It happened shortly after the Bald Eagle took the second osplet from the Cowlitz PUD nest. It returned for the third and last of the 2022 chicks.
There is something so terribly sad about seeing an Osprey couple doing well and then in the blink of an eye – three times over – to loose the eggs that they incubated for over a month, the chicks that had been fed and brooded. All gone.
We will never know if the couple had any experience dealing with intruders before – like this. We will never know if the Mum had stayed on the nest would the Osplets have been saved? or might Mum have been injured?
It has been a very sad week in Osprey world. The three osplets – older than the ones at Cowlitz starved because of other Osprey intruders – at the Cape Henlopen State Park nest in Delaware that might have killed the male and injured the female. The third hatch at the Loch of the Lowes was starved and then attacked and killed by the eldest. The third hatch at Loch Arkaig got its foot caught and couldn’t get under Dorcha and was out in the cold rain and died of hypothermia. The third hatch died at Llyn Brenig. It could not get out of the nest cup to eat. All so very, very sad.
Let us all hope that the tragedies at the nests are over.
My sincere condolences go out to the entire Cowlitz PUD family – the Ospreys and all the people behind the scenes that made it possible for us to watch their lives – the good and the bad.
My heart goes out to the wee chicks. Fly high little ones, fly high.
Wednesday came with some surprises – each of them involving a Bald Eagle. A Bald Eagle visited the Cape Henlopen State Park Osprey Nest for starters.
The way the eagle looked over and down at the nest it appeared that it understood ‘something’ had happened. The eagle did not stay long but it was a surprise to many seeing it on the Osprey nest.
Of course, the second incident with a Bald Eagle was the predation of one of the three osplets at the Cowlitz PUD nest by an eagle. Compared to former years this nest was doing really, really well this year. I believed that the youngest was to the right of Mum when she was feeding with the Middle to the left and Big behind. I have seen mention that it was the youngest taken elsewhere so it is unclear if it was Little or Middle Bob. Regardless this is very sad, indeed.
One reader ‘L’ wondered if the Bald Eagle might have been after the fish that Mum brought to the nest and was feeding the chicks.
The third is the ongoing raising of the hawklet by the Eagle family on Gabriola Island just off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. That is one very lucky little hawklet. It arrived on the nest on 4 June as a prey item and by that evening was being cared for and brooded by the female eagle. It looks like it is going to be a good outcome just like the Sydney nest in 2017!
GROWLS just got the funds for the streaming cam last year – and what an interesting first year it has turned out to be.
The hawklet is flapping its wings – the eaglet has also fed the hawklet so it has been fully adopted into the family. In an online discussion yesterday, Christian Sasse does not believe that the hawklet’s life is in any danger because there is plenty of food for the eagles in the area.
@GROWLS
Ferris Akel had a wonderful tour of the Cornell campus last night. It was purposefully to see Big Red, Arthur and the four hawks. He found every one of them! It is nice to be able to share some images with you.
I believe this to be L1. She was the only fledgling not on the nest but was out hunting – or sitting and watching from a lovely pine. Isn’t she gorgeous? A mini-Big Red with that amazing necklace.
Arthur was moving about. He had been with Big Red on the Bradfield Building (where they sleep on the ledge) and then moved to one of the light stands. Both parents were actively watching the Ls from a distance.
Of course, not all of the family cooperated with the lighting situation for the camera!
L4 was a sleepy baby. He kept nodding off. What a little cutie. I will never ever forget this wee babe clamouring over its big siblings to get right up front to eat. L4 was fearless!
L4 has not fledged. L2 just flew onto the nest joining L4. It seems that everyone is encouraging L4 to fledge today! We will see. It has been rainy and mention of a storm system moving in makes me want L4 to stay put. 🙂
What is with the Ls loving to run up and down the rails? This is L4 last evening around 19:30.
Like L4 at Cornell, Sky is the only eaglet not to have fledged at the West End nest of Thunder and Akecheta. Here he is doing a great job of hovering. Will they both fledge today?
Harriet (E1) at the MN-DNR nest of Nancy (and Harry) is now branching.
