22-23 May 20
I have been holding my breath and sitting on my hands. In an earlier blog I wrote and attached screen captures of Dale Hollow’s Middle – we call Warrior – going up the branch. Dale Hollow posted that Warrior had fludged – meaning he fell off that branch. Indeed, there was a video posted of that fall. Well, someone has now spent some time looking at that footage and has captured Warrior fledging from a lower branch. This is a relief. It is not nice worrying that they are grounded.
The parents continue to leave fish on the nest but so far neither DH14 or DH15 have returned and it is also reported that they have yet to be seen.
There is also news coming in of a Peregrine Falcon couple who are using the chimney of a thermal power plant in Japan for their scrape! I wish they would put a streaming cam up there for all of us that love falcons!!!!!!!
I love Kakapo – even though they are not raptors. The news coming from the Kakapo Recovery is pretty good. Sadly, one of this years hatches has died in the Dunedin Veterinary Hospital since yesterday.
I want everyone to give a quiet applause for Little Bit 17 at the Notre Dame – LEEF nest. Look what that wee one did this morning!!!!!!!! It doesn’t get much better than this.
The adult arrives and leaves the fish on the nest. Little Bit has its head turned to the rim of the nest listening and turning around watching. The parent does not feed the bigger chicks – it flies up to a higher branch.
Between the arrival of the fish and 0702, Little Bit 17 pulls the fish over to ‘its area’. This is actually Little Bit’s stash or prey kitchen where he keeps things for later. Mum has found it but the older siblings do not root around there. Little Bit is busy eating on that fish and is already getting a bit of a crop. One of the elder siblings is nibbling and watching. No dominance tactics are noted.
Still eating. Other sibling is curious. Little Bit just keeps eating.
One of the older siblings is touching Little Bit’s beak wanting it to feed it! (or alternatively it is trying to get the fish out of Little Bit’s beak)
Little Bit has an enormous crop by now. You can see the fish piece over at the side of the nest.
When Little Bit was finished the older siblings pulled the leftover piece to the edge and started feeding.
One big sibling on the rim and the other down in the nest with Little Bit doing beak kisses again.
That is Little Bit 17. Look at those nice wings this morning. He has energy to spare. What a wonderful way to start the day!!!!!!!!!
The University of Florida Osprey nest at their Gainesville camera had issues with their streaming cam this morning and it was off line. The students of the Wildlife Conservancy course did post the winning names (by public vote). Big sibling is Breezy. Middle sibling is Windy. Mum is Stella while Dad is Talon. There was a tie for the name of the nest – Cheep Seats or Home Plate.
A lovely image of Blue 35 at the Foulshaw Moss nest in Cumbria feeding the eldest chick just after the second one hatched.
The four eyases in the Dolina Baryczy Peregrine Falcon nest in Poland near Lodz are really filling up the nest! Dad has just delivered a prey item for them.
The five Peregrine Falcons are not as big as those in Poland. They are losing the down around their eyes and the beautiful wing and tail feathers are coming in. Everyone had a good breakfast this morning in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Cal Falcons has posted that the banding of the chicks will take place on the 27th of May at 1400 Pacific Time.
All of the eggs have hatched at the Black Stork nest of Grafs and Grafiene in Jogdeva County, Estonia. There were six eggs and the moderator of the chat says there has been no elimination of any chicks this year so far. So this is a historic moment in the history of the Black Storks in the Balkans and in Estonia – six chicks! Fingers crossed that there is enough food for all of them.
We are waiting for the eggs to hatch for Karl II and Kaia at the Karula National Forest nest, also in Estonia. Their last egg was laid on 1 May.
We are also waiting for Bukacheck and Betty’s eggs to begin hatching in Mlade Buky, The Czech Republic.
If we blink they turn into hawks not little nestlings. Look at the feather growth and that gorgeous peach on the breast of Big Red and Arthur’s eyases on the Cornell RTH nest! Gracious. Fledge is what? 2 or 3 weeks away. I will have to do the calculations but they should have fledged by the middle of June. Hard to believe. L4 still has a lot of feather development needed and one rule of thumb is that it is better the more dark bars they have on their tails – 5 is the minimum, preferably 6 at fledge.
Thank you so very much for joining me today. I hope that each of you has a wonderful Monday. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or FB pages where I took my screen captures: ND-LEEF, Kakapo Recovery, Cornell Bird Lab RTH, Mlade Buky White Storks, Eagle Club of Estonia, DHEC, Cal Falcons, Dolina Baryczy, Peregrine Netrworks, and the Cumbria Wildlife Trust.