Tag Archives: Channel Islands Eagles

Late Monday news in Bird World

25 July 2022

Oh, I hope that you had a good day wherever you are. Everything ‘seems’ to be fine in Bird World.

The rain has started pouring down – just a couple of minutes ago. Before that the three every-growing-larger Crow juveniles were having fun in the Bird Bath, eating their sandwiches and peanuts along with Dyson, the Blue Jays, and a host of sparrows. Dyson has to have a nest somewhere. She has a very short tail and I was told that she would line the nest with the fur. She is ‘quite large at the back end’ my daughter responded when she saw her. Baby squirrels soon? We hope. Lots and lots of peanuts were put out so everyone had plenty.

I just checked on the Osoyoos Osprey nest. I could not see the time stamps but Olsen apparently brought in at least one large fish to Soo today! There was an early one and one later and maybe some in between. The chatters were happy.

The smallest eaglet on the White-bellied Sea Eagles nest, SE30, needs a shampoo. There is fish juice stuck to all of the soft down on the top of its head. You can easily identify who is 30 and who is 29. 29 is also bigger. That extra day surely makes a difference at this stage. I stayed with the feeding to make sure that 30 got fish and it did! Lady tried 29 and its beak was closed and 30 moved to the other side for bites.

I am always asked if the female Ospreys bring fish to the nests. Oh, yes, they do! They normally do not do this until well after the chicks have fledged unless there is a need (for example, the male disappears or the fish deliveries are not enough). Rosie brought Brooks a nice piece of fish today. Brooks has been doing a lot of flight training.

Blue 33 landed at 17:52 with a really large fish – including the head. Two of the female fledglings had been on the nest fish calling to Dad when the third flew in wanting any leftovers on the Manton Bay nest.

It was delightful seeing all three girls on the nest and Dad. It is always nice to ‘see’ that everything is going to plan. It is not often you catch them on the nest and all seems well.

That is such a nice fish. I wish that Soo could have just one that size for her and the Osprey chicks in Osoyoos every day. What a difference it would make in their development.

Watching Osprey and Eagle families is very educational. You do not appreciate the necessity for good plentiful food until you have seen a nest suffer from lack of prey with stress lines in the feathers of the chicks and babies dying from starvation. It is the same with human animals.

There are so many Osprey nests and Daisy and Duke at the Barnegat Light nest have fallen off the radar. There the two surviving osplets are – goodness, full plumage – ready to go! (The third was accidentally pulled out of the nest cup at a very young age and died).

Every year I remember a friend telling me that if I really loved the plumage of the Red-tail hawk juveniles then just wait til I saw the fledgling Sea Eagles! But…I know we all have our favourites – there is nothing for me that can improve on the plumage of the fledgling Ospreys. I think they are much more beautiful than their parents! And wish they did not have to change. I would say the same for the Sea Eagles – juvenile sea eagles with their creams, golds, coppers, browns are smashingly beautiful.

The three osplets of Dory and Skiff are simpy adorable. They line up nicely for dinner and no one seems to want to cause the other any big problems. They are now standing and learning how to walk on their feet instead of their knees.

Oh, just look. Kissed by the peach at the nape of the neck and on the ends of the feathers with that dark eye line. How many young women wish they could get their eyeliner to look like that?

Dory did a great job – a big shout out – for this first time Mum. Skiff did, too!

The camera at Two Harbours in the Channel Islands panned around and caught one of the adults perched. Then they did nice close ups of Lancer waiting for a fish!

Lancer waiting patiently at time for a fish delivery – until she sees an adult and she really lets them know she is hungry!!!!!!!!!!

At the West End, Thunder was out on the Lookout Rock. Yesterday Akecheta brought Kana’kini a fish on the natal nest. I did not see any of the juveniles today. Did you?

At Fraser Point, Lilibet was on the perch and then on the nest eating a small piece of prey. Gosh, she’s gorgeous.

Ah, if you go to the Glacier Gardens Eagle nest and re-wind you can find spots where the camera does not have moisture on the lens. Peace and Love are getting big and they have been working their wings! I did notice that the rain has caused them to look a little ‘rough’. They will fluff back up quickly.

