the beginning. They are wondering if there is something in the surroundings that has changed. So, . . .
Link to site (press ctrl + click to follow link). This will take you right to afternoon of 7/25, and from there you can go backwards and forwards. Page numbers are at the top and bottom of the pages.
I haven’t herd from anyone one rescue of Blue. When, where, and how?
Judy B writes: At the moment, it does not appear that Blue needs to be rescued. The parents delivered two fish today – and Blue waited almost an hour before beginning to eat the first one, which suggests to me that Blue was not very hungry (which makes sense because Blue had quite a lot of food yesterday).
Blue is old enough that she or he would likely try to fly if anyone approached the nest with a lift to try to remove Blue from the nest – and so far I haven’t seen enough sustained flapping to think that Blue is ready to fly safely.
We do have plans in place if Blue ends up on the ground, and the local rescue/rehab organization is aware that there are concerns about Blue – but personally, after seeing two fish delivered today, I’m less worried than I was yesterday.”
‘H’ reports:
7/26 Osoyoos osprey nest: The high temperature was only about 84 degrees, and Olsen delivered 10 fish to the nest today! Soo started out very early in the morning trying to feed some of that leftover fish jerky skin. No one was able to eat very much of that. At 0617 Olsen delivered a nice sized fish that provided a 14-minute meal. The siblings ate from opposite sides of Soo, and Middle ate 71 bites of fish. Olsen came right back at 0635 with a similarly sized fish that Soo fed for 13 minutes. Middle did not have good positioning, with Big hovering over him the entire time, and was only able to eat 4 bites of fish. At 0944 Olsen arrived with a tiny fish. Middle had been fed 5 bites of that fish, then s/he grabbed it from Soo and spent the next five minutes eating the rest of it (and was not harassed by Big). The next fish at 1117 was another ‘Tiny’. Big bit Middle on the wing, ouch! Soo fed Middle for 3 minutes. Fish #5 at 1153 was also a ‘Tiny’. Middle was fed 20 bites before Big grabbed the fish and finished it. Fish #6 at 1205 was a bit larger, and Soo fed Big for 7 minutes. Middle did not make much of an effort to join in. At 1319 Olsen dropped off a medium sized whole fish. Big was not hungry, and Soo fed Middle for 11 minutes! Fish #8 at 1435 was a ‘Tiny’… Big gave Middle ‘The Look’, and Middle didn’t even bother to approach Soo, so that was just a small meal for Big. Fish #9 at 1448 was a large whole fish that provided a 26-minute meal. The problem was that neither osplet was very hungry. They ate peacefully on opposite sides of Soo’s beak, but after a few minutes, Soo was having difficulty finding an open beak. Both sibs would repeatedly back away, and then later they would somewhat reluctantly accept another bite or two from Soo. It reminded me of being at Grandma’s for Sunday dinner, and she just kept coaxing us kids to eat more! Middle ate 55 bites of fish at that meal, and Soo had a nice meal for herself as well. The last fish of the day was a small fish delivered by Olsen at 1531. Big was not interested in eating. Middle almost reluctantly ate 20 bites of fish, and refused many of Soo’s offerings. Everyone looked quite ‘croppy’. It was a good day. Weather forecast for 7/27: Mostly sunny, high temp 90F/32C, winds 9 mph.
7/26 Colonial Beach osprey nest: It has been a rough couple of days at this nest. David was last seen the morning of 7/23. Betty seemed to be on her own to care for 32-day-old Cobey. There was not any fish brought to the nest on 7/24, and only one medium-sized fish on 7/25. We did not think that fishing was difficult because of the weather, so we were perplexed. Well…today was a better day, and we witnessed the return of David. Four fish were brought to the nest, two each from Betty and David. Poor Lil’ Cobey was so hungry. At one point, he even tried to pick up a fish and eat it, but of course he was not able to. Forecast for 7/27: Mostly sunny, low 80’s, light winds.
7/26 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Captain Mac’s fish House): This nest continues to do well. Johnny usually drops off a couple of fish each day. And…well then there’s Momma June…June has continued to bring in at least one massive striped bass (I think) every day, and they are usually alive and quite active. Watch out for those big flopping fish Lil’ Fen!
7/26 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: As mentioned yesterday… late in the afternoon on 7/25, we heard what we thought was an osprey in distress flapping its wings underneath the nest in the marsh. Obviously the bird was not able to fly. Many folks reached out for help to rescue the osprey. As high tide was approaching in the evening, the wing flapping was obviously in water. By late evening, we no longer heard any flapping. At 11 am this morning, we heard some men below the nest. Patuxent River Park later put out a statement that they had done a thorough search below the nest and did not find an osprey. You can read their entire lengthy statement in the description under the live video feed on Youtube. We believe the osprey may have been ‘Big’, the eldest fledgling from this nest. Yesterday afternoon, Big was knocked off the nest by an adult intruder. It could have been Big or Middle, but Middle has been back at the nest, and we have not seen Big since the attack. If Big was okay, we believe that we would surely have seen her back at the nest at some point. The other option is that it could have been the adult intruder that may have ended up in the marsh, after it went off the nest awkwardly after stealing a fish from Middle a little later that afternoon. Since a rescue was unable to be done in an urgent and timely manner, in all likelihood whatever injured osprey it was under the nest, was carried away with the tide.
Middle had a good day at the nest. Dad is supplying ample fish for the fledgling, and fortunately there were no intruder issues today.
We saw Little fledge and return to the nest on 7/18. Then the cam was offline for five days. We have not seen Little since the live stream resumed on 7/24. It’s too bad that we missed so much activity at the nest. There are some 70 osprey nests in the entire Patuxent River Park, and I believe at least 12 in the immediate Jug Bay area. I hope that Little has found a welcoming nearby osprey nest to care for him. We also have not seen Mom since the live stream resumed. She is most likely taking a well deserved break to restore herself to optimum health before heading south in a couple of weeks. At other osprey nests in the past, we’ve seen some of the Moms stop by the nest and even bring a fish before they depart. We may see Mom again.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust gives us the annual wrap up for the Foulshaw Moss Nest of White YW and Blue 35.
The naming contest for the Royal Cam chick has started. Please go and vote.
If you missed the July condor chat, here it is:
Hope and Beaumont have two beautiful feathered osplets.
Everything is good at Sandpoint.
Thank you so much for being with us today. Take care everyone. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their letters, posts, pictures, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, AM, CG, Geemeff, H, PB’, Saaksilvie 4 Finnish Osprey Foundation, Montana Osprey Cams, Cornell Bird Lab, Sea Eagle Cam, Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group, Eagle Club of Estonia, Golden Gate Audubon, Field Farm, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Lady Hawk, Ventana Wildlife Society, Sandpoint Osprey Cam, Newfoundland Power, Osoyoos, Fenwick Island, Patuxent River Park, and Colonial Beach.
Today, I got a notice that another new tree is going in front of my property. What joy! I hope they grow fast. With all the new baby crows and squirrels, we need all the big trees fast.
I want to be overjoyed by this notice – and believe me, I am. But a quick walk down the street shows me that four more of the 1902 trees are set to be cut down due to disease. Each has a bright orange circle. I know they must go, but Dyson and her family need trees. There will be some left. Thank goodness.
Does anyone have any good plans for squirrel houses that work? So far, they have balked at the beautiful house I had sent from Sweden!!!!!!! Little Red finally took to the crates in the wood pile but the Greys need a tree. Maybe a fake tree??
The baby Crows have been visiting. I could not grab my camera quick enough to take a photo of them dancing on the glass roof of the conservatory. One was in the birdbath later while three tried to balance themselves on the hydro line coming into the house. The other two were walking around the fence. There are six of them with soft downy heads calling their parents to come and feed them. They are as big as Mr Crow!!!!!!!! The only way that you can tell the difference is that they are thinner and their heads are soft down, not feathery.
Look at the baby Crow’s soft downy head. The water feels good on their hot feet. These are just the cutest crows…
I think it is time for more cheesy dogs!
Let’s start with some good news. Nox. Thanks, ‘B’ for sending me the latest update on Annie and Archie’s fourth hatch. Look at those eyes and tell me this isn’t the cutest little falcon you have ever seen!
At San Jose, Alma has been hunting.
There are nests that I check on but don’t often report on especially when it is osprey season. Here are a couple that I know many of you are interested in!
If you have been wondering about the Centreport Eaglets, they did fledge and they are soaring and locking talons together! Amazing footage by Rob Schwartz.
LGL comes in to feed the Royal Cam chick!
Two little Hobbys. Dad has been hunting and had four bird meals for Mum to feed the little ones before mid-day.
Jackie and Shadow have been visiting the nest. Their chortling is music to my ears. No matter what is thrown at them, they always manage to over come it and bring us smiles.
Seren and Dylan were amongst the lucky nests this year. Indeed, Wales did good in the scheme of things. The weather around Kielder and Border was horrific – we saw it, too, at Loch Arkaig. These three are just beautiful osplets. Don’t you just love the look of the kid staring at the camera?!
Aran and Elen started out with three beautiful chicks and it looks like they will fledge three from Glaslyn in Wales.
Idris and Telyn started out with three and they will fledge three as well at the Dyfi nest in Wales!
Llyn Brenig in Wales started out with three eggs. One DNH and now there are two nice big Bobs ready to fledge.
Alyth SSEN started out with three chicks. One died from a nest accident and the other from weather induced causes. This only surviving Bob looks great. Alyth is in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
Sadly, Laddie was possibly shot and Blue NC0 waited for her mate. The nest failed this year at Loch of the Lowes. Only time will tell who the nest belongs to next year. Blue NC0 has been with the dark-coloured osprey but there has also been another around. It was very sad as Laddie LM 12 was much loved. Much loved. The dark one has a fish for Blue NC0. Where is she?
Time to bid Tuffy goodbye! Remember his head pattern for years to come.
H wrote: “This was Tuffy’s last day on camera, before the camera was shut down for the season. Tuffy treated viewers to some extended appearances today. We witnessed Tuffy dive into the water to try to catch a fish (3:00). He didn’t appear to come away with a fish on that attempt. But, about an hour later, Tuffy flew to the nest carrying a tilapia (4:35). He was wet, and shaking off water. Tuffy took a long time to eat that tilapia, and we enjoyed watching him eat it. As we watched, memories surfaced of when Tuffy was so little, and he barely had enough to eat due to the dominance of his older sister, Ruffie. “We have been blessed to witness your life thus far, Tuffy… through all your struggles and your victories. You are a survivor. We wish you a long and productive life. We will never forget you.”
At the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Mum is trying to keep her chick cool. It will go up to 90 and then 92 F on Saturday before the heat breaks a bit in Minneapolis.
Dad continues to bring in the fish and Mum continues to feed. The chick looks good.
At 0555, Finnegan arrived on the nest with a very large headless fish. He was still wet. I hope that Iris got a lot of that fish to eat. It is going to be hot today in Missoula. The temperature is 97 F. Remember that is not the heat index which will be higher.
‘PB’ alerted me to a late fish delivery by Finn for Iris and the kids. – a headless whooper!
‘A’ loves Finn – welcome back! We are so glad you are feeling better. “Finn is doing his usual superb job. There was a whole fish (small by his standards but a good medium at any other nest) delivered late in the afternoon, and Iris fed it all to the osplets within 10 minutes or so, creating respectable crops for both osplets (of course, Baby Bob’s was the largest, as always bigger than his head – seriously) but that wasn’t enough for Iris, who immediately began nagging Finn for more fish, although he was still preening and drying himself on the perch from his previous fishing expedition.
