No more than Daisy laid her 5th egg at 06:32:55 and got comfortable, you could hear the ‘caw’ of the Ravens in the distance. At 07:32:04 those calls are loud!
Daisy is frightened. She knows they are on the branches above her nest. Look at her eye!
There are two Ravens on the nest attacking Daisy! They were relentless.
At 07:39:17 the Ravens are gone. Daisy held them off for 13 minutes. My goodness this little Pacific Black Duck is brave.
Our brave little duck puffed herself up to look larger than she is. She stretched her neck and was fearless in trying to keep the Ravens away from her and those precious five eggs.
It appears that Daisy has thwarted the Ravens for the time being. This is one brave little duck. It is now 08:02 and our little Daisy seems to be alright. I cannot hear any Ravens in the distance only the nectar and plant eating birds of the forest.
Laura Culley has always said that worrying means that the outcome has already established itself, wrongly, in our minds. Still Daisy has a very difficult situation. There was one raven visiting the nest sniffing about on day 4. Two came today. Now the ravens know that there is an egg cup there. What does Daisy do? She has no mate to help her with security. Will she cover the eggs and leave today? We don’t as yet know how many eggs she will lay.
It is 08:09 and I can hear the Rainbow Lorikeets on the nest even though the cam operator is not showing them. Perhaps the Ravens are off elsewhere? For the moment?
Are they trying to tell Daisy something?
Daisy appears relieved, more relaxed, with her friends surrounding her.
The Lorikeets should alert Daisy to the arrival of those birds that would do her or her eggs harm. They are still about Daisy and the tree at 08:20.
I wonder if Daisy tried to lay her eggs elsewhere and predators came and then she rushed on Day 1 to lay her egg in the WBSE nest? It is curious. This might mean that Daisy might not lay any more eggs. I guess time will reveal the answer to that question and to whether or not Daisy can leave the nest during the day without the Ravens consuming her eggs. It has certainly been a harrowing morning for our beautiful Daisy.
At 08:29 Daisy begins to gather leaves. Then she settles back down. Normally she would leave about 2 hours after laying her egg. Today that would be around 08:32. Let’s see if she does.
At 08:35 Daisy rolls eggs and begins to gather leaves. She is still on the eggs at 08:45. Much later than normal.
I will bring updates later tonight or – if everything goes well for Daisy’s eggs the rest of the day – you will not hear from me til Day 6. You can watch Daisy here:
In other Bird World News: If you watched the new Bald Eagle couple, Anna and Louis, at their nest in the Kisatachie National Forest, you will be excited to learn that Anna laid egg 1 for the 2021-22 season on 5 December at 20:44:51. All of the lads were fed at least one fish yesterday at the Port Lincoln Osprey Barge. They continue to thrive. Gabby and Samson have had a sub-adult female on their nest this morning. Gabby escorted her out of the neighborhood! The Bald Eagles at the Wildlife Rescue of Dad County now have three eggs. The female at Berry College has also laid her first egg of the season. Oh, it is going to be really busy towards the end of December and January with all the Bald Eagle eggs hatching.
Thank you for joining me. Please send your most positive energy to our brave little Duck! Take care everyone. Stay safe.
Thank you to the Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre for their streaming cam where I took my screen captures.
You will remember from my earlier posting today that our favourite little duck, Daisy, got home to her nest at 19:03. A couple of hours later and not having any evening contact with the mated pair of White Bellied Sea Eagles, Daisy was relaxing. And then BooBook Owl came and scared the wits out of her. She did not leave her nest but she got in defensive posture ready to protect her nest. At first Boo flew low right over Daisy on the nest. It is 20:51:40.
In the image below, Boo is nothing more than a blur as she flies directly over the centre of the big sea eagle nest. She is so close that she almost touches Daisy when she does the fly through.
The blur of BooBook Owl.
Daisy immediately gets into defensive posture. Boo circles the nest flying around the branches, going round and round. It keeps Daisy attentive and moving with the small owl. She always wants to know where the owl is. At 21:06:35 Boo lands on one of the small branches up near the top right corner of the image below. You can see the legs on the branch but not clearly. Look carefully. The left leg appears lighter than the right.
Defensive posture.Boo moves closer down the branch to have a good look at Daisy.
BooBook Owl finally decides to sit closer to Daisy. Now you can see the eyes, the beak and the left leg along with the little owl’s body.
Boo is a nuisance to our Daisy, right now. She is also curious about this little duck in the sea eagle nest. Boo is used to bumping into the eagles in the night often injuring Lady’s eye. Boo is especially aggressive when she has her own nest of babies, November-December, and would love it if she could harass the sea eagles enough to get them to leave the forest. Fat chance on that happening!