It is gently raining at the Big Bear Valley nest of Shadow and Jackie. Gosh it looks lonely without Spirit and her parents. Did you know that this is the one of the highest Bald Eagle nest in the US? The nest itself is 44 metres or 145 ‘ up in a Jeffrey Pine. The elevation is, however, 2164 metres or 7100 ft.

This is just a hop, skip, and jump through a small number of the nests we are watching. The nest of concern remains Osoyoos and it is doing well today. Fingers crossed and positive wishes for tomorrow and the next day. Thank you so much for joining me. It is such a nice change when the news is all good. Thank you so much for joining me. Please take care of yourselves. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their FB posts and streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Osoyoos Ospreys, SF Bay Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, Friends of Big Bear Valley, Glacier Gardens, Explore.org and the IWS, Explore Audubon, Barnegat Light Ospreys, Sydney Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre, Sydney Olympic Park, and LRWT.

Victor made the news!

13 July 2022

It was really fantastic to hear from ‘B’ that there are super donations going into Ojai Raptor Centre for Victor from the Fraser Point Nest on Catalina Island and for Little Bit ND17 who is in care at Humane Indiana Wildlife. They are much loved not-so-little eagles. Forever grateful to those that work in the wildlife rehabilitation clinics donating their time and volunteering so that the wildlife get the very best care they can have. They do it with love, not for money.

Victor made the newspapers today! California loves its raptors and it is always encouraging to see stories about the Big Bear Valley Eagles – the antics of Spirit and her parents, Jackie and Shadow and those ever adorable Cal Falcons – Annie, Alden, Grinnell Jr and Lindsay.

Here is that link:

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2022/07/13/bald-eaglet-rescued-ojai-raptor-center-rehabilition-facility-after-fall-channel-islands-nest/10040561002/?fbclid=IwAR2OL-4wsCC13Z5tl4bOcm3enLhMe6tCPwwDX0vW2kA_16k2RcwCjrQIs2c

Again, some of those amazing eagles and ospreys get forgotten when there is a crisis. Takoda is one gorgeous fledgling. Mr President continues to supply him with wonderful fish. Looks like an early morning catfish.

Wonder if Dad will bring in a dinner fish?

Lancer is on the rocks by the Two Harbours nest late this afternoon.

It doesn’t look like there is anyone home at the West End Bald Eagle nest of Thunder and Akecheta.

If you love California Condors, the Condor Cam is up and running and there are Condors in the trees around the site. They are often there feeding on carcasses provided for them by the Ventana Wildlife Society.

Here is the link to the camera in Big Sur:

This is a very quick look at a few nests this afternoon. I have spent the day creating a flight path for the garden birds – and there is a huge mess to clear up. I hope that everyone is well. Check in on your favourite birds. Many are about and still coming to the nests for food. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or FB pages where I took my screen captures: Explore.org and the Institute for Wildlife Studies, Ventana Wildlife Society, and the NADC-AEF.

Update on Victor!

12 July 2022

Most of us required some down time after the anxious moments waiting for Dr Sharpe to pick up Victor. Once he was there with Allie from the Nature Conservancy, Victor was located, held up so all could see him, and placed in a large black duffle bag. He was on his way. As Victor’s adventure is beginning, his sister Lillibet has been on the perch for most of the day. Yes, she is surely missing her brother.

I heard from ‘B’ that Lillibet had spent 5 hours on the branch after this moment. She really misses Victor. That is the sad part of all of this. What I did not realize was that Andor is a first time dad at 5 years old. Thanks, ‘B’ for letting me know that – so both Andor and Akecheta first time dads, young males – who did a fantastic job with the Mums this year raising these 5 great eagle fledglings.

Andor will bring a fish in and Lillibet will go to the nest to eat.

This is the update from Dr Sharpe:

That is fabulous that Victor made his way to the creek and was getting water there. That sure helped to keep him going til the rescue came.

There are quite a few nests that need a quick ‘hello’. Just stopping in at the Boathouse, it is easy to appreciate how quickly the osprey nestlings grow. Look at the plumage – Dory and Skiff’s trio are moving into the Reptilian Phase. Soon we will have little black oily heads and they will be long and lanky.

