Big Red and Arthur – Page 9 – Mary Ann Steggles

A better day…Thursday in Bird World

20 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Wednesday was a tough day. Little Smallie was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’. Bless his heart. I wonder what his chances would have been if he had been taken into rehab after being found in the moat? ‘J’ said this reminded her ‘of Rubus all over again’ and I consistently say if you can pick up a raptor and hold it, they are sick!!!!!!! Unless you are ringing them. So, that should be something known by everyone —- if you can pick up a falcon or an eaglet or an osplet and they don’t tear your arm off, they are unwell and should go to rehab. Period. No questions asked. Just do it.

‘B’ sent me a great quote and agreed I could share it with all of you. This came after hearing about the passing of Luna after Sol: “About the only halfway positive thing I can say is that it is a reminder to us all how fragile life is out there in the wild. And to all wildlife, not just our bird friends. It’s not a reminder that I enjoy hearing, but it is one we need to appreciate. We humans live very sheltered lives. All the more reason why it is so unfair that we humans add so many risks to the health and survival of wildlife.”

Thankfully we have some good news.

There is some really good news coming from our friend ‘R’ who has kept an eye on the University of Florida-Gainesville osprey nest of Stella and her former partner, Talon. We can certainly use some news to raise our spirits! ‘R’ went for a good look around the nest of Stella and her beautiful daughter and discovered that “Stella is bringing in some huge fish and immediately flies off. Big sits there and carries on for a while and then finally decides Stella isn’t going to feed her and she devours the fish.” ‘R’ wonders if Stella is fishing in a different lake than Talon or is questioning if the local water source has been stocked. He will check and find out for us. Then he went to check the nest and discovered “There is another nest nearby and Big and “someone” in the other nest take turns vocalizing back and forth. I doubt it is Stella.” Then ‘R’ gives us some really good news! “I found another nest not far from the two I knew about. It was fairly good size and sitting in it was a nice large osprey! That makes 3 nests in the vicinity and probably a few others. The new nest can’t be very old as it is in the new light poles!” ‘R’ will take some photos for us on their next visit. An acquaintance also went for a drive near Bowling Green, Florida and in a two mile stretch all the poles had osprey nests! Wow. Can you imagine? The thinking is that the ospreys relocated after Hurricane Ian.

What a beautiful sight! Iris and Finnegan and their two osplets at Hellgate Canyon in Montana.

OK. I am obsessed with Iris and Finnegan. This nest gives me hope.

‘A’ writes: “Finn is doing such a good job. I’m not sure about breakfast this morning – Finn brought a nice fish in at 09:50, which is late for him but I don’t think there had been an earlier feeding because both chicks were hungry as Iris waited for Finn to arrive. She was very vocal about calling for breakfast too.

He is such a darling. Both the chicks are super active and really good at holding up their heads. Little Bob is half the size of his sibling but is holding his own. Iris spends the first couple of minutes feeding Big Bob, although Little is hungry and pushes his way forward to a position beside and slightly in front. Mum is taking any aggression out of Big Bob, I think, and she slips Little a small bite but then returns to feeding Big Bob. Finn has left the nest, and the fish was a decent size and whole, so there is plenty for mum and the kids.

Once Big Bob has a respectable crop, Iris turns to Little Bob and concentrates on getting food into his beak. He is eager and grabbing for the food, falling flat on his face a few times and failing to hold his head still in the excitement. But mum is patient with him and gets the food to his mouth. She is such a good mum. It seemed to me that she had three days of exhaustion following each hatch, after which she perked up and seems to show great effort and care in feeding both her chicks. Finn is making sure she gets fed, even if he has to do it himself, and he is looking after her wonderfully well. He spends a lot of time on the nest or on the perch, just staying close. I have not once heard him vocalise. Not once. He listens. He acts. He shuts up. What a man! “

This morning Alison notes, “At Hellgate, the kids were hungry, and Iris nagged Finn much of the afternoon for fish. Finally, he brought in a nice fish late in the day (about 20:45) and the chicks played nice, sitting up side by side at the table. As always, mum satiated Big Bob’s hunger and then turned to Little Bob. I saw no bonking at any point today, which was a huge relief, and Big Bob made no attempt to stop Little Bob from eating or from participating in the feeding line. These two are active and are doing well. They both seemed to be born very well developed, as if they had spent an extra day or two in the egg. They were large in size and seemed precocious in both physical development and behaviour. This is a huge bonus, as they began life with a bit of an advantage. Finn is doing a wonderful job. He is a devoted dad. He does need to learn to fish more often and/or leave leftovers on the nest while these two are still so young, but he is obedient to Iris’s demands, and eventually goes out to fish even in a downpour if she nags him enough. He’s going to become a great dad as the seasons progress – I can see him getting into feeding the chicks (he has already had a couple of goes at this, with varying success) and he just adores Iris. “

It is a hot day in Ithaca, New York. One of the Ns is resting in the shade of the natal nest.

Suzanne Arnold Horning caught up with Big Red and Arthur’s family.

Thankful for the two gorgeous osplets at Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home.

Wet osplets at the Goitzshe-Wildnis nest in Germany are waiting for a fish delivery.

The three at Charlo Montana look like they are doing well.

Mum and Dad feeding one another at Blackbush at Old Tracadie Harbour – then they feed the kids. This behaviour of the male feeding the female who, in turn, feeds the chicks, appears to be more common than once believed.

‘H’ will have a better report for us (at the end) but the trio at Osoyoos are getting their crops full with a nice sized fish. Relief.

Nox visits Mum! Oh, no. Eclipse comes!

San Jose Girls seem to be doing very, very well.

In Montreal, Polo and Hugo (yes, another Hugo) playing around.

Suffering from falcon withdrawal? Try the Weston Power Plant scrape in Wisconsin. One chick, one unviable egg it seems.

Wings of Whimsy tribute to Sol and Luna.

Three beautiful babies for Aran and Elen are growing strong and watching the cattle and the rest of the Welsh countryside near Glaslyn.

Three fat chicks at Dyfi waiting to be named. Idris and Telyn have done a superb job, as usual.

Geemeff gives us the Loch Arkaig and The Woodland Trust summary:

Daily summary Wednesday 19th June 2024

What a difference a day makes! Not only did fabulous fisherbird Louis swoop in with four fish in 26 minutes then follow it up with another three, breaking various records along the way, but there was absolutely no aggro from either of the two chicks today. The reptilian phase appears to be over, and while there will still be the odd fight, especially when they start accepting the fish deliveries themselves, the instinctive aggression of the rapid growth stage seems to have ended. The bundle of feathers that was tragic little chick3 is still visible but is melding with the nest floor and if not removed by Dorcha soon, is likely to just disappear and become part of the nest. Louis’ magnificent seven took his tally to two hundred and twenty three, a remarkable achievement although the wait to see if he breaks his nine-fish record goes on. Nest One had another visit from Garry LV0 who was seen flying to perch on Pole Tree before popping in for a brief visit. The weather was as settled as the chicks’ dispositions, but tonight’s forecast is a damp night with light rain and light winds, with the prospect of a drier day tomorrow.

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.59.35 (03.07.48);

Nest Two 23.23.40 (03.45.50)

Watch the livestream 24/7 and join in the conversation here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/tysEIpOpLAY N2 Fish number one, small whole trout – no fighting! 03.49.37

https://youtu.be/Q0EGdJY0uLw N2 Fish number two, another small whole trout – 7 minutes 12 seconds N2N between F1 & F2! 03.56.59

https://youtu.be/rzoZoHCbQic N2 Fish number three, another small whole trout – still no aggro 04.07.04

https://youtu.be/RruBa6SD1qs N2 Fish number four, large whole trout, flapping – 8 minutes 19 seconds N2N between F3& F4! 04.15.39

https://youtu.be/k3QtoOOPyGk N2 Fish number five, large whole flapper trout looking surprised 04.51.25

https://youtu.be/FRf9mHWRQ7Y N2 Fish number six, headless trout – lovely calm feeding 06.10.10

https://youtu.be/RbzwLU7h1H8 N1 Garry LV0 flies in from Pole Tree for a quick visit 11.30.20

https://youtu.be/FTgfA522SzI N2 Fish number seven, but everyone’s too full 14.11.59

Blast from the past, this day in previous years:

The legendary queen of the mountain gave us an unforgettable moment on this day in 2020: Aila has a brain fade and decides to move an awkwardly shaped stick from one side of the nest to the other, apparently oblivious to the presence of her chicks. They duck this way and that trying to keep out of her destructive path, and when Aila finally leaves the nest, one of them delivers a parting shot with perfect emphasis.

https://youtu.be/g-T2vcO-j0sIn the Hall of the Mountain Queen 2020 (Classic Ospreys – Grieg, quicktime)

The female at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum was much more attentive to her only surviving chick on Wednesday. The little one had several feedings, each with a resultant crop.

No hatch yet for Beau and Hope at Newfoundland Power’s Snow Lane nest. This is another problematic female who prefers to eat the fish and not feed her chicks. I do wonder if she is modelling her behaviour after the nest where she hatched?

A family portrait (of sorts) at Field Farm. You can still tell Little Mini as it has only a few feathers unlike the three older siblings. Nest is doing well. Bravo!

Blue 022 delivers a fish and CJ7 immediately begins feeding their quartet.

‘PB’ reports that Little Bob at Cowlitz had a good day! Fantastic. This nest had been concerning me.

There are two beautiful Golden Eaglets on Estonian nest 2 at Kaljukothkas. This nest is getting enough food that the obligate siblicide did not occur. This is a good thing. One of those beautiful miracles of a year filled with much sorrow.

Bety and Bukacek had one storklet this year. It is alive and healthy. Another life to be thankful for.

Let’s end on another smile. World Bird Sanctuary, home to Murphy the Bald Eagle who incubated a rock and got to raise an eaglet, has a great story for us. Thanks, ‘J’.

World Bird Sanctuary

Last year, one Bald Eagle couple’s nesting season ended in tragedy when a tornado destroyed their nest, killing one of their chicks and sending the other to our hospital. That chick was 23-126, and we all fell in love as we watched him grow and be fostered by Murphy. This year, we are delighted to report that 126’s parents have rebuilt! Their new nest is only about 100 yards away from their old one and they have 3 healthy eaglets! We’d like to thank 126’s finders for passing on the good news and Frank Melliere Photography for taking and allowing us to share this photo of the 3 eaglets.

Oh and one last smile – I feel like we need lots of them. Ruffie and Tuffy are still knock out gorgeous fledglings, coming to the nest for fish. This is Wednesday. Both look to have nice crops.

‘H’ reports:

6/19, Osoyoos osprey nest: Oh my, they had a great day. Ollie brought eleven fish to the nest, wow! The meal times remain peaceful between the siblings, and everyone ate their fill, including Soo. There were some ‘minnows’, some medium sized fish, and one ‘whale’. At 2105, Ollie brought in a very large whole fish. I overheard one of the kids ask: “Mommy is that a whale?” Soo: “Yes Dear, Daddy caught a whale for you.” Soo only fed the whale to her kids for a few minutes, then walked away from the fish, so Ollie removed it. He returned the partial fish to the nest at 2137, but Soo did not feed at that time.

6/19 Fenwick Island osprey nest (Captain Mac’s Fish House): June and Johnny’s 5-day-old chick seems to be doing well, and June is providing shade from the sun. There were seven meals provided to the lil’ one, which was an improvement. Very warm temperatures are predicted in the upcoming days, so keep those fish coming in, Johnny!

6/19, Fortis Exshaw osprey nest: Louise and Harvie are great parents, and are taking good care of their three chicks. Bonking has started…the eldest has been bonking both of its siblings. Ages: 7, 5, 3 days.

6/19 Dahlgren osprey nest: ‘Hope’, the 17-day-old only chick of Helen and Doug, is doing quite well.

6/19 Patuxent osprey nest: There were only three meals for the osplets, but the first two fish were very large and provided for long meals. Each chick ate multiple times. It appears that Little’s feathers are finally starting to grow better, but s/he remains far behind the older sibs. Big has been doing some impressive wingers!

6/19 Captiva osprey nest: Edie and Jack delivered five fish to the nest. Jack’s injury seems to be healing, and he is functioning normally, but the ‘spike’ is still embedded under his skin. Darling performed a nice mini-hover for the first time, and Ding continued to perform hovers out of our view. One of these times, Ding’s hover may just turn into a flight!

Geemeff sent us the ringing video of Blue 33 and Maya’s chick at Rutland:

I am getting word from ‘J’ that a Peregrine Falcon female with chicks in the scrape appears to have died from something poisonous in EDE. Will confirm with more news tomorrow.

There is more news from FORE today and I have abbreviated this. Please go to their FB page for the entire post.

“As we mentioned, we were able to retrieve Luna’s body since she passed away on the ground & not up in the Nest. But, we still don’t know yet if they can perform a necropsy or not? In this Redding heat decomposition sets in quickly. And, if they can do a necropsy, we may not get the results of those tests for several months. So, this is going to take some time. Try to breathe & heal while we wait for those answers…Rest assured our Liberty & Guardian are doing fine, so please don’t worry yourself sick about them right now. We will continue following them & sharing their journey until they leave the area, as we always do. We don’t know when that will be this year since their work is now done… We will not know the cause of death without the necropsy results, but we are looking closely at several indicators pointing to severe dehydration brought on by a variety of mitigating factors. Some of the factors that we are looking into include; extreme sustained heat including several consecutive days of 100+ degree temperatures in a row in June, no canopy or shade above the Nest due to a completely dead nest tree, and numerous fluctuations in nearby river levels beginning in late Feb/early March which may have affected the eagle’s typically bountiful rainbow trout supply in April & May 2024. We did not see nearly the number of trout, which has a lot of hydration for the eaglets, coming into the nest during those crucial months as we typically have at this nest. “

Thank you so much for being with us today. Take care! We hope to see you soon.

Thank you to the following for the comments, observations, notes, posts, videos, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, PB, R’, Montana Osprey Project, Montana Osprey Cam, Cornell RTH Cam, Suzanne Arnold Horning, Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home, Fischadlerwebcam, Charlo Montana, Blackish at Old Tracadie Harbour, Osoyoos Ospreys, SK Hideaways, de’Montreal Falcons, Weston Power Plant Peregrine Falcon Cam, Wings of Whimsy, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch, Newfoundland Power, Field Farm, BoPH, Pam Breci, Eagle Club of Estonia, Mlade Buky, Osoyoos, Fenwick Island, Dahlgren Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, Fortis Exshaw, Window to Wildlife, World Bird Sanctuary, LRWT, and FORE.

Tragedy at Crooked Lake…Sunday in Bird World

16 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

To all those wonderful men – human and not – for taking care of living breathing things, protecting them, feeding them, loving them – Happy Father’s Day. And to one special Osprey this morning who is injured with a spike in his leg – Jack at Captiva. You are amazing. Despite all, you are still helping feed your family this morning!

There is a lot going on in Bird World. Rescues, uprightings, sibling rivalry, hatches, GHO attacks, and death. You name it, it seems to be happening. The very beautiful and good is tinged with the sorrow and sadness. We just have to breathe and as someone said today, ‘life is very fragile, embrace someone and hold them tight, you don’t know what is coming next’. What a year it has been and we are only half way through. As one reader said to me, “The Memorial Page has exploded”. It has and I am still catching up! It is always sad to lose one of the birds and, please, take the time to check out the Memorial Page. If I am missing one of our feathered friends, please write and tell me so I can add them. I am still working on the European Storks that died so tragically from the horrific weather. And, another thing, the second hatch at Hellgate has not happened. I was sent incorrect information and the more I looked for a second head, I could not find it.

