Gosh, golly. We have a countdown clock to the arrival of the ospreys in the UK now. Big Red and Arthur are busy at the nest, and there could be eggs in two to three weeks. There are second eggs being laid at the Bald Eagle nests, and it just seems that everything is happening at once. Older eaglets are branching and will be fledging soon.
We are having a ‘yellow alert’ today, which means that winds are blowing up to 100 kph, with the main highway around Winnipeg closed. The ‘red’ lines indicate closed roads.
Ann and Don have gone to The Leaf to be inside with the koi and butterflies. It allowed me and Toby time to remove an old rug, lay down a new one and put the old one in the library area near the woodstove. These rugs cause a negative and a positive. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels love to run and play – the zoomies are incredible. But they tend to ‘slide’ on hardwood and dislocate bones. So carpets are a must – wall-to-wall carpet would be best. I cannot even imagine the amount of cat and dog hair that would attract. Don, on the other hand, cannot afford to get caught and trip and fall. This means they have to be taped down securely. Gosh, golly.
Meanwhile, the animals in the garden are thinking it is spring. We predict that the number of red squirrels might grow this spring!!!!!!!!
Let’s check on some of our Bird World news.
The eaglets at the Sutton Centre have beautiful names!
At Decorah North, Mr North has not been seen for three days at the time of writing this post. It appears that the UM has won the battle for the territory. Mr North was last seen favouring a foot and wing. Many of us adore him, and I hope that he is alright and will find another home. I am going to assume he is ‘missing’, and I am not putting him on the Memorial Wall as yet. He could be resting up to return for another day and another battle.
The owners of the Winter Park nest have selected names. Windows to Wildlife writes:’ “Thank you to everyone for submitting names for the eaglets. We had over 1,200 submissions. The landowners have chosen the following names! WPE1- Brutus, WPE2 – Peanut.”
I missed it. We have two eggs at the ND-LEEF nest!
Donations. I have been talking about donations recently because everyone is finding life challenging. There is, however, a campaign to raise millions – 10 million to be exact – to save the land around the nest of Jackie and Shadow. Here is the information. Please note that this post addresses fraudulent individuals soliciting funds and provides the only donation link. So if you do have a fiver – maybe this is the place to send it!
Note this is on the donation page if you are wondering: “Donate today. The donations made on this site will go directly to the purchase of the property and not to Friends of Big Bear Valley. FOBBV is managing the fundraiser only. All donations are tax deductible. Tax ID # 33-0700417“
Due to the limitations set out under the streaming cam, I cannot include images of Jackie and Shadow at their nest.
That is one lucky eaglet at Duke Farms. Dad Eagle continues to bring in the most amazing prey for Mum and Baby.
Thank you so much for being with us today. Please take care. We will be back with you again on Monday.
Thank you to the individuals who created videos, posted notices on FB, created websites for donations for Jackie and Shadow’s region, and the owners of the video cams that allow us to see the lives of these amazing birds. I am grateful to each of you.
It is late Monday evening in Canada, and it is 14 degrees C. as I begin thinking about Tuesday’s blog. The difference in time between Canada and Australia means that I am going to bed when all of the action starts. I am very grateful to those readers who send me time stamps and information about the nests in case I missed it! So thank you.
Tomorrow promises to be another beautiful fall day. I would love to send a break in the rain to the Mum and Dad at Port Lincoln so they could get those three osplets fed. Part of the big fish was returned to the nest after Dad removed it. ‘A’ reports that Middle appears to be the only one to have had anything to eat; the other two desperately wanted to stay warm and dry. Melbourne will be getting the rain tomorrow and it looks as if it could continue at Port Lincoln for most of the week Xavier and Diamond’s wee eyas will be quite dry in the covered scrape at Orange. Eyes are on the WBSE nest in the Sydney Olympic Park as it gets towards midnight in Canada. Will 30 fly while I am sleeping?
What does a Possum Merino beanie have to do with birds?
Well, it turns out that the beanie is sold at the Royal Albatross Centre on Taiaroa Head, New Zealand to fund the activities taking place on the headland. When you begin to think of donations or purchases, do keep the Royal Albatross in mind! Of course, like all the centres, they have more items for sale than beanies. That said, this beanie is the softest one I own and it is going to keep my head snug and warm when I am out birding in the winter here in Canada.