‘H’ writes that we should never worry about Sloop, the third hatch. She notes that he gets at least 2 private feedings a meal and instead of being a little one sail boat he might turn out to be a small warship – the other meaning for Sloop. Oh, I needed that laugh this morning. Sloop reminds me of L4 at Big Red and Arthur’s nest. We worried ourselves sick but L4 would climb over the big siblings to get to the food and he was one of the first two to catch his own live prey to officially become a juvenile. — Dory and Skiff are doing an amazing job as first time parents.

There could be a fledge at the Mispillion Harbour Osprey nest at any moment! The chicks are flapping their wings. This was 0515. Adults have been bringing in nesting material but where has the yellow matt gone that Mum loved so much?

Breakfast at Osoyoos Osprey Platform. Looks pleasant. Hoping lots of fish come to this nest. I am told that it could be quite hot in this region for a few days. Gosh, the size difference between these two, hatch 1 and 3.

Beautiful mum with her two osplets at the Fortis Exshaw platform in Canmore, Alberta. The blood feathers are coming in on the wings. It is not a great image but you can see the shafts the feathers are growing out of on the chick on the right, their left wing.

Beautiful Mum.

There is still Only Bob and the egg on the nest of Tom and Audrey on Chesapeake Bay. Will the other egg hatch? There is still time but maybe it won’t. Tom has been alarming on and off this morning.

Doing a run through some of the Finnish nests…gorgeous chicks on nest #4. Looking really healthy. Mum has been working on the nest and they have been self-feeding. Lovely. Look at the size of those wings! Both full. No problems here.

At least one of these big chicks – and I am thinking both – are big females with lovely necklaces.

Oh, I love it when the crests are up. Gorgeous Nuppu with the ‘Only Teenager’ at nest #3 in the Satakunta region in Western Finland.

Nuppu is screaming so Ahti will hear her. We need more fish!!!!!!!!

The male at the Janakkdan nest brought in a huge fish for the two osplets at 17:04:16. I have not seen the female who was injured or sick. It is possible that she will not return to the nest. The two chicks are left with the fish to eat for themselves. Thankfully the father is still bringing in fish.

Let us watch and wait to see how these two do with this self-feeding. If the female is injured, dead, and/or left the area, the lives of these two chicks will depend on their ability to rip that fish up and eat it themselves.

Before I close we are on pip/hatch watch for Lady and Dad at the Sydney Sea Eagles nest in the Sydney Olympic Forest which is part of the Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre.

There has also been an update on WBSE27 – this was a fantastic and much necessary intervention. 27 is doing fabulous and this is the kind of news we want to hear about Little Bit ND17 – that he was kept in care until he can fly free like 27, catching his own prey and flourishing. (Note: The first time 27 went to rehab it was too short. She could not hunt and was found emaciated on a sidewalk being attacked by smaller birds).

There will be at least one more update from the Ojai Raptor Centre today. With no broken bones, it will be interesting to see what it is that was causing Victor to lose his balance and not be able to stand. He is in good hands, eating well…our thoughts go out to Andor, Mama Cruz, and Lillibet who only know that he is gone from their territory.

Thank you for joining me for this quick check up this morning. There is a tiny lull as we wait for fledges to start happening and keep a close eye on a couple of nests for progress and pip/hatch. I have not seen any new updates on Little Bit ND17 as of this moment. They could post one anytime on the Humane Indian Wildlife FB page. Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or FB pages where I took my screen captures: Explore.org, Institute for Wildlife Studies, Channel Islands Eagle Lovers, Audubon Explore.org, Mispillion Harbour Ospreys and the DDNR, Osoyoos Ospreys, Fortis Exshaw, Chesapeake Conservancy, the Finnish Osprey Foundation, and Sydney Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre.

Victor is Rescued …and brief other news in Bird World

11 July 2022

Wow.

As we wait for Dr Sharpe to reach Santa Cruz and the Fraser Point nest of Andor and Mrs Cruz, I want to also celebrate the on-going success of the Black Stork rescue and adoption in Estonia. This is a video of Kaia finding the fish basket that Urmas left for her and Karl II to help with the food needed for four storklets when he placed Bonus on their nest. Bonus is one of two surviving storklets from Jan and Janika’s nest. The other storklet, Extra, is in the nest of Eedi who also has a fish basket.