In all of this, Saturday was a gorgeous, hot windy day and we spent it at the duck pond watching the little ducklings and goslings, of all ages, flitter around the pond enjoying the shade and the cool water despite the build up of algae. People were happy being outside. There was a wedding reception in the garden area, and the ice cream man with his bell could be heard at a distance. Even deer were coming out to eat grass in the shade. Now the skies are pearl grey to dark charcoal and you can just feel a storm building up. Despite saying we would have no rain, we are now in an area of Extreme Weather with high winds, hail, and rain predicted. If this continues, we will need machetes for the garden instead of clippers and mower.

There were lots of ducks and geese on the islands in the pond which is shaded. The wind was keeping everyone cool despite the 27 C temperatures. Some of the geese had been in the water with their goslings. Some went in and out, in and out. Others foraged for little pebbles to aid their digestion. The goslings range in size from those that are about half as large as their parents to tiny wee ones that looked like they hatched only a couple of days ago. All of the adult geese are moulting. They will exchange all of their feathers. They will not be able to fly and leave the area until their full moult is complete. I don’t think anyone minds. Each trip I gather a handful of feathers for ‘The Girls’. They go crazy for them. Besides boxes and bags (without handles), these feathers are their next favourite toy. Their most favourite are the tunnels that they race in and out of late in the evening or early in the morning.

Baby Hope will be one year old on 2 July. As so many of you know, just thinking about her brings tears to my eyes. After Calico ‘decided’ that she was coming in the house on 28 August 2023, we thought we would never be able to find her only surviving kitten. (We could tell there was only one by the single teat being suckled). It appears that Calico might have lost ‘Hope’ and that was why she was ready to leave her life on the streets and come inside where she had lots of food, a safe place to sleep, comfy beds and toys and, of course, lots of love and stories. Five days later we looked out at the feral feeding station and there was a mini Calico. We knew it was her kitten. In three hours, Hope was inside suckling on Mum and life was good. We are trying to figure out precisely just what kind of party to have for her!

Hugo Yugo says that she thinks we need grilled cheese sandwiches along with ice cream for the party! What do you think?

Hugo Yugo is still tiny, a little peanut, but she remains the boss of all the others. Despite eating her food and theirs, she has hardly grown. She is a bundle of energy that never stops. She still sleeps draped around my neck at night. And she still begs for her pieces of cheese around 2100. I have been able to wean her off the kitten milk at the vet’s request. She is dynamite!

As I go to press, I am getting sad news. It appears that a GHO attack has taken all of the osplets from the Crooked Lake nest in Iowa. ‘H’ says, “This is without a doubt the most bold owl attack I have ever seen. Just unbelievable. The owl stayed in the nest and killed all three osplets right in the nest in front of Mom, then flew off with one of them.’

Geemeff is also writing that C2 at Loch Arkaig is now dead or death is imminent. This is so sad and is due directly to siblicide by the ever aggressive C1. First time ever to happen at Loch Arkaig.

We will begin with news from ‘H’.

6/15 Forsythe osprey nest: There were eight fish delivered to the nest by Oscar, and a few of them were fairly big. How many times have we seen situations where the fish production at a nest increases after the starvation deaths of one or two of the osplets? I know I’ve seen it happen a few times, and it just leaves me shaking my head. After the siblicide/starvation deaths of Mini and Little, there is still some aggression from Big toward Middle. But, Middle is managing to find ways to eat. S/he most often squeezes around to the other side of Opal from Big, where there is just a small space between Opal and the outer rim of the nest. Middle ate at least 345 bites of fish in eight meals. I hope Oscar continues to have fishing success.

6/15 Dahlgren osprey nest: The baby named ‘Hope’ was stuck in a deep hole in the nest for about 1.5 days. Dahlgren Osprey Cam arranged for a rescue by Tidewater Wildlife Rescue. TWR performed the rescue this afternoon, and repaired the hole in the nest. Little Hope is doing well, and we are so grateful. Keep the fish coming in, Doug!

6/15 South Cape May Meadows osprey nest: The two little bobs are doing very well. Zeus has really stepped up, and he is providing lots of fish for his family. We are so pleased!

6/16 Chesapeake, Kent Island osprey nest: We wait to see if the first egg of the second clutch for Audrey and Tom will hatch. The egg is 39 days old, but it was pecked by a crow on 5/16. I hope there will be at least one

6/16 Boathouse osprey nest: The little osplet of Dory and Skiff is doing great. Their second egg is 35 days old today.

6/15, Patuxent osprey nest: Dad continues to deliver tons of fish, and many of the fish are huge. He brought fish to the nest six times today, but we could tell that a few of them were the large leftovers he had previously removed from the nest. All of the chicks were stuffed many times over. There was very little aggression today, and Little was even seen eating at the ‘big kids table’!

6/15 Captiva ospreys: There were 7 fish brought to the nest, four by Edie, and three by Jack. There was a lot of eating going on…feedings and self-feedings. Ding and Darling ate their fill. And, at 53 days of age, Ding was hovering! We are still worried about Jack. He still has that foreign body ‘spike’ sticking through his leg. But, he is able to fish and help take care of his family. Bless his heart.

I want to thank Heidi – again and again. I could not keep up with the nests without her. So everyone, give her a loud shout out, please!

Those watching the Dahlgren nest and getting ever more anxious that the wee babe named Hope was stuck in a hole can now relax. It has been rescued and all the time it was there, dear Mum kept feeding it. Thank goodness. This is one of those really feel good moments that we need when tragedy seems to be lurking at many of our nests. Thank you to everyone who alerted the owners and to the rescue team that saved the wee one. Bless their hearts they filled in and repaired this nest with sticks, mud, and grasses/moss. Well done!

Tragedy may have been averted at the Wells Fargo Iowa DNR Osprey Platform. The little one with a full crop got on its back and could not right itself. It took the entire day. Will it be alright? We have to wait and see.

My favourite capture of Iris and Finnegan. I hope she lives many more years to enjoy this wonderful relationship.

Zoe fledges and Lucia returns flying strong several times.

Middle flew back to the osprey platform to be with Mum at Lake Murray after avoiding the GHO by flying. Magnificent. Fingers crossed everyone. This is such good news. Seriously this is incredible news. So happy happy.

Polo 7422 published a video of the hit by the GHO on Hope. (Have you noticed so many named Hope or Hugo??)

Going to check on some of the Finnish nests today! I had a lovely note from ‘SP’ today. I have been covering some of them as best I can but I also learned that some of my confusion with the numbering and names is because there are two separate organisations. That is why I cannot find 10 nests on this one site! ‘SP’ elaborates, “The link I gave in my previous male, Sääksikamerat (kaikki näkymät) | Sääksilive (saaksilive.fi), with 5 nests, and 2 views of the active nests (I follow mainly these):

Here nests 1, 3 and 4 are occupied.

Number 4 has last year’s couple, 3 chicks, eating a lot, and the making heavy exercises (fighting) from the very beginning (genes from the female). A video in the web by a non-native follower:
Brutal fight between two eaglets #ospreycam #ospreys #siblingfight #shorts (youtube.com)
Hope the fishing weather will be good in July … (Last year the yongest chick got fiercely killed by the sibling.)
Number 1 has an older, experienced couple, with so far 1 chick and 2 eggs left.
Number 3, with a first time mum (bride from last year) and last year’s male, has 1 chick, one to pop up soon (hole in the egg already). First chick died.

(Last year the female disappeared and the 3 chicks died.

Number 5: the last year’s couple arrived, but somehow they ”changed their mind” abt nesting. The two eggs, not taken care about, were taken by a raven. Very ”nicely”, indeed, both times:

The other robbery: 6.5.2024 – #5 – Korppi ryöstää Saran munan mukaansa – YouTube

This nest, number 5 was interesting last year: After the own 2 chicks had left, a foreign chick, from Sweden, landed on the nest, and stayed very long, for weeks, and got fed by the male.”

Number 1 – adults doing incubation. Waiting for pip/hatch watch.

Number 2 is a failed nest. No activity.

Number 3 has a beautiful osplet. Dad brings a huge fish!

Number 4 has three healthy osplets.

Number LS/5 is a failed nest. No activity.

From separate organisations:

Seilin in the West of Finland. Couple incubating eggs.

Janakkala in the North has three osplets.

Muonion, in the far north, is incubating eggs.

At Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Dad delivered no less than five fish, several large. There is also rain and Mum is keeping those babies warm and dry. Everyone ate.

‘L’ writes: “Dad stood near mom while she fed the babies at Minnesota. I think he is trying to teach her. She literally went over the head of the oldest one to feed the third one. ” It seems that the latter part of the day was not so good at this nest. We live and hope.

Olsen is doing the best that he can at the Osoyoos Osprey Platform. Most of the fish brought in were so small but he landed a whopper later in the afternoon and everyone did eat well.

It has been a miserable day across much of Wales. Telyn and Idris worked to feed their three chicks and to keep them dry even though they are getting their juvenile plumage and can thermoregulate.

Blue 022 is working hard to get lots of good fish to CJ7 so that their four Bobs will all be full and happy.

I know how sad everyone has been after the loss of Sol, so close to fledge, at the Redding nest of Liberty and Guardian. Everyone at FORE is simply heart broken, too.

Luna is alive and well and for this we must be very glad.

All three eggs have now hatched at Niagara Bee. They are all looking good.

I will now be carrying the daily summary by Geemeff that she publishes for the Woodland Trust. It is the happenings on the Loch Arkaig nest of Dorcha and Louis. Lots of good information and links to videos! Thank you, Geemeff, for allowing me to publish this information.

“Daily summary Saturday 15th June 2024

No action on Nest One, and very little on Nest Two. Louis only brought one fish mid-morning, and wasn’t seen again until suppertime when he caused consternation by arriving empty-taloned. Dorcha couldn’t believe it and gave him a right earful while he cleaned bits of fish off his beak. He’d obviously eaten recently and had a nicely rounded crop which added fuel to Dorcha’s ire. Earlier Dorcha had caused a bit of consternation herself when she arrived with an awkwardly shaped stick and proceeded to drag it through the huddle of chicks, although she quickly redeemed herself by being an excellent mumbrella and keeping her three big chicks warm and dry during a torrential downpour. As usual, chick2 got all the fish and beaked the other two to keep them away from the food, therefore it will be good if Louis arrives early tomorrow morning with a fish big enough that C1 & C3 get a share too. Statto Steve Q provided us with a thorough analysis of the fish stats to date – despite the odd blip, Louis’ current total of two hundred and two fish is pretty much comparable with previous years. The weather was very unsettled today with a misty start turning into a rainy day and more of the same forecast for tonight.

Night cam switches on (day cam): Nest One 23.36.53 (02.58.59); Nest Two 23.10.58 (03.27.50)

Watch the livestream 24/7:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam

Today’s videos:

https://youtu.be/2hIydufKS3I Fish number one and only, headless trout, C2 gets it all 10.17.28

https://youtu.be/FlvoO8n_ZAk Dorcha: from menace with a stick to brilliant mumbrella 17.32

https://youtu.be/OiKvZO7vkTU Louis finally arrives but he’s fishless! Dorcha can’t believe it 20.13.30

Bonus info – Steve Quinn’s fish stats for week 11:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/osprey-cam/?ht-comment-id=15060802

Blast from the past, this day in previous years:

https://youtu.be/ntv71sF-N_s N1 Simultaneous feeding – mum and dad each feed a bob! 2019

https://youtu.be/1RzPgaEWMr0 N1 Limbo dancing 2020

https://youtu.be/PvklkJGfZIc N1 Home alone chicks amuse themselves 2020

https://youtu.be/J8geReKxLxc N1 Mumbrella Aila does her best to shelter the chicks 2020

https://youtu.be/FJYbKk1hA-4 N1 A Jay visits the empty nest 2021

https://youtu.be/tsAAz0z9Ac8 N2 Hooded Crow intrudes and perches on the nest 2022

https://youtu.be/k6W6PKYMMYQ N2 Chicks battle it out as soon as mum leaves 2022

https://youtu.be/LTMLWBLOZnY N1 LV0 just won’t get the message 2023

https://youtu.be/hFbYpDjHeyI N1 Affric reaffirms her bond with Prince 2023

https://youtu.be/yvMLAjhrNaA N2 Hangry chick attacks Dorcha 2023 (quick-time)”

Looks like we have one hatch at the Green Ledge Light Preservation Society nest on Long Island.

There was a lot of discussion over which eaglet it was that fell from the Fraser Point nest of Andor and Cruz. It appears it was Manini and not Reign as I reported earlier. Congratulations on fledging!!!!! BVS Girl has that first flight on video.

The two Golden eaglets in Estonia nest 2 are plump and healthy. They are flapping their wings and walking.

This is the second hatch spreading its wings. Look at that fat bottom and those big strong legs. I am so happy for this nest. I hope the good fortune continues.

Fish dinner arriving at Cowlitz PUD and we have three hungry osplets.

I cannot tell you how much fish Little Mini got at Field Farm on Saturday. It is often difficult to tell, but the wee one is growing and had a sort of half crop in the morning.

Checking in on the San Jose Falcons.

For images of the Cal falcon fledglings, please go to the Instagram account of moon_rabbit_rising!

Suzanne Arnold Horning posted some lovely images of Big Red and Arthur’s Ns. They have fledged and were found in spots near to Fernow and Tower Road. Both fledglings are doing well.

Tweed Valley Osprey Project gives us an excellent view of Mrs O feeding her three osplets.

Thank you so much for being with me. Watch for that hatch of Iris and Finnegan from Sunday-Tuesday according to Dr Greene. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, observations, videos, images, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A’, Geemeff, H, L, MM, PB, SP’, Timothy Dygert Live Stream, The Woodland Trust, Forsythe Ospresy, Dalgren Ospreys, SCMM Kent Island, Boathouse Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, Window to Wildlife, Heidi McGrue, Sunnie Day, Montana Osprey Project, SK Hideaways, Lake Murray Ospreys, Polo 7422, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Nesting Bird Life and More, MN Landscape Arboretum, Osoyoos Osprey Cam, Dyfi Osprey Project, BoPH, FORE, Niagara Bee, Feemeff, Green Ledge Light Preservation Society, BVSGirl, Eagle Club of Estonia, Cowlitz PUD, moon_rabbit_rising, Suzanne Arnold Horning, and Tweed Valley Ospreys.

Pip in Iris and Finnegan’s second egg…Friday in Bird World

14 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

The rain clouds came Wednesday evening and watered the garden and they are rolled in again from the West Thursday morning. Hugo Yugo is afraid of the thunder and lighting and the minute it starts she scatters to get under the duvet on my bed. Poor thing. Friday is a different matter. There are no clouds in sight. The sky is a pure beautiful blue with the bright emerald green from the trees decorating it. Everything is so lush. I have never seen trees and shrubs grow so much in such a short time. It just shows how much we need the water and how dry our winter had been.

I spent about three hours walking at the zoo on Thursday and about an hour sitting and having tea and watching the polar bears. It was the most glorious day. I am hoping to be a good example to all of you to get out and about, but I have to admit that I was pretty sore and tired after that!