BooBook Owl courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Boobook is the smallest owl in Australia. Owls are nocturnal so that is why Boo only pesters Daisy after dark. Boo will hunt all kinds of insects and very small mammals such as mice, small bats, and moths. Boo is about 27-36 cm tall or 10-14.5 inches, and weighs only 140-360 grams or 5 ounces to 12.6 ounces. The wings span ranges from 188-261 mm, or 7-10 inches. In comparison, remember that the White-Bellied sea eagle is the largest bird in Australia with a wing span of 2-2.3 metres, standing 80-90 cm tall and weighing 2.5 to 4 kg. Pacific Black Ducks are approximately 54-61 cm or 21 to 24 inches in length and they weigh 1025-1114 grams or 2.25 to 2.4 pounds. Daisy is bigger than Boo but the most important thing for her right now are her precious eggs and their protection. Boo could make a terrible mess and while the little owl does eat insects and bats along with mice, it might also be interested in Daisy’s eggs.
The sea eagles did not show up this morning. They were at Goat Island and it was raining and windy. Daisy’s morning was, as posted earlier, rather uneventful til she starting listening and raising her neck listening to the vocalizations from the other birds in the forest.
At 9:29 the ravens arrive. You cannot see them but Daisy heard them coming and knows they are about on the nest tree. The little duck immediately goes into a defensive posture. Notice, in the image below, how she has fanned out her tail and she has her feathers puffed up. This makes her look larger.
The Unkindness stay for approximately twenty minutes. Daisy moved as they did, just like she did when Boo was on the nest tree. She always kept her head tucked, her tail fanned, and her other feathers puffed.
As the day wore on, there were periodic showers on the nest. Daisy did some housekeeping, moving leaves closer to the nest in case she needed them for cover.
By noon, Daisy was relaxed and ready to take a wee bit of a rest. She tucks her bill in under her wing for warmth. Instead of being 40 degrees C like it was two days ago, today it is only in the low 20s with showers. What a change in temperature!
Daisy begins sweeping the leaves toward the nest and tucking the now dry down inside. She is preparing to go foraging. It is 13:58:14. This is quite a bit earlier than the last several days.
Daisy has camouflaged her nest well. In with the fluffy down are some leaves and twigs.
Leaves and twigs help hide the nest.
It is now 16:04 and Daisy has not returned to the nest. She often returns around 19:00 or 20:00 right before dusk but when she has left this early she has come back around 16:45. One day Dad had arrived and she had to abort her landing on the nest to avoid him seeing her. I wonder when she will come home today?
Thank you so much for joining Daisy and her adventures in the big sea eagles nest!
Thank you to Sea Eagle cam, Birdlife Australia, and the Discovery Centre for providing the cameras where I did my screen captures.
Before I bring all of you up to date on our cute little duck, Daisy, Daisy wants to thank everyone from Canada, the US, Australia, and all the people from Poland who are concerned about her and come to check on how her day has been going. The last 20 hours have been anxious ones for Daisy.
Zanim opowiem wam wszystkim o naszej uroczej małej kaczce, Daisy, Daisy chce podziękować wszystkim z Kanady, Stanów Zjednoczonych, Australii i wszystkim ludziom z Polski, którzy się o nią martwią i przyjeżdżają sprawdzić, jak minął jej dzień. jechałem. Ostatnie 20 godzin było niespokojnych dla Daisy.
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It had been so hot on the nest, with the temperature rising to 36 C, that Daisy took another break, yesterday, at 16:14:38. It had only been four hours since she returned from her last break. The heat is very hard on Daisy. She has lost so much weight and her stores of calcium creating eggs, laying them, and now brooding. And unlike other mated pairs of birds, she has no one to bring her food to the nest or to relieve her. Daisy is all alone. There is no one to even protect her from predators except herself. And the predators are lurking about today.
Daisy sitting in the hot sun before she takes her break.Daisy carefully covers up her nest of eggs with lots of leaves and other plant material.Daisy using her bill to get more leaves to cover her nest.Only a little bit of down is showing!
While Daisy is away dabbling, one of the White Bellied Sea Eagles flies in to check on the nest.
Dad sits on the branch at 20:04:58
WBSE ‘Dad’ looked out all over his territory and waited by the nest right at dusk to see if anyone was there. But no one! You don’t see anyone on the White Bellied Sea Eagle nest, do you?
Daisy was very lucky.
Daisy returned to the nest at 20:15:36. Our little duck might not be a permanent resident of the forest but she has learned how to listen and tell when the big eagles are about. She waited until she was certain that Dad would not be returning. They missed one another by eleven minutes!