It is thrilling to see this project working. With the rising temperatures, warming waters, fish dying, and streams drying up, we should begin to think of how we can provide fish for all the birds that require them to survive. This includes diverting water, raising and stocking streams, etc. I am certain you can think of many more ways but also big tanks – like those used to raise fish for people – could be provided for the birds. Yes, this is a big endeavour but, it is not too big that it cannot be funded with monies spent on human entertainment, like fireworks. One City. 19 million dollars. That buys lots of fish! Add up every city and town. (I will definitely not be invited to any Canada Day celebrations next year, for sure!)

We already know that the tanks for raising fish are enjoyed by the Ospreys because our fish hawks take the fish and make the fish farmers very angry! We also know approximately how many fish are needed by an Osprey family during breeding season. I believe this data would also be available for the rare Black Storks in Latvia and Estonia.

Intervention as a necessity at its best.

At 15:14 the first Welsh osplet of the 2022 breeding season fledged! It was 554 from the Llyn Clywedog nest of Dylan and Seren. Congratulations everyone.

Seren watches.

554 made a good controlled return. All is well. Congratulations everyone!

Mama Thunder got fed up with the intruder that has been harassing the kids and fighting with her and them. She gave that intruder the boot today!

Lillibet has come to keep Victor company while nearly 500 people wait and watch for the rescue team. Victor has been in the brush for 24 hours now – as Dr Sharpe makes his way by car and boat to save him. There seems to be a very special bond between this pair similar to that I saw in E17 and 18 at the Southwest Florida Eagle nest.

Everyone is urging Victor to hold only just a little longer.

Lillibet stayed with Victor until he left. Rescue time was 13:30:37. Dr Sharpe and his assistant wasted no time but they did show everyone that Victor was alive. He will now go to the Ojai Raptor Centre in Ojai, California. Thinking of donations – think about them as well.

Victor is protesting. That is good.

And he is off!

Wow. Terribly sad to see the two siblings separated but so happy that Victor was alive and protesting at the time of his rescue. Another great intervention, a very necessary one.

Thank you for all your good wishes for him today. This is wonderful. Dr Sharpe seemed to be very happy and relieved. Take care everyone. It has been such an intense day…I will see you tomorrow.

Thank you to Explore.org and the Institute for Wildlife Studies streaming cam at Fraser Point where I took my screen captures, to Lady Hawk for her video of Mama Thunder, CarnyXWild, and the Eagle Club of Estonia.

Late Sunday and early Monday in Bird World

11 July 2020

Dr Sharpe has posted that he will arrive at the Fraser Point nest between 12-2 nest time. We wait.

It is always a hard day when a chick dies on a nest but to lose a beautiful little Osprey to starvation/siblicide is very difficult. I am speaking of the third hatch at the Janakkdan nest in Finland. There is various speculation about what is going on at the nest. Is the female injured in some way? Another chick is lethargic on that nest and it is feared that all three will be lost and then, also, perhaps the breeding female if the injury is acute. Some are asking if this is H5N1, the highly pathogenic Avian Flu. That could only be determined by testing and so far it is believed that Ospreys would be more immune because they eat fish almost exclusively. Whatever is happening it is very sad and it causes one to feel helpless.

There was also Victor with his injury wanting to jump and fly with Lillibet to only go tumbling to the ground, well…gosh. It can take the wind out of your sails. It will be a long wait for Dr Sharpe to get to the nest. He will have to get to the boat, get to the island and then get to the nest. Will this require a very difficult climb? I do not know the terrain he will be going through but, I trust Dr Sharpe. If anything at all can be done to give Victor a second chance, Dr Sharpe is the person who will pull this off. But, for now we wait and it is going to be agony until we know that he is on the ground and has Victor. Then we wait again. You can be assured that Dr Sharpe will give Victor an exceptional meal and maybe some fluids – Victor cannot help but be dehydrated.

There is sadness across the Manitoba Peregrine community this morning. The resident male, Hart, was found dead. He was 10 years old. The Manitoba Peregrine Recovery Project works diligently to return the numbers of these beautiful falcons in our community.