The bears had been fed and were swimming in the icy cold water area before they left to go into their den. They are so gorgeous and are extremely well cared for. (I am still not sure what I think about zoos).

Besides spending time in the research centre learning how climate change is hampering the ability of these iconic bears to get food, I also found out how the staff at the zoo determine if one of them is ill. They put different coloured sprarkle bits in their food. So Bear A might have green, Bear B red, etc. Then they check their poop. Reminded me of the movie, The Last Emperor of China.

Polar bears are most active in the winter and hibernate during the summer. Churchill, Manitoba, is the Polar Bear Capital of the World. I do not know when they gave that small town on Hudson’s Bay the moniker, but today, if you want to see Polar Bears, you must go out in boats at two specific times of the year – spring and fall. The times are getting later and later as the sea ice gets smaller and smaller and further away from land. The bears have great difficulty getting food. They must fatten up in the winter to live on the fat all during hibernation. Sadly, they are hungry because of fewer and fewer seals. Some bears are catching seals in open water, and in the fall, they are desperately hungry. They come into Churchill and feed on garbage, which causes the citizens to get upset and the bears to be shot. Life is becoming desperately hard for them.

Sad news coming in this morning. One of the four fledglings at San Jose, Luna, has been found dead on the ground following a building collision. Thank you ‘SP’ for alerting me.

As I ready for bed, there is serious concern over the Captiva Osprey nest. Connor from Window to Wildlife posted the following letter. This is one of the nests that ‘H’ monitors and she notes that Darling has had nothing to eat (but perhaps a few scraps) in 75 hours. This is because of the weather. We are hoping for a miracle but are realistically expecting Darling to pass away.

‘H’ reports on Captiva which is a nest she monitors: “6/13 Captiva ospreys: The stationary tropical wave weather pattern that extends all across south Florida is expected to continue for the next few days, albeit with conditions predicted to be a little less severe in some places. The two osplets, Ding and Darling, had eaten a meal the evening of 6/10. Then fishing became impossible due to the stormy weather, not just because of the wind and rain, but due to the effect it had on the water surface and water turbidity. The evening of 6/12 Edie brought a partial catfish to the nest which was eaten by Ding. The morning of 6/13, Jack delivered a partial needlefish that was eaten by Ding. In the afternoon, Edie brought a partial catfish, and that was eaten by Ding. And, in the evening, Jack delivered a partial sheepshead that Ding ate. The shortage of food has rekindled Ding’s ultimate dominance over Darling, and Ding wins the battles for the fish. If enough fish is brought to the nest, Darling will win some of those battles, and Ding may also allow Edie to keep a fish to feed Darling.

In my opinion, if Darling passes, it will have nothing to do with Jack’s injury. This is about the weather. It is a prolonged weather event that a young unfed osplet cannot endure. And, I’m sure this scenario is being played out at many osprey nests all across south Florida that have been impacted by this nearly-stationary tropical wave.

This is exactly the same effect that the Nor’easter had in New Jersey last June. Certain adverse weather systems simply hang around too long, causing poor fishing that lasts for too many consecutive days…not just one day, or two days, but three days or more. The end result is the starvation/dehydration deaths of many young ospreys. In some cases, the prolonged stormy weather may cause the deaths of the adult ospreys as well. For example, at the Ocean City, NJ nest, where the parents disappeared after the June 2023 storm, intruders took over the nest, and the osplets died in the nest.

When the weather begins to improve after such a prolonged adverse weather event, and the adult ospreys are able to catch a fish, they must eat at least part of the fish to ensure their own survival, before bringing the remainder of the fish to the nest to feed their young. Then, the dominant osplet in the nest will eat first.

At Captiva, Edie was providing for her two osplets just fine for three days in Jack’s absence, while we were unaware that he had been injured. Then the storm hit, and made fishing impossible for an extended period of time. Now that fishing has started to improve, and both Edie and Jack have been able to bring a few fish to the nest, the eldest osplet, Ding, has first dibs on the food. If Darling dies, it will not be because of Jack’s injury. It will be due to the storm, and because s/he happens to be the youngest osplet in the nest.

By 07:00 on 6/14, Darling will not have eaten for 84 hours. Pray for enough fish this morning to feed both Ding and Darling.”

6/13, Forsythe osprey nest: After 10 fish were brought to the nest by Oscar on 6/12, this nest took a nose dive…with no apparent explanation. At 0822, Oscar delivered a medium-sized headless fish. Little was not permitted to eat at that meal, and Middle only ate a few bites. After many hours, Opal decided to go fishing herself, and she returned with a large whole fish at 1530. That feeding lasted for 40 minutes, and yet Little only ate 4 bites of fish. He was prevented from eating by both Big and Middle. We saw Oscar on the perch, but perhaps he wasn’t feeling well. Little ate pretty well on 6/12, so he is not in immediate danger of starvation.

6/13 Patuxent: There were six fish brought to the nest by Dad. Little did not manage to eat at the first meal, but had a nice 12 minute private feeding at the second meal. Little was not able to make it to Mom’s beak during the next two meals. Little usually automatically assumes his tuck-and-surrender posture when a fish is delivered to the nest, and he has learned to wait his turn until Big and Middle are full. But, at meal five, he fell asleep while waiting, lol. The meal began at 1600, and by 1616 both Big and Middle had dropped back…queue Little…calling Little…where’s Little?…Oh my goodness, he had fallen asleep! Mom ate some of the fish, and all of a sudden Little woke up at 1621 and said, “Oh, here I come Mommy, save some for me.” But, there were only two bites of fish that Mom had left to feed her youngest. Ahh, but Dad wasn’t finished…he delivered a large headless fish at 1822, and Little had a mostly private feed for 23 minutes and ate 145 bites of fish.

6/14 South Cape May Meadows osprey nest: We knew that the crow most likely destroyed egg #3 on 6/8, and it pecked at another egg. One egg hatched on 6/11 which could have been either the first or second egg. Well…another egg hatched overnight on 6/14! So, the first baby was from egg #1 at 39 days, and the second baby was from egg #2 at 39 days. “Now, you two must get along..Ya hear!” Congratulations to Hera and Zeus!

6/14 Fortis Exshaw osprey nest: The second baby hatched overnight. Congratulations to Louise and Harvie! (I do not have any good photos yet)

6/14 Boathouse osprey nest: Congratulations to Dory and Skiff on their first baby of the season. The lil’ one hatched just after 8 a.m.

Gosh, that is a cute little baby, Heidi! Look at those dark eyes.

Thanks so much, ‘H’. We love your reports!

One of my readers said this morning that ‘the Montana nest might bring us the happiness we need this year’. With all the worry about Jack at Captiva with ‘the something’ sticking out of his leg (looks like part of a fishing spear to me), and all the nests that have four chicks, and now Loch Arkaig with the ferocious C2, well. It is going to be nice to sit and watch Iris live out a wonderful summer. She always had the best nest in the country. She would work on it right after she arrived from migration and then stop and make sure it was in tip top shape when she left. Just look at it. Perfect. This is just the best ‘icing on the cake’ for this female. A devoted male after so many years. When did Stanley die? 2014? If you look at the timeline below, you will see that the fledge in 2018 was just a fluke. It has been ten years since Iris had a clutch of chicks that fledged! So this really is a miracle year.

Hellgate-Osprey-Cam-Timeline-Cornell-Lab-Bird-Cams-Cornell-Lab-Bird-Cams Download

So far, Finn is delivering on his promise to continue to be a good mate and dad. A huge fish came on the nest for Iris and baby Thursday morning.

The enthusiasm for a big fish for the babe and Iris caused some concern Thursday afternoon. ‘MB’ writes, “Some clumsy/scary looking moments at Iris’ nest 14:50 ish. A large fish arrives complete with head. The two adults both seem keen to wrangle it, more interested in the fish than the chick. The wee chick is trodden on a few times. It goes down and stays still for a while, and I am holding my breath. By 15:00 ish the chick is back up and begging and the fish has been taken over to the perch to be sorted out. Hopefully it will arrive back for a more civilised feeding.”

Goodness me. We do not need a nest accident! Iris and Finnegan with that whole fish and wee babe wanting fish!

Finnegan looks down at the wee babe while Iris feeds. Oh, I wish I could see what he is thinking.

‘A’ adores Finn: “Finn does appear young, but if he has never done this before, he sure is a natural dad. He adores Iris and worships this tiny creature in the nest. He watches it with absolute fascination, and spends quite a bit of time on the perch, guarding his family with obvious pride. Adorable.

You should see the size of the afternoon fish he brought it – it is MASSIVE (timestamp 14:51:15). Iris is happy! She starts to eat, but Finn decides he’s hungry too, so there is a bit of a tug of war over the fish, with the chick rapidly moving out of the way for fear of being squashed by this giant fish. Iris returns to brooding the chick and Finn starts eating the head of the fish. The chick is confused!

Finn takes the fish to the nest perch and continues eating. And eating. And eating. By 15:32 Iris is getting impatient, and Finn brings the fish back to the nest. He stands beside Iris, looking very proud, until 15:40, when he grabs the fish and brings it around to Iris’s head. She is periodically vocalising at Finn but not getting up for the fish!

Finn continues eating the fish head, occasionally offering a bite to Iris, who ignores it. Just before 15:43, he feeds a bite to Iris, which she accepts. She finally stands up, and slowly moves around to the fish. It is 15:44 and the chick is hungry. Finn stays on the nest, and the chick is not sure which parent to turn to for food. Iris is eating. Finn is watching his chick from the other side of the nest cup. Finally, around 15:45 Iris starts feeding Bob. The chick is good at this part! It is a voracious little feeder and can hold its head up, and steady, very easily indeed. It is strong and it is healthy. Such a blessing. Iris is giving her baby the smallest pieces – just right for a newborn osplet. She is such an experienced mum – calm and diligent. In fact, this chick seems to have inherited some pretty good genes all around.

Oh I love this little family. Finn is proving to be a perfect dad, He could not be prouder of his osplet and he adores Iris. I know how many people are just over the moon for Iris. Every girl deserves a Finn in her life! I adore the way he feeds her on the nest. SO sweet. I have never seen a feeding like yesterday’s – yes, a few bites, but not a full eight-minute feeding that involved at least 50 bites of fish. That really was something very special indeed. I love this guy. Not just delivering fish but breakfast in bed for the new mum. He’ll be bringing flowers next! “

A pip in the second egg of Iris and Finnegan has been confirmed Thursday evening. Tears. Get the tissue boxes out!!!!!! The champagne is already gone.

The three babies at Charlo Montana are soooooo tiny.

C2 finally let up and everyone, including Dorcha, got some fish out of the sixth delivery of the day. Did I say that C2 is a big female and behaves like Zoe, the osprey, at Port Lincoln of 2022?

All of the osplets at Field Farm are accounted for!

A flurry of a tandem feeding at Poole Harbour with CJ7 and Blue 022 trying to keep the four osplets alive and healthy. They are doing an incredible job.

Blue 022 is great at feeding. Both adults were rushing to get the four fed as heavy rain was coming into the area.

One surviving Osplet, one deceased by a nest accident, and it looks like a DNH egg at Sandpoint.

Those three are tough little osplets at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. They are still alive!

It is extremely difficult to see how many or how little fish are coming to the Osoyoos nest with its three osplets. Soo and Olsen have had a tough time of it in recent years. The area has been hit with heat bombs and the local lake and river that supply the fish appears not to have enough fish – or it is so warm that they are diving deep – that Olsen cannot catch them.

I noted three feedings on Thursday. At 1034, 1536, and 1656. This is not enough to sustain this family.

If you have the time, the Osoyoos cam is up and running. Any help in establishing how many fish come on this nest would be ever so helpful. Thank you.

It’s hot at the Cowlitz PUD nest. Three osplets. We need lots of fish to come on this nest!

Perhaps it is my imagination but it seems like the fish deliveries at some of the nests with small babies – that need to be fed a little but many times over – are slow.

Waiting for pip/hatch watch at Captain Mac’s Fish House Osprey platform.

Maya keeping her Only Bob dry from the rain at Rutland. What a great Mum she is. So sad she was sick at the beginning of the season. The ringing of the chick is scheduled for June 21.

At the Golden Eagle nest #2, Mum has brought prey in a couple of times on Thursday. Both chicks ate.

Edith P caught the feeding on video.

Golden Eaglet in Bucovina România doing well.

Some images from the nest of Big Red and Arthur and the new fledglings, the Ns.

The two hawklets at Syracuse have both branched and the nest is bare. I am thinking they both might have fledged.

‘H’ is watching for a pip Thursday evening for Dory and Skiff. Will see what she reports in the morning.

Hatch at nest #3 in Finland. (One egg had nest accident and one other egg left to hatch)

One osplet so far at nest #1 in Finland.

Some of you will have read the book Beauty and the Beak. I am sorry to inform you that Beauty has passed away.

Thank you so much for being with us today. There is joy tinged with great sadness. Please take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, posts, images, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, PB, SP, T’, Connor and Window to Wildlife, Patuxent River Park, Forsythe Ospreys, SCMM, All About Birds, Montana Osprey Project, Cornell Bird Lab, Charlo Montana Ospreys, Geemeff, BoPH, Sandpoint Ospreys, MN Landscape Arboretum, Osoyoos, Cowlitz PUD, Pitkin County Open Spaces and Trails, Captain Mac’s Fish House, LRWT, Eagle Club of Estonia, Edith P, Wild Bucovina Association, Cornell RTH, Heidi McGrue, Nesting Bird Life and More, Finnish Osprey Foundation, and Birds of Prey Northwest.

Thursday in Bird World

13 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I had been saving that tiny bottle of champagne for Jackie and Shadow’s hatch, but Iris having a chick after so long, well, it really is a time for celebration! So here’s to Iris and Finnegan and to their new baby! May they all live long and strong lives with lots of fish and no intruders.

So many nests got ignored today because of the happiness for Iris and Finnegan and the hope that we might get a glimpse of this little miracle chick. I will continue to provide the posts by Dr Greene who must be simply over the moon today with excitement.

Finnegan and Iris are very devoted. He has been so protective. I hope he doesn’t forget his other role is Daddy Door Dash with all those fish dinners. Look how proud he is on that perch protecting his new ‘family’.

This baby is strong and hungry and Iris and Finnegan are ready with the fish!

What a gorgeous family. Finnegan feeds Iris and Iris feeds their chick. Gosh, does this remind you of Stanley? Iris must feel like the Queen that she is. Isn’t this wonderful?

The tiniest bites of fish go into the baby’s mouth.

Waking up on their second day of parenthood – Iris and Finnegan and little Miracle baby.

The pair at Charlo Montana are not giving much away but there was a nice pip in an egg on Tuesday.

Welcome, little one!

And now there are two at Charlo!

There are two cute little osplets at the Blackbush Beach Osprey Platform!

All is well for our Little Mini at Field Farm.

At Loch Arkaig, C2 finally allows C1 and C3 to have some food! This female reminds me of Zoe. What do I mean by that? Well, she is full to the top of her crop and more and doesn’t want to share the fish with her two siblings. Someone asked if it is too late for siblicide. No, it is not. The worst behaviour begins during the Reptile phase and should end as the chicks get their feathering. We will wait and see. Louis is an excellent provider and there is has never been any concern that all three would not fledge. C2 just needs to ‘cool her jets’.

C2 reminds me too much of Zoe from Port Lincoln in 2022.

Slow motion video of the owl attack directly on Dorcha last night.

