Tag Archives: Clywedog

Wednesday in Ospreyland

The camera at the Foulshaw Moss Osprey nest has been down or going on and off today so it has been hard to follow what has been happening on the nest. I was able to get some shots for you with two different fish. We know some of Tiny Little’s behaviour and this might help us predict what will happen. When Tiny Little is hungry he is going to be a pest until he gets some fish. In the afternoon on the nest, around 15:40, Tiny Little was on the nest with White YW and Blue 462.

Blue 462 has the fish in its beak. White YW is to the right of 462. Tiny Little is behind 462. You cannot see her.

Ah, there is 463 looking out off the nest maybe day dreaming of fledging? White YW is cleaning his beak and 462 is tucked into the fish. Tiny Little doesn’t seem interested.

Dad has left and Tiny Little continues to look off to the hills and mountains. Tiny Little is acting peculiar. At times he appears to be preening and at other times you might think he is hiding a small piece of fish. At any rate, whatever is going on, he does not seem hungry or interested at all in the fish that Blue 462 is eating.

Once he turned around and looked.

Then Tiny Little goes back to preening.

A fish was delivered for the late snack around 20:00. All three of the chicks are on the nest. It is so nice to see them together and to know they are all safe. 464 has the first go at the fish while 462 looks on anxiously.

Tiny Little is laying down duckling style just watching what is going on. Tiny Little learned a long time ago to let 464 finish before moving in. 462 is standing there, head down watching and waiting for their turn. Tiny Little has no problem getting up to try and eat or take the fish from 462 — but not 464!

462 could not have been that hungry. It ate and if you look carefully you will see that most of the fish is left on the nest to the left of the chick at the rear. 462 does a couple of beak swipes and flies off.

462 moves in to have some fish before Tiny Little can get there. Tiny is still playing duckling.

Tiny gets up and does the usual trying to distract the older sibling. He is now working on nest renovations and moving twigs about.

Then Tiny Little goes and stands by 462 next to the object of desire – that fish! They are both busy watching something. Maybe it is 462 flying about. I bet Tiny Little is hoping it is Blue 35 coming to take that fish and feed her like yesterday.

They both follow whoever is flying for a long time their heads and eyes moving in unison for the most part.

Tiny does a pretty fantastic ‘ps’ at 20:18.

And then he moves right back over by Blue 462 eyeing that fish.

Sadly, I cannot confirm what happened. But if yesterday was any indication, Tiny Little is eventually going to get some of that fish. Maybe Blue 35 will fly in and take over and feed Tiny Little or will Tiny Little get the fish herself? Fingers crossed the camera comes on again to solve the mystery.

At the Dyfi Osprey Nest, Idris was on his perch while Telyn was feeding Ystwyth on the nest.

Later both Dysynni and Ystwyth were on the nest together. Aren’t they adorable? Ystwyth should be fledging soon.

LM 2 was on the nest alone at Loch of the Lowes earlier. Is she watching her mother or Laddie or NC0? That is truly a gorgeous place to have an Osprey nest.

My Scottish friends can correct me but I am thinking that there is not a lot of fishing equipment debris to get into the Osprey nest making the nests in the UK safer than most in North America where the lakes and rivers have many power boats and weekend fishers.

Over at Clywedog, Only Bob loves to eat. Telyn and Only Bob are looking up to the skies at 17:13.

At 17:13:59 Dylan lands on the nest with dinner for the family.

Only Bob moves up so that he can watch how Dad eats the head of the fish.

Only Bob also knows that Dad loves to feed his chick! Dylan spends some time feeding Only Bob before turning it over to Seren who is waiting patiently in the wings. She would like some fish, too.

Only Bob waits for mom to have a few bites before she feeds the rest to him. You are really a very ‘big’ boy, Only Bob.

If you have been watching the nest of Iiris and Ivo in Estonia, their first hatch fledged. Here is that moment:

And with all the attention on Tiny Little, these three beauties of Richmond and Rosie, have all fledged. Aren’t they gorgeous. Richmond could probably handle a nest of four. Very few Osprey males can.

Many of you will have read that when the three chicks were banded, the measurements indicated that they were all boys. But…for the very first time in the history of the nest, the measurements were wrong. DNA testing shows that Poppy ZP and VZ Lupine are females and WR Sage is the only boy. Goodness they were wrong.

Rosie migrates but Richmond doesn’t. He stays around the San Francisco Bay area all year round. He will take very good care of these babies once Rosie leaves and he will be waiting for Rosie to return around Valentine’s Day!

Here is a really cute video of the two girls doing a tug of war with a fish. This was yesterday.

Ah, Legacy at the Fortis Red Deer Nest is snuggling up with mom to keep cool as she serves as a mombrella from the sun. That sky is so hazy from all of the fires. It travels all the way – the smoke – to Manitoba and can make breathing difficult. I wonder what impact the smoke has on these chicks?

It looks like the smoke from the wild fires is also making it hazy at the Fortis Exshaw Nest. Little ones are also trying to get in some of the shade provided by mom.

It is such a contrast to see the Osprey nests in Alberta, Montana, Florida, and California with those in the United Kingdom. It has given me a lot of pause to think about the trash that makes its way into the Osprey nests such as the baling twine that has been killing the chicks up in Montana.

I could not get back on the Cumbria Wildlife Osprey cam but Blue 35 will not let Tiny Little go to bed without some fish. He was so full in the middle of the afternoon that he wasn’t wanting any so maybe he really has had enough already. Either way he will be fine. Growing like a bad weed that one – and surely with those big sturdy legs he is a she.