Here is the link to the blog with information about Hart and the falcons that live in my community. the text narration gives you an idea of the struggles that happen with all our feathered friends. Condolences go out to everyone associated with the MB Falcon Recovery Project.

Heartbroken

Most of the birds that I write about are big birds of prey. I love them. At the same time, the Albatross pull at my heart strings, ducks make me laugh out loud, and well, I have really come to adore storks. Today Hob Osterlund posted a really touching image of a Laysan Albatross male and his chick.

Continuing with the mantra of Margaret Mead, “Never Doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” – Hob Osterlund works tirelessly for the Laysan Albatross. Osterlund had a dream and because of it she moved to the island of Kauai. She was overcome with the love of the Laysan Albatross on her arrival. Osterlund is the author of Holi Moli: Albatross and other Ancestors, is the Founder of the Kauai’ Albatross Network, has worked to relocate albatross from Midway Atoll to Kauai’, is an artist, and many more things to thousands of people. She did the illustrations for A Perfect Day for an Albatross by Caren Loebel-Fried.

Moli is the word for Laysan Albatross. They are revered spirits on the island of Kauai’. For the people of Hawaii, their ancestors can take the form of birds or animals. This is ‘aumakua’. Laysan Albatross are among the aumakua.  

Do you know who Wisdom is? Wisdom is the oldest known banded bird in the world. She still raises a chick and she is now at least 71 or 72 years old. She laid an egg and raised a chick in 2021. (Albatross often take a year off between laying eggs so that their body can be in good shape).

Wisdom’s breeding grounds are the Midway Atoll. Wisdom and her mate, Akeakami, return every year to the same nest site. This behaviour is known as nest fidelity. Millions of birds have nest fidelity at the Midway Atoll and there is a race on to figure out what to do with rising sea levels. Wisdom has hatched 40 eggs and outlived many mates. Albatross normally return and find mates at 5 or 6 years and return later to make a nest. Her 2011 chick – banded N333 – that survived the tsunami on the island, has returned and Wisdom now has a grandchick. How special. That year 110,000 chicks were killed by the raging waters of the tsunami covering over the shore. Wisdom’s chick survived because her nest was located inside a protected dune area.

Invasive species such as rats and mice that were killing the birds were dealt with in 2020. It is a problem around the world on small islands where birds nest – particularly albatross. Teams of scientists and volunteers work tirelessly to try and rid the islands of rats and mice that humans have brought on to the land. Climate change is another extremely serious issue with rising seas. Some translocation work has been done between the Midway Atoll and the island of Kauai.

Wisdom and her wee little moli.

This is Wisdom’s 40th chick Kukini hatched in 2016. Kukini means ‘Messenger’.

Here is a lovely article on this magnificent Laysan Albatross – Z333.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/worlds-oldest-bird-just-turned-70-why-so-special

To clear my head, I went to sit with the ducks. I came away delighted. There are ducklings of every age!

Before I begin, there are goose eggs bobbing about all over the water. The spring floods that hit our region made the water level in the park pond rise and rise covering all of the nests of the Canada geese, the Mallards, and the Wood Ducks. It was a very, very sad time. The birds laid more eggs and it rained and rained and rained again. What I am seeing is that at this particular pond, the majority of survivors or second clutches are ducklings.

This Mallard mother seemed to be in charge of about eleven little ducklings.

It is incredible how well behaved the ducklings are. There they go – right behind Mama Mallard. They have really grown since I first saw these four about 8 days ago.

Mama Mallard is incredibly beautiful.

It was equally sad not seeing one gosling today. The reflections from the trees on the water was very painterly and this Canada Goose really stood out with all that chartreuse.

Because the male Wood Ducks get all the attention, I tend to take more photographs of the females. They are incredibly gorgeous but so overshadowed by the bright colouring of their mates.

Wee Mallard keeping an eye on me but not giving up his spot!

Mother Duck has all the little ones – and they are tiny – hiding in this type of clover grass on the edge of the pond. You can just see their wee heads.

This one looks like he has had a great feed. There are so many insects darting over the water and to see these little ones just quick as a flash grabbing and eating them – it is amazing.