Only Surving Bob, Middle, at Lake Murry is a beautifully plumaged osplet. So big. Thank you Lake Murray for all the efforts to save this one.

CJ7 makes sure her precious Little Mini is being fed. Things are going very well on this nest. No concerns. The osplets are all passing through the Reptile stage and getting their beautiful juvenile feathers.

Growing concerns for Jack, the male at the Captiva Osprey Nest, mate of Edie, who disappeared for several days and returned with an injured leg. Window to Wildlife says if he can be captured they would take him to rehab.

At the Golden Eagle nest 2 in Estonia, the food was not as plentiful on the 12th of June as it was when the fox cub came in. Portions of a crane leg and a small bird. Both eaglets were fed but the second hatch is hungry and calling for food. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better hunting day for the family.

It is a miserable day for the Golden Eagle nest in Bucovina, Romania. We must remember that weather plays a significant role in the lives of our raptors (as well as the songbirds that visit our gardens). Small mammals get shelter and cannot be caught for food. If the weather persists, chicks can die. The nests get damp and the babies can get lung issues and also die. Life can be extremely challenging. Heavy rains are not just going to impact Florida. They have already accounted for the deaths of hundreds of storks in Europe and for some of our wee ospreys. Send good wishes to all nests – and thankfully there is some food on this nest!

Sometimes I fail to mention this nest. It is one that is wonderful to watch – Llyn Clywedog. Dylan is a master fisher and the reservoir is stocked with fish. He loves to bring trout to the nest! Seren Blue 5F is an amazing female. She winters in The Gambia and can be found on the same post year after year.

Three osplets transitioning into the Reptile phase at Cowlitz PUD.

The Great Bay trio are getting their tail feathers and juvenile plumage.

It is remarkable how fast these little ones grow. The surviving two osplets at Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home are doing fantastic. Just look at that plumage.

Triplets at Eschenbach nest have their plumage and are doing fantastic.

The newly hatched chick at Finnish Osprey nest #3 died right after hatch. This was the first hatch for Nuppu and Ahti. Condolences to all.

The trio at the Goitzsche-Wildnis platform in Germany are also doing well, just like Eschenbach.

Big Red heads to the nest to feed the two fledglings at Cornell.

The San Jose chicks still have to fledge and they are getting antsy.

It is mayhem at San Jose!

The three chicks on the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum nest are still alive. It rained Wednesday morning and then it was a humid heat. The babies need food to get hydration. They are often left uncovered in the blazing heat of the MidWest.

Dad was in with a small fish after 1500.

Keo and Keke are taking good care of their surviving hatch, River, at the Sandpoint osprey platform. Roan passed away on Tuesday the 11th due to a nest accident. Condolences to this family for this tragic loss due to wind and then just bloody bad luck. Fingers crossed for this baby. It appears that the remaining egg will not hatch.

Lots of fish deliveries to the Bridge Golf Course osprey platform on Wednesday. Everyone ate well!

The rains that are hitting Florida are at Moorings Park. Both of our fledglings, Tuffy and Ruffie are on the nest, hoping to get a fish dinner. It would appear that one had an early fish and the other found a fish on the nest. Do not ask me which one is which! They are both strong osplets.

Sunnie Day captures the changes in the growth of the trio at Crooked Lake, Iowa.

The weather is now having a huge impact on the Florida nests. ‘PB’ says that Captiva is in for 7″ of rain in two days. This is going to have a very negative impact on that Captiva nest coupled with Jack’s injury. Send them your good wishes!

‘PB’ sent a late video made by Toni Hoover – I took screen captures to show you this amazing little falcon. It took prey from one of the sisters on the grate and jumped and pulled it into the box to eat. This kid is a survivor.

‘H’ reports:

6/12 Fortis Exshaw osprey nest: Congratulations to Louise and her new mate Harvie, on the hatch of their first baby. There are two more eggs to go.

6/12 Captiva osprey nest: The stormy weather continued for the second day. Fishing for Edie and Jack has been difficult, and Jack has an injured left leg as well. The last time the 50 and 48-day-old osplets had eaten was the evening of 6/10. Edie was out fishing most of the day when weather permitted. Jack was not seen all day, until 1634 when he landed in the nest, dropped off a small live pinfish, and he quickly left. His leg still looked swollen, and the foreign object was still protruding from it. Edie was out, and the youngsters did not act quickly enough to secure the fish. The small fish wiggled in between some sticks and disappeared. It’s too bad they were not able to get a meal from Jack’s efforts. We had not seen Edie for hours, but finally at 2033 Edie arrived with a partial catfish. Darling grabbed and mantled the fish, but Darling is not adept at self-feeding. Ding soon managed to take the fish from Darling, and s/he ate all but the tail. The rain and wind is expected to persist intermittently for the next several days. Everyone is hoping that Edie will be able to deliver a fish this morning, and that she will feed Darling.

6/12, Forsythe osprey nest: Oscar delivered 10 fish to the nest, Including 9 fish in the morning, but most of the fish were on the small side. The first meal was peaceful between the three remaining siblings, and they all ate. After that, the eldest osplet ‘Big’ ruled the meals, although ‘Middle’ prevented ‘Little’ from eating at times as well. Little only managed to eat 80 bites of fish at meals two through six. The seventh fish, brought at 0922 was a large whole fish, and Little managed to eat 96 bites of fish at that meal. Little did not eat at meal #8. The ninth fish was delivered at 1032, and Little ate 55 bites of fish. Ten hours went by without a fish delivery. Then, Oscar dropped off a headless fish at 2022, and Little was shut out of that meal. Overall, Little did well today, thanks to the efforts of his dad.

6/12 Patuxent River Park osprey nest: The first fish of the day at 1009 was a medium sized whole fish. Twenty minutes into the feeding, Little managed to work his way over to the other side of Mom to be fed, and managed to eat a total of 32 bites at that meal. The next fish was delivered by Dad at 1214, and was a small whole fish. Little was not able to make it to the table. More than five hours passed, and we were worried that Little may not get any more to eat. Then at 1753, Dad showed up with one of his huge goldfish that provided for a 90 minute feeding. Little’s first bite of fish was not until 1847. Little was fed for 30 minutes and he ate 158 bites of fish. Go Dad!

McEuen Park osprey nest: All four eggs have hatched, and there are now four little osplets!

We do not have them where I live but there are some breeding pairs of Porchards in the UK that stay.

Birdwatch-pochards-are-one-of-Britains-rarest-breeders-Birds-The-Guardian Download

Just another horrible way that humankind is destroying habitat for wildlife and especially our feathered friends.

Rare-birds-at-risk-as-narco-gangs-move-into-forests-to-evade-capture-–-report-Birds-The-Guardian Download

Thank you to those who offered to watch the Osoyoos Osprey cam! The stream went offline Wednesday morning around 10am. It is now 1623 nest time and it is still down. Keep checking on YouTube!

Thank you for being with me today. What a grand celebration. We wait to see when Iris and Finnegan’s second egg hatches. I hope soon. This first one is strong! Take care all. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, H, PB’, Montana Osprey Project, Geemeff, Montana Osprey Cams, Charlo Montana, Blackish Beach Ospreys, Field Farm, Lake Murray, BoPH, Sunnie Day, Heidi McGrue, Eagle Club of Estonia, Bucovina Wild, Llyn Clywedog, Cowlitz PUD, Maryland Western Shore for Old Town Home, Eschenbach, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Goitzsche-Wildnis, Cornell Bird Lab, SK Hideaways, MN Landscape Arboretum, Sandpoint Ospreys, Bridge Golf Club, Moorings Park, The Weather Authority, Toni Hoover and Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Fortis Exshaw, Window to Wildlife, Forsythe Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, McEuen Park, and The Guardian.

Monday in Bird World

10 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. (Thoreau, Walden, 58).

The Girls and I are revisiting Thoreau’s Walden – I learn something every time I read this book! Mostly, it cements in me how fortunate we are if we can spend time with the trees, the animals living in the wild, even nature in our own gardens.

I hope that you had a really good weekend and found some time to spend with friends, family, or outside—or all three! We worked in the garden and are sore from the tips of our toes to the top of our heads. The heat and rain have caused everything to grow out of control! So far there has been no rain so it was a good day since everything is drying out. I would love to send this rain to places that are running out of water. It is frightening because there are not only implications for humans but also wildlife.

Wheres-the-Water-CounterPunch.org_Download

Two things to put a smile on your face today. The first comes from ‘T’. Watch ‘the cobra’ attack the Imperial Eagle. Then laugh. (Valid made the video and Rinur posted it).

The second comes from Missey and Hugo Yugo, who adore one another. When Missey lost her best friend Lewis last year, she was the saddest cat. Then Hugo Yugo came into her life and she took over the motherly duties the little ginger cat was longing for. Like Calico and Hope, these two are inseparable.

TWO Great Questions from the InBox:

Question 1. ‘NF’ asks: “Have a question…we had eaglets double fledge 6/7 in Kansas. Do you have any knowledge of that happening before? Many questions about that. Thanks in advance & keep up the good work!!”

Sadly, my data forms are for Ospreys but I could recall instances of eagles fledging close together, but not specifics. Thankfully, Elfruler came through and ‘NF’ sent me their response. I thought some of you might also be wondering. “Hi, Nina, it was fun watching your 2 juveniles take off yesterday! Yes, there are several records of 2 juveniles fledging on the same day. In recent years:

Maryland Port Tobacco, 6/4/23, three eaglets fledged on June 4, the first at 6:18, the second shortly after that (cam down, time uncertain), the third accidentally fell at 7:09.

Ohio Avon Lake, 7/7/22, one at about 6:22, the other at about 7:21.

Oklahoma Bartlesville 6/10/22, one at about 15:21, the other at 15:28.

Pittsburg Hays 6/10/22, one at 7:20, the other at 7:50.

Ohio Ashtabula, 6/24/20, one at 6:43, the other at 12:43.

British Columbia Surrey Reserve, 6/28/20, one at 8:15, the other at 10:18.

There are more in my spreadsheets, I’ve just searched the last few years, but from these you can see that it does happen.

Best to you,

-elf”

Question 2. From ‘PB”. “I saw your update on Seaside and #3 passed due to a wind/hail storm…but I watched their in memoriam video of #3 and they showed the storm so how did the little baby pass when under mom? Was it more lack of food?”

Yes, the little one was well protected by Mum. The death was not caused by anything human or by siblicide but was starvation and/or illness caused by a weather-related event. The storm was a mitigating factor in the chick not having enough food and also they get these terrible respiratory illnesses from the cold and damp. We won’t know precisely which it was.

If you missed it, Treasure at the West End nest of Akecheta and Thunder fledged on Saturday. Lady Hawks’ video shows the whole event clearing up many questions. Treasure is on a steep hill and has not been seen eating. Is this a place where the eaglet can get its footing to fly off? More questions than answers. The latest information is that Treasure is on a cliff face near the old nest.

‘B’ reports that Sterling has fledged on Sunday so all three of Akecheta and Thunder’s eaglets this year have taken their first flights.

Hats off to Dylan at Llyn Clywedog – he brought two HUGE trout (along with other fish) to the nest for Seren and chicks on Sunday. My goodness, gracious. Dylan does love his trout and if you don’t know, they stock the Clywedog Reservoir with 45,000 fish annually!

Dr Green just posted the following information as we are now on pip/hatch watch for the first egg at Iris and Finnegan’s nest.

I don’t know about you, but I am sitting on the edge of my chair in anticipation. I never thought Iris would have another devoted mate like Stanley.

Port Lincoln reports that Calypso and his new mate are checking out the Tulsa Platform. Could Mum and Dad be grandparents this year??? Things are beginning to heat up in Australia!

Little Mini right up at the beak for that fish dinner at Field Farm. One determined little osplet. This will certainly help with its survival. Don’t you just love these vivacious fourth hatches? They have to be clever and determined. Remember: It is only about 1 out of 100 fourth hatches that survive. Looks like Field Farm and Poole Harbour are going to be survivors if things continue as they are. Other nests are in trouble.

It rained some more. Each time there was a feeding Little Mini is there. No problems that I can see other than its size. The other three are rather ‘chill’ compared to many nests.

At Poole Harbour, Little Mini is right there. Sadly, Blue 022 has a love for black bin liners. I wish he didn’t bring them to the nest.

Two chicks for the WDNU Tower in 2024.

Two surviving chicks at Seaside.

The trio at the Salt Point Osprey Platform are all thriving. Do you know this nest at Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York? It is the home of Orpheus and Ursula. Here is some information provided by the Lansing Parks and Recreation Department.

“This nest was built by Orpheus in 2013, and with his two mates Ophelia (2013–2022) and Ursula (2022–current), they have reared many healthy fledglings over the years. The nest is ideally located within the Salt Point Natural Area in Lansing, NY, at the confluence of Salmon Creek, a fast-flowing trout stream, and fish-rich Cayuga Lake. Orpheus and his mate continually tend their nest built atop a 55′ dedicated nesting platform with a spectacular 360º view—and protection against marauding great-horned owls. This nest camera is a solar-powered camera operating in one of the cloudiest areas in the USA. After a streak of consecutive overcast or stormy days, the batteries drain and the recording may stop. After a few hours of sunshine, all will return to normal. High winds may also cause noise from the camera housing.”

Here is the link to their streaming cam. These chicks are doing fantastic.

Three at Pitkin County Open Trails and Spaces are doing well. We can just see the tops of their heads!

‘H’ sends in the reports for the nests she is monitoring:

“6/9, Forsythe NJ osprey nest: This nest has become very unsettled and dangerous. The nest dynamics continue to evolve for the worse. The oldest of the four osplets, Big1, has become very aggressive and controlling. Before today, Little3 was the primary aggressor, and would take out its hunger-frustration on Mini4. Today, Big1 was beaking all of its siblings. Every time LIttle3 would beak Mini4, Big1 would beak Little3. But, several times at each meal, Big1 would beak all of them, including Middle2, so that Big1 would be the only one eating. Quite often that would set off Middle2, and Middle2 would beak everyone. There were six meals today. Middle2 managed to make out okay simply because of its size. Middle2 was able to position itself further away from Big1 at feedings, and still be able to reach Opal’s beak. Neither Mini4 nor Little3 had very much to eat yesterday, as Little3 would keep Mini4 from eating, and Big1 would keep Little3 from eating. Today, I counted fish bites for both Little3 and Mini4. Mini4 ate a total of 36 bites of fish today, and Little3 ate a total of 17 bites of fish. There is not enough fish being brought to this nest for three osplets undergoing a growth spurt, much less four osplets. It’s going to take A LOT MORE FISH. This is very sad.”

6/9, Patuxent River Park osprey nest: It was a good day for this nest. There were “only” three fish and feedings, but a couple of the meals lasted so long, they should be counted as two meals. The first fish at 0749 was a large live catfish, and that fish flipped and flopped all over the place. No one was hurt, and I think the kids were mildly entertained, lol. That meal lasted for 95 minutes. Little still does get beaked and intimidated once in a while, but Little has learned to mitigate those occurrences. S/he simply stays away from Mom in the early phase of a meal, so as not to incur the wrath of Big. Little waited until about 0830 and then worked his way to the other side of Mom and she began to include her youngest in the feeding. After a while Little had a bit of a private feeding, and had eaten a total of 80 bites of fish. When Mom had given up on picking at the catfish skull, Dad moved on over, picked up the skull and pulled off 30 additional bits of meat for Little. What a cool Dad. The fish at 1118 was a small headless fish, and the meal lasted 10 minutes. Big and Middle were not very hungry, and Little ate 55 bites of fish. The last fish of the day at 1458 was a huge whole fish, that provided for another 95 minute feeding. Little had a few separate private feedings and ate for a total of 30 minutes.