Thank you for joining me. I am in the midst of planning a trip to Overflowing River in Manitoba to go and see the Ospreys that come to our province to breed during the summer. There will be lots of images for you I hope – but this is not happening for a couple of weeks. Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: SF Bay Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Friends of Loch of the Lowes, Dyfi Osprey Project, CarnyX Wild and the Clywedog Osprey Nest, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the Foulshaw Moss Osprey Nest, Fortis Alberta Red Deer Osprey Cam, and Fortis Alberta Exshaw Osprey Cam.

Tiny Little, Blue 35 and the fish – and other tales from Ospreyland 13 July 2021

I wanted to yell as loud as I could, ‘Go Tiny Little!’. There was a fish drop at the Foulshaw Moss Nest. Blue 462 had it in its talons.

Oh, what I forgot to tell you was that Tiny Little kept trying to steal that fish from Blue 462. Look at Blue 35 (mum) watching what is going on.

Tiny Tot finds the tail of the fish between Blue 462’s legs and trys to eat the fish from there! My friend ‘L’ says that Tiny Little is a ‘hoot’ – he is!

Tiny Little bothered his big sister so much that she moved the fish to the other side of the nest! But Tiny Little did not give up. He was more determined to try and distract Big Sister and grab that fish. Look how mum is watching everything that is going on. Tiny almost gets that fish a few times but he is not fully confident nor aggressive yet.

It must have been uncomfortable for Blue 462 to have Tiny right up there by his face. That is probably the point. At one point it looked like Tiny Little tried to grab the fish out of 462’s beak as he was pulling it off the bone.

Tiny Little pleads with mum to do something about that fish because he wants some of it and Blue 462 won’t share! Now Tiny Little didn’t do this just once, he went to speak to mum several times. There was, of course, no mention of Tiny Little finding that entire fish and not sharing it with anyone earlier!!!!!!

Blue 35 watched everything. What a smart mum she is! She waited and checked and then waited and when Blue 35 felt that Big Sis had enough fish, she walked over, took it, and flew away with it.

Here she is moving in to take it from Blue 462’s talons.

She pulls it over and once she has that fish secured she flies off the nest.

Why did she take my fish? says Blue 462. Tiny Tot is bewildered. He figures that is it for his bedtime dinner. Even Big Sis can’t figure it out. They stand there staring into space wondering what just happened.

Ah, Blue 35 wanted Big Sister off the nest. She took the fish and when the older sibling had left she returned to feed Tiny Little.

Ah, what a good mum Blue 35 is. She makes sure every one of her three babies has some fish.

When Tiny was full and off cleaning his beak, Blue 35 enjoyed a few bites of fish herself before Blue 462 flies in to try and get the precious fish tail! Mom starts feeding 462 again.

Wonder where 464 was? Did White YW give him a fish off camera?

Looks like Tiny Little won’t be sleeping alone tonight. Blue 462 is tired from all that flying! Both of these big babies have full tummies. Time to go to sleep.

As the sun was setting in Wales at the Dyfi Nest, Idris was out on his perch, Telyn was on the nest perch, and both Dysynnis and Ystwyth were on the nest ready for night-night as the train speeds by.

Over in the Clywedog Nest, Seren 5F was feeding Only Bob, Blue 496, his late night snack. He earned it today – he made a proper fledge this morning and he must be awfully tired. Gosh, this kiddo is big. Look at those legs!

As the pink of the sunset was coming over Loch of the Lowes, NC0 was on the nest watching her children, LM 1 and LM 2 as they flew around the loch.

Hopping to North America, Wattsworth and Electra were on the Cowlitz PUD Osprey Nest in Longview making a few nestorations. They lost both their chicks this year. The first to siblicide and the second to heat stroke during the 28 June extreme heat wave that hit the Pacific Northwest.

What will the Ospreys do as our planet heats up?

I don’t know if there are any repercussions on the Ospreys in Alberta from the smoke and fires to the west of them in British Columbia. Let us hope not. Legacy is growing and growing at the Red Deer Nest. It was hard to get a good image of her today but she had just finished a nice breakfast when I took this one.

And the two on the Fortis Exshaw Osprey Nest are progressing nicely as well. They are also growing really well now that the extreme heat is gone.

Kindness is 89 days old. She is on the Glacier Gardens Bald Eagle Nest up in Juneau, Alaska. She has been practicing her standing and is getting really good at it. Kindness is a ‘Northern’ Bald Eagle – not a specific species but because she is higher north in the Northern Hemisphere, she will be heavier and bigger than birds in the southern US. This is called the Bergman Allen Rule. Northern animals are typically heavier and larger than the southerly ones. This is related to the climate and physiological differences and their needs. The female Bald Eagles in the north, like Alaska, weight 4.5-6.35 kg or 10-14 lbs while in Florida the top weight for a female Bald Eagle would be 6.35 kg or 10 lbs. The males in Alaska are 3.62 -4.9 kg or 8-11 lbs while in Florida they are about 2.7 kg or 6 lbs. The average day for fledging at this nest is 89 days. (The average age for Bald Eagle nestlings in the rest of Alaska to fledge is 80 days). So we have some time yet with Kindness! Terrific.

Thank you so much for joining me. It was great fun with Tiny Little today. If you watch that nest check out Tiny Little’s rather ‘fat’ legs. Tiny Little is growing so much now that there is this notion that Tiny Little is a girl. Maybe we will find out one day. Take care everyone.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: Glacier Gardens Bald Eagle Cam, Cumbrian Wildlife Trust, Scottish Wildlife and Friends of Loch of the Lowes, Dyfi Osprey Project, CarnyX Wild, Fortis Alberta ExShaw Osprey Nest, Fortis Alberta Red Deer Osprey Nest, and Cowlitz PUD,