But off he went, dutifully obeying Iris’s instructions, and at he returned with one of his patented baby sharks (Pacific whitefish, I understand), minus head (a whole one was not only too large to get to the nest easily but also nearly brained an osplet last week, so Finn has learnt from that episode) around 20:34.
It is wonderful to see that Little’s left eye appears to have healed almost totally. I do hope he is not left with any residual corneal damage. I know I’ve been banging on about it but we both know if Baby Bob cannot triangulate, he cannot fish, and if he cannot fish, he cannot survive. So obviously, it has been my number one concern for some time now. There were four or five days there when I was truly distraught with worry for my little man.
These two are males. They must be. Not a single bonk or beaking. Nothing to suggest any aggression, at meal times or otherwise. They simply have to be brothers. Iris is looking good – she is eating better I think. And Finn is my favourite osprey dad of 2024. I know he has some competition out there, with some of the successful four-osplet clutches this season, but we all know that watching Iris being loved and cared for by a worthy mate who is helping her raise two exquisite osplets is the highlight of the season for many of us. She is blissfully happy and SUCH a good mum. (What a mumbrella she makes, shading them from the heat, sheltering them from the rain and cold – just totally devoted to her babies.)
I ADORE this family. Could you tell? “
I agree and so does everyone else. Finn is amazing. Here is his big whole fish for the family first thing Friday morning!
It is so hot at Charlo Montana. Lola is doing an amazing job. Charlie is getting fish in – every nest in the heat dome area could use much more fish. The adults as well as the osplets are all suffering. Today is Friday. Let us hope this heat dissipates soon.
I thought we might lose Middle at McEuan Park on Thursday but Mum went out and got a big fish and everyone ate. What a relief. Unless someone tells me otherwise, it appears that the male is now MIA.
The youngest of the two siblings at McEuan Park crop dropped quickly. It is difficult to know how much fish it got. Probably not nearly what it should have as Big is extremely aggessive and hungry. Hoping Mum goes out again and catches a huge one so that all can get their fill before bed time. No rewind, no time stamp, cam freezes. Hard to tell what is really happening.
Another fish came to the nest and the camera froze. I have no idea if number 2 got any fish or not. How frustrating is this.
The fledglings, both Patches and Rainer, do return to the nest at Patchogue. Fingers crossed for both of them. This is Patches with a fish from Dad.
Steelscape had a good delivery! Keep it up, Dad.
Looking good at Black Bush:
Continued concern for Little at Cowlitz PUD:
Geemeff sends us her summary for the day’s activities at Loch Arkaig and the Woodland Trust:
Daily summary Thursday 11th July 2024
The big news of the day is the safe arrival of our chicks at their new home in Valencia and they are now sporting their new yellow Darvic rings. The submissive chick is 1JR and the dominant one is 1JW, and they looked cosy together in their nest in the photo posted by Woodland Trust Scotland on their social media channels, link in the bonus section. Their parents spent time together today on the nest before an unseen intruder caused them to flee, Louis did a little nest-scraping and a fair bit of coy-mantling but still didn’t bring any fish for Dorcha, although we don’t know what fish exchanges might be taking place off-nest. Garry LV0 visited Nest One bringing nesting materials and doing a bit of housekeeping, but there was no sign of the Dark Female. it would be good to see him with a mate, perhaps they are connecting off-nest. The weather was settled today, the sun broke through a few times, and the forecast for tonight is partly cloudy with light winds.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.32.11 (03.36.07); Nest Two 23.26.04 (03.40.16)
7/11 Osoyoos osprey nest: The live stream was offline until just before noon. Olsen has a habit of fishing early in the day, so hopefully he had delivered a few fish for the family earlier. The first fish we saw delivered was at 1736. I never got a good look at the fish, but Soo fed the osplets for 7 minutes. Little quickly found a spot on the other side of Mom and seemed to be eating. At 1739 Little was beaked by Big, but being on the rim, Little had nowhere to go. I could not tell at that point if Little was getting bites of fish, or was in submission. Big beaked Little again at 1740, then Middle beaked Big, and Big beaked Middle! A short time after the meal ended, we saw that Little had a small crop. The next (and last) fish of the day arrived at 2004, and was a large partial fish. Nice going, Olsen! Once again, Little set up on the other side of Mom from Big and Middle. We could not see how much Little was eating, but everyone ate, and there was no aggression. It was a 16-minute feeding. After the meal, Little had a small crop, and also had a good PS at 2119. The high temperature on 7/12 is predicted to be 96F/36C, and it will be sunny, with winds gusting to 13 mph.
7/11 Colonial Beach: David brought fish to the nest for Betty and the kids six times, and a couple of those were huge! The osplets are 16 and 17-days-old. There is some occasional beaking between meals, but the meals are peaceful. Yay!
7/11 Fenwick Island: I only saw two fish brought to the nest today for June and young ‘Fen’. Johnny usually averages 5-6 fish per day. The temp was in the low 80’s, and the wind was gusting to 17 mph. Fishing should not have been very difficult, but I’m not an osprey, so what do I know, lol.
7/11 Audubon Boathouse osprey nest: It was a rather uneventful day for this osprey family…other than the youngest osplet, Gray, falling over and being stuck on his/her back for several long minutes! Finally, Dory arrived at the nest and pulled on some nesting, and then Gray was able to right itself. What a good Mom. Whew!
7/11 Kent Island (Chesapeake): Dear Audrey is still incubating her two non-viable eggs.
7/11 Captiva osprey nest. The chat has been shut off for the season, but the livestream will continue for a while. Jack had an injury to his leg, and we have not seen him for a while. Edie may have an issue with her health, and she stopped bringing fish regularly to Darling and Ding. Ding has dispersed. She had learned to catch her own fish, and has likely moved to find a better fishing spot. Darling died at CROW on 7/5. I have a huge hole in my heart. And it hurts.
When you see all those gulls rushing for the chips at the beach? Well, they would rather have fish new study finds.
Ventana Wildlife continues to vaccinate the California Condors for HPAI.
‘PB’ reports that Steelscape has had a fish this morning. Cowlitz PUD had no late night fish and nothing has arrived Friday morning so far. Send them good wishes.
Connie Dennis reports that the osprey nests in Nova Scotia are doing very well compared to others in the US and the UK. She is the founder of a group working to get Nova Scotia Power to put up poles, and she organises the monitoring of the province’s nests with information on their FB page, Ospreys of Nova Scotia. She has written a book for children on Ospreys with photographs by her husband, Don, that I will review in the coming days.
Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care everyone. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, messages, videos, images, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, PB’, California Raptor Centre, SK Hideaways, Rob Schwartz, Lady Hawk, Dorsett Hobbys, Llyn Clywedog, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, Llyn Brenig, Alyth, LOTL, Heidi McGrue, MN LA, Montana Osprey Project, McEuan Park, PSEG, Pam Breci, Cowlitz PUD, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Charlo Montana, The Guardian, Ventana Wildlife Society, Osoyoos, Fenwick Island, Colonial Beach, Window to Wildlife, Kent Island, Audubon Boathouse, and Connie Dennis Ospreys of Nova Scotia.
As I write, it is 25 degrees C in Winnipeg, and it is mid-morning. The birds in the garden are taking advantage of the water, having had their seeds, peanuts, and cheese dogs put in dishes very, very early. I am hoping that the shaded tunnel areas we have created will help keep the birds and small mammals cool. I cannot imagine what it is like in the Pacific Northwest where temperatures will be as high or higher than 100 F.
Yesterday, with that horrid medication, I had a bit of a brain freeze. Smedley was at the Audubon Centre with Bailey – a long-term resident. Don’t tell me that ospreys don’t do well in care! Ridiculous. Sorry, I am on a rant. There is so much disinformation on the chats associated with the streaming cams. That, along with people who cross over into hyper-hyper-hyperbole, causes much damage and frustration in our understanding of avian behaviour.
The sunhine of the day was the first sunflower, a gift of the birds and animals. Every year they miss some seeds and the gift is a garden full of sunflowers blooming from now until the fall.
Everyone wants water or peanuts – or cheesy dogs. Notice this one is missing its crest. The adults are moulting. The new babies have their crest!
Mr Crow is watching me and wanting more dogs before the Starlings come and take them. He can see me. He knows I am sitting here taking his photo – and then he waits and the cheesy dogs appear! On Friday night we had eight crows visit for food.
Hugo Yugo says she prefers flowers.
Thankfully, the Hibiscus is in a place where The Girls cannot get to. Poison for cats, but oh, so beautiful.
It is a work in progress. The path to the feeder is now planted with bee and butterfly friendly perennials and a huge hosta! Can’t wait to see what it looks like at the end of the summer. Mulch will be going in this weekend!
It’s hot. And it will get hotter. Here is a message about the impact on songbirds. I will have a fan out tomorrow and we continue to top up the water!
I really want to give a shout-out to one of our readers, ‘EJ’. We can make a difference, and ‘EJ’ made a bold business move to save the raptors. She told me – “I used to be a co-owner of an agricultural sales business. I did not know about the harm rodenticides did to raptors until I read about it in your blog. At that point, we stopped selling rodenticides and explained to the farmers why. I don’t know if they stopped using them or not, but I wasn’t going to be responsible for the deaths of any raptors, like little Flaco.” Wow. Thank you, EJ. If everyone would do this, the world would be a better place.
We have a fledge at the Patchogue nest on Long Island. Patches made flying look easy and her return to the nest could not have been any better. Congratulations!
It is 80 degrees F with 2 mph winds and a 63% chance of rain. Babies you need to stay on the nest and not try any bold moves when the raindrops fall. Wet feathers don’t do well with a first or second or third flight. You need practice for that.
I love the look on the siblings face as Patches flies! They are going to want to join in the fun. Keep watching. Both chicks are more than ready to fly.
Fledgling rewarded with a nice big fish!
Patchogue adults sure make beautiful healthy osplets.
Patches took off again at 12:47. Oh, the other one is itching to fly. Wouldn’t be surprised if they go today, too.
Good news coming about Louis and Dorcha’s chicks in the Spanish Translocation Project:
I have been monitoring the Snow Lane nest of Hope and Beaumont and here is some interesting observations posted by Ian Winter who lives in the area on the FB page. Hope is also fishing and feeding her two babies.
I did not take screen captures of Hope’s head in last years and would be the last person to say that I could recognise her but, the behaviour of the female on this nest is very unlike the Hope that has been with Beaumont for past years where chicks have starved. So, please, I am not starting a rumour of a new female; just wondering what’s up. But happy no matter what the answer is! The chicks look good. Let’s hope the weather stays great for fishing.
There is also great news coming through Lucille Powell’s post about the second hatch chick at Hellgate Canyon and its eye.
Tuffy on the nest at Moorings Park before the heavy raindrops begin. Cam will stay on until Monday the 8th of July.
The four osplets at Field Farm are difficult to tell apart now. Little Mini grew and is probably a female – all that feist and sass that kept it alive – with those big siblings could only be a girl. They are now working on those wings and dreaming of flying like Patches.
Rain has come to Poole Harbour and the Fab Four of CJ7 and Blue 022. Oh, dripping wet osplets. Ever wonder what a really wet fish laden osprey nest actually smells like?
The rain and gale gusts have stopped at the Dyfi nest of Idris and Telyn in Wales.
It’s nice at Glaslyn, too. That nest is getting quite full with those big chicks!
All is calm at Clywedog.