Dahlgren osprey nest: Being first-time parents, the new couple, Helen and Doug, continue to work out some issues with parenting. There is a learning curve of course, and they are getting better. Their single osplet is 8 days old, and is looking good…nice and plump!

Fortis Exshaw osprey nest: Louise and her new mate Harvie are expecting their first baby at any time. Louise laid three eggs, but we’ve never seen three eggs at one time in that deep egg cup. All the best to them!

South Cape May Meadows osprey nest: On 6/8 a crow destroyed one egg, and pecked at another. We believe that there is still at least one viable egg remaining. From the nature of the contents of the destroyed egg, we believe that egg was definitely not egg #1, and was more likely egg #3 (not positive, though). Eggs #1 and 2 would be 38 and 35 days on 6/10. We are hoping for a hatch for Hera and Zeus.

Fenwick Island, Delaware osprey nest, at Captain Mac’s Fish House: Johnny and June’s first two eggs were destroyed by crows. Eggs 3 and 4 remain, and we are on pip watch!

Osoyoos osprey nest: Soo and Ollie’s two little bobs are doing great. The third egg is 36 days old on 6/10.

McEuen Park osprey nest: They have three little hatchlings that hatched sometime between 6/4 and 6/8, with one egg remaining. There is no rewind for that cam, so it was difficult to find a view when the parents were not ‘incu-brooding’.

If you were following Chance, the Red-tailed Hawk that went to an eagle’s nest for dinner and got adopted, you might know that it fell from the nest. Chance is near-fledging. Chance was rescued and is in a wildlife facility. This is the latest from the photographer covering the story, Jann Nichols.

‘PB’ writes that Smallie has been seen and photographed – see image below – but there is no confirmation that the eyas has had any food since being returned after its fall.

Big siblings on the grate.

One of the chicks, the eldest, wasn’t looking good to me at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It seems to have rallied a bit. I do wish this Mum would spend less time eating fish and more time feeding her chicks. That is precisely how we lost the chicks last year! Send good energy to this nest!

‘MP’ has been watching and counting. He says, “I counted her eating five bites to one she attempts to give one chick but if they don’t take it immediately she retreats with it and eats it herself. One chick keeps rolling on their back.” MP continues, “The male appears to be bringing bigger fish maybe so she will have enough for her and the chicks? He does stand there and watch which I’ve never seen other males intently watch the feeding. My take is he’s seeing if she feeds them at all. It is hard to watch not knowing if you are watching the makings of mental illness on a nest of innocent babies leading to their death.”

This is the oldest chick that keeps going over. I fear that the babies are dehydrated. Mum leaves them exposed and the little things cannot regulate their temperature. It is very hot at times and they need many feedings, lots of little bites throughout the day to keep them healthy. So very, very sad. We have seen this same behaviour in Hope at the Snow Lane nest consistently. I once queried an old hand at osprey behaviour about mental illness and our discussions wound up around the theme of how chicks learn. We know that they have instincts and we also know that they copy parental behaviour. That is how they learn. We know that some osprey nests are simply better than others. The environment is richer with fish. The parents are more attentive. Did this female as well as Hope come from nests where the female neglected her chicks? or where there was a drought and the chicks suffered? We will never know the answer to that question because the birds are not ringed and we cannot track their history.

Let us hope that this nest has a turn around.

This was earlier.

Later:

Three eggs visible at the nest of Hope and Beau in Newfoundland at Snow Lane.

Two cutie pies at the Sandpoint Osprey platform. Looks like we have one egg that could be a DNH. We wait. These two are only two days old.

Trio at Great Bay doing fantastic, too. Is it my imagination or are the inland nests doing better this year in terms of survival rates? In my data forms, we have regions such as North America, UK, Europe, etc but we do not have North America divided up by regions. That might prove helpful in the future.

Patchogue osplets are doing very well despite the nest being full of garbage – the plague of being a nest in an urban environment.

Three beautiful babies at the Dyfi nest in Wales enjoying a fish dinner in the drizzle.

Three little ones at Bridge Golf being fed. Fingers crossed.

Two eaglets – still – at the Eastern Imperial Eagle nest in RU.

Still seeing two at the Estonian Golden Eagle nest.

Fledge feels eminent at the Cornell RTH nest of the Ns – two hawlets of Big Red and Arthur. Both have been flapping and jumping from one end of the nest to the other. Arthur has been busy bringing in prey close together to try and stop them from flying today.

Oren and Ruth’s two hawklets (one died) are preparing to fledge form their nest at Syracuse University, too.

Cal Falcon fledglings visiting the tower.

Many of you are travelling to see osprey. For the next couple of days I will be including images. Today is from Mobile Bay and tomorrow will be Rutland. ‘L’ had a lovely tour of the Alabama and Florida coasts and sent some images of Ospreys on their platforms and fishing that she saw and took with her phone for us. Thanks, ‘L’.

Some great news coming in late. One of two chicks fathered by 4K at Belvoir Castle near where I lived in the UK has been photographed in the UK on his return as a two-year-old. 4K was the subject of a book, If You Build It, He Will Come. He was also the focal osprey for Sacha Dench’s first round of Flight of the Osprey. Blue 4K is a mature male Osprey from Belvoir Castle, Rutland, hatched in 2013 and satellite-tagged in 2018. I wondered how he had died and Geemeff gave me the following information months ago, “Blue 4K’s tracker showed him in Guinea setting off north, then stopped transmitting. The tracker was fitted in 2018 so was coming to the end of its service anyway, therefore we just expected to see him back at his nest a month or so later. But after weeks went by, it was clear he wouldn’t be returning, and Simon has assumed he died in Guinea when the transmissions stopped. But of course, we don’t know.”

Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care. We hope to see you again soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, questions, photographs, comments, videos, articles, tweets, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, L, MP, NF, PB, TU’, Thoreau, CounterPunch, Elfruler, Lady Hawk, Llyn Clywedog Osprey Cam, Montana Osprey Project, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Field Farm, BoPH, WDNU, Seaside Ospresy, Salt Point Ospreys, Pitkin County, Jann Nichols Photography, isamersfoort.pl, MN Landscape Arboretum, Newfoundland Power, Great Bay Ospreys, PSEG, Dyfi Osprey Project, Bridge Golf Club, Imperial Eagle RU, Eagle Club of Estonia, Forsythe Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, Fortis Exshaw, Dahlgren Ospreys, SCMM, McEuen Park, Osoyoos Osprey Cam, and Fenwick Park Ospreys, Cornell RTH Cam, SU-RTH Cam, and Cal Falcon Cam.

Weather related deaths…Sunday in Bird World

9 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Saturday was a blue sky sunny day (for the most part) on the Canadian Prairies. It was 22 degrees C with a bit of a breeze. A perfect day to be working in the garden. With all the rain and heat the little grass and the few weeds about have caused me to wish I had a goat!

Today, I promised myself that I would never purchase anything that needs to be assembled. All of the new planter boxes are together, but the so-called privacy screens’ that attach to the back are a bloody nightmare. The easiest thing today was picking up the new trees at the Re-Leaf Programme. Hackberry and Pin Cherry were the order of the day. Someone in the future will benefit from the shade of that Hackberry, and I hope the birds in my lifetime will enjoy the berries from both.

The Girls are all back to normal after my mini-break. The lilac bushes are full of leaves, and it is difficult for them to see the birds sometimes – and for me, too! It was late, but Baby Hope was particularly inquisitive about the ivy plant on the island. She is gorgeous. The girls are all back to normal after my mini-break. The lilac bushes are full of leaves, and it is difficult for them to see the birds sometimes – and for me, too! It was late, but Baby Hope was particularly inquisitive about the ivy plant on the island. She is gorgeous.

The Girls are thinking of birthday parties. Baby Hope will be a year old on 2 July, and Missey will be two on the 15th of July. Parties are in the making, complete with sardines, special tin cat food, and, of course, some new toys.

At the Florida-Gainesville Osprey nest, Middle fledged on Saturday and did a beautiful return flight. Mum was on the best waiting. She did a stupendous job this year. We could have lost all the osplets when Talon went missing, but this one survived thanks to Mum overcoming her brooding hormones and going out to fish!

The Lesser Spotted Eaglet that hatched in Zemgale, Latvia, succumbed to obligate siblicide on 8 June 2024. It had hatched the day before.

If you are unfamiliar with Cainism and siblicide, you might like to read the following when you have the time.

1-PDF-On-Cainism-in-the-Lesser-Spotted-Eagle-Aquila-pomarina-and-a-possible-Explanation-for-th Download

We often wonder why nests do not cooperate and why the adults do not stop siblicide. The following article gives us some insight into this question.

Siblicide-An-Inextricable-Behavior-in-Birds-Explore Download

No issues with fish deliveries at Loch Arkaig. Louis is a master!

There is something very special about that third hatch at Loch Arkaig. I love how ‘she’ (seems too aggressive to be a third hatch male) makes herself bigger when the pecking order battles begin. Little is on the left.

Border Ospreys wonders if any eggs of Samson and Ursula might hatch? Well, we were surprised to see three at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum after the first egg had been left unattended for some hours in the rain. We have also watched as Milda the White-tail Eagle had to leave her eggs in quite cold weather to feed when her mate died. The two eggs hatched. Oh, and just this year, we witnessed this same phenomena at the NTCT nest of Bella and Scout. The eggs hatched but the eaglets, very healthy, were sadly killed by Scout.

So maybe Border Ospreys. Just maybe! We will wait and see.

WHAT-IF…-–-Border-Ospreys Download

There are two hatches at Sandpoint Osprey Cam. That second one came along quite quickly!

To the delight of everyone, the Minnesota Landscape Mum is feeding her chicks! This is a difficult nest. Caution advised.

Keeping our eyes on Iris and Finnegan’s nest in Montana. Dr Green’s post:

The Only Bob at Boulder County is turning into a reptile!

‘A’ brings us up to speed on Field Farm. “This is an amazing nest. This afternoon, dad brought in another monster fish, this one whole and very fresh. Mini Bob and Little Bob were at the right place at the right time and made up the front row of the feeding line. Mum fed Mini and Little, with the two older siblings making up the second row, behind their two younger siblings and apparently quite happy to wait their turn. Mini is adorable. Absolutely the cutest little osplet. S/he is just SO much smaller than its siblings, it is sometimes hard to find it on the nest (hint: it likes to stay near or underneath mum if it can). They are all sweet, with their round little bottoms and their bandit stripes, and these parents are working hard to ensure all four get full crops several times a day.

With the size of the fish being brought onto this nest, I would venture a guess that none of these osplets has experienced that unpleasant sensation known as hunger. And in the absence of that experience, the older osplets are confident they will get plenty to eat even if they are left until last. Perhaps most of these osplets are male (only one of them behaves like a female and even then, it’s pretty rare and not prolonged). Whatever the reason, it is at this point a very peaceful nest and an absolute joy to watch.

We are all too aware that these nests can literally turn on a dime, with a prolonged spell of bad weather impacting fishing or intruders causing distractions that limit fishing time or even end in the loss of a parent. So it is unwise to speak too soon or to assume that things will continue to run as smoothly as they have done so far. Talons crossed for this little band though. They are just lovely and I couldn’t help but mention the afternoon feeding.”

Turn on a dime it might. Little Mini got itself upside down with its head stuck under an older sibling and is fiercely trying to right itself. Sadly it will die if it can’t.

What a glorious relief. After what seemed an incredibly long time, Little Mini is upright! (No timestamp, very frustrating).

‘A’ observes, “Mini Bob at Field Farm IS OKAY. It finally managed to get back onto its front, although it was hindered by a sibling that would not get off it and was holding down its head, as well as by a long thin stick that was laid right across the chick, over its neck and literally holding it down, no matter how hard it struggled. Eventually, the arrival of a second parent caused a general milling about, which both got the sibling off Mini Bob and also moved the stick pinning him down. And he finally struggled over and onto his feet. He is okay. There is a feeding now occurring (about six hours ago) and Mini is at the back of the feeding line by the time he has righted himself and got to the table, but there is a big fish, I think, and it is not shy about finding a way to mum’s beak. Its little tummy was very full when it was stuck on its back (I think it was so fat, it was actually hindering its efforts to right itself), so I’m not concerned about that. It will be fed.

It has a survivor’s temperament and there is not much bonking on this nest, for some reason. I still think the spreading around of the aggression rather than its being c oncentrated on a single (third) hatch may make the four-chick nests a better siurvival chance for the younger hatch/es than a three-chick nest. I am interested in that theory, as you have probably gathered by now. “

‘A’ also brings in another one of our four clutch nests, Poole Harbour! “Just a quick update on Poole Harbour. There is a feeding underway right now at Poole Harbour (7 June, 12:39). Mini is front and centre of the feeding line and Blue CJ7 is feeding the little one along with two of its siblings, one on either side. Little Bob, on Mini’s left, is also doing very well at this feeding. The oldest is still lying down behind the other three, not bothering to participate in the feeding until about 12:42, by which time it is standing behind Mini Bob, leaning over him a little but not being at all aggressive or even stealing bites. All four are waiting their turns. There is no bonking as yet at this feed, although the older siblings are in the reptilian phase. Mini Bob is a confident little osplet and seems to have no fear of its siblings. Mum is feeding it some bites that are way too big for it, but it is struggling valiantly to swallow what it can, and is doing well and getting some good pieces. This is an impressive nest indeed to have a fourth hatch looking as good as this wee osplet is.

As the feeding continues and all four osplets have joined in, CJ7 doles out the food relatively evenly, though Mini is too small to compete for bites with its much taller siblings so relies on CJ7 specifically leaning down to offer it bites, which she does, periodically giving the wee one two or three bites in a row. They are all waiting their turn, politely holding their positions and allowing their siblings to eat without intimidation or interference. This is a truly lovely thing to watch. It is a huge fish, so the only thing that will leave anyone with room for more will be mum getting tired of feeding the osplets. Four little open beaks are hard work! Mum is not neglecting her own needs, though, tucking in to some very very large chunks of fish herself in between feeding bites to her chicks. She really does seem to make a huge effort to share the food around to all of them and to ensure that each is being fed. She really does take extra care. Mini Bob, being so much smaller than its siblings, finds it very hard to reach mum’s beak in any competition. But mum leans right down to Mini Bob’s beak, turning her head to ensure he can take the food easily. Sometimes the piece is too large and she feeds part of it to a sibling, then turns back and gives the remainder to Mini Bob.

I would hazard a guess that this is a mainly male nest – if this lot were females, there would be a lot more aggression than what we are seeing (none at all). The youngest is very confident indeed and has no fear of its siblings whatsoever. If this continues, and there is no intruder problem or fish shortage, this nest is almost certainly going to fledge four osplets if Blue CJ7 has anything to do with it. It is just lovely to watch, and how often do you say that about a four-osplet clutch?”

Hats off to CJ7 and Blue 022. This is one of the finest four chick nests I have ever observed! Little Mini gets to eat with the group or is fed separately at every feeding on Saturday. Gold medal nest.