This wood duckling is getting her ‘pin’ feathers. You can see them pushing out of the shaft or the quill.

This is Mama Wood Duck. You can tell the female by her white tear drop eye patch.

To my delight there were Wood Ducks everywhere around the island – on it, around the shores but, always on the north side. At the start of the season there were no Wood Ducks at this park and I was truly heart broken.

Are you a fan of Mrs G and Aran at the Glaslyn?

Raptor Persecution UK wrote a blog about the history of Mrs G today. She is the oldest breeding Osprey in Wales. She has raised 41 chicks to fledge. At least 5 are breeding in the UK and she has 3 grandchicks. I will post a link to that blog if you are interested. There is also a fascinating family tree included.

Guest blog: Ospreys in the Glaslyn Valley

I am extremely grateful for ‘S’ who has supplied me with links to various cameras, wonderful historical and current videos, and all information to keep me learning about the Finnish nests. One of the fun things I learned is that the Finnish word for Ospreys ‘saaksi’ , when translated by Google, means ‘mosquito’. We have so many mosquitoes in Manitoba – I wish they were Ospreys. I will be including some of these for you if you are also not as familiar with the Ospreys of Finland. What beautiful countryside to have a nest! Yesterday I needed some laughs – like everyone and there was that chick on nest #3. What a character. ‘S’ describes him as a teenager without brothers and sisters to fight with so he has to fight with Mum. I am not sure you saw this video the other day when I posted it but this will give you some insights into this little character! Thank you ‘S’ for your kindness.

This little video shows the chicks in nest 4 having received their rings and some fish being left on the nest. The female returns and stares at the two nice fish wondering where in the world they came from! Enjoy.

I will bring a round up of the nests this evening. For right now, however, all eyes are on Fraser Point and Janakkdan nest. Please send all your positive wishes for Dr Sharpe, his team and Victor and for the Osprey family in Finland for the Mum to recover and the surviving two chicks to get healthy.

Thank you for joining me this morning in my attempt to move your attention elsewhere. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or blogs or FB pages where I took my screen captures: Hob Osterlund, USFWS, The Peregrine Chick, and the Finnish Osprey Foundation.

Victor survives fall from nest!

10 July 2022

Thank you to ‘C’ for alerting me. Victor was with Lillibet on the nest. She flew up the branch. Victor has been much perkier this morning and he decided to fly up to the branch. Sadly, he has fallen. The time was 11:09:08. Thank you ‘C’ for your diligence.

Victor is alive! His wings helped him! He is in the top left corner in the image below.

Thank goodness for small miracles.

This is the link to the Fraser Point Eagle Cam and the chat where you can stay informed about how things are going. Dr Sharpe will be out there tomorrow. Hang in there Victor.

Update on Victor…and other Saturday news in Bird World

9 July 2020

All attention has been on the Fraser Point Bald Eagle nest of Papa Andor and Mama Cruz on Santa Cruz Island. Victor and Lillibet fledged on 30 June. On the 8th of July, Victor flew onto the nest around 1038 on 8 July exhausted and appearing to be in distress. Since then issues with his left leg have been noticed.

Santa Cruz is part of the Channel Islands and lucky for Victor, falls under the care of Dr Sharpe. If you watched both the West End nest of Thunder and Akecheta or the Two Harbours net of Chase and Cholyn, you will know that Dr Sharpe and his team rescued eaglets that tumbled off the nest and also ringed the eaglets. Victor could not be in better care.

This is the latest announcement by Dr Sharpe:

Margit the Estonian Golden eaglet of Kalju and Helju and fledged today. What an amazing first flight from the nest in the Sooma National Park. She was 75 days old. This is the video of her first flight.

This is the link to the Golden Eagle cam in case you do not have it.

The whole family is home at the Bald Eagle nest on Gabriola Island.

When Louis arrived with a nice live fish on the Loch Arkaig nest, only the two osplets were home. There was already an old fish on the nest – quite a nice one. Louis moves the old fish to the side of the nest. Meanwhile one of the kids amuses itself with the fish breathing and doing little jumps. It attempts self-feeding. Dorcha arrives with a big branch and immediately sees the fresh fish and – everyone had lots of fish for their tea time meal.