Dad has delivered a tiny little teaser and a Starry Flounder (I think) to the Clark PUD nest on Friday before noon. Will watch for other deliveries. It is going to be hot there…Clark PUD could get to 98 degrees F. The heat warnings continue through Monday in the area of Clark PUD, Cowlitz PUD, Osoyoos, and other nests along the Pacific Northwest.
This is the fish that I think is the Starry Flounder.
There is good news coming from Kielder Forest after so many disappointments this breeding season.
‘MM’ reminds me today that Keilder Forest Nest 7 has a streaming cam. It was offline when I checked but here is the link.
The second nest at Llyn Clywedog Reservoir in an area maintained by Forestry England has just ringed two chicks – the first for the adults at this new nest! One girl weighed 1680 grams, and a boy weighed 1410. Congratulations! (They are not on streaming cam only the original Clywedog nest of Dylan and Seren is live streaming).
Dad is bringing in some nice fish at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. 74 degrees F. 10 mph winds.
Chicks at the Iowa DNR nest in Des Moines are doing fantastic. Lots of fish! How wonderful.
Cute little babies of Swoop and Winnie are enjoying their fish meal in Colorado. Looks like we have Reptiles. For those learning about Ospreys, the soft natal down gives way to the ‘Reptile phase’. Notice the black oily heads, the beautiful copper feathers at the nape of the neck. This is normally the time when they get ‘cranky’ and get serious about bonking if it is going to happen. Then you begin to see their pin feathers grow in along the wings and at the little tail and it won’t be long til they begin to look like juvenile ospreys. This stage they are growing very fast and often appear ‘lanky’.
Three cuties for Charlie and Lola at Charlo Montana. Little Three needs some more food – send good wishes.
Three much older osplets at nest #4 in Finland are doing fantastic.
Great news from the Oakland Zoo – a treated and released Condor.
Prey in the form of several voles and a Raccoon Dog have been delivered by both adults at the Estonial Golden Eagle nest 2. While the oldest gets the majority, the youngest has mantled the remains of the Raccoon Dog, after the oldest ate some, and has eaten. This is good. The oldest still attacks. The eaglets are hungry but now that both parents are delivering again we will wait and watch – with hope.
Another sunrise and two Golden eaglets at Estonia nest 2 alive. Hoping for another Racoon Dog for them today along with a basket of small voles.
‘PB’ is “mpressed with Steelscape! Dad just delivered a lunch fish 1230pm nest time and it’s 88 there high 95 today. All 3 babies look good!” This is fantastic news. Steelscape is in the heat area, too!
Learn all you can about Menhaden – the Osprey fish of choice in the NE US. Why they are important and then learn what is decimating the numbers and why coastal osprey in specific areas are suffering nest loss repeatedly.
I am hoping that Little Mini at McEuan Park is still with us. Mum shading and I can only see three big ones but baby could be on the other side. No, sadly, Little Mini has passed at McEuan Park sometime during the late evening of Friday or early Saturday morning.
The kids at Grand Lake want fish. Just look at that nice meal Dad just brought in. They were telling Mum to hurry up and quit messing about. “We want fish!”
What a gorgeous evening in Colorado at the Pitkin County Open Spaces and Trails Osprey Nest. One of those successful osprey rescues took place at this nest two years ago. The chicks were accidentally pulled off the nest with some straw. One died and one survived and was in care for awhile because the chick needed to get well before it could learn to fly. Yes, one of those ospreys who testifies that they do well in care! Saying that they don’t is an excuse not to rescue and try.
‘H’ reports:
7/5 Osoyoos osprey nest: This family ended up having a pretty good day. The temperature was predicted to hit 35 C. After two very early fish, there was not another fish brought to the nest for the next eight hours, and I was starting to worry. But, Olsen resumed his deliveries at 1446, and brought three more fish by 2032. There were no ‘whoppers’ today. The meal durations were: 10, 26, 9, 5, 7, and 8 minutes in length. The osplets were all little angels, and they ate side-by-side as Soo fed them.
7/5 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: It was very warm at this nest, at least 97 F. But, Dad was able to provide ample fish for his family, and everyone ate well. The chicks are 55, 58, and 59 days old. Chick #2 continues to be the leader in the race to fledge, showing off with a few mini-hovers.
7/5 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Capt Mac’s Fish House): The little 21 day old osplet is doing well. There were six fish meals provided, with one long stretch of six hours between meals. Because the chick was ‘hangry’, I caught the lil’ one taking its frustration out on Mom. S/he stretched and sat up as tall as it could and repeatedly tried to beak June in the face. “I want fish, Mom!”
7/5 Colonial Beach: Betty and David’s 10 and 11-day-old chicks are doing well. For the most part, there is harmony and both are getting fed.
7/5 Captiva Ospreys: We do not have a report from CROW as yet regarding the condition of Darling, since he was rescued from the water on 7/4. Ding had two fish meals brought to him by Edie on 7/4, but we did not see Edie on 7/5. Ding is trying his best to learn how to catch a fish. She made at least eight attempts to fish from the platform on 7/5, with no luck so far. Fingers crossed that Ding has a meal today, either from Edie, or perhaps when Ding catches her first fish.
Geemeff’s Daily Report for Loch Arkaig and the Woodland Trust:
Daily summary Friday 5th July 2024 Louis and Dorcha are still around, and reaffirming their bond – he coy-mantled and attempted mating, she rejected his advances, and later he brought her a fish. At the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, their chicks are settling in and WTS Jill gives us this update: RDWF reported yesterday that both birds are feeding well and seem to be settled in the lovely dry aviary. But it’s still too early to say they are out of the woods entirely. The final vet screening will happen early next week, we’ll get more concrete news after that. Nest One had a visit from Garry LV0 bringing moss and doing a bit of housekeeping, several songbirds also visited and a Hoodie preened on Dorcha’s perch for a while. The weather was reasonably settled after a wet night but more rain is forecast for tonight, with thundery showers tomorrow. The chicks are missed but the consensus on the forum is that in the circumstances, they’re better off in the translocation programme.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 00.06.53 (03.35.23); Nest Two 23.45.16 (03.43.32)
Blast from the past, this day in previous years: https://youtu.be/KmKrmLCYAdk N1 The chicks Bring Jollity doing flight prep quick time 2020 (Classic Ospreys – Holst)
Watch the Loch Arkaig Osprey livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:
Both White-tailed eaglet fledglings on the nest resting in the Tucholskie Forest in Poland.
Bety and Bukachek’s only storklet is gorgeous.
Thank you for being with us today. Please take care of yourselves. Stay cool if you are in parts of Canada and the US. Remember to hydrate and for those feeling a little cooler down under, stay warm! Hope to have you with us again soon.
Thank you to the following for their letters, notes, posts, videos, articles, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, EJ, Geemeff, H, MM, PB’, PSEG, Native Songbird Care and Conservation, Mary Cheadle, Ian L Winter, Lucille Powell, Moorings Park Ospreys, Field farm, BoPH, Dyfi Osprey Project, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, LLyn Clywedog, Clark PUD, Kielder Forest, Minnesota Landscape Arobretum. Iowa DNR, Dunrovin Ranch, Charlo Montana Osprey Cam, Finnish Osprey Foundation, The Guardian, Oakland Zoo, Eagle Club of Estonia, Looduskalender, Steelscape, The Fishermen, McEuan Park, Grand Lake Ospreys, Pitkin County Osprey Cam, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Bielik On Line, Mlade Buky White Storks, Osoyoos, Fenwick Island, Colonial Beach, Patuxent River Park, and Window to Wildlife.
It’s the middle of the week. I thought we would have a wonderful Tuesday. It looked like a great day for a long walk at the nature centre and then the rains came – pouring rain you could hardly see 3 metres in front of you. And then finally the grey skies left and the blue skies and fluffy clouds arrived. The birds are singing for joy. The squirrels are running around looking for peanuts and Mr Crow is yelling that his cheesy-dogs are gone. The Starlings ate them! Life is back to normal. ‘The Girls’ survived the July birthday part and the horrific thunder and lighting of Monday night. We are all hoping that the rain will stop and we can have a few days of sunshine and warmth.
It is now July and I am hoping, beyond hope, that fledgling and osplet deaths are over. Many of the osprey chicks are now past the 3 week mark – a few aren’t. I am hopeful that without any major storms all will survive but, we continue to watch a few nests closely such as Captiva, Cowlitz, Forsythe, and Steelscape.
The latest for Steelscape comes in late Tuesday from Pam Breci:
I have still been feeling a bit low after the removal of the chicks at Loch Arkaig, even though I support interventions in such cases of great need. It just makes me sad seeing Louis and Dorcha without their babies. So, I want to start with a story that will amaze you. I added some quotes, but please read the entire article. You will be amazed.
Geemeff sent me the link:
“A pair of White-tailed Eagles on the Isle of Mull have amazed experts by continuing to care for their injured offspring into its second year of life, going so far as to skip breeding this year to focus on tending to the youngster.
The chick injured its left wing in July last year after its nest fell to the ground during unseasonably wild weather. Despite its sibling surviving unscathed and fledging not long afterwards, the injured youngster’s story has been a little less smooth.
As the parents continued to support the chick its wing continued to heal and it finally took to the skies in the autumn, in rather wobbly fashion, with little hope from locals that it would survive the long, harsh winter ahead.
Ringing took place at Glaslyn late on 2 July 2024. Heather Corfield reports “We have two females and one male. 6M8, 6M7 and 6M9 in age order. The youngest is the male. No surprises there.”
I continue to call for a boycott on eating tuna and salmon and this is one reason not to eat farmed salmon! They have destroyed the stocks of fish in the Chesapeake Bay and are now moving to the coasts. Multitudes are concerned and the regulating authorities are not listening. This is one of the main reasons that osprey chicks are starving – the fish they need is being taken to feed fish! Please tell your friends and find a viable alternative if you eat salmon or tuna.
Bad storms in Croatia are having an impact on our feathered friends. Many storks are being found dead.
‘H’ wondered if I had been checking the ND-LEEF nest lately. I haven’t and I am sorry that I have been occupied by the ospreys. Dad went missing on the 8th of May. The two eaglets were just a month old (like Harriet’s at SWFlorida in 2023). Gigi raised them alone. They fledged on June 26 and June 30. Isn’t that wonderful? Dad would be proud of Gigi and his babies. Phillipe Josse posted this photo of Gigi and her fledglings. Aren’t they lovely?
Iris’s youngest chick has a closed left eye. We are hoping for improvements. The chick is eating and moving well and the eye apperared to open a little Tuesday afternoon. Send good energy.
Meanwhile, Finn is being security guard!
‘A’ comments: “Darling Finn was in early with a nice fresh fish for the osplets’ breakfast. He arrived at 05:49 and Iris got straight into feeding the kids. He stays less than a minute before moving to the perch to dry off. As always, Little Bob is at the front for the feeding and the chicks are perfectly behaved. There is not a hint of aggression between them. This has to be the most laid-back osprey nest I think I’ve ever seen. It’s like watching a pair of RTH chicks or a couple of peregrine eyases. Just lovely.
By 6am, Finn is getting a little impatient. He returned to the nest about 05:58 and picked at some dropped bites and random pieces, but Iris has not finished stuffing her osplets, with Big Bob still managing to find some space in that massive crop. By 06:02 Finn is stalking the fish but Iris moves away from him, not yet ready to give it up. Big Bob has eaten very well but Iris hasn’t and Little Bob could definitely eat some more. So she continues feeding Little Bob, with Big Bob having finally left the table, full as a tick. Finn already has a very respectable crop.