‘H’ reports on some of the nests she is monitoring:

“8, Forsythe NJ osprey nest: The chicks are 18, 17, 16, and 14 days old. It is uncanny how much the dynamics of this nest remind me of last year. It feels as though I have been transported back in time to June of 2023. The reptilian phase of osprey growth has hit this previously tranquil nest with potentially dire results (I pray not). Chicks number 1 and 2 are generally very mellow (just like chicks 1 and 2 last season). Little Mini4 is mellow. And, chick 3 has become very aggressive (just like chick 3 of last season). Chick 3 has found out that the easiest target for her to take out her aggression is Mini4. So, chick 3 has been severely beaking poor lil’ Mini4 many times during meals, and sometimes outside of meals. On occasion, chick 1 takes it upon himself to beak chick 3 after chick 3 beaks Mini4…just like chick 1 would do last year! Oscar delivered 5 fish to the nest, and most were on the small-ish side. There was one large fish, from which Mini4 was fed 17 bites of fish. Mini4 had fewer than 90 bites of fish in five meals on 6/8. I am very worried about Mini4. I’m sure Oscar is doing his best to provide his family with fish. The nest platform is in a very expansive marsh, and is located at least 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. There are a couple of shallow-water bays nearby.”

“
6/8, Patuxent River Park osprey nest: Dad delivered five fish to the nest for his family. The first fish of the day was of medium size, and of course everyone was hungry. Little could not get to the feeding line, and was shut out of that meal. At meal two, Little only managed three scraps of fish off the nest fed to him by Mom at the end of the meal. Hang in there Little, things usually improve for you later in the day! Well now…Dad delivered a huge live fish at noon. At 1220 Little was fed his first bite of fish. Little had a mostly private feeding for the next 34 minutes, and ate approximately 246 bites of fish! At 1500 Dad brought a large headless fish. Little ate a few bites at 1505, but was beaked by Big. Little soon resumed eating on the other side of Mom from Big, and ate an additional 46 bites of fish, before Middle returned to the table and pushed Little aside. Little was able to grab a bite intermittently, and by the end of the meal had eaten 61 bites of fish. The last fish of the day was a partial fish at 2040. Little made no attempt to eat…he was still stuffed from his earlier meals!”

There are three osplets at the Crooked Lake osprey platform (Timothy Dygert Live Stream). They are 9, 8, and 6 days old today.

Ruffie and Tuffy on the Moorings Park Osprey Platform in Florida. Each hoping to win that prize fish dinner.

The trio at Goitzsche-Wildnis are great!

At the Golden Eagle nest, chick 1 had a huge crop. Chick 2 waited, very intimidated, and was fed! I want to be hopeful.

The oldest sibling is starting aggressive attacks on the younger. Golden Eagles – like the Lesser Spotted Eagles – practice obligate siblicide. It is, however, late for this to be happening. The only way now might be to push the younger sibling off the nest which appears to be what is being attempted in the image below.

The older didn’t manage and I find this very interesting. Both fed – oldest first and then second.

One of the reasons that I have such huge respect for the communities, groups, individuals that maintain the Osprey nests in the UK is that they do not have this:

The weather in the UK has been really bad in the region of the Kielder Forest in the north. Many healthy chicks and some struggling third hatches have died due to the horrific wind, hail, and rain. Condolences go out to everyone at Kielder. I will slowly be adding these to the Memorial Page along with Little Bob from the Seaside nest who died in a severe storm on June 2.

On 8 June around 1300, Smallie, the youngest of the Peregrine Falcons at Our Lady Tower in Amersfoort Netherlands fell off the scrape. The youngster was rescue and we await news to see if he will be returned to the scrape. Thanks, ‘PB’ for alerting me to this event. We all care so much for this little guy. Smallie has been returned to an area near the scrape. Meanwhile the big sibs have food fights on the scrape!

Lots of visitors to The Campanile on Saturday! These are seriously beautiful fledglings.

Remember: The juveniles have vertical banding on their chests while Annie has horizontal as an adult. Those kids sure have nice crops. Annie and Archie are incredibly protective parents. What an amazing year it was.

Fledge watch on for the Red-tail Hawks of Big Red and Arthur on the Cornell Campus is approaching.

It is heating up in Orange as Diamond and Xavier are bonding in the scrape! Seriously is it really time for the Australian nests?? Unbelievable.

The streaming cam at Colonial Beach is back on line.

I am still seeing two babies at the Imperial Eagle nest of Alton and Nova in RU.

Nesting Bird Life and More captured a feeding at the nest with both of the Golden Eaglets.

Osplets that hatched on 21 and 22 of May in the Ramuka Forest in Poland are doing well.

Three osplets at Finlands #4 nest.

There are two osplets in the Pitkin County Open Spaces and Trails in Colorado.

News of the San Jose Falcons!

‘PB’ reports that Smallie has been heard. We cannot see if it gets food but I plan to assume that since Mum came into the scrape to feed Smallie that she will try and make certain he has food outside. Fingers crossed.

Thank you so much for being with us today. Tomorrow I hope to cover some of the nests not touched upon today. There are so many events – hatches, fledges and, sadly, deaths, that is especially hard to keep up sometimes. Please take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, observations, comments, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, H, J, MP, PB’, University of Florida-Gainesville Osprey Cam, LDF, ResearchGate, ExploreBlog, Geemeff, The Woodland Trust, Border Ospreys Blog, Sandpoint Osprey Cam, MN Landscape Arboretum Osprey Cam, Montana Osprey Project, Boulder County, Field Farm, BoPH, Time Dygert Live Stream, Moorings Park Ospreys, Fischadlerwebcam, Eagle Club of Estonia, Lake Murray Osprey, Forsythe Osprey Cam, Patuxent River Park, Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Cal Falcons, Cornell RTH Cam, Cilla Kinross, Colonial Beach Osprey Cam, Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Nesting Bird Life and More, Ramuka Forest Osprey Cam, Finnish Osprey Foundation, SK Hideaways, and Pitkin County.

Monday in Bird World

3 June 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

It was a scorching Sunday morning. I dedicated much of my time to tending the garden. I strategically planted hostas in areas with ample shade and moisture. The vegetable plants are thriving, and the vibrant red flowers of the annuals will soon bring immense joy. Despite the nuisance of mosquitoes and wasps, there’s nothing like the simple pleasure of being outdoors. It’s important to savour these moments while we can. By 1600, the clouds had opened, and the rain was pouring down. The garden will turn into an amazing jungle right before my eyes – heat and moisture are two great combinations. Not for ospreys, but decidedly for gardens.

Sol is the last of Annie and Archie’s chicks to leave the tower of The Campanile at UC-Berkeley. Fly safe Fab Four. What an amazing year it has been with you and Annie and Archie.

I want everyone to send their good wishes to Mini Little Bob at Field Farm. He is so tiny. Can you see him? There are four of them. I am so concerned for this wee baby but…

Now look. Mini Little Bob pushed himself right up to Mum’s beak! This is one you need to cheer for this season. Just like Little Mini at Patchogue.

Here is the link to the streaming cam at Field Farm:

https://www.youtube.com/live/HwzQ_9Eb8Rg?si=_3UEn7ZepOIRcnBS

Pitkin County’s first egg was April 28. We will be on pip/hatch watch from today.

Aran and Elen and their three beautiful osplets at Glaslyn. It is the couples second year together.

At the Port of Ridgefield (first year for this streaming cam), one egg was crushed and one did not hatch. There is a very lucky Only Bob on the nest. We can now see the top of its head.

CJ7 and Blue 022 are excellent parents to their four osplets. CJ7 feeds and feeds and fish are being kept on the nest so that they do not run out!

CJ7 and Blue 022 are brilliant. Tandem feeding – twice! That is how Mini Little Bob is going to survive.

Only Bob is doing so well at Rutland Manton Bay that I sometimes fail to report it. Bob is 24 days old today.

‘A’ sends news re Dyfi: “I spoke too soon – Baby Bob woke up full of beans and decided to bonk both Middle Bob and then Big Bob, a spat that Big Bob was forced to finish. This little one is far from cowed by its older siblings. The incident was short-lived and not particularly vicious – more tokenistic – and Baby Bob fairly quickly decided discretion was the better part of valour and lay down. Mum Telyn was not at all concerned, leaving the kids to it. I got the feeling she would have sat on them all, had that been required, but on this occasion, her intervention was not necessary.

You mentioned goshawks as potential predators for the UK osplets, and I assume they are daytime hunters? So far, the parents are not leaving the babies alone for very long, though there were a couple of occasions when both parents flew off the nest for a couple of minutes before one would return. Telyn seems to just stretch her wings occasionally, and Idris spends most of his day on the perch, heading off to fish periodically. He does not seem to take very long to return with a fish when he does decide the pantry needs replenishing.

These three osplets are looking extremely healthy. Cute round little bottoms, good-size PS’s, and all very active and eating well. Even Baby Bob can manage big bites of fish for one so young. The little one can find itself behind its older siblings, having trouble getting to the front of the feeding line and missing out a lot at some feedings, but at others, when it’s in front, it is allowed to eat without interference by its older siblings, which is a blessing. It is certainly not being prevented from getting food. Mum is sometimes a bit lazy about reaching over far enough for Baby Bob, which is frustrating, but it seems to be getting enough to eat and what it is eating is certainly high-quality nutrition. “

The Dyfi Moderator answered a question on the chat about how many fish are coming in now. The reply: “It’s about four fish a day now. They do not have a favorite but Sea Trout (Sewin) have been the most common this year.”

It is nice to have ‘A’ watching Ospreys! She comments on Dyfi, a nest that she has fallen in love with: “When I checked the nest this afternoon, there was a large fish for each chick. Mum had already fed them as much as they could eat, and then woken them up to feed them again, and still, when she finished the fish, there were still three other headless monsters on the nest. It was as if an inner ring of kiddie rails had been constructed of fish! Unbelievable. Oh how some of those US nests could do with just one of these gigantic fish Idris brings in. With two of these osplets already pretty much in their oily teenage phase, I am presuming that this level of bonking is as bad as it is likely to get (in the absence of a major food shortage). That, together with relative size, leads me to wonder whether we may have three boys on this nest. Time will tell. But they really are a very laid-back lot. Loving them, and Telyn and Idris.”

Three wiggly babies for Seren and Dylan at Clywedog and they are losing their natal down and turning into reptiles, too.

A gorgeous strong Bob for first time Mum Blue 372 at Llyn Brenig.

Oh, my goodness. It just goes to show me that I have to check on these nests, the ones that are not ospreys, a little sooner than I have been. Those two little fluff balls on the White-tail Eagle nest in the Tucholskie Forest in Poland have their juvenile feathers!!!!!! All wet from the rain but aren’t they beautiful?

There are also two healthy osplets in the Reptilian Stage in the Ramucka nest.

Boulder County has one difficult-to-see chick in that deep egg cup. There is plenty of fish.

Dad feeds Mum and Mum feeds Baby at Boulder.

Two healthy babies at the Bridge Golf Course.

Outerbanks chicks are alright.

Tuffy and Ruffie on the nest with Sally at Moorings Park hoping for a fish meal.

Poor Tuffy.

Big and Middle Bob are doing well at Western Maryland Shore. Both had nice crops Sunday morning.

There is shock for the new couple at Dahlgren when one of the three eggs, pecked by a crow and left unincubated, has hatched!

There are at least two bobbleheads at Collins Marsh. Anyone have better eyes than me to see if there are three???

Three chicks as of 2 June at Kielder 5A!

If every male delivered fish like Louis, there would not be a problem. If every lake and reservoir were full of fish, there would not be a problem. If overfishing was not allowed, there would not be a problem. The nests need large high quality fish for the ospreys to thrive. Look at the size of that fish.

Oren and Ruth’s hawklets have almost all their juvenile plumage at the Syracuse University RTH nest.

I love the peachy plumage on the chest of Big Red and Arthur’s Ns. Fledge is coming too soon for both of these RTH nests in upstate New York.

Anna and Andrew have their first hatch of the season. These are Lesser Spotted Eagles in Zemgale, Latvia. Isn’t that a gorgeous nest and what a bright eyed baby. Please be aware that there is a good cause for siblicide at the nest of Lesser Spotted Eagles. They practice obligate siblicide. –

10.2478_srj-2022-0004 Download

Baby’s first feeding:

Prey continues to be plentiful at the nest of the Imperial Eagle in RU. Will both chicks survive?

Smallie is trying to get some food from the older siblings at the Amersfoort scrape.

Aurora and Sol together at Cal Falcons.

Charlemagne, the oldest Turkey Vulture, has died. What a sweetie.

These storklets are fortunate. So many died from the torrential rains in Western Europe over the past fortnight. So sad. Thankful to all those wonderful people who reached out to help when they could.

At Port Lincoln, Bradley joined Schultzie much to the delight of everyone listening and watching!

‘MP’ reports that Diane keeps her and Jack alive at the Achieva Credit Union nest. Is Jack unwell?? Just a thought. ‘MP’ says, “It looks as though Diane is doing much of the fishing now for them both. Although Jack does do some fishing, Diane is doing more on this day, 6/2/24. Here’s a pic of Diane bringing in one of two fish today.”

Many have written about Little at Patuxent and ‘H’ brings up the issue of the protrusion in her report: “6/2 Patuxent-1: We had some concerns with this nest on Sunday. Dad must have had some difficulty fishing, and he was only able to deliver four fish to the nest. The first meal consisted of a large headless fish, and the meal lasted for about 50 minutes. Little had a private feeding near the end of the meal, and he ate at least 86 bites of fish. The next two fish at 1158 and 1425 were smaller, and Big prevented Little from making it to the feeding line. As the afternoon wore on, we were worried…hoping that Little would get another meal.

In the meantime, chatters had been discussing something peculiar going on with Little. Starting Saturday evening, some noticed that Little was attempting to crop-drop way too often…several times a minute. The frequent crop-dropping continued on Sunday. In addition, Little seemed to have a protrusion at the right side of his crop. Something in his crop (a bone?) was causing an area to stick out, and was even causing a separation of his feathers showing a spot of white under-feathers. It was quite noticeable. The object in Little’s crop did not hinder his ability to eat at the morning meal, and he had a large crop after breakfast. By late afternoon, Little’s crop was empty, but still showed the protrusion. Little needed food in his crop, for more reasons than one. We assumed that food would help to dislodge the obstruction. We also knew that only a very large fish from Dad would allow for a feeding of Little, after the sibs had also not eaten for hours.

Finally…at 1945 Dad landed with a very large headless fish! Poor Little…Big was hangry, and took it out on Little several times. Little started to make his move toward Mom at 2016, but was beaked by Big. At 2019, Little ate his first bite of fish. Middle had moved away from the table, and Big was pretty much finished eating, but continued to hover near Little. With Big close by, Little ate slowly and with some trepidation. Finally, Big retired from the table, and Little was able to eat freely. By 2032 Little had eaten at least 140 bites of fish and moved away from Mom. We had a partial view of Little’s large crop, still with the white-tipped area of protrusion.

Thank you Dad for your tireless efforts to provide food for your family. We are all hoping for more fish on Monday. And, we are hoping that the object stuck in Little’s crop will be passed into lower parts of his GI tract where it can be processed.”

“6/2 Dahlgren: Helen and Doug, the new couple at the Dahlgren VA osprey nest, have a little baby osplet. Their first two eggs did not hatch. Congratulations!”

This is a bit of a miracle baby.