Everyone continues to be worried about Lena and Andy, their new platform and camera and, Lori Covert’s property. This is the latest announcement from Window to Wildlife with a satellite image of the nest on the left after Hurricane Ian and on the right, before the hurricane hit.
Wales is planning to increase areas of peatland to help biodiversity and to save species. After sitting in the grass near one of my city’s ponds this morning watching a Greater Yellowlegs, it is reassuring that countries are working hard to bring back conditions so that lovely shorebirds have a chance at survival.
There was a really informative programme (short) on the monitoring of the goshawks in Scotland. You can read about it or watch it if you have the BBC Player app.
The osplets were cold when Dad came with a fish at 16:23. Look at Little Bob all curled up. I so feel for the chicks when the weather is wet and miserble. They cannot yet regulate their temperature til they get all of that thermal down covering them from tip to talon.
If you are having trouble finding Little Bob, all of his soft down on the head is gone and he now looks like he dipped it into oil over the afternoon! I am so grateful that these three behave themselves when it is feeding time. This is a big, big help. Often the older ones do not allow the younger to eat at all until they are finished. Not the case here. Fantastic.
‘A’ tells me that Mum looked around for scraps for Little Bob after this feeding. He was still fish calling.
At Port Lincoln Dad came to the nest with a small much-needed fish at 19:14. It will be good for them to have fish in their tummies overnight. Gosh, those osplets lined up nicely but, each anxious for some fish. It looks like Little Bob certainly did get his share and did not get shut out by the big ones.
They all had nice little crops at the end of the feeding. Mum got right back on top of all of them – a great way to stop any dust ups and also it is cold and windy. These three need to stay super dry and warm.
So thankful Mum and the kids had some fish before bed. Mum had been screaming at Dad to get a fish on the nest. This one was not large but the osplets got fed. They would have liked more. It will be a long night and Mum is as hungry as the chicks. In fact, she is probably hungrier. Rain will start at 1100 on the 5th in Orange so hopefully, Dad will bring in a couple of nice big fish before then so that the family is stuffed to the gills as the rain drops fall later in the day.
It is, of course, the opposite problem at Orange right now but, they do not have any rain. Only Bob is enjoying the life of a single chick, nicely spoiled with plenty of food and no one to share it with but, Diamond. You might have noticed that Diamond does eat her share! Two extremely devoted parents sharing the life of their only chick. It is beautiful.
It does not appear that that either of the other two eggs have a pip. How long will Diamond continue to incubate them? Good question. Some will do so for 2-4 weeks. Many of you will remember the Dunrovin Osprey nest this summer where the eggs were incubated almost the entire summer with no hope of hatching. Shadow at Big Bear once incubated eggs for 60 days! They did not hatch. The little one will use the ‘eggies’ to prop on and, sometimes, in the case of the eagle nests anyway, the chicks actually incubate the eggs, too! Spirit did that with ‘eggie’ at Big Bear this year and Legacy at Northeast Florida became so attached to ‘eggie’ that people thought she would need a backpack so she could take the egg when she fledged. Samson, ultimately hid, it. It will be fun to watch to see what this little one does with those two extra egss.
Just look at the size of that little one!
Upside down roly-poly baby!
Here is a cute video with a good look at Xavier and Diamond’s chick.
There are reports coming out of Orange that Xavier and Diamond’s stash has been located. Many believed it was in the trees that you can see if you are watching the ledge cam but, it turns out the stash is on top of the tower. My goodness! Thanks, ‘A’ for that wonderful bit of news.
There is so much food coming to the 367 Collins Street scrape. This Dad keeps that pantry – at the opposite end of the ledge we think – full of nicely prepared pigeons. The four eyases are fed regularly and are growing like bad weeds. I so wish the camera was a little closer so you could see the change in their feathering. At least one of them is beginning to look like ‘bug eyed and thin necked’ as its plumage begins to change. There is nothing stopping this Dad from taking part in the lives of the eyases either. He has perfected feeding them but, because of his smaller size, still has some trouble getting them all under him for brooding.