At 06:03, with Little Bob turning away, Iris lets Finn take the half fish from her. He begins eating on the nest. Or is he preparing to feed the chicks? Within ten seconds, Iris has retrieved her fish and returns to feeding Little Bob and eating herself. Finn gives up and returns to the perch at 06:03:50. Iris keeps eating. She needs to have her own breakfast. But she still keeps trying to give bites to both osplets, but especially Big Bob, who has come back for seconds (or is it thirds?). Eventually she eats, and eventually, Finn gets his share. “
“When our darling Finn brought the lunchtime fish in at around 11:50, it was another humongous whole very floppy (well, more thrashy) fish, so Iris waited for Finn to disable it before she took it from him. Probably teaching him that large floppy fish and small osplets should not mix. She is a thinking woman’s mum, is Iris.
Both chicks are hungry but they behave perfectly while they wait for mum to get the fish bites ready. Finn is arranging sticks, periodically bonking Little Bob on the head with his tail. Little Bob gets confused about which direction he should be facing.
At this point, I’m going to raise something I’ve been worried about from the beginning really. But yesterday I watched something that again worried me a great deal – could you keep a close eye on Little Bob and see whether you think his sight is compromised in some way. Yesterday, he was grabbing at the bites and missing them to the right-hand side each time, as if one of his eyes was not focusing properly. I have noticed this before, but not to that extent. Mind you, it was 10pm and he may not see well in the dark. (We of course have the IR lights.) But I would like your considered opinion on it over the next few days or so, if you have a chance.
Obviously, he is still managing to stuff his face but it would not be a great way to live as a fledgling, so I am a bit worried, which is why I am finally asking your opinion. (The fact that nobody else has questioned it reassured me until that feeding last night around 10pm when it really was very noticeable. And how does he still end up facing the wrong way at his age? I wonder and I worry. Let’s hope I’m just totally mistaken.
Anyway, spoiler alert: although it was a wet morning, the chicks dried out in the afternoon and ate well all day. The midday fish was almost the size of Big Bob and, obviously, significantly larger than Little. Iris had some trouble (and had to use her wings) to even move it around the nest, and I cannot imagine her being able to rip it out of the water. That would take a very strong bird, which says something about our hero, Finn. He surely is a diamond and Iris SO deserves him. And wow, is he a looker. Such a handsome osprey. He is glorious.
At the noon feeding, Little was closest to mum and was fed first. His older sibling simply watched and patiently waited for his turn. Finn obscures our view as the feeding proceeds, but it appears that at noon, ten minutes after the arrival of the fish, Big Bob is still waiting. When Finn finally moves, at 12:04, we can see that Little Bob is still at mum’s beak but Big Bob does have a small crop so may have had some bites.
Finn decides he will start feeding himself from the tail end of this monstrous fish while Iris continues feeding Little Bob from the head end. I’m hoping Finn will feed Big Bob, who has turned to face dad and is obviously hopeful. Just before 12:07 Finn, who has come around to the head end of the fish, attempts to pull the fish from Iris’s grasp. She pulls back. She continues feeding Little. Big Bob is still hungry, and Iris turns her head to reach him, deciding Little Bob has had enough for now and her other chick needs his turn. So she feeds Big Bob bite after bite. Little turns away from the table. Finn plots his next attack on the fish.
Around 12:09 Finn gives up and heads for the perch. Mum keeps feeding BIg Bob. Just before 12:10 he begins alerting, looking upwards. That chirp of his is incredibly melodic for an osprey. Quite beautiful. Little, who has face-planted, sat up for a short while, then face-planted again, is not turning back to the table yet – I’m sure he will manage some seconds shortly. Just before 12:12 Iris joins Finn in alerting at something above. Finn is tracking it across the sky. He is concerned. At 12:12 the chicks both pancake.
At 12:12:28, another osprey attempts to land on the nest! Iris immediately rears up, flapping her wings with menace, and the bird flies off, with Finn in pursuit. Iris soon returns to the fish, but the chicks stay pancaked. Iris returns to eating herself, then feeds Big Bob again when he lifts his head. Little stands up but then decides his eyes are bigger than his stomach (well, not literally, obviously) and lies back down.
At 12:20 Iris is again looking upwards, and soon resumes alerting. Twenty seconds later, Finn lands back on the nest, much to our relief. This boy is strong and young and determined to protect his family. He is doing a wonderful job at it. Here is a big statement: this is a male with what it takes to become an M15. He is not quite there yet – I cannot see him raising two month-old osplets single-taloned as M15 did with his eaglets. But with another season or two of paternal experience, I can certainly see him becoming a dad of that calibre. I adore Finnegan. I cannot say enough good things about him. “
The nest is a mess but the chicks are fantastic at Niagara Bee.
Things continue to go well at Blackbush for the trio.
Concerns for the two osplets at Newfoundland Snow Lane nest of Beaumonth and Hope as bad weather continues. Prior to the rain a large fish was on the nest and Hope was feeding the chicks.
Big fish and four big osplets at Field Farm.
There are so many big osplets just eating, growing, and waiting for their day to fly. That is Great Bay, too.
The trio at Charlo Montana are changing from cute little bobbleheads and into Reptiles!!!!!!
So, it is too close to call for three of the Poole Harbour four. The little one is believed to be a male but the three older ones are either small females or large well fed males. Can’t sex. I am going to go with four males because of their behaviour – too sweet and nice.
Louis has been consistent in bringing in a morning and evening fish. Dorcha was on the nest around 2000 and Louis came in with her dinner. You could hear him returning her calls.
The video of that fish delivery:
The two chicks of Louis and Dorcha are believed to be two males! Here is Geemeff’s report:
Daily summary Tuesday 2nd July 2024
Today was the first day waking up to the reality of an empty nest. However, Woodland Trust Scotland spokesman George tells us the chicks are reported to be doing well after a warm, dry, peaceful night with plenty of fish. They have been initially assessed as two males, although a more thorough assessment will take place in due course when they are ringed and satellite tagged. Questions were raised on the forum as to the feasibility of continuing to feed the chicks on the nest rather than placing them in the translocation programme – WTS gives the reasons why that’s not possible, details here: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam/?ht-comment-id=15244841. It might have been thought that activity on the nest would tail off now but Garry LV0 stepped up to provide plenty of interest by intruding not once but several times on Nest Two. He even brought nest furnishings. If he does fancy Dorcha as a potential mate, both Dorcha and Louis have other ideas, and there was much flying on and off, alarm-chipping and hasty exits. Once Garry had left for the night, Louis turned up with a good size late night supper which was eagerly seized by Dorcha. No improvement in the weather, it’s deteriorating if anything, with a forecast of heavy rain and light winds tonight, and rain all day tomorrow.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.44.17 (02.50.32); Nest Two 23.34.00 (03.23.23)
This is a video showing where the chicks of Dorcha and Louis will be translocated. Thanks, Mary Cheadle for posting this. We are all curious.
We have had more osplet deaths and the Memorial Page is now up to 90. The only surviving chick on nest 4 at Kielder Forest in the UK became lethargic and was not growing properly and died at 39 days right before ringing. It is believed to have been a lung infection due to all the cold rainy weather.
Nest 7 at Kielder had three healthy chicks that were ringed on Tuesday. Two females and a male. Very interesing names. Have a read:
All is well at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Please be careful if you are looking for this nest. There is a lot of archived footage on YT that might cause you to not be seeing the current time/day.
Lots of feedings. Mum is very attentive. Chick is doing well. The colouring is off – everything appears darker than it is. The chick is normal osplet plummage. On my screen, it looks very dark.
Here is the link:
The lens is all fogged up at the nest of Dylan and Seren in Llyn Clywedog. The chicks are feathered and doing great. Fledging shortly.
The little one at Cowlitz does wait for the other two and then, if there is fish, it gets a few bites before it is moved away. There was not a lot of fish coming in on Tuesday. It was 69 F with 10 mph winds.
Here are Heidi’s reports for the day!
7/2 Osoyoos osprey nest: After the live stream was offline for 2.5 days, it went live at 0938 this morning. The chicks looked good. The first delivery we saw was a tiny fish at 1006. What struck me was that Little immediately shuffled away and tucked as Soo prepared to feed. That was a new behavior that Little had acquired since the last time we watched. This indicated that there had been some dominance and aggression at meals. It was only a four minute feeding, and Little got 3 bites. The next fish at 1146 was also tiny, for a 5 minute feeding, and after some initial intimidation, Little ate. At 1212, Olsen delivered a Whopper! As Soo was dragging the large fish into position, Middle beaked Little into submission, but then Big beaked Middle! So there it was…yes there has been aggression at meals. By 1218 Middle was able to start eating beside Big. By 1222 Little had worked his way around to the other side of Soo and was getting a few bites…but, don’t ya’ know Soo moved the fish, so Little had no protection. After several more minutes passed, Little was eating right up beside the other two osplets, and all were having a good meal. At 1242 the cam went down for more than an hour, so we don’t know how long the meal was, or if Olsen removed some leftover fish. The next (and last) fish of the day was at 1553, a large whole fish, for a meal that lasted 13 minutes. Everyone ate peacefully.
7/2 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Captain Mac’s Fish House): Things are going well for Johnny, June, and their 18-day-old youngster.
7/2 Audubon Boathouse osprey nest: The oldest osplet, Harbor, seems to be calming down a bit, and is less aggressive toward Gray. I was able to observe a few meals and they were peaceful. Good news. The nestlings are 18 and 14-days-old.
7/2 Mispillion Harbor osprey nest: Della, Warren and their two 35 and 36-day-old osplets are doing great. There is never a shortage of fish from Warren.
7/2 Forsythe osprey nest: This has been a very sad season for this nest. Only the oldest osplet (named Larry) remains out of the original four chicks. It seems that there’s not enough fish in this area. There were six fish delivered to the nest, including two from Opal. Larry is 42 days old, and should be able to make it to fledge.
7/2 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: Everything is going well for this bunch. There may be a fledge in a day or two…and I am predicting that Middle will be first to take flight. Middle is a bit smaller than Big, so has less body mass to get into the air. Middle has been getting some nice lift while flapping/leaping across the nest. (Ages of the osplets: 56, 55, 52)
7/2 Captiva osprey nest: Darling dominated the nest all day. Ding was prevented from landing on the nest many times. Edie delivered the only fish of the day at 1114. Ding flew in, there was a scramble with Darling over the fish, and it appeared as though Ding left in possession of the fish, or she may have dropped it. It was obviously not a good day for fishing. You may recall that Edie took a 6-day break, and returned on 6/29. In Edie’s absence, Jack worked his tail feathers off fishing for his kids during that period of time. It seems as though Jack may now be resting and taking a well deserved break. He was last seen on cam on 6/29.
Oh, those San Jose siblings!!!!!!!!
And more from this adorable family who continue to visit their scrape for us!
Ventana Wildlife continues to vaccinate the California Condor population against HPAI.
Plastics are everywhere. They are not good for our birds – not good in the sea, in nets, in human garbage, mesh bags, etc. As humans we need to try and minimise the number of plastic items that we purchase. I know that it is difficult. I made a vow several years ago to sever ties with plastic – they are everywhere. If you are heading to the lake or the beach, The Guardian ran a good article on how to avoid plastic. Even if you live elsewhere, there are good ideas here for everyone everywhere. We can help our wildlife.
I have a number of nests to report in Canada during the coming week. At least one of them has four healthy chicks! Stay tuned.
