Tag Archives: Akecheta and Thunder

Late Tuesday in Bird World

19 April 2022

Right now it is hard to believe that snow will be arriving again in about 4 or 5 hours. All of the garden animals are out and about running around on the hydro lines and poles and checking to see if there are any corn kernels hidden in the wood in the little sheds. Dyson knows it is there! He will find it for sure.

Sharpie seems to have some competition in the garden now with a Cooper’s Hawk (note the curved tail). This hawk is much larger than Sharpie. I wonder if it is a female. Certainly didn’t need to worry about birds at feeders!!!!!!!! They took off but a few went down under the deck and Cooper knows they are there.

Besides the garden chaos with Cooper, there has been a mini-kerfuffel going on in my City today. To feed the songbirds or not? to put out feeders or not? in times of Avian Flu. I decided to ask the Cornell Bird Lab and also sent a question to Dr Thijs Kuken at the University of Erasmus in Rotterdam who is a virologist and studies Avian Flu. I have not heard from him. But the Cornell Bird Lab did send the following information:

“Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

We are paying attention to the situation. Avian influenza viruses occur naturally among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species. Wild aquatic birds can be infected with avian influenza viruses in their intestines and respiratory tract, but usually do not get sick.

There are no suggestions to take bird feeders down unless you have backyard poultry or work with poultry or other domestic birds. Of course, this may change as birds begin their migrations north.

Below are some resources that should help.

Fact Sheet from the Cornell Vet School: https://cwhl.vet.cornell.edu/system/files/public/cwhl-fact-sheets-ai.pdf

I hope this helps.

Thank you.”

Sarah Wagner, PhD
Public Information Specialist
Cornell Lab of Ornithology

It is recommended that you clean your feeders with a very mild mixture of dish soap and either white vinegar or bleach (very, very mild). You should allow everything to fully dry before using them. There are also recommendations that you clean your feeders every 48 hours. But do note, if you have feeders near poultry – as in a back yard poultry area), those feeders should be removed!

Checking on the UK Ospreys, Mrs G and Aran have their first egg. It arrived at 19:37! Aran saw the egg and went to get Mrs G some more bedding. Sweet.

Telyn and Idris welcomed their second egg at the Dyfi Osprey nest at 18:01.

Sweet. A nice fish for Telyn. Oh, Idris. You are a darling.

A small piece of fish with the tail arrived at the Dale Hollow Eagle nest late in the day. Big and Little Middle were decidedly hungry! It was nice to see the adult feed them both.

I know that the parents slow down the delivery of fish as the eaglets get older providing them with plenty one day and nothing another so they learn about living on their own. However, it sure was nice to see a piece of fish show up for these two!

Martin and Rosa’s eaglet at the Dulles-Greenway Bald Eagle nest is doing great. They have had some bad weather and it is still really windy there.

Akecheta has been busy protecting his three eagles at the West End nest on the Channel Islands. It looks like he was concerned about some gulls that were overhead this afternoon.

I did not see it but ‘B’ sent me a video clip of an intruder getting right in the scrape box at Cal Falcons. I am glad I did not see that event live. Thank you, ‘B’.

Sadly, the successful breeding and relocation programmes often cause a lot of floaters looking for nests that can be quite disruptive to established pairs with eggs or chicks. Or, sadly, cause fatalities.

Little Bit has a nice crop. You can see it in the ‘cuddle puddle’ on the nest. That fuzzy light grey marble looking thing is its crop! The nest has done well today. Mum has tried to keep those osplets cool.

Jasper at the NE Florida Bald Eagle nest took its first flight and has since made several others. Rocket is ‘thinking’ about flying. Jasper, however, seemed to have everything happen the day he flew for the first time. He roosted during a storm on the nest tree and, as the AEF realized, he was also hit by an owl! Needless to say he was tired and starving when he got back in the nest. Here is the footage of the owl attack.

This has been a very short newsletter. I hope that everyone is doing well. Take care and I will see you again soon – with more eggs being laid tomorrow in the UK! Thank you for joining me.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: DHEC, Brywd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Explore.org, UFlorida-Gainesville Ospreys, Dulles-Greenway Eagles, Pix Cams, and Dyfi Osprey Project.

