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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Oh, what a day Wednesday was and Thursday is starting out to be just as exciting. We have two fledges so far. Middle at UFlorida-Gainesville and L1 at Cornell!!!!!
First, Big threw a hissy fit on the UFlorida-Gainesville Osprey nest. It was so unexpected that even Mum was shocked at the oldest siblings response to Middle wanting to take her fish! Of course, we have seen this before but, in particular I am thinking of the Port Lincoln Lads of 2022. They were so polite on the nest before fledge and then after all had fledged the competition and the dust ups started. Middle is yet to fledge but he could – just needs to be ready to do it.
The action came at 16:39:45. I am grateful to ‘R’ for sending that time stamp to me. A fish arrived. Big got it – Middle wanted it. Big wanted it more. Mum couldn’t believe what she was seeing!
At 07:03:59 on 9 June Middle took his first flight off the left side of the nest!
Congratulations to Mum, Dad, and Middle and a big thank you to ‘R’ who sent me the time stamp!!!!!! Way to go Middle!
There is excellent news coming out of Lewes, Delaware. The female Osprey at the Henlopen Nest has been fishing since her mate has gone missing. It has been a couple of days now and there was concern that she might not fish. The first time she went out she came back empty taloned. But nevermind. This Mum has demonstrated very clearly that she can provide for her osplets! Today she delivered five fish to the nest. The three osplets were stuffed beyond being stuffed. Their crops looked like they would pop all afternoon. I really hope that Mum had some fish for herself, too. It is hard work playing all the roles. Fingers crossed for this family.
Here comes Mum with a really nice fish. Everyone was hungry.
Five fish. That is possibly a better delivery rate than most males.
Here is another one. Some of the osplets still have crops from the earlier feeding.
Mum must be very tired.
As the sun is setting just look at the crop on the chick that is still eating. The others are full and have walked away. No one is going hungry.
Well done Mum. I felt so sorry for her. In the evening she was calling and you could imagine that she might have seen an osprey and thought it was her mate. So sad for her. Let’s all send good wishes to this nest! And I will remind myself to check on them every day for everyone.
Little Bit 17 has been on a roll for the last few days. I often call him warrior but Lightning would be more appropriate. He is that quick to steal prey. At 21:05:17 for at least the third time today, Little Bit stole from one of the older siblings.
But first. At 19:46:16 Little Bit 17 has a nice crop. Still easy to spot with the feathers missing on his head. Squint. That crop is there!
At 21:05:02 an adult lands with a very nice fish. Little Bit is on the left and a big sibling on the right. It looks like the big sibling has the fish. But do they?
There are wings everywhere!
Middle ate for a full 7 or 8 minutes before 16 – the sibling that beaks Little Bit – took the fish from him.
Little Bit ate well today. He managed to snatch and grab several key pieces of prey showing his great skill. When he wasn’t doing that he was searching the nest cleaning up every flake of fish on it that the others had dropped. A survivor.
Checking on a sometimes neglected nest (shame on me) – Barnegat Light. Just look at those two with their mouths open wide for that fish! Cute.
If you missed it, Lady and Dad have their first egg for the 2022 season at the Sydney Olympic Park. It happened yesterday at 17:15. This is really exciting but I wished they had waited til all of the hawklets of Big Red and Arthur are all fledged. Normally they do. I got a lovely note from ‘F and M’ explaining to me that Lady and Dad are actually two weeks early laying this first egg! That is, indeed, very interesting. I wonder if the other nests in Australia will also be early? Diamond and Xavier at Orange, Mum and Dad at the CBD-367 Collins Street in Mebourne, Mum and Dad at the PLO Barge?
I find this early laying very interesting. Andy and Lena have struggled to have successful hatches and failed due to predation at the Captiva Osprey nest in Florida. This year they laid their eggs one month early and beat the Crows who normally eat their eggs. Is there a reason Lady laid these eggs 2 weeks early? could it be to avoid the Currawongs chasing their eaglets out of the forest? or is it going to be extra hot in Sydney? We wait to see if we can find out.
At the West End Bald Eagle nest, Ahote (the youngest) fledged six days ago. He has finally returned to the nest yesterday and has since been flying around. Everyone thought it would be Kana’kini that would go first. Now it is Sky that is hovering high.
All three Amigos lined up on the nest rock. Will Sky be the next to fledge?
This is also interesting. We know that Kana’kini is a big female like her Mum, Thunder. At the Red-tail hawk nest of Big Red and Arthur, anyone watching the nest believed that L1 was definitely going to fledge first. In the end it was L2. That got me to thinking. Normally the large females do not fledge first. I want to do some data crunching in the next couple of days and see how many times in the last ten years the first hatch fledged first at Big Red and Arthur’s nest.