Thank you for being with us today. Take care everyone. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, questions, posts, announcements, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, PB’, Pam Breci, Scottish Field, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Menhaden – Little Fish, Big Deal FB, Menhaden Defenders, Phillipe Josee and the ND-LEEF Eagle Cam, Montana Osprey Project, Cornell Bird Lab, Niagara Bee, Blackbush, Newfoundland Power, Field Farm, Great Bay, Charlo Montana, BoPH, The Woodland Trust, Geemeff, Mary Cheadle, Kielders ospreys, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Llyn Clywedog Ospreys, Cowlitz PUD, Osoyoos, Fenwick Island, Forsythe, Mispillion Harbour, Audubon Boathouse, Patuxent River Park, Window to Wildlife, SK Hideaways, Ventana Wildlife Society, and Kakapo Recovery.
Thursday was not a good day. Indeed, it has been tearful and solemn. Our beloved Louis at Loch Arkaig has not been seen on camera since 1151 local time on Wednesday. Intense storms with gale-force winds in the area almost blew the two osplets off the nest. Dorcha is trying to keep them safe, and she did fly off and returned with an eel so they would have something to eat. Geemeff writes, “Only one fish yesterday, and just the tail end of that. No fish today, so Dorcha went off and came back with an eel. Concern is growing for Louis.”
Many of you will have watched Loch Arkaig nest 1 during the pandemic where Louis and Aila raised three amazing osplets, JJ5, JJ6, and JJ7. Sadly Aila did not return and he bonded with Dorcha. Louis moved them from the Loch Arkaig nest 1 to the current nest where, sadly, the weather is worse. Louis has always been an amazing provider. My heart is breaking. It feels like someone hit me really hard in my abdomen. This just can’t be happening.
As Thursday passes, concerns continue to grow as Louis has not been seen all day after being perched in his favourite tree late on Wednesday by Liz Bracken who can view the area with her scope.
Dorcha is feeding the chicks but eating very little herself. She needs to eat, too. Oh, please come home safe, Louis.
Dorcha is desperately trying to protect her two chicks during the storm.
Geemeff’s report for Loch Arkaig:
Daily summary Thursday 27th June 2024
Midnight finally arrives to end a dreich day filled with worry over Louis – where is he? The usually reliable super-fisherbird hasn’t been seen for over 24 hours, and concern is growing. He only brought a partial fish to the nest yesterday and Dorcha and the chicks are hungry. So taking matters into her own talons, Dorcha went off and returned with an eel which she proceeded to feed to the very eager chicks, once again, she didn’t get much herself. Dorcha’s fish (yes, eels are fish) takes the tally to two hundred and fifty one. Despite the official forecast the weather has been atrocious and at one point, both chicks were nearly blown off the nest in a violent gust of wind. What’s described as a ‘moderate breeze’ and heavy rain soaking the nest and its occupants is set to continue until tomorrow afternoon when there is a prospect of some sunshine. As the chicks’ plumage isn’t fully waterproof as yet, Dorcha still needs to act as mumbrella to shelter them, which she can’t do if she’s off fishing. With luck, Louis will turn up tomorrow. No action on Nest One.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.38.27 (03.25.18); Nest Two 23.00.49 (03.57.48)
After taking advice we have decided to place some fish on the nest today if Louis or Dorcha do not bring anything in meantime. This could be within the next hour or two subject to legal clearance. The camera may be switched off for this to happen. Given the weekend is approaching, a licence is also being sought to remove the chicks from the nest so we have that option over the weekend if we need it. The advice we have received is that if Louis has not returned by the end of the weekend, then he likely will not be returning. That being the case it is unlikely Dorcha would be able to successfully raise the two chicks to the end of the season and migration. Even given her best efforts to protect them and fish, they would likely not make it. Enquiries have revealed that among the options there is potential for the chicks to go into an existing translocation programme for the benefit of the species. We won’t commit to that until we are sure Louis and Dorcha don’t have a good chance of continuing undisturbed to raise their family. The tricky thing is not intervening too soon when Louis might turn up at any moment, and not leaving it too late until the chicks won’t be in good enough condition to survive translocation. The advice we have is that it is too soon to write Louis off yet, but if he continues to be absent until late into the weekend then we should look at removing the chicks then. The licence to do that is being sought today, even if it is not needed in the end. In order to increase the chance of a successful outcome for the chicks should they be removed in a few days time, they are going to be fed today to tide them over for now. They may also be fed tomorrow. To provision the nest Lewis will climb the tree and leave fish. You will appreciate we have a lot to sort out and I may not be able to answer the many questions I am sure you will have. So please bear with us.
If you are interested in Ospreys in Canada, I have just joined the very informative Ospreys of Nova Scotia FB group run by Connie Dennis, who monitors the nest of Ethel and Oscar at Russell Lake in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Connie told me that the birds in Nova Scotia have “lots of fish”. My goodness, that makes me want to dance!
Ethel feeding Skyor and Heidi at the Russell Lake osprey nest in Nova Scotia. Photo credit: Connie Dennis.
There are no streaming cams but if you want to see some pretty well-fed babies head over to that group!
The trio at Charlo Montana – Charlie and Lola’s kids – are doing well. It has been raining but fish has come in and they seem fine.
I wish every nest had a Finnegan and, like all of you, I continue to be overjoyed that Iris has such an incredibly amazing wonderful magnificent mate!
‘A’ comments: “at Hellgate, Finn removed the fish from the nest around 07:15 and it was so heavy, he could hardly drag it off the nest, let alone lift it! I wondered why he didn’t just eat on the nest and feared he would drop it. And it appears that’s what must have happened, because although he had a good crop when he next returned, it was nowhere near the size it would have been if he’d eaten even a third of that fish. So obviously, he has dropped it, which is unfortunate, as it would have fed the entire family at least four big meals today. When Finn does come back at around 08:35, it is not with the remainder of the fish but with a huge branch. He then manoeuvres it into position and moves another large branch further around the nest. It appears he has noticed, as I have over the past 36 hours or so, that Big Bob is beginning to become very adventurous and is exploring the surface of the nest and heading out towards the rails on his own, sometimes even ending up out there at 3am and having to be brought back into the warmth of Iris’s underfluffies. Big Bob really does look to be right in the middle of his reptilian phase (I have to believe now that he is also a male, given how incredibly laid-back he is and how he tolerates Baby Bob in front of him for feedings, waiting to reach over to get a bite once Iris has stopped giving Little Bob consecutive bites, often for some time. Yesterday evening, she was feeding Little Bob for so long that I became worried Big Bob would lose patience, leaning over Little for a bite and continually missing out. Surely, he would become frustrated by this sooner or later. But no. Mum just kept feeding Little Bob until, essentially, he was too full to compete and sat down. The rain has now really set in (it’s nearly 9.30am and the camera keeps freezing) and although poor Iris is saturated, she still manages to keep both osplets absolutely dry. She is truly amazing – and the best mumbrella ever in both rain and sunshine. This is the most magical nest. First, of course, we have the gift from the gods that is Finnegan. Then, we have two viable eggs, both Finn’s, laid a full week apart, which both hatched. As if that were not enough, despite the serious concerns raised by the massive time and size discrepancy between the two hatches, we discover we have a second chick, nowhere near as well developed at hatch than was its much larger older sibling, that somehow still manages to get itself fed without any fear of getting to mum’s beak (once he could see it). And now, to cap it all off, we have a much older, larger sibling deep in the reptilian phase who still has not raised a talon or a beak in anger towards his younger sibling. So I can only think we have two brothers here. Surely even parents as devoted as Iris and Finn have demonstrated themselves to be could not have controlled the sibling aggression to this degree with a female first hatch and a male second hatch. It has been one miracle after another. Still, as we have seen, Iris is an amazingly experienced, patient and dedicated mum. She never ceases to impress me. And as for Finn, what a man. He has his quirks, but Iris really has found a keeper in this handsome, devoted young mate. You go girl! What a cougar she is. Oh don’t you just ADORE the way he feeds her? ” She continues, “I do wish Finn would stop removing the leftovers from the nest. He eats a huge meal from them, then doesn’t feel hungry and obviously doesn’t realise that the chicks cannot eat enough to get them through the long gaps between fish deliveries that are the result of this behaviour. It would be far better if Finn caught much smaller fish, but these gigantic fish that seem to be the only thing on offer at this location will be great in a few weeks’ time but at this stage is proving annoying. Still, Iris is ensuring that the babies are fed into a food coma every time she has the opportunity to do so, even if it means sacrificing the time to eat properly herself on occasion. Finn has fought her for the fish more than once while she is feeding the osplets, and she has had to insist that he leave it alone until she’s finished. (It’s as if he wants to show the fish off, then take it away and eat the head before returning it. But of course this excites the chicks, who then wonder what has happened to the fish, so Iris argues loudly about it and usually wins – at least temporarily.) It is this particular quirk of his that does lead me to believe this is his first time. He should know by now that babies need small, frequent feedings not two or at most three massive feedings a day. “
At Field Farm, all four osplets are feathered and accounted for! ‘A’ writes, “Mini was self-feeding at Field Farm yesterday. What a cutie he is. All four are looking wonderfully well. “
CJ7 and Blue 022’s chicks should be getting ringed soon. They, too, are doing quite well. Dedicated parents, good fish supplies. It all makes a difference.
Steelscape appears to be doing alright.
Salt Point is good.
At the Newfoundland Power nest, Hope continues to feed her chick.
At Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Mum is feeding the only surviving baby, too. Some relief. I hope these two mothers continue.
The weekly highlights in video for Richmond and Rosie in SF:
A message from Kelly Sorenson of the Ventana Wildlife Society:
My link to Thursday’s Condor Chat did not work. I asked ‘B’ to let me know if they found out anything about Aurora’s death. Here is what he reports, “There is no definitive answer on the cause of death for Aurora, but the possibility VWS considers to be most likely seems to be possible lead poisoning from contaminated prey that was fed to the chick. This is mainly because they report that they are seeing high lead concentrations in many of the birds that they have trapped. They were not able to recover Aurora’s body for analysis because the nest tree was so compromised by the Dolan fire that it would be too risky for a climber to retrieve the body. VWS says that Zenith, the father, consumed the remains, so if there is indeed lead poisoning there would be concern for Zenith’s health, and they will watch for that.
Neither mother Redwood Queen nor Zenith are currently vaccinated for avian flu. The fact that both Redwood Queen and Zenith seem to be healthy makes them think that avian flu is less likely to be the cause of Aurora’s death, but they will be watching Redwood Queen and Zenith for signs of illness, and both parents are now “at the top of the list” for trapping to be vaccinated. 28 out of 100 of the free-flying condors in the flock are currently vaccinated. 8 more have now received the first of two doses of vaccine in June and remain in isolation pens awaiting the second dose. (Only adults that are not nesting and juveniles can be vaccinated, so it has not been possible until now to vaccinate Redwood Queen or Zenith this year, since they were nesting until now,) Two more condors that were trapped recently were found to have high lead concentrations and have been taken to the Oakland Zoo for chelation treatment before they can be vaccinated.
One other potential cause for Aurora’s death that cannot ruled out is that s/he may have been attacked by a predator (even possibly by another condor) at night when Aurora was not visible on camera.”
Heidi will, no doubt, include this in her report. This attack reminds me of Ervie and his siblings after they fledged – out and out monstrous effort to keep the other away from the nest and food. Let us hope that neither is injured.
Heat. Dehydration. Lack of food.