The new little peanut on the Chesapeake Conservancy nest is staying warm and dry under Mum Audrey. They are having some rain today. Hopefully it moves along quickly!

It is raining in Finland at the #1 Osprey nest. Mum and wee one are enjoying some nice fish – regardless. This Mum really does like her fish. She fills up Only Bob, he goes into food coma, she moves the fish and has a really nice lunch! Well done.

It was raining – at times pouring- at the western Finnish nest #4 of Ahti and Nuppu today, too. Nuppu keeping the osplet dry and warm. All appears to be fine on this nest.

The Osplets at the Fortis Exshaw nest had a huge meal today. Just look at the size of the crops! Looks like it has swallowed a small baseball – or large golf ball – each.

It was not a good day for fledging at the Mispillion Harbour Osprey nest. Looks like they were getting some rain and wind.

And a swing to California where Annie and Alden were once again pair bonding in the scape! That should put a smile on your face! Thanks Cal Falcons. Annie initiated the bonding calling Alden…

Thanks for being with me today. Send all your best wishes to Victor and hope, beyond hope, that Dr Sharpe can find people to help him rescue Victor should this be required. Take care all. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and FB pages where I took my screen captures: Explore.org and The Institute for Wildlife Studies, Channel Islands Eagle Lovers, GROWLS, Friends of Lark Arkaig and the Woodland Trust Fortis Exshaw Canmore, Mispillion Harbour Ospreys, Chesapeake Conservancy, and Saaksilvie.

Victor is much improved

8 July 2022

Since this morning when Victor at the Fraser Point Bald Eagles nest could not stand, he is much improved. He has gone after Lillibet who took the prey and he has been fed by Mama Cruz. He is holding his head up as well. It all looks good and I thought you should know. Was Victor just worn out from fighting with the bushes? Oh, let’s hope so. I is about 8 hours after he arrived and could not stand.

Look at Mama Cruz looking down at Victor wondering what has happened. Lillibet is on the perch.

Victor looks so good. He is holding his head up nicely.

Thank you for every positive wish you sent this beautiful fledgling. Let us all continue to wish him good health, a long life, and lots of prey.

Thank you to Explore.org and The Institute for Wildlife Studies for their streaming dam where I took my screen captures.

Alan Poole on Ospreys, update on Little Bit 17, and sadness at Fraser Point

8 July 2022

You need to know about the presentation and we have all been waiting for an update on Little Bit 17. Of course, we do not need any more bad news in Bird World.

First. I have just been notified that Alan Poole’s excellent discussion about North American Ospreys will be taken off YouTube in 8 days. This is extremely informative – if you want to learn about Ospreys, please have a listen. Lots to learn! The original programme aired last year. You can start and stop…

Humane Indiana Wildlife posted this announcement today. You will see mention of Little Bit 17 at the bottom. — I am going to assume that Little Bit’s fan club have tried to see him. Please don’t. Every wildlife clinic is underfunded and overwhelmed especially in the middle of summer. We do not want the staff to get to the point that they cannot get Little Bit out the door quick enough. He needs to stay there as long as he can learning how to fly and being taught to hunt. If you know people who say they are going,, please have a gentle talk with them. It is in Little Bit’s best interest.

At the Fraser’s Point Eagle nest, Victor and Lillibet fledged on 30 June. Here is a short video – notice that Victor tried to land on a bush but it would not support him so he fell to the ground. Lillibet had a good flight.

Victor returned to the nest this morning around 1030. He cannot stand. Mama Cruz doesn’t understand what is wrong with him. She has tried to feed him. This is tragic.

The Fraser Point nest is part of Dr Sharpe’s research area – the Channel Islands eaglets. You can be sure that he is aware of the problem and will determine whether or not it is safe to intervene and extract Victor so that it can be determined what happened and what is the best help for this recent fledgling.

This is the link to the Fraser Point streaming cam:

Send all the positive wishes that you can to this wonderful Fraser Point nest! Rest assured that if anything can be done, Dr Sharpe will do it. It is one of his great missions – to give these eagles a chance at life.

Thank you for joining me for this very quick post. Take care. See you soon.