And to close it off, two things. Geemeff writes that she now checks the Lake Murray nest before the Scottish ones! Middle made it through another night. We are all relieved.

And always to put a smile on our faces, Louis at Loch Arkaig delivers a whopper of a breakfast fish. I cannot help but wonder if every nest had a Louis (or maybe a Finnegan) and there was plenty of fish what would the data on these nests be?

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

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me write my blog: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, MM, MP, PB’, SK Hideaways, Field Farm, Pitkin County, Bywyd Gwywd Glaslyn, Port of Ridgefield, BoPH, LRTW, Dyfi Osprey Project, Llyn Clywedog, Llyn Brenig, Tucholskie White-tail Eagle Cam, Ramucka Forest Ospreys, Boulder County, Bridge Golf Course, OBX/Outerbanks, Moorings Park, Western Maryland Shore OTH, Heidi McGrue, Collins Marsh, Joanna Dailey, Geemeff, SU-RTH Cam, Cornell RTH, LDF, Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Amersfoort Falcon Cam, Audubon Centre for Birds of Prey, Angie Nerf, Rene Alleman, Fran Solly, Achieva Credit Union, Patuxent River Park, and Dahlgren Ospreys.

Friday in Bird World

31 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Oh, it is pitching down rain in Winnipeg. We had such a lovely sunny warm day yesterday. So glad I did not stay inside! The rule should be: Never put anything off. If it is a nice day, get outside and enjoy nature because you never know what is coming tomorrow. The Grackles, the Starlings, and the Crows are still trying to get cheesy dogs regardless. Their babies need to eat! Calico is on the top of the cat tree watching them.

Lake Murray is going all out with the lights to try and keep the GHO from taking the last osplet.

We still have a chick at Lake Murray. I really hope it is the lights and not the fact that the owl is so full form eating Big the other day.

Something to celebrate! World Parrot Day (a day behind, apologies). All the good work by the great folks at Kakapo Recovery have really increased the numbers of these gorgeous green flightless NZ parrots in two decades.

‘B’ sent a link to a great video on Peregrine Falcons with Sean and Lynn. Thanks, ‘B’. Really enjoyed that. We are sharing it with you.

CJ7 removes the last of the eggshell from chick 4 at Poole Harbour at 0113 Friday the 31st of May.

The second egg for Elen and Aran hatched at Glaslyn.

West Des Moines Iowa had two hatches.

First hatch for Mrs O and FKO at Tweed Valley.

Still one osplet at Clark PUD.

There are at least two osplets in the nest at Oyster Bay.

Beautiful Only Bob at Boulder County. Other two eggs presumed non-viable.

Some nice fish on the nest at Radford University Osprey platform. All had crops!

I have not seen Jack on the nest, but I could have mixed him up with Diane. ‘MP’ reports that “Jack is in the nest and has been every day. They are both thin…I don’t know if it is because of age, parasites or lack of food availability or all of them. There’s a new female spending time in nest. It’s the same female that came a month or so ago. Jack wasn’t very hostile to her a month ago either. They both just shooed her away then. It is true though that Jack is looking really bad. He left this day at dusk. Diane is furiously defending her eggs and still on them at night.”

Last year, the St Petersburg area of Florida suffered extreme drought conditions. I have not heard any news this year but it is quite warm. It would be a real shame for these eggs to hatch. These parents need some fish. We now that ospreys often have trouble with other raptors stealing their fish, too. Send them good thoughts.

Big Red and Arthur’s two hawklets are entering the month of June when they will fledge. They are learning about stealing prey and self-feeding under the watchful eye of Mum and Dad. When they fledge, Arthur and Big Red will take turns teaching them to hunt.

At Amersfoort Falcon scrape, Smallie has a nice crop. Thanks ‘PB’ for the image.

Louis has been delivering some very fine trout to Dorcha and the trio.

Cara, Yellow XKT, has a new mate, AKE, at the Janakkala nest in Finland this year. Her former mate Red CCL did not return from migration. The couple have three eggs laid between 5 May and 10 May.

An Osprey on the nest, but no eggs at Paltamo.

Very lonely nest at YLLÄSLOMPOLO.

Three beautiful eggs at Muonio.

So hard to see those babies at the Bridge Golf Club. So many couples this year opted for very deep egg cups.

I am so happy that Blue NCO has a new partner – young and enthusiastic! I was so afraid she was going to lose her beautiful nest at Loch of the Lowes but it appears that just might not be the case! (Video below)

Keep sending good positive energy to Lake Murray. Let us hope that this only surviving osplet gets so fat it can hardly fly – that would put that GHO off, too!!!!!!

There are three at Cowlitz PUD. Electra gave us a good look today.

Two fledglings – each with a nice fish – at the Venice Golf and Country Club.

Still two babies at the Imperial Eagle cam in RU.

‘H’ reports on Patuxent – all other nests doing great so how did they do? “5/30 Patuxent Nest-1: The ages of the osplets were 24, 23, and 20 days. There were 8 feedings from 5 fish. A few of the fish were quite big, and Dad would remove a large leftover, and return later with a large fish tail. Fish deliveries close together really helped little to be fed while the older siblings were still full. And the very large fish were very helpful, as Little was fed after Big and Middle were sated. One of the largest fish of the day was a huge headless fish delivered at 1745. Little was able to eat for 13 minutes and ate 80 bites of fish. Dad removed a large leftover, returned at 1933 with the fish tail, and Little ate 35 bites at that feeding. Little ate at least 206 bites of fish today. Go Dad! Go Little!”

‘A’ brings us reports from ‘Down Under’: “At Olympic Park, the cold wet weather may have reminded Dad and Lady that spring is still a long way off. But no, apparently not. Things are instead heating up. I am giving you three days of reports because of the amount of nest-related activity now occurring.

May 29: The eagles shared an early duet and matings – then off. Dad was back with the first stick around 7am. At 8:33am, Dad returned with a headless bream, which he left on the nest. Lady brought another bream herself at 8:50am but didn’t eat. Dad returned and ate one of the fish, then left at 8:12am, so one fish was still on the nest. Both brought in a few sticks and leafy branches, then flew off. Dad returned at 12:14 and sat for ages near the nest. He finally left at 14:21. He returned with a stick at 15:37 and took the remaining fish, eating on the branch. Where has Lady been since just after 11am? Dad returned the fish to the nest after a while. Then, there was a report of Lady near Ironbark Roost, soon returning to the nest beside Dad at 15:53. She still didn’t eat, and they duetted and mated. She appeared to have eaten elsewhere? Dad finally ate the second fish himself. He brought in a late stick just before 5pm and they moved things around on the nest, then settled nearby.

May 30: Both eagles were near the nest last night. They were awake early, and both brought in sticks and leaves. Before 9am they had brought eight deliveries. More sticks were brought in after a while, and they mated at 10:16am. Dad brought in half a large mullet at 12:40pm, which Lady claimed and ate shortly after. A few more sticks were brought, then both were away from 1:30pm. They returned just before 5pm with a couple of sticks, then shared a duet and mating at around 5:15pm, before settling close by for the night.

May 31: There was camera work being done on the nest cam in the morning. Our eagles were awake very early, with a clumsy mating attempt, but had more success a little while later, at 6:22am. Dad brought a couple of early sticks, then a headless fish at 7:32am. The cameras were not streaming then but Lady did not seem to get the chance to eat it. One eagle was spotted at Goat Island at 10:27am. The eagles were away all day, with one returning to the nest at 17:22. At dark though, it seemed only one eagle was home – and fish was still on the nest.”

‘A’ also reports on Smallie: “Smallie got some food at this morning’s early feedings, leaning out of the scrape for some bites too at one point. Then, when a parent brought food around 10:10 Smallie was competing for bites but eventually ended up jumping out of the scrape, where around 10:14 he is either being fed or is self-feeding or both. Certainly, he has had a relatively good morning, with quite a decent amount of food. When he’d had what was on offer outside, he jumped straight back into the scrape without difficulty.

So far, I have not seen any of his siblings leave the scrape, while our wee Smallie is jumping in and out at will now. I am hoping this will represent a turning point for his feeding – if he does what he did this morning again, he may get a day or two before his siblings join him out there. At least one of the floofs (the oldest) is looking oh so ready to fledge, with virtually all her fluff gone and vigorous wingercising all over the scrape, which nearly knocks her fellow eyases off their feet at times in that restricted area. How lucky are the chicks at Cal Falcons, with unlimited room to flap and run?

Mum is definitely not ignoring Smallie or refusing to feed him, as some chatters continue to suggest. She fed him while he was in the doorway of the scrape this morning, and then later on fed him outside the scrape in something of a private feeding (see above). Obviously, it is flat enough outside for mum to prepare food and feed the chicks from there, and Smallie had no problems out there both being fed and self-feeding. So I am surprised that the others are not yet exploring beyond that doorway. Still, it is a temporary advantage Smallie may be able to take advantage of today. “

Thank you so much for being with us today. We hope that your week has been a good one and that you will have some time to get outside over the weekend and listen, we hope, to some songbirds. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, letters, posts, images, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog this morning: ‘A, B, Geemeff, H, J, MP, PB’, Lake Murray Ospreys, Kakapo Recovery, Cal Falcons, BoPH, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Tweed Valley, Clark PUD, PSEG, Boulder County, Radford University, Achieva Credit Union, Cornell RTH, Amersfoort Falcons, Geemeff, Finnish Osprey Foundation, Bridge Golf Club Ospreys, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Cowlitz PUD, VGCCO, Imperial Eagle Cam RU, Patuxent River Park, and Sydney Sea Eagle Cam.

Sunday in Bird World

26 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

Thank you for your wonderful notes. I am so glad that you learned something about why ‘H’ and I are so protective of those osplet chicks in nests if there is a GHO about! We also, of course, get more than upset when osplets attack one another and that is when we step in and start counting bites of food they get. We can almost predict which osplet will exhibit this behaviour and when. It certainly eats at us. Sometimes we need to step back, just like the rest of you, and go outside. It is essential to our well-being smelling the fresh air (hopefully), walking through the trees, sitting quietly and watching a squirrel play, or marvelling at the gorgeous colour in a flower.

The temperature has dropped in Manitoba, and in some parts of the province, there is quite a bit of snow. Thankfully, we are just having light rain with the promise of some sunshine tomorrow. Oh, we need to dry out a little! I would happily ship water to any of you who need it. The Crows, Blue Jays, and Starlings have simply been waterlogged all day, carrying food back and forth to their nests for all those starving babies. It is certainly keeping me busy! I am so ever proud of the wilding of the garden. It was nothing but grass two decades ago with a single peony bush and some wild roses that were both planted in 1902. They still thrive – the roses even better since the area was cleared of all other creeping vines that seemed to be choking them out. It is now a haven. The woodboxes have been given over to the squirrels (the inside) and the birds who make their nests with the twigs from the vines on top or make their nests cradled inside those overlapping thick vines. There is barely any grass remaining and in a week another five trees will be planted. The Korean Maple put in last fall as part of the City’s Re-Leaf programme is doing very well with the torrential rains. That plain grass has now been transformed into a haven for the animals.

Do you know the first nature reserve in the world? It was Waterton Park in West Yorkshire created by Charles Waterton. He was a naturalist and a conservationist and inherited Walton Hall where he immediately went about forbidding shooting, fishing between autumn and early May and even barring dogs during the nesting season of the birds. He planted trees, created habitat for the animals and turned the lake into a marsh pond for herons and all manner of waterfowl. To keep away foxes and poachers, he “abstained from alcohol in order to save up to build a stone wall, more than 8ft tall and three miles long.” It worked. In five years he had transformed the land. Waterton is known for “creating a prototype for the modern nature reserve, where wildlife and humans can exist in harmony for their mutual benefit” (Country Life, 3 April, 2024, 34).

“File:Walton Hall Lake and Sundial – geograph.org.uk – 40964.jpg” by Humphrey Bolton is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

“Walton Hall and lake, Walton” by Humphrey Bolton is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

At Loch Arkaig, Louis and Dorcha went from incubation to a family of five in 24 hours!!!!!!! We might not be able to tell them apart! Way to go, Dorcha, on that delayed incubation. Louis must be delighted. I wonder if the trout in the Loch will thank all those eggs for hatching! Gosh, they are cute.

Louis is an excellent provider.

First hatch at Loveland, Colorado. Another little cutie pie.

Dylan and Seren Blue 5F admiring their three Bobs at Llyn Clywedog in Wales.

Dylan is an incredible provider. There won’t be a lack of fish on this nast.

We are waiting for Aran and Elen’s eggs to hatch.

Idris and Telyn are busy with their three at Dyfi! Hat Tricks for UK nests Dfyi, Loch Arkaig, and Clywedog.

CJ7 and Blue 022 still have two chicks. Two other eggs will either hatch or not….

At Rutland, Maya and Blue 33’s Only Bob is growing and growing and is now in the Reptile phase. What a joy to see so much fish for one deserving little one.

The first glance at the first hatch for White YW and Blue 25 at the Foulshaw Moss nest in Cumbria.

We are on hatch watch for Richmond and Rosie in SF.

Iris has not raised a chick since Le’le in 2018. That was six years ago. She is getting ready to make history as the oldest osprey raising babies with her new mate, Finnegan. Finnegan is attentive. He is an excellent provider. (And bless his heart, Louis, doesn’t seem to care. Thank goodness.)

It will be a short wait at Crooked Lake for Whitney and Noble to have their first hatch. I had egg 1 on 22 April, so we are on day 34.

All three chicks are doing well at Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home.

The only surviving chick of Stella and Talon – being raised exclusive by Mum Stella – is in really good health or so it appears. She often fish calls while Mum is away trying to fill the pantry.

Full crops at Lake Murray. Lucy is on the perch, the strobes are on and well, we live in hope like everyone rooting for these two surviving chicks.

You can hardly see them but there are two osplets at the PSEG Patchogue nest on Long Island and they are doing well.

What is with all the trees in the nests??? PSEG Oyster Bay has one, too. You cannot see the babies for it!

Fledglings Ruffie and Tuffy are being fed at the nest.

Hatch watch at Seaside.

He’s clever, determined, and is receiving so much love from people around the world. He has been tagged ‘Smallie’ and he can jump inside and out of the box, he can grab food and was even self-feeding. We want Smallie to survive to fledge.

At San Jose, Monty and Hartley are teaching their Fab Four how to survive.

‘A’ writes, “I spent some time today watching our four at Cal Falcons. How do I forget every year just how gorgeous that juvenile plumage is, especially on the breast and stomach. The most exquisite shades of coffee and milk chocolate. Interestingly, one of the two little males appears to me to be one of the older two, based on how little fluff he has left and the length of his tail. The youngest male is still the little dynamo he was when he hatched, first to head off exploring and very confident. I do find the bands incredibly difficult to see most of the time and distinguishing green from blue is not easy – I am still trying to match a band to each chick and have not managed to do so. I presume Cal Falcons has put out some sort of video labelling them all. I have picked up the green band easily and, I think, the blue but have zero clue re the yellow (and presumably the fourth one is red although they have only mentioned three colours). But certainly, these four, and Annie’s valiant efforts to feed them whilst not losing her face in the process, was entertaining in the extreme and relieved a lot of my stress. These four just make me laugh out loud, which was exactly what I needed today. “

Raining on Big Red and the Ns.

Raining on Ruth and Oren’s babies at Syracuse, too.