‘J and PB’ called my attention to the report from FORE on Luna:
“6/27/24 Update on Luna’s Necropsy & the effects of extreme heat on eaglets & other nesting birds. I contacted our Raptor Rescue Angel Marily Woodhouse from Defiance Canyon to get an update on Luna’s remains & she shared this important information with me…
“I emailed with the Lab, and she said on the 21st that she would be getting the body in the next few weeks, when someone from the Redding office is going to Rancho Cordova. Luna’s body is being kept frozen at the CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife Office until transport. Dehydration is an effect, but the initial cause is high heat and/or becoming too weakened to eat for that and additional reasons. All young birds grow incredibly fast, but eagles go from less than a quarter lb. to 8-10 lbs. in 10 weeks, which is a high level of physical stress. It’s difficult to keep up, even in optimal conditions. Extreme conditions exacerbate the stress. When I looked at the temperatures for the 10 days from June 5th to June 14th when Sol died, the average high this year was 101; in 2023 the average high for the same 10 days was only 88. An article in the Guardian today talks about the heat issues, focusing on people, who have more ability to escape than an un-flighted bird:
“One degree celsius of warming may sound relatively small but it can translate into quite substantial impacts as it’s an average and the extremes of that average can cause much higher likelihoods of deaths from heatwaves, as well as agricultural impacts and wildfires,” she said.
Here is the article in The Guardian, FORE is referring to. We need to realise that heat and lack of food is going to kill so many, many more and that where possible we should provide supplementary fish:
In case you do not open files, here is the map. You will see that many of the problematic nests are within the upper heat reaches of 3 C.
It is the hard reality of our heating world and how terrible the impact is going to be on our beloved friends.
Oh, how lovely to see them. Larry and mate visit their Alcatraz scrape!
Look at that crop on Tuffy! Just saying…when food is plentiful.
Ferris Akel caught up with the Ns and with Big Red and Arthur on the Cornell Campus Thursday evening.
Big Red is moulting. She will be ‘Blondie’ soon.
One of the Ns.
Big Red and Arthur on Bradfield at the end of a busy day.
David Gessner’s book on Flaco, the Eurasian Owl, that escaped from the Central Park Zoo, who died nearly a year after gaining his freedom, will be released in 2025.
‘H’ reports: 6/28 Colonial Beach had their third hatch overnight.
6/27 Osoyoos osprey nest: The live stream resumed at 0930. It is not uncommon for Olsen to deliver three fish by that time of the morning, and when the cam went live, we could see a partial fish in the nest. Soo fed meals from that piece of fish at 1007 and 1044, finally finishing the fish at 1057. There were two more fish delivered that I saw. A large whole fish was delivered at 1513, that Soo fed for 11 minutes, and finally a bedtime snack fish at 1829. Things are looking good for this bunch.
6/27 Forsythe osprey nest: Due to Bigs dominance, Middle had not had very much to eat for a couple of days. There were four fish delivered to the nest, including one from Opal. The first fish of the day, at 0856, was a very large fish from Oscar, that Opal fed for 55 minutes. Big was determined not to allow Middle to eat. Despite the long meal, Middle was only able to eat 20 bites of fish! Almost seven hours passed before Opal delivered the next fish at 1550. It was a good size fish that she fed for 18 minutes. Early on, Middle managed to position himself on the opposite side of Opal from Big, and Opal fed both of the siblings. Sometimes, the moms will inexplicably move the fish, and blow the cover of the underdog osplet being fed to one side. I was worried that Opal might do that…but she didn’t. Middle ate for 18 minutes. Middle was not able to get to Opal’s beak at the third meal consisting of a tiny fish. At 1753 Oscar brought a fish that Opal fed for 13 minutes, and Middle was able to be fed on the opposite side from Big for 10 minutes. One day at a time.
6/27 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Capt Mac’s Fish House): There were six meals averaging about 12-15 minutes in duration. This lil’ 13-day-old baby is growing, getting plump, and looking good.
6/27 Captiva Ospreys: It has been an unusual, but successful season for Jack and Edie, and their two offspring. Most of us always root for the underdog, youngest osplet. Darling was younger by only 36 hours. But, the siblings may as well have been three days apart in their ages, based on the degree of dominance from the older sibling, Ding. Darling fought for his meals on an almost daily basis, including surviving a 3.5 day period of starvation. Darling is a survivor.
Darling fledged on 6/26. On 6/27 Darling flew back to the nest for the first time, and made a good landing. Unfortunately, the fledgling Ding no longer wants to share the nest with him. Ding acted very aggressively toward Darling for nearly half an hour, eventually forcing him off the nest.
Ding’s instinct is simply one of survival. Ding is not being ‘mean’. She is a strong osprey, and that is a good thing to be. Ding is territorial, and now only sees Darling as competition for food that a parent may bring to the nest. Jack has been delivering five fish a day to the nest for Ding and Darling. Today, Jack brought three fish to Ding at the nest. Perhaps Jack took two fish to Darling on a branch. That would be more fish than Darling would get after food fights with Ding on the nest.
We were very glad to see Darling this morning. We may or may not see Darling again on camera. This is not an unprecedented turn of events at some raptor nests after fledging. Jack will continue to bring fish to Darling away from the nest, Darling will learn how to fish, and he will continue to be a survivor.
Many thanks to the wise and capable Mods of the Captiva live stream, for assisting us with our thought processes on these events.
‘PB’ reports that Baby Cowlitz had 75 bites of fish Friday morning and is a survivor! How wonderful. It will live another day. Wish for fish! And gentle siblings.
Thank you so very much for being with me today. This was a hop skip and jump through some nests with some information on what is impacting our most loved birds. Take care of yourself. See you soon!
Thank you to the following who sent me comments, notes, for their posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today. I could not do it without you! ‘A, B, CD, Geemeff, H, J, PB’, The Woodland Trust, Geemeff, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Connie Dennis, Ospreys of Nova Scotia, Cowlitz PUD, Charlo Montana, Montana Osprey Project, Field Farm, BoPH, Steelscape Ospreys, Salt Point, Newfoundland Power Snow Lane Osprey Cam, MN Landscape Arboretum, Ventana Wildlife Society, Heidi McGrue, FORE, The Guardian, SK Hideaways, Moorings Park, Ferris Akel Tours, David Gessner FB, Colonial Beach, Osoyoos, Fenwick Island, Forsythe Ospreys, Window to Wildlife, and Cowlitz PUD.
‘The Girls’ and I are sitting in the conservatory despite the high temperature. It is 29 C. We have gotten hotter in the summers, but everything feels strange – like a big storm coming. The trees are twirling around and the clouds are moving quickly covering up the sun and yet, there is no prediction of anything happening. Cold water has been put out for the birds and more food for the Corvids as they are feeding babies and fledglings are coming to the garden now. I hope to get some good images of them one day.
I am not complaining. I understand from ‘MM’ that it is 96 F with a heat index of 101 in North Carolina. This is why all those osprey babies (and eagles) should hatch in the winter. So much better!
The garden is a shady paradise in the lilacs and the tunnel created with the vines and other trees. There is also shade on the deck in the late afternoon. The birds come out to feed again after having a siesta.
Junior wants a peanut but Dyson is there.
So he decides to have a bath.
It is hot everywhere. Please remember to leave out shallow bowls of water for the animals. You will save their lives. Water is more important than food when the heat is so high. Even pie pans with water – put try and put them in the shade. Thank you.
This just puts a smile on my face. Someone doing something to help birds. Enter mosquitoes to the Hawaiian Islands.
Idris and Telyn have set a record at the Dyfi nest in Wales. One of the females broke the weight record for a chick ringed in Wales. She came in over 2 kg. Here is the announcement with the names of the osplets!
That is incredible. ‘Daddy Longlegs’ Idris has really been hauling in the fish. Even that male has a nice healthy weight.
‘MM’ sends news that we have the first hatch at Colonial Beach. It is hot there. 31.3 C or 88 F. Chick has already had its first feeding! Well done, Betty and David. See also ‘H’s report below on this nest.
Iris’s oldest chick is rather precocious. It is already nibbling on the fish!
‘A’ comments on something magical: “Finn brought in a leftover chunk of fish at about 18:44 and just stands with it on the nest for about 25 minutes. Finally, he starts nibbling at it and Iris stands up, but Finn just keeps eating himself. Baby Bob spots who has the fish and is promptly over to dad, although both chicks already have good crops. It takes dad a while to stop feeding his face (and giving the odd bite to Iris) and start feeding Little Bob, and then he looks the wrong way when dad offers him fish, but around 19:16 a feeding of sorts begins. Soon, Big Bob sees what is happening and lumbers up behind Little Bob but does not interfere. Dad leans over to feed the older chick and at this point, he gives up on eating and starts feeding the two osplets in turn. It is wonderful to watch. This guy really is a keeper. He has a bit to learn about leaving leftovers on the nest and if he is only going to catch two or three whoppers a day, to bring them back more than once so they represent more than one feeding, but none of that will matter shortly, when they are big enough to handle fewer, larger feeds.
Finn has been an amazing first-time dad, guarding his family and the territory with great dedication and bringing in enough fish to feed the family (albeit his delivery schedule needs a little adjustment – see above). He has fed Iris on several occasions when she is tired or when it is wet, and now, he is feeding the osplets as well. This is one fantastic dad in the making. And Iris has chosen well. “
‘B’ writes that we have fledges! “Fledges at both Fraser Point and Bald Canyon this morning — the second FP chick (usually referred to as Reign) at 8:32:09 and Selene at BC at 10:07:54. Reign was back on an adjacent branch at 10:38:06 and on the nest proper within a minute…So all the Channel Islands eaglets that are on nest cams have now fledged.” Congratulations everyone. A wonderful year!
‘B’ also sent us a link to an article in The Washington Post. Do you think the Bald Eagle is the official bird of the United States? Have a read!
‘TU’ has sent us some news. A pair of Egyptian Geese took over a stork nest. Their chicks took the leap this morning. Video below.
In Montreal, Peregrine Falcon chick Polo fledges! Beautiful flight. Oh, how I hate those windows.
Let’s catch up with the news from ‘H’:
6/24 Colonial Beach Virginia osprey nest: Congratulations to Betty and David on the hatch of their first baby!
6/24 Barnegat Light osprey nest: Even though Daisy and Duke did not have any eggs this season, they continue to hang out together in the bay area. We are delighted when they grace us with their presence on camera. Theirs is a love story.
6/24 The Osoyoos osprey nest had another nice day. They had nine feedings, and all three of the osplets had good crops. Meal times remained peaceful, but I did catch a pretty good beaking battle in between meals, and that kerfuffle was started by Little!
6/24 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Capt Mac’s fish House): Okay now…I am starting to be impressed. June is keeping her leftover fish, saving it for more feedings, and she is feeding longer. Just look at the crop on that lil’ 10-day-old osplet. Now, that’s what I’m talking about!
6/24 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: It was a veritable fish-feast-day. There were a total of six long meals throughout the day . Something really cool happened in the afternoon… At 1410 Mom brought a large fish to the nest (first fish for her this season), and two minutes later Dad landed in the nest with a large fish. A dual feeding took place, with Dad primarily feeding the two older siblings for 1/2 hour before he left with half his fish. And, Mom primarily fed Little. She continued to feed everyone from her fish after Dad left, and her fish lasted an hour.