Sunday in Bird World

10 April 2022

Hi Everyone. It has been a nice day on the Canadian Prairies. The Dark Eyed-Juncos, that I have mentioned earlier, are descending on lawns all over our City today. It is lovely to have them back with us!

Cal Falcons posted a link to an Instagram feed that features some beautiful images and a lovely tribute to our beloved, Grinnell. Please read the text. Go to the feed to see the images. If you missed this, here is the link:

Cal Falcons also had a super cute image of ‘New Guy’ relaxing on the ledge. Like everyone in Berkeley, I hope – as I know you do – that the rest of the time for hatching and feeding eyases and fledging is completely and utterly boring and uneventful. This Peregrine Falcon nest has had enough drama!

New Guy is really growing on me.

Thought the day could not get any better until it was discovered that both female CJ7 who has been longing for a mate and found one too late last year – and Blue 022 – who became smitten with her – have reunited on the Poole Harbour nest!!!!!

If this couple hatches osprey chicks this year, it will be the first time Ospreys have hatched in Poole Harbour in over 200 years. And that is a big Wow in the Osprey world.

Aran returned as previously reported and him and Mrs G are getting reacquainted. Aran is one handsome Osprey!

Here is the link to the streaming cam for Mrs G and Aran at Glaslyn:

One of the things that I really admire about Emyr Evans and the Dyfi team is the amount of data they collect on their Ospreys. Here is Telyn on the nest.

Idris is unringed. Tely is Blue 5F. Idris is known for his great fishing abilities and his long legs which often earns him the nickname, ‘Daddy Longlegs’. Here he is enjoying a fish on his perch today.

If you look at the chart below, you will see that Idris replaced Monty at the Dyfi nest in 2020. They fledged two chicks and in 2021 they also fledged two chicks, a male and a female, not recorded yet on the chart.

This is a highly recommended Osprey nest to watch with chat. Emry Evans often stops in to answer questions and say hi. Here is the link to the streaming cam.

There are expectations that Blue NC0 is thinking of laying her first egg of the season with mate LM12, Laddie, grew more intense today as she kept close to the nest.

Ospreys have been breeding at the idyllic site for more than 50 years.

No eggs yet. I often think that Laddie could treat NC0 a little better. Last year she proved that she was as good a fisher as he was – if not better – hauling in large fish for the kids as they grew bigger and demanded more.

Here is the link to the camera at the Loch of the Lowes:

Blue 33 (11) and Maya always seem to be ahead of everyone else! They arrive early and get down to business. Their three eggs were laid on 31 March, 3 and 6th of April.

Their nest is often comical and/or sweet. Blue 33 is a great dad. There is fish on the nest at first light for Maya and the kids once the osplets hatch. Here is the link to their webcam at Rutland Water:

It is always a great day when Middle Little at Dale Hollow eats well and has a big crop. That would be today. Click on the streaming cam and Middle Little is looking good.

A big headless fish came in at 13:01:04. The parent did not immediately feed the eaglets but returned at 14:50:37 and fed Middle Little with Big looking on (below).

Middle Little did a lot of snatch and grabs when Big came up to get some nice fish, too.

Middle Little’s crop looks like it wants to pop. All is well.

The Ospreys at Skidaway Island have checked on their nest on and off while the Great Horned Owl raised Little Grey. Little Grey has branched and the Ospreys are anxious to reclaim their nest and start working on it.

As I have always said, Thunder and Akecheta’s triplets just put a smile on my face. This nest has done fabulous this year – no pecking, no fighting, no one scared to eat. Well done!

Thank you so much for joining me today in Bird World. Always good to have you here. Take care everyone. Stay safe!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or FB pages where I took my screen captures: Cal Falcons, Poole Harbour Ospreys, Brywd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, People’s Post Code Lottery and Scottish Wildlife Trust, LWRT, DHEC, Cornell Bird Lab, and Explore.org and the Institute for Wildlife Studies.