Thank you to Humane Wildlife Indiana for their FB post, and to Explore.org and The Institute for Wildlife Studies for their streaming cam where I took my screen captures.

Sky fledges at West End and other brief news in Bird World

22 June 2022

Oh, it is simply a gloriously beautiful day – blue skies and bright sun. No rain forecast! A first for several days.

Sky did some amazing hovering yesterday at the West End Eagle Nest.

All that practice paid off. At 06:09 Sky flew off the nest just like he had been flying for years. He was 104 days old.

Congratulations Sky, West End Eagles, Thunder and Akecheta and to Dr Sharpe and the staff at the Institute for Wildlife Studies. It has been an awesome year. We look forward to more visits for all three – Kana’kini, Ahote, and Sky for awhile.

Keeping a close eye on the ND-LEEF nest, home to Little Bit, that partially collapsed yesterday at 15:43:30. last night, Mum landed on the ND-LEEF at 21:16:53 wanting to finish up that Raccoon. ND16 had been nest to Little Bit 17 up at the front of the nest. 16 moved to eat. Little Bit went over for a short time – but he had a large crop and wasn’t that hungry. Looks like Mum and 16 cleaned it up. An adult was up in the branches of the tree looking for ND15 I think. They will want it back on the nest to feed, if they can get it there. The collapsing of the nest would have been quite frightening.

Looks like Little Bit is going to stay close to those two branches if there is any more movement of that nest. Good job Little Bit. You can see his crop in the image below.

ND15 has been caught on camera flying very strong. That is excellent news since the forced fledge yesterday. This morning Mum arrived early on the nest with prey. ND15 is hungry and came crash landing into ND16 and Little Bit 17 at 08:23:30. It was a bit crowded but so far the other part of the nest supported by 3 branches is holding. Fingers crossed it stays intact until all have fledged and spent time returning to the nest for food.

All of the excitement is now over – it will probably happen again and again as prey is delivered. In the image below, this is ND16 cuddled up with ND17. I would like to think that 16 is taking comfort from 17 and they are both being very still so that nest does not break any further.

I have missed checking on Iris. Here she is – so beautiful – on her nest on the 21st of June, Summer Solstice. The little sparrows in the nest below hers have hatched. I wonder if Iris even noticed them??

I am so glad that ‘H’ introduced me to the Mispillion Osprey Nest. It is always fun to see a different family and this mum with her passion for all things a certain shade of yellow is just fascinating. Mum has been aerating the nest after lights out tonight.

The daylight cam switched over at the Dyfi Nest of Idris and Telyn at 04:15. I wonder if they are still eating that huge fish that Idris brought in earlier?

Blue NC0 and the kids are waiting for their breakfast at the Loch of the Lowes where the sun was up even earlier. Laddie is not on his perch so he is out chasing off intruders and protecting his family or getting the breakfish.

Dorcha is also waiting for Louis to bring in a fish at the Loch Arkaig nest.

It wasn’t a rooster or the bleating sheep but cows mooing at the crack of dawn in the Glaslyn Valley.

As far as I can tell, these Osprey nests are doing good.

There is, however, sadness at Nest 5A in the Kielder Forest, the home of Mr and Mrs UV. Both of the chicks have perished. One by accident getting caught in the nest and the other has appeared unwell. That makes my list of losses now up to 62.

They were both doing alright on the 20th, two days ago.

I love the Utica Falcon blog. Today there are some wonderful images of Astrid making some in-air food exchanges yesterday with Percy!

Tuesday, June 21, 2022 – Percy and Astrid Complete Mid-air Food Transfer & Fledglings do More Sparring

That is just a brief look at the news this morning. I hope that everyone is doing well. There will be a long check on the nests later this evening. Take care. Thank you so much for being with me this morning.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or blogs used for my screen captures: Kieldner Forest, Utica Peregrine Falcons, ND-LEEF, Mispillion Osprey Cam and DDNR, Friends of Loch of the Lowes and Scottish Wildlife Trust, Friends of Loch Arkaig, People’s Post Code Lottery and the Woodland Trust, Byrwyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Dfyi Osprey Project, West End Eagles and the Institute for Wildlife Studies.