6/24 Captiva ospreys: The day started off with a surprise for Ding and Darling when they had a visitor in the middle of the night…a young heron landed in the nest for a short period of time. The kids maintained their cool, but we’ve never seen their eyes so big! Jack brought three fish to the nest today, and Darling had his very own hardhead catfish. He was able to unzip it, and ate the whole fish. Edie was last seen on cam on 6/23, but there have been sightings of an adult osprey landing in a nearby tree, and some believe that they have heard Edie. It is believed that Edie is taking a short break, and that her absence from the nest has nothing to do with the fishing line incident of 6/21. After the fishing line incident, Edie delivered fish to the nest on 6/21, 6/22, and 6/23, and she seemed just fine.
Thanks so much, ‘H’. That Fenwick Island baby is too cute – and oh, so full! Love it.
That little osplet in Kurzeme Latvia is also so cute. OK. They are all cute little dinosaurs.
Four hot ospreys at Field Farm. Little Mini is getting its feathers.
Birds of Poole Harbour Fab Four are deliriously wonderful. CJ7 and Blue 022. I can’t tell you how much I adore them.
And then there is Louis at Loch Arkaig that brought in a fish at midnight to Dorcha. Yes, midnight. Do ospreys hunt in the dark? how light was it in Scotland at midnight? Oh, I just wish I could send one of those fish over to Osoyoos.
Geemeff’s Daily Summary for Loch Arkaig: Monday 24th June 2024
The day started out a bit soggy but soon improved, and Louis had a bit of a lie-in after yesterday’s midnight fish, not turning up until lunchtime with today’s first fish. He followed it up with three more, taking his tally to two hundred and forty six. Dorcha had fun with a stick but was left hungry as the growing chicks devoured most of the fish, however the arrival of a large 11pm fish supper meant she didn’t end the day hungry. The nest seems to be getting a little crowded now that the chicks are mobile and stretching out their suddenly long wings, perhaps that’s why one chick took a pop at the other and a short sharp fight broke out. There was much discussion on the forum about which chick is which as it’s getting very difficult to tell them apart. Garry LV0 turned up on Nest One again today, bringing nesting materials and doing a bit of nest scraping. Is this a frustration eyrie? Whatever his motives, it’s good to see him. Tonight’s forecast is light rain and light winds, luckily although the chicks are too big to fit under Dorcha, their preen glands are coming through and they’re starting to get some waterproofing.
Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 00.15.51 (02.48.23); Nest Two (03.32.32)
Watch the livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:
Blackbush. Sometimes dual feedings. Sometimes Dad feeding Mum who feeds babies. Send this nest hope. We have seen these little ones before survive. Tiny Dancer. Tiny Little. Blue 464. It depends on the amount of prey and the willingness of the parents to work hard to keep all of them alive – just like CJ7 and Blue 022 are doing.
Beautiful fledglings back on the VIMS nest.
Once in awhile you will catch a fledgling on the Frenchman’s Creek nest. These kids are gorgeous. Look at that clean nest!
Looks like Tuffy had a couple of nice fish today on the Moorings Park nest. These kids of Harry and Sally are gorgeous.
It was 26 C in Osoyoos today. Tomorrow will be 27 – and believe me, it is hotter on the top of an osprey nest than it is at ground level. Then there is to be rain. Oh, please give these babies some fish – some big fish because Soo and Olsen have to eat, too!
My goodness. The plumage on that baby at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is dark. Very pretty little osplet. The image shows Mum feeding the little one from the whole fish that Dad brought in around 1400. There had at least been one earlier fish. It is hot on that nest!
Oh, look at those fat little bottoms at Charlo Montana!
Winnie and Swoop have their second baby at Dunrovin on the 24th.
It is hot in Colorado. Pitkin County Mum is the perfect mumbrella keeping her babies cool. She fluffs her own feathers to keep herself cool as well.
I sure would like to see more fish in the heat at Cowlitz PUD but there are still three osplets that appear to be alright.
Beautiful baby at Clark PUD.
Boulder County Mum keeping their Only Bob cool and fed!
No love lost when it comes to food amounts San Jose fledglings!
Many of us are hoping to find out what happened to Redwood Queen and Zenith’s chick in the Big Sur Redwood Forest. We are joining the Ventana Wildlife Society’s Condor Chat which is on the last Thursday of the month. Very informative.
Got to the Ventana Wildlife Society website to sign up. The Condor chats are also archived and you can view them on YouTube.
Educate yourself about California Condors and the acute challenges they face. The Ventana Wildlife Society led the way in giving their flock vaccines for HPAI. Now they are helping others.
We have another Condor baby. Fingers crossed.
Decorah North continues to thrive despite the nest collapse.
Gorgeous Black Storks in Portugal.
Beautiful Mum at Port Lincoln Barge on the nest and eating a fish she caught and brought back quickly.
‘PB’ has been keeping an eye on Cowlitz PUD and Steelscape. She writes, “I just checked both Cowlitz and Steelcase since they are both in the same area. Fish seems to be coming in slow and far apart, keeping #1 grouchy and getting most of the food. Steelcase is worrisome to me for #3. It’s is constantly bullied by #1 when food arrives. Even bullies away #2. #3 Steelcase could use more fish. #3 managed to bravely grab a few big pieces of the tail section on ladt fish but is hungry. Cowlitz little baby ate a good breakfast but not much after that. Last fish there was 4 hours ago. Still light out so hoping for a late fish but both places need larger fish to feed 3 mouths.”
Smile. Canada Geese enjoying the grass by an airport in Alabama. Thanks, ‘L’. It seems so odd seeing them with palm trees! Oh, I love the Canada Geese – and guess what? They are not the national bird of Canada. The Gray Jay is. Go figure.
And another smile. Ospreys rescued and in care. Thanks, ‘J’.
Menhaden are the primary fish of the Ospreys in the NE USA. If you want to know how bad the commercial fishing industry is impacting these life-giving little fish, you only have to go to the FB page – Menhaden – Little Fish, Big Deal. here is a post from this morning. This is seriously concerning and the commercial fishing needs to stop before the Osprey are completely wiped out. Of course Dophins and Whales eat Menhaden, too, and they are practically disappeared from the area.
Our friend Hob in Kauai sends us news of the first moli fledge for 2024. how wonderful!
Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care. If it is super hot where you live, drink lots of fluids. Consider putting water out for the animals even if you can’t see them – we have visitors during the night that eat and drink. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, letters, comments, questions, videos, images, posts, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, L, MM, MP, PB, TU’, The Guardian, Dyfi Osprey Project, Colonial Beach Ospreys, Montana Osprey Project, Montana Osprey Cams, Pam Breci, The Washington Post, Fenwick Island, Patuxent River Park, Osoyoos, Wildlife Conserve of NJ (Barnegat Light), Window to Wildlife, HorstsHorst, Montreal Falcon Cam, LDF, BoPH, Geemeff, Blackbush, VIMS, Frenchman’s Creek, Moorings Park Ospreys, Osoyoos Ospreys, MN Landscape Arboretum, Charlo Montana, Ashley Wilson, Pitkin County Open Spaces and Trails, Clark PUD, Boulder County, SK Hideaways, Ventana Wildlife Society, Lady Hawk, Tajo International, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Polk County Animal Control, Menhaden-Little Fish, Big Deal FB, and Hob Osterlund.
It is 25 degrees, blue sky with some clouds and predicted rain later today for Southern Manitoba. It is ‘hot’ in the conservatory. Calico is in front of Mr Dyson’s fan. Oh, she loves that fan!
The very last of the summer perennial (as opposed to the annuals) planting is finished. All of the greenhouses have their stock on sale and it is the perfect time to plant the Milkweed and Daisies. Everyone should be trying to find a place for one Milkweed on their property. For the butterflies.
‘The Girls’ are doing fine. In fact, they are adorable. Yes, I am biased. Today, each one sat on my lap while I trimmed their nails. The only wiggly one was Hugo Yugo, but we still got the job done. They love watching Mr Crow come get his hotdogs and peanuts. Today Mr BlueJay and Junior were retreating cheesy dogs which makes me think that the baby Blue Jays have hatched. Like Crows (both are Corvids), the babies need meat. It uses less energy to get the cheesy dogs than it does to chase down insects and worms – although I only give them enough to ensure plenty of food for the little ones but not enough to keep them from foraging.
If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you will know that the Ospreys in the NE area of the US, the Chesapeake Bay Area, depend on Menhaden as their primary food source. Ever wonder why so many are dying in the nest? or nests are just failing? Take a moment to watch this video:
‘VV’ has been monitoring a number of nests that are also in the area impacted by Menhaden fishing. She says, “The nest failure rate is so disappointing. Leading up to the past 4-5 years was a stunning population boon. The nest with the lost chicks was erected in 1990, the first of the 19+ on my excel. At its height we’d be cursing by now, every nest screaming for breakfast and really big time soiling our cars, etc. Now I’m watching a handful of bored females waiting for the boys to come in from fishing. As is proving the case with everything, the population fell faster than it rose.” ‘VV’ sent images of the nests that failed.
That water should be full of fish.
I want to run through a number of nests and just see how they are doing. Some have gotten neglected but we are going to begin with ‘H’s reports today.
“It is very hot at the mid-Atlantic and northeast US nests that I follow, with temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s, and over 100 degrees in some locations. Not only will the young ospreys need more fish for hydration, but fishing can become more difficult, as fish may seek the cooler deep waters.
6/22 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: The dad at this nest is amazing. He delivered eleven fish to the nest for his family. Unfortunately, most of them were not very big. Little did manage to eat at all but two of the meals, but only ate for a few minutes at each of the other meals. Throughout the day, Little never had a really big crop. At 11:25 pm Dad delivered a large partial fish to the nest in the dark! Little had a private feeding at the beginning of the feeding for 7 minutes, then shared the rest of the meal with a sibling for the next 30 minutes. Thanks, Dad…you are ‘way cool’.
6/22 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Captain Mac’s Fish House): I am always worried about this nest. It just seems to me (not an expert), that the lil’ 8-day-old nestling doesn’t get enough to eat. I rarely see this baby in a food coma or with a very large crop. There were five feedings on a very warm day, and they averaged about 10 minutes in duration, but that included June eating. The fish that Johnny delivers to the nest are usually a good size. It is thought that June may be a new mom. I would like to see this baby have more frequent feedings. Get it in gear, June!
6/22 Forsythe osprey nest: This is one of the nests I worry about in the heat. Fishing does seem to become more difficult during heat waves at this location. There were four fish brought to the nest, and Opal caught two of them herself (thanks, Opal). The remaining two siblings, ages 32 and 31 days, seem to be getting along amicably.”
6/22 Osoyoos osprey nest: This brood of three, ages 15, 14, 12 days of age, are doing well. Dad brought fish to the nest 8 times (some may have been leftovers). Some of the fish were tiny, but a few were a good size. The siblings are still getting along nicely, and Little is able to eat his/her fill at most meals.
6/23 Kent Island (Chesapeake) osprey nest: The last potentially viable egg was laid 38 days ago. Viewers are hoping that Tom and Audrey will have a lil’ baby to raise this season.
6/22 Captiva osprey nest: It was quite a momentous day for this osprey family. Ding fledged in the morning, and returned to the nest seven hours later. Ding had been seen flying circuits around the bay and nest area. In Ding’s absence, Darling thought s/he had died and gone to heaven, lol. Three fish were delivered in that span of time, two partials from Jack, which Darling ate, and a whole catfish from Edie that she ended up feeding to Darling. Darling had not eaten that well for some time. Ding’s first trip back to the nest was with a landing on top of the camera, and an eventual hop down to the nest (landing on Edie). A couple of hours after Ding’s return, Jack delivered a whole sheepshead, which Ding devoured. In the afternoon, Darling performed a few ‘personal best’ high hovers. “
Thanks so much, ‘H’.