Daisy carefully returns to her nest.
The sun had completely gone down by the time Daisy returned to her nest. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that ducks are not smart. So far she has used all of the powers that she has to keep her and her eggs safe. And we have also learned something. Daisy has much better night vision that the sea eagles. In the image above she is carefully returning to her nest. She does not want to drawn any attention to where her eggs are.
There are no visitors to Daisy’s nest during the night. She is awake many times preening or turning her eggs. The sun will be coming up in about half an hour.
Daisy is awake on her nest at 15:53.
It is going to be 40 degrees in Homebush Bay, Australia where the duck nest in the Ironbark Tree is located. I wonder if Daisy will go out to forage and cool down before dawn?
Daisy thinks she has heard something in the forest.
Daisy decided against going out to forage. But at 5:50 am, she raises her neck. She has heard something!
Daisy has a split second to get off her eggs before the Sea Eagle lands on the nest! In the image below you can see her flying directly off the eggs to get out of the way of danger.
Daisy flies directly off the nest and out of the tree.
Daisy had no time to cover up her eggs. The White Bellied Sea Eagle lands just as Daisy clears the big branch. It is 5:50 am.
Daisy had to leave the eggs uncovered,
The White Bellied Sea Eagle walks over to check on the nest and look around.
First of the sea eagles lands and looks around.
In a few minutes the second White Bellied Sea Eagle comes to the nest in the old Ironbark Tree. In unison, they both look down at the eggs.
For some time, the sea eagles have appeared utterly confused by what is happening in their nest. Who has laid these eggs? Where are they? Who are they?
I often wonder if they think it is a bigger bird trying to take over their territory. There is, of course, no concern that a tiny little duck would want to do that.
Utterly confused.
Both of the sea eagles look like they are talking to themselves. One of my friends thinks that this could be a very funny conversation between Dad and Lady with Dad trying to explain to Lady that he has nothing to do with these eggs.
WBSE look like they are having a confab.
Once again, the White Bellied Sea Eagles do not disturb the nest. They are curious about the intruder into their territory but they do not appear to be hostile to the eggs. It is all quite interesting.
For a few minutes both of them are on one of the branches of the big Ironbark Tree. You can barely make out one on the branch that cuts through the middle of the right hand side of the image.
Sea Eagles stay on the tree watching.
At 5:57 the sea eagles do the second of what is known as the ‘duet’. It is a morning greeting for the sun. At the same time it is also a sound they make when they are defending their territory. It is a series of honks.
Lady leaves at 6:11 but Dad stays on the branch for at least another hour. Meanwhile, Daisy eggs are exposed. It is 21.8 degrees C.
Exposed duck eggs.
Daisy returns at 7:50:11 and once again is very careful when she gets on her nest. She has no more than relaxed and she begins to hear a commotion in the forest coming towards the nest tree. She raises her head to listen carefully.
Daisy listens to see who is coming.
Daisy listens very careful. It is the Ravens. The Unkindness comes to the tree at 7:58:06. They are cawing and Daisy is afraid. She fans out her feathers to not only make herself look larger than she is but also to protect her nest. Just like raptors protect their food, mantling.
Daisy stays still. You can see one raven on the top right.
The ravens leave after about ten minutes returning in half an hour to harass Daisy again. They want her to get off her eggs so they can eat them! Daisy remains still turning in the nest so that she can always see where the ravens are.
Whew! In the period of two and a half hours, Daisy has been frightened off her nest by the WBSE and has had two visits by the Ravens. It is getting hotter and hotter for our little duck. She is going to have to come and go often today if she is to stay cool. The humidity is 98% and the temperature is climbing steadily up to 40. Right now the nest is in the shade. It is nearly 11 am and maybe Daisy will now have a quiet day. The Ravens and the WBSE should be trying to find a spot to stay cool for the day.
I have checked with a person who knows about eggs. The Ironbark Tree is a very deep and wide tree. It actually holds the heat. Daisy’s nest is right in the middle. Even though she did not get to cover her nest and despite the fact that it was only 21 or 22 degrees C then, it is thought that the down and the warmth from the WBSE nest would have kept the eggs sufficiently warm. This is Day 15 of incubation. Let us hope so! The individual that told me about the temperature said that they were worried if the eggs got too hot from being exposed to direct sunlight. We learn something every day!
Thank you for joining Daisy. She hopes to have a nice quiet albeit hot day in the Sydney Olympic Park forest. I will provide an update if anything should happen in about six or seven hours. Otherwise Daisy and I will see you tomorrow. Good night. Stay safe!