The feedings at Collins Street generally last a full half hour. The top image is Mum brooding the eyases.
Mum has gone for a break and Dad is doing the feeding. He watched and learned.
Each eyas had a nice hard little crop after the long feeding.
Dad tries to brood them. Here comes Mum after she had a nice tea time and a bit of a rest.
Bye, Dad!
Mum feeding them again. They could hardly have been hungry but no one is going to go without on this nest. This couple have created perfect handovers and feedings. Just imagine how worried we were a fortnight ago? We can put that all aside now!
To my knowledge, SE30 still has not fledged. SE29 takes small flights and, so far, has been returning to the nest. I had been worried that SE29 was getting all of the fish deliveries as rewards for returning to the nest but, SE30 managed to get its talons on a delivery from Lady in the middle of the afternoon yesterday. SE29 flew in as 30 was trying to unzip the fish. No fights. No skirmishes. Totally civil.
It was really nice to see SE29 get that fish!
SE29 has just arrived on the nest. Look at Lady. She watches everything her eaglets do – she is looking at how well or not SE30 is self-feeding.
At one point, Dad flew in and both Lady and Dad were honking at the Currawongs. Yes, they want to keep them away from the nest and their eaglets. Sometimes I wish that the Sea Eagles actually ate the Pied Currawongs. Maybe then they would not bother this nest so much!
The chicks were more interested in the fish than the Curras.
Lady gave 30 plenty of time with the fish. SE29 did not come and take it over but wanted some fish and Lady has decided to feed both of them. I wonder how much longer she will get to enjoy her babies???
Thank you so much for being with me this morning. Everyone in Australia is sound asleep. Now the weather app has rain starting at Port Lincoln at 1000. It is going to rain all day at the Sea Eagles nest and it will start raining at 0900 in Melbourne. Horrid days for keeping warm and dry and — for staying in the nest and not flying. Diamond and chick will be fine. They are nicely covered! Take care everyone. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and posts that make up my screen captures: Royal Albatross FB Group NZ, Window to Wildlife, Port Lincoln Ospreys, 367 Collins Street by Mirvac, Charles Sturt Falcon Cam, and Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre Sydney Olympic Park.
There was an article, “It’s Not That Hard to Buy Nothing” in the New York Times today about Elizabeth Chai who, at the end of 2019, before the pandemic, made a resolution “she would not buy anything in 2020, with the exception of food, coffee, toiletries (if she ran out of something essential) and the occasional service like a haircut. She would resist the urge to add to her wardrobe or to buy anything material for her home.” At the same time, she also vowed to sell 2,020 items. These actions were inspired by Chai wanting to live a more sustainable life.
Chai, of course, would not have known that the pandemic would happen and that everyone’s lives would be turned upside down. Even so, she continued with her plan to donate or sell things that she no longer needed or wanted. She came up with a plan. If there was something she wanted, she would put that item on a list and if, at the end of the year, she still wanted it, she would treat herself. She said she learned, “…temptations fade surprisingly fast.”
2020 was an exceptional year for many of us. Like Ms Chai, I spent my time at home. I was teaching my very last university class while researching and writing about the environmental impact of ceramics. At the same time I began to understand more fully the human impact on non-humans and it upset me. Greta Thunberg says that we can each have a profound difference – I hope so.
So for 2021 I will use Ms Chai’s example. Like her, I have lived within the walls of my home and over time have noticed what I need and how many things I have accumulated over time. I will not purchase any new clothes or shoes, no material objects for my home, and no new toiletries until I completely run out of items. At the same time, I plan to begin selling off my ceramics collection and my books. Monies raised from the sale of books will be donated to help wildlife in need.
Stay tuned and wish me luck! Ms Chai said that she felt so good about living in a scaled down environment and donating things. She also realized how much money she saved by simply not buying. She had a fantastic idea. Maybe you would like to join me in my pledge to now buy anything new in 2021.
NOTE: The Shino fluted bowl is by Warren Mackenzie and it might be the first vessel to be sold. I am looking at two commercial galleries to manage the pieces that I have.