It is hard to see little Love and Peace in the Glacier Gardens nest of Liberty and Freedom. They are both still there and they are both fuzzy – sweet. Mum has a dirty beak from aerating that nest!
Osplets watching Idris as he takes off after delivering a fish to Telyn for their lunch.
Have you noticed that some of the Ospreys are leaving the greenery growing in the nests this year? It is thought to help against predation (supposedly). The lovely Mrs G and her three osplets at the Glaslyn nest – they have quite a bit of grass growing around the sides of the nest cup.
Dylan loves Brown Trout. Today at 12:12 he delivered a whole on to Seren and the three Bobs at the Llyn Clywedog nest. He didn’t even take a single bite! Oh, the family is going to love that fish.
Poor Dorcha. The wind and rain only let up for awhile it seens at the Loch Arkaig nest in Scotland. Thankfully Louis is a good fisher. The surviving two Bobs are doing well it would appear despite the cold and wet.
There has been continuing concern over the Loch of the Lowes Osprey nest of Laddie LM12 and Blue NC0. Laddie has only been bringing in twiddlers – tiny snack fish. The question was – what is going on? Some felt that Laddie had another eye injury. At any rate, we can take a breath for the moment. He brought in a substantial fish and the chicks and Mum got to eat. Well done Laddie.
Three gorgeous osplets at the Foulshaw Moss nest of White YW and Blue 35 are growing and getting those beautiful juvenile feathers. All three are almost identical in size, too!
Blue 33 is a great provider. He arrived at the nest and there was already a fish there that Maya was feeding the trio – so he had a nice lunch himself. Well deserved for sure! I have never gone to sleep at night worrying about this nest.
It looks like the two wee surviving Bobs at the Llyn Brenig nest are doing alright. Positive energy for continuing growth and success for Mr and Mrs AX6 and family.
Both up at the front of the nest looking off to the world beyond.
Wow! One of the Bobs at the Poole Harbour nest of CJ7 and Blue 22 has grown enough for us to see it!!!!!!!!! Yes.
So far, the food deliveries at the ND-LEEF Bald Eagle nest have alluded Little Bit 17. I am hoping – beyond hope – that prey arrives at the nest and our third hatch gets some food. Send positive wishes please.
The three storklets in the care of Dr Madis Leivits in Estonia are doing great. While everyone would prefer that they could have been raised successfully in the wild by a single parent, it was not possible. The three surviving storklets continue to thrive at the Vet College. Mum has been put back in place and the wee ones can sense when fish are coming! Have a look.
And here is their lunch today!
Here is their latest feeding – a few hours after lunch.
The two Eastern Imperial Eaglets ate side by side – . Fantastic. I always worry about the Golden Eagles and the Imperial ones because of siblicide. Both of these chicks look good. The feeding is quite pleasant.
Bernd-Ulrich Meyburg wrote a paper titled, “Sibling aggression and mortality amongst nesting eagles” in 2008. In that paper he states, “In certain eagle species it is not the availability of food that effects the chances of survival but the interval between hatching. If the interval between hatching is short, the second chick can develop normally and fledge.” The two below are closer in size and it is hoped that they will both thrive and fledge.
We are two days into fledge watch at the scrape of Annie and Alden in The Campanile on the campus of UCalifornia-Berkeley. Cal Falcons have provided another great growth chart on their FB page.
We continue to have some fledge watches at various nests and lots of wishes for prey items to land on the ND-LEEF nest.
Take care everyone. Thank you so much for joining me today. See you tomorrow.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams, videos, and/or FB pages where I took my screen captures: Liz M, Cape Henlopen State Park Ospreys, GROWLS, Ferris Akel Tours, Cornell Bird Lab RTH, Explore.org and the Institute for Wildlife Studies, MN-DNR, Glacier Gardens, Dyfi Osprey Project, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, CarnyXWild, Friends of Loch Arkaig, People’s Post Code Lotttery, and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Friends of Loch of the Lowes and the Woodland Trust, Cumbrian Wildlife Trust, LRWT, Llyn Brenig, Edith P, Eagle Club of Estonia, and Cal Falcons.
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,