Here was Big Red feeding L4 tonight. The other two are still ion the nest just at the other end. And if you are wondering and I am certain that you are, at least one prey drop if not more were made to L2 on top of the Rice building. Big Red does not like to feed the eyases on the nest after they fledged. Last year she did feed them because of K2 who was not well. K2 is the only chick that has not fledged in all of Big Red’s mothering – what 17 years? That is a lot of little hawks out in the world by this amazing Mum.
At 09:26:24 L1 flew!!!!! You could only see her on cam 2. L3 is watching as L1 leans down.
She is off. You can just see the wing under the light box.
L1 landed in the Fernow trees across the street.
L3 and L4 look on with amazement. Congratulations L1 – you are a fledgling. Well done Big Red and Arthur – two down, two to go!
Big Red comes in and feeds the two remaining chicks on the nest.
The Dyfi Osprey Project zoomed the camera in nice and close and we can really see the difference in appearance between Middle Bob and Little Bob. Middle Bob is in the Reptile Phase while Little Bob is losing the down on its head and you can see that the dark feathers are only starting to come in. Big Bob ate earlier and is in a food coma while these two enjoy this really nice fish Telyn is feeding them.
It is just getting light in The Czech Republic. Bukacek and Betty’s five storklets are quickly growing. The little one is very, very smart. He gets into the center of the group when there is a feeding and he gets lots of little fishes. Fingers crossed for no brood reduction here.
Karl II and Kaia have three beautiful storklets at their nest in Estonia.
You will remember that Urmas Sellis retrieved the three surviving storklets and the one deceased one when Jan did not return to the nest with his mate, Janika. A full report has come in and this is the text that was posted in Looduskalender, the English Forum for the Black Stork nest. This is very informative and you can see what good care is being given to the storklets and why it was necessary for an intervention.
Have a read:
News about our Black Storks chicks by Delfi “The three storklets of the stork pair Jani and Jaanika, who became famous in front of the nature camera, were taken to the animal clinic of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, where they are taken care of by Madis Leivits, a veterinarian dedicated to wild animals. Despite the shock caused by the loss of parents at such an early age, birds recover nicely and have the prospect of living their future lives in the wild. Exactly what happened to the missing male bird is still unclear.
Last week, the male bird, Jan, disappeared and the female, Jaanika, had to take care of the storklets alone – it is customary in stork families for the male to take care of the food side and the mother is responsible for warming the storklets’ nests.
As the weather was not warm in the summer either, Jaanika’s attempt to leave the nest was fatal for the third storklet and it died. “The pattern of behavior of the female bird became exceptional. Instead of keeping the storklets warm at night and looking for food in sunny weather, she did the exact opposite,” explained Madis Leivits, a veterinarian at the University of Life Sciences, who has been taken care of the three surviving storklets with the help of the Kotkaklubi. According to him, the male bird has a very responsible role in the family of black storks. “The father is a language of weight, the diet of the sons depends on him,” Leivits said. “Even if the female bird leaves the nest, the storklets will not be able to maintain their body temperature in the rain. What exactly happened to the male bird, we can only speculate.”
However, considering all the circumstances, the surviving storklets are doing quite well. “The two largest ones are growing visibly and have already gained more than a hundred grams in a few days. The third, the smallest, is a bit more passive,” Leivits described. “Of course, it can’t be called great, because a person can’t be as good a parent to an animal or a bird as they are to their own.”
He added that storklets are fed with a special decoy stork – a decoy that resembles a black stork to make it safer for the storklets. They mainly have fish on their table. “Black stork differs from white because it finds its food mainly in water – fish, frogs, aquatic,” he explained. The path of the three storklets will probably lead to an artificial nest, where they will be gradually prepared for independent living and the natural environment. “Fortunately, they are quite early sons, they have high hopes for themselves,” said Leivits, who said that sons born later in the second half of the summer tend to be prey for birds of prey and predators. “Under artificial conditions, we can also feed them strong enough.”
On 7 June Ervie’s tracker reported that he was flying out further into the ocean from his normal Port Lincoln, Australia haunts. You may recall that it was believed that the lack of a talon on that right toe of the right foot might only allow Ervie to catch Puffers – he brought a much larger fish to the nest shortly before Mum booted him off the barge. Here is Ervie’s 7 June report.
In other Port Lincoln Osprey Project news, the platform for Turnby Island is being erected. It is hoped that Calypso (2020 PLO hatch) and her mate might make this their nest. It certainly looks sturdy! Fingers crossed. Wouldn’t it be grand? We could watch one of Mum’s chicks begin her own family.
This has been a very long newsletter. So very much is happening! Thank you so very much for joining me today. Take care everyone. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or their FB posts where I took my screen captures: Port Lincoln Osprey, Eagle Club of Estonia, Looduskalender, ND-LEEF, UFlorida-Gainesville Ospreys, Cornell RTH, Dyfi Osprey Project, Mlade Buky, Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre, Barnegat Light Ospreys, and Henlopen State Park Ospreys.