To warm your heart, a great rescue.

There are so many ways that we can help wildlife – and it isn’t just squirrels that get caught in those plastic loops, birds get caught in them, too. Cut them up, cut the plastic bread tabs in half, cut elastics (rubber bands) in half, shred mesh bags (better yet refuse to purchase produce in them) – make the landfills and our environment a much safer place. Did you know that one of the major places for eagles to find food in urban areas is a landfill?

So many nests that failed for one reason or another. Laddie died at LOTL.

The Great Horned Owls used Wolf Bay.

Duke and Daisy leased their nest to the House Sparrows this year at Barnegat Light.

Oscar abandoned Olivia and their three eggs at Severna Park.

We were all so hopeful for Angel and Tom.

Will there be a hatch at Achieva with the second clutch?

We are on hatch watch at Boulder.

Three beautiful osplets in Germany!

There are ‘four’ at Forsythe. Opal will try but, I would say be very cautious if you are watching this nest.

‘H’ sends her reports:

“5/25 Patuxent-1 osprey nest: After the great feedings late in the day on Friday, the three osplets all still had small crops this morning. There were fewer fish brought to the nest today, and they were smaller in size. The first fish of the day was brought by Dad at 0605, and it was small. Surprisingly, there was no beaking, and Little was ‘allowed’ to eat 14 bites of fish. The next fish was larger, and allowed for a 20 minute feeding, but Big was aggressive and in the mood to attack her siblings. Middle was able to eat a fair amount, but Little only ate 16 bites of fish. There were three more fish delivered by Dad at 1126, 1434, and 1739, and they were small to medium in size. Little was not able to eat any bites of fish during those last three meals. Little only ate 30 bites of fish today. We were hoping that Dad would be able to catch one of his whoppers. We know there are many osprey nests in the Patuxent River Park, and I’m sure there are bald eagles, and we observed a large female osprey steal a fish off this nest on Friday. It is conceivable that Dad may have his catch stolen from him at times. The ambient temperatures are in the mid- to upper 80’s, and Little really needs to have a couple good meals today.”

“5/25 Captiva osprey nest: The fish count was down today, six fish for the day, and overall the size of the fish was smaller. It wasn’t the best of days for the youngest sibling, CO8, but s/he did okay. CO8 was able to eat for about 15 minutes at the first meal of the day, but only for approximately 1 minute, 2 minutes, 1 minute, 7 minutes, and 3 minutes at the subsequent meals. It is quite warm in Captiva, and for multiple reasons, the osprey season started much later than usual this year, pushing it toward summer. As we know… with some exceptions… success of osprey nests depends on good fishing. It’s really all about the fish.”

‘J’ sends us some news about another Red tail Hawk on an eagle nest published in the FORE chat:

To put a smile on everyone’s face, Jackie and Shadow showed up at the nest to work on the sticks on Saturday! So nice to see you both.

Hatching at Boulder County!!!!!

The third chick has hatched at Alyth SS. Yeah for Flora and Harry!

The second chick has hatched for White YW and Blue 35 at Foulshaw Moss on Sunday (and maybe the third, I am having a hard time seeing) and the nest is now full at Esthwaite!

Thank you so much for being with me today. We are always so happy to have you with us! We hope to see you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, posts, images, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ‘A, Geemeff, H, J, PB’, Country Life, OpenVerse, The Woodland Trust, Geemeff, City of Loveland, Llyn Clywedog Ospreys, Bwywd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, BoPH, LRWT, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, SF Bay Ospreys, Montana Osprey Project, Timothy Dygert Live Stream, Maryland Western Shore Old Town Home, University of Florida-Gainesville, Lake Murray Ospreys, PSEG, Moorings Park Ospreys, SK Hideaways, Cornell RTH, SU-RTH Cam, Amersfoort Falcons, Linda McElroy, Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, Feral Cat Project, The Scottish Wildlife Trust, Wolf Bay Osprey Cam, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ, Severna Park, Window to Wildlife, Achieva Credit Union, Ute GroBe, BUND Goitsche-Wildnis, Patuxent River Park, FORE, Boulder County, FOBBV, KEEN Esthwaite Ospreys, and Jeff Kear.

Hatch in Progress at Dyfi…Monday in Bird World

20 May 2024

Good Morning Everyone,

There is a hatch in progress at Dyfi!

Sunday was a glorious day, and instead of sitting in front of my computer in the conservatory with the girls, I took a trip to a small town in southern Manitoba and paid a visit to their greenhouse. They had helped with a fundraiser (plants) for my grandson’s choir tour, and the quality of their flowers and herbs amazed me. So off I went. It was a wonderful half-hour drive with the sides of the road full of Red-wing Blackbirds flitting about the bullrushes and geese in ponds created by the recent heat rains. Everything was green and beautiful, and – it was quiet. If you live in the centre of a big city, the silence of the rural areas does not go unnoticed! This evening, all those herbs – including two Curry plants – will be put in their containers on the two decks with the hope that Dyson & Co will have pity on me and not usurp them while caching their peanuts. I live in hope.

It is interesting. The garden is not mine OR, rather, I have chosen to give it her to the animals which means that I feel that I am intruding when I am outside. I spent only an hour planting and will finish tomorrow. The heavy rains of the last days have meant that many birds might not have eaten well and it seemed cruel to be out there during the evening buffet period. The fledgling Red-wing Blackbirds are flitting about. One is causing concern. It does loops and I fear that it has a wing problem. I am not able to catch it and to be honest, the Wildlife Centre would only put the darling to sleep so I am going to let it live its life around the wood boxes where there is lots of food and see what happens. It has certainly entertained Calico and Baby Hope. The Baltimore Orioles – and this year more females than males – have been eating oranges. Lots of oranges! For some reason they are not at all interested in the grape jelly. Will try again tomorrow. But what an exciting late spring it has been – baby sparrows galore and now these little Red-wing Blackbirds. Their nest is inside a 30 cm high stack of vines that grow on the back woodbox. A perfect place that is well protected from the Crows and Grackles. Their Mummy was very smart!

Sad news is coming out of Glacier Gardens. Freedom was found Dad. He is the mate of Liberty and the Dad of those wonderful chicks Kindness (2021), and Peace and Hope (2023).

‘H’ and I just want to make everyone aware of what we desperately hope will not happen at Lake Murray. The ages and dates for the predation by the GHO in 2023 were: “Big was taken by GHO on 5/15 at age 26 days. Middle was taken by GHO on 5/23 at age 33 days.” Little died from siblicide. Today, the Osplets are 29, 27, and 24 days old. Mum is not sleeping on the nest at night and is away during the day. The GHO is aware of the nest. I hope that the owner has lights and loud music playing regularly now and will not stop thinking the owls have forgotten! Those efforts might help.

Little ate reasonably well on Sunday. I am no longer counting bites unless behaviours or fish deliveries (or both) change on this nest. For now, we have to stay strong and hope the GHO does not take these precious babies.

There are such simple solutions to protect our beautiful birds from harm – by us or other predators. At Lake Murray, for example, the fish grates or lights – GHOs do not like lights – would help. Right now, lights are the only solution. During migration, dimming or turning off lights can save the lives of millions of birds. You just have to flip a switch. Is that so difficult? Geez, it could save hydro costs!!!!!!! Do you remember the Brown Outs of the 1970s? It really is easy. Geemeff found us a good article.

Lights-Out-Turn-off-lights-to-save-birds-lives-newscentermaine.com_Download

The two chicks on the German streaming cam Goitzsche-Wildnis appear to be doing well.

And then the third one hatched on Monday – so a trio!

We have all been worried about CO8 at Captiva. ‘H’ gives us her report for Sunday. “0722 The first meal of the day consisted of a small partial mullet. CO8 simply decided to sit this one out, and did not approach Edie.

At 0845 Jack delivered a whole sheepshead. CO8 was beaked, or intimidated several times over the next several minutes. While Edie ate the fish, C07 simply hovered over CO8 until 0855. Then CO7 decided to eat. CO7 ate until 0901 and then moved away. Edie then started to feed CO8, and ate until 0913, when CO7 returned to the table. At 0920 CO7 again stopped eating, and CO8 ate for the next 6 minutes. CO8 was fed for about 18 minutes at this meal.

Feeding #3 was a partial sheepshead at 1003. CO7 beaked CO8, then CO7 ate until 1011. CO8 had a short private feeding until 1017, when CO7 returned and they ate side-by-side for one minute until CO8 was beaked. CO7 ate until 1023, then CO8 returned and ate for 2 more minutes. CO8 ate for approximately 8 minutes at this feeding.

At 1557 Jack delivered a large live gafftopsail catfish. CO7 intimidated CO8 and ate first. By 1602 CO8 had worked his/her way to the other side of Edie, but was beaked by CO7. At 1617, CO7 was taking a break from eating, and CO8 was fed…but only for 2 minutes, when he was beaked by CO7 who resumed eating. CO7 ate for at least the next 30 minutes, and CO8 was only able to grab one or two bites. At 1651 Edie was alarming and flew off with the fish. She soon returned with the fish still in her talons, and CO8 ate for 1 minute before being intimidated by CO7. At 1710, CO7 once again retired from the meal, and laid down to take a nap. CO8 was able to eat for the next 8 minutes, before being pushed from behind by CO7. CO7 ate until 1725, then CO8 was at the table and waiting, but Edie was distracted, presumably by an intruder. At 1728 Edie flew off in a hurry. Edie returned 5 minutes later. There was just a small amount of the catfish remaining, and CO8 ate for the next 3 minutes. CO8 was able to eat for a total of approximately 14 minutes, and only had a small crop after a fish that lasted roughly 90 minutes. Overall however, CO8 did fairly well today, and had a large crop a couple of times today.”

Dr Ericke Green continues to post good information about Ospreys which I will share with you in case you are not on FB. This is an exciting year and we will know the name of Iris’s New Guy soon!

I had so many lovely letters today. There is news that I want to share with all of you.

‘AM’ has discovered a new Peregrine Falcon nest. It is Kingston College. She tells me, “The mother was badly injured and euthanized and the father is raising the young alone. Recently, a new female has started coming in.”

Here is the link to their streaming cam:

‘MM’ reassures us that the Dad at the MNSA nest is doing a fantastic job! She comments, “Mom seems to feed the littlest chick first and in the few days I’ve been watching there has been one episode of bonking that I’ve seen and it was between the two oldest chicks and it wasn’t at meal time. “

‘MM’ asked about Mum at MNSA begging Dad to feed her. Many of you might not have seen it before, but there are a number of Ospreys that either like to be fed or do the feeding. Iris has been begging New Guy to feed her while she is incubating just like her Stanley did. Several UK nests have the male feeding the female. I wish I had images. This is the screen capture of Dad feeding Mum at MNSA.

I am always happy to get your letters. Please do not ever think for a moment that I do not like hearing from you!

Annie and Archie have really provided a lot of ‘light’ to everyone’s lives this year. ‘B’ writes: “…just to say how much fun it is watching the Cal Falcons this year, and how impressed I am with both Annie and Archie. Annie is even more impressive every year, and she’s lucky to have Archie, too. I wasn’t expecting the fourth egg to hatch, and I was a bit worried when it did that it would be just too much. But Annie and Archie are just not skipping a beat with four chicks. Archie just keeps the prey coming, and Annie is so skilled at distributing the food to the chicks. And wonderful to see Archie again yesterday joining in to tandem feed the chicks.”

What a shocking difference in size between Small at Amersfoort and one of the two older siblings.

Big Red loves her Ns. They are getting their juvenile feathers and their interest is shifting beyond the world of the nest on the light tower. We can expect fledging in June.

Rose and Oren’s sweet babies at Syracuse University. This nest is going to get really crowded.

Another location for Red-tail Hawks to raise their young – New York City! Yolton commented in his blog, urbanhawks.com, that the female had been picked up earlier in the week and taken into care. She was released and returned to her nest to the delight of her growing community of human well-wishers.

I am so happy that Bruce Yolton is posting his videos on FB for everyone to see.

Other Red-tails are nesting on Governor’s Island.

All three osplets have fledged and returned to the nest at the Venice Golf and Country Club platform. Adults continue to deliver fish – six or seven today!

Waiting for hatch at Boulder County.

Day old osplet at Great Bay doing well.

It looks like Dad will be fishing for two chicks this year at PSEG Patchogue.

Frederick keeps bringing in the fish to Betsy and the two chicks at Outerbanks.

Hebert and Hermine’s trio at Eschenbach are a little older than the chicks at Goitzsdhe Wildness.

For all Ervie lovers, myself included, he is still hanging around Port Lincoln! With all these boys, Mum and Dad could have grandchildren close by in a year or two.

‘A’ sends us the latest on Mum and Dad, the WBSE at Sydney Olympic Park:

“Speaking of which, I am intrigued by Lady and Dad and wondering whether this is their usual schedule and I just have been unaware of it (not checking the nest basically until eggs are due to be laid or have been laid, I think) or whether they are very early in nest-building and frequent mating behaviour this year. I suppose time will tell. We’ll know by the date the first egg is laid.

Here are the reports for May 18 and May 19.

May 18: The eagles were by the nest last night and came in early, at 6:22am, with a duet and mating soon after. They brought a couple of sticks in, then were off. At 11:10am, a duet could be heard coming from Mangrove Island, though the eagles were out of sight of our observer. Then one was seen soaring overhead – in the picture. It was a windy day. Unknown where they were for the rest of the day. Then at dark, at 5:30pm, both arrived at the nest and settled nearby. Very few sticks were brought in today – Lady two and Dad one.

May 19: A fine day. Our eagles were awake early, with mating. Then both were in and out during the morning with sticks and leaves – five for Lady and seven for Dad. From about 11am, neither was seen at the river or nearby. Finally, at around 4pm, at least one was seen at Goat Island. Then at dusk, at 5:19pm, Dad showed up at the nest with leaves. He settled nearby. Where is Lady?”

More news about Laddie – and yes, I am thrilled they issued an appeal and were on top of what might have happened to our beloved male at Loch of the Lowes. (As Jeff Kear notes, “If the shot went straight through, it would not show up on an X-Ray”. Laddies body was found eight days after he went missing.

Update on death of Osprey ‘Laddie’ from Loch of the Lowes Reserve in Perthshire

If you are lucky enough to live in London, UK you might wish to take in the new exhibition at the Natural History Museum that focuses on how birds survive – and do not.

Vampire-finches-and-deadly-tree-snakes-how-birds-went-worldwide-–-and-their-battles-for-survival-Download

Thank you so much for your letters and for being with us today. Lots of excitement coming up in the next fortnight as we continue with fledges and hatches. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their notes, comments, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A, AM, B, Geemeff, H, MM, MP’, Dyfi Osprey Project, Steven Bowery, Glacier Gardens Nest Cam, Trudi Kron, Lake Murray Ospreys, Animals, Goitzsche-Wildnis, Eschenbach, Window to Wildlife, Montana Osprey Project, Montana Osprey Cams and Dr Green, Kingston Campus STCG, MNSA Ospreys, Cal Falcons, SK Hideaways, Amersfoort Falcon Scrape, Cornell RTH, Syracuse University Hawk Cam, Bruce Yolton, VGCCO, Boulder County, Great Bay Ospreys, PSEG, OBX Osprey Cam, Eschenbach Ospreys, PLO, Sydney Olympic Cam, Raptor Persecution UK, and The Guardian.

Tag Archives: Big Red and Arthur

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