That hot weather was everywhere. Even up in Ithaca where it was 87 yesterday when Ferris Akel was doing his tour.
The first egg has hatched at Dunrovin for Swoop and his new mate, Winnie. Congratulations everyone!
The two osplets and the DNH egg at Steelscape are doing very well.
The one surviving osplet at Sandpoint is good.
It is hot in Boulder, too, like in many places. Mum is shading her Only Bob.
Lola and Charlie at Charlo Montana have the sweetest kids.
The camera at Field Farm is focused on the road and not on the nest.
Bruce and Naha at the Seaside Osprey nest and their new osplets are doing fine.
Little concerned about the heat and the level of hydration and fish for the four at McEuan Park in Idaho. Will keep monitoring.
‘MM’ reports on Osoyoos: “Just wanted to drop a quick note as I was watching the Osoyoos nest and dad brought in a decent size fish compared to his usual catch. All the chicks had a nice crop and were so cute 😍. I hope things get better food-wise for this nest. “
‘Pam Breci’ reports that Little Bob did really well on Saturday. This is fantastic news. “Cowlitz looking good, little 3 just has a good dinner. Needed to wait so good thing fish are large to feed all 3 and mom.”
Dr Greene is delighted with Finnegan and the growth in his and Iris’s two chicks over the past the past ten days.
Everyone loves Iris and Finnegan and their two miracle babies.
‘A’ reviews the early morning with Iris and Finnegan: “Finn arrived at 05:27 for the big fish he brought in late yesterday (22 June). He ate for a while on the nest, then took the fish to the perch. At 05:36 he brought the fish back. Iris decides to get up for a stretch and soon after 05:42, she flies off the nest, leaving Finn with the fish and the osplets.
She is literally back within seconds, and she comes over to the fish and begins feeding the chicks. Omigod!! What I have been waiting to see is finally happening. Both Finn and Iris are simultaneously feeding the osplets from the same fish! Little Bob is front and centre, with Big Bob behind and above him. There is, as usual, absolutely no aggression between the pair.
It is however a fleeting moment, and Iris takes over the fish as Finn moves away. He has some blood on his breast, probably from the fish. Little Bob is doing well at this feeding but Iris is careful not to forget Big Bob, who is behind his sibling. It is wonderful to see these two getting along so well, but each day as I wait for Big Bob to transform into a mini-dinosaur, I wonder whether it is just a countdown to the inevitable bonking stage. Perhaps we have two very laid-back brothers here. I SO hope so.
Finn has a chunk of the fish that he has picked up and turns away from the feeding with it. Iris continues giving bites to the osplets, primarily Little Bob, who remains sitting up confidently in front of his sibling. He is the cutest wee osplet with the sweetest little round bottom. He is seeing well and his balance is much better, though he does still face-plant a fair bit as he lunges forward for mouthfuls. He is managing much larger bites now. I do love the way Iris carefully feeds both chicks, sometimes changing her mind when she thinks one is getting too much.
The other day when Little Bob ended up on his back three or four times, I was tremendously concerned, especially on the first occasion, but the way Iris was immediately aware that this situation was problematic and required intervention was impressive, as was the way she carefully circled the stricken chick and observed exactly what she was dealing with, then set about trying to right the wee one. On each occasion, she managed to do so, primarily through very carefully manoeuvring one or both feet into position underneath Little Bob so she could then lift him slightly by judicious shuffling. It was impressive.
As you know, we have lost at least two chicks already this season to exactly such a situation, and I was really scared for Little Bob, especially when he repeatedly seemed to end up on his back – I began to fear some neurological problem or even an uneven nest surface – something that was causing this. I still wonder why, as it did not appear to happen the following day, and yesterday afternoon it did happen once, briefly, but he rapidly righted himself with a single effort (he did seem a little panicky but got it done).
So today, I am not nearly as worried as I was, and he is eating wonderfully well. I adore the way he is getting on with his older sibling, though I am aware we are right on the verge of finding out whether we are going to go through a bonking period on this nest. Big Bob is being VERY patient, with Baby Bob getting at least twice as many bites at this feeding because he is at the front and mum doesn’t have to lean as far to feed him. Periodically, she leans over to give a bite to Big Bob, but not nearly often enough to be even-handed, and there are several moments when I am wishing she would feed the older sibling at least half a dozen mouthfuls. I don’t want an episode of food frustration!
Iris is feeding Little Bob at least three or four mouthfuls for every one that she offers BIg Bob, who is handling the situation admirably. After a while, she starts having three or four bites herself between each one she gives to Little Bob – Big Bob is missing out almost altogether by now. There is still a huge amount of fish left over (that monster fish brought in last night is not even half gone yet). At 05:52 she finishes feeding and settles down to brood. Little Bob has a huge crop, Big Bob not so much. There is still about half the fish left. Just before 05:55 Finn removes it from the nest. Iris is not overly pleased – again, she would have fed the osplets (and herself) again in about 90 minutes had Finn left the fish (or at least some of it). “
It is so hard to believe but the Fab Four on the Poole Harbour nest are all feathered. Mini Little Bob is right there, big and healthy! These parents worked and worked to make sure there was lots of fish and every one of their babies was fed. Four are surviving. Tears.
There aren’t four but there are three big feathered osplets on the Dyfi nest of Idris and Telyn.
We have talked about osprey nests. We have talked about egg cups, twigs that catch little legs, and all sorts of things. Just look at the nest that Seren and Dylan have for their Bobs up at Clywedog in Wales. What a gorgeous nest.
Babies at Glaslyn of Aran and Elen are getting all those beautiful feathers, too. Nest not quite as comfy as Seren’s.
Younger babies at Llyn Brenig, both doing well.
Those babies in Germany are now as big as their mother! Unbelievable. And beautiful.
A ten-day-old baby at Finland #3 is just a fat little cutie. (One died of a nest accident and the other egg DNH).
Two chicks at Bridge Golf getting their juvenile feathers. Unclear the status of Middle Bob’s leg. Little Bob died of siblicide/starvation the other day.
Gary published a video on the passing of Sol and Luna at Redding.
Geemeff’s daily summary for Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust:
Daily summary Saturday 22nd June 2024 The weather was somewhat unsettled today but no further somersaults were done by Dorcha. Louis excelled himself bringing six fish to the nest and his tally now rises to two hundred and thirty seven. Deliveries included an early breakfast and a late night snack. Dorcha shared out the fish fairly, and the two chicks were models of patience and politemess at mealtimes. Garry LV0 visited Nest One twice today, staying for over an hour the second time. No disturbances for any of the Loch Arkaig residents as the Red Arrows took a different route home. Tonight’s forecast is for light cloud and light winds so with luck the family will have a peaceful and dry night tonight. Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 00.23.51(03.19.51); Nest Two 23.15.27 (03.56.16)
Watch the livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:
https://youtu.be/pMbvgH-OrHA N2 Fish number six – late night snack gone in 5 mins 22.18.50 Bonus read – Woodland Trust was one of hundreds of nature organisations marching through London today calling for Government to Restore Nature Now:
The Peregrine Falcon scrape in Osaka, Japan is cleaned up and will wait for next season. Beautiful fledglings this year.
‘A’ reports:
“Both mums were in to feed the chicks at Taiaroa Head this morning (Saturday 22 June) – BOK to feed TFT chick at 08:20 and LGL to feed TF chick at 09:38. The previous day (Friday 21 June), both BOK and LGL were in, feeding their chicks, at the same time – at 12:23 we have a shot showing simultaneous feedings occurring at both Royal Cam nests. Too cute. TF has begun exercising his wings, and his wingspan is amazing. How did those sweet little wings become these magnificent gliding instruments in such a short time? The preparation begins for a solitary ocean life, surfing the thermals. It’s astounding to think how far these little ones will travel before one day they hopefully return to within metres of their natal nests. Still giant fluff balls, but with wings becoming more defined by the day. Magnificent birds. When we think of 28-year-old Iris, it is amazing to think of Wisdom, in her seventies. No wonder they are such spiritually important birds to so many seafaring cultures. And what an amazing privilege it is to be able to watch them at Taiaroa Head under the tender care of the rangers. Truly blessed.”
“WBSE: June 21: A quiet night, then several early morning duets and mating. Both were standing in the deep nest bowl, with Dad chewing and digging at Lady’s feet, settling leaves and twigs in the bowl . Dad brought in a fish at 8:07, but took it off the nest. He returned later with a stick and spent some time moving things about. Then they were both away for some time, then both back a few times with a stick. Off again, until Dad brought in a partially plucked coot at 13:33, which was taken by Lady and eaten on the branch. She ate for over 45 minutes, then off, leaving one coot leg draped on the branch. Dad returned, bringing a stick, just after 4pm with a full crop, so he had eaten somewhere. Lady came in as well, with duets and mating nearby. At dark, both were settled close to the nest.”
June 22: A cold and wet morning – rain started in the night and Lady hadn’t moved. An early duet at 6:21. Shortly after, a long duet as Dad joined Lady – but no mating. After, another duet and this time a mating – still raining. Dad returned with the tail end of a fish at 8:52. Lady claimed it and ate the lot nearby, then away. A duet was heard nearby at 10:03 though out of sight. Then again, and Lady returned just after 11am with a stick. They were away again until 14:13, when Dad brought another fish in, which was claimed and eaten by Lady. Then they were off again, until both returned home before 5pm, and straight into some nest arrangement. Then duet and mating, and more nest bowl work from Dad. They moved to their night roosts. Any action tonight, we shall report tomorrow.
They are everywhere. Seriously everywhere. Plastics. Microplastics. The more I try to escape them, the more they try to sneak into my life and yours. Even at the greenhouse, those bloody plants were in plastic containers. Why? Well, the answer to not taking them home is to have them wrap them up individually in the newspaper. Why can’t they use biodegradable containers??????
It’s terrible for the seabirds and for those on land who get caught in those mesh bags or have bin liners land on their nests. The only good use for plastic I have seen lately is the covers for the large bales of hay or straw on the farmer’s fields, which prevents the birds from taking the PLASTIC twine that holds them together back to their nest to entangle their babies. When did we stop using jute? (Maybe it wasn’t so good either but it was natural.) Oh, some things get me really worked up! Hats off to the company that packages frozen vegetables in the States and does it in biodegradable paper bags!!!!!!!!
It is that time of year. Those baby birds are just out of the nest and people see them and think they are abandoned.
Thank you so much for being with us today. Take care. We hope to see you soon!
Thank you so much to the following for their notes, posts, images, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ‘A, Geemeff, J, H, MM, PB, VV’, Virginia Beach Menhaden PSA, Window to Wildlife, Osoyoos, Forsythe, Fenwick Island, Patuxent River Park, Kent Island, Dunrovin Ranch, Steelscape, Sandpoint Ospreys, Boulder County, Charlo Montana, Field Farm, Seaside Ospreys, McEuan Park, Osoyoos osprey Cam, Cowlitz PUD, Pam Breci, Montana Osprey Cam, BoPH, Dyfi Ospreys, Llyn Clywedog, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Fischadlerwebcam, Satakunna Saaksett, Bridge Golf Club, Gary’s Eagle Videos, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Osaka Peregrine Falcon, Earth Day, NZ DOC, WBSE Sea Eagle Cam, Duke Farms, Lady Hawk, and Nebraska Wildlife Rehabilitation.
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.
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.