The Guardian is carrying a story this morning about the overfishing. How does a government stop the current unsustainable levels of fishing? They buy out the fisheries! What a great idea. Australia is spending 20 million dollars to do just that in the south-east of their country. The government said that they are doing this “because of climate change and environmental factors, which are preventing the recovery of some populations.”
Every time we look at our beautiful birds that rely on fish — cute little Pippa Atawhai and QT, their parents, Wisdom the oldest Albatross in the world at 71, etc. we need to remember that warming seas and the use of huge fishing trawlers by some countries of the world are depleting the fish that keep them alive. We can stop this if there is a will. Australia just showed us how to do it!
It was so nice to turn on the UFlorida-Gainesville Osprey cam this morning and see a fish delivery at 10:41. Middle was really hungry and wasn’t going to let anything stop it from getting some fish. Bravo.
Mum started out in a position favouring Big but moved with her head at the rim which really helped Middle get some fish!
It was a nice fish this morning.
The UFlorida-Gainesville camera is having some issues today. I was, however, able to rewind til 07:08. It is not clear if there was a small fish delivered or a stick. Later, Middle chewed on an old bone. He really is that hungry. Fingers crossed for more fish today. It is 80 degrees and the winds are only blowing at around 4 kph.
It is difficult to know what is happening at the SF Bay Osprey nest of Richmond and Rosie. SFOspreys and Golden Gate Audubon have not announced any pips or hatches. The first egg was believed to hatch from 12-15 of May with the second in the range of the 13-16, and the third from the 16-17. We can only wait to see what happens. The streaming cam has no rewind so you have to wait and hope to catch a glimpse of the eggs. Rosie never gives any secrets away.
Jan and Janika continue to change off incubation duties for their Black Stork Eggs at their nest in Latvia.
It is the 17th of March. While we wait for Rosie to have pips and a hatch and the Osprey eggs to hatch in the UK, Lady and Dad are busy putting the finishing touches to their White-Bellied Sea Eagle nest in the Sydney Olympic Forest! We should be expecting eggs in about two weeks. Put it on your calendar!
It looks like Dad spent the night at the nest.
Here is the link to the WBSE streaming cam:
It is three days until 20 May when Steve and Cody are set to turn off the camera at the Kistachie National Forest Bald Eagle nest in Louisiana. It has been a great season with Louis and Anna and their second chick, Kincaid. Two beautiful juveniles the pair fledged – Kistachie in 2021 and then Kincaid this year. Kistachie was the first eaglet born in the forest since 2013. It was a ‘big deal’ for the eagles to return to this nest. Louis is such a great provider. Looking forward to next year and hoping that all three have a great summer and fall.
All five little eyases are present and fed this morning at the Manchester, NH falcon scrape.
Nancy was off hunting and E1, Harriet, got fed quite early. Fantastic. Nancy is doing a good job being a single Mum. I know that we all wished that E2 was with us. It is impossible to know – if Nancy had brought fish on the nest earlier – whether or not the outcome would have been any different. It is always sad to lose a vibrant healthy eaglet, always. And, of course, Harry. Lost before he even hit his prime.
A lot of people are watching the Dale Hollow nest in anticipation of a fledge. There were 100 this morning. Those eaglets are very restless!
Here is the link to the Dale Hollow streaming cam:
The trio at Manton Bay at Rutland are doing great. Growing and growing. Blue 33 keeps that nest full of fish and Maya continues to feed them on average 8-10 times a day.
I have seen no alerts yet as to when the only eaglet on the Two Harbours nest will be ringed. If I hear in time I will let you know! The eaglet is really growing fast – much bigger than when Dr Sharpe rescued it when it was on the side of the cliff! That was a wonderful intervention that saved the life of this baby. Thank you Dr Sharpe!
My garden is full of European Starlings and Blue Jays this morning. There is a host of White-throated Sparrows and White-Crowned Sparrows as well and the lone Harris Sparrow couple. It is drizzly. Today is removing all of the layers and layers of vines that have been allowed to grow on the garden shed so that the birds could hide from Sharpie, get out of the weather, or make a nest. They are going on the wood storage boxes where they will help for the same reasons. Lots to do – never enough time. So grateful that the flood waters are continuing to recede. Someone spotted some goslings this morning. That is so wonderful. Most of the nests have been ruined. Hopefully the drivers will practice patience and respect if the parents move them across the roads.
That is a wrap for this morning. I hope that all of you have a very wonderful day. Take care. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: UFlorida-Gainesville Ospreys, DHEC, Explore.org, LRWT, MN-DNR, Peregrine Network, SF Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, KNF, and Sea Eagle Cam@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre.
