Writer, Conservationist, Activist, Bird Lover
5 April 2024
Everyone we can now breathe a big sigh of relief.
The folks at the Tampa Bay Raptor Rescue observed Meadow on the ground and Meadow has now been rescued!
Thank you to ‘H’ for alerting me and to everyone who cared for this beautiful second hatch of Abby and Blaze that got blown off the nest two days ago. This is the best ending we could hope for – other than Meadow being able to get back to its nest.
2 August 2022
Good Morning Everyone! It looks like rain here on the Canadian Prairies – and when finally believe it is coming, the sun pops out. I am heading up north to check on the Ospreys along Lake Winnipeg. Fingers crossed! I may only make it as far as the nature centre.
Just some housekeeping. The NCTC streaming cam on Bella and Smitty’s nest has been hit by lightning. It will be replaced in time but not when the eagles are about. Phillipe Josse posted on the Notre Dame Eagles FB that all of the eaglets were seen flying about on 1 August. Great news. Victor Hurley reminds everyone that the CBD (Central Business District) 367 Collins Street Falcons generally lay their eggs around the end of August. The camera at the Boathouse Osprey nest in Maine is on the blink. I just about had a heart attack when I did not see 3 chicks in the nest yesterday when I went to their stream. Thankfully I finally figured out it was ‘Highlights’. Check in the left bottom corner if you go so the same thing does not happen to you. The word ‘Highlights’ will appear. The situation at the #4 nest in Finland where the mother attacked the youngest on the nest and the fledgling when it returned has calmed. No clear understanding of the reason behind the attacks but the youngest seemed to get the blunt of the wrath. No updates on L4 taken into care. Good news. The one surviving osprey from the Pitkin County Trail Platform (they were pulled off the nest by female caught in nesting material) remains in care at a wildlife rehab centre. The chick is now eating on its own and its feathers are growing in. Great news! That incident happened on 22 June.
Olsen delivered a very large fish on the Osoyoos nest at 1137 on 1 August (Monday). It was the 13th fish of the morning. Large and with its head. Soo fed the chicks til they were so full they could not eat another bite and then she took the fish to the perch where she enjoyed it.
Soo and BC and LC know Olsen is arriving.
Look at that nice fish! Olsen must have found a super spot to fish today even with the heat.
Everyone ate and ate.
After taking the fish up to the perch to eat her portion, Soo returned a nice piece to the nest.
There were more than 13 fish arriving at the nest of Soo and Olsen Monday. Another one came in at 18:58.
The chicks have eaten well and have spent much of the day with one or the other hanging their heads over the rim of the nest scaring the wits out of viewers. All is well!
Soo and Olsen got a bit of a break in the weather. It dropped to 33 today but….sadly another heat dome is coming in a week. Olsen has already delivered fish small fish at these times: 0521:46, 0533:10, 0541:22, 0620:46, 0625:11. A larger fish with head came at 0656:53 with the 7th fish at 0715:06 which was smaller and headless. If you count that is 7 fish by 0715 Tuesday. Olsen, you are amazing.
The good news at The Campanile is that the bonding rituals between Annie and Alden are increasing…and often they are sans Lindsay and Grinnell Jr. How lovely. Stay safe Annie and Alden!
If you did not see my earlier announcement, L4 was taken into care. He was found on the ground unable to fly during the evening of 31 July. Thank you to those who rescued him and took him to the Swanson Wildlife Clinic at Cornell. No updates so far.
Suzanne Arnold Horning caught Big Red, Arthur, and L2 on the campus Monday evening.
It is fledge watch at the Black Stork nest of Karl II and Kaia. Yesterday it was raining which halted any thoughts of flying but, this morning the storklets are jumping around and flapping. Bonus is the oldest at 72 days with the other three at 66, 66, and 63 days.
The camera was off for awhile and it is unknown if they had a feeding or not. Yesterday Kaia brought in 1 feeding, Karl II travelled to the fish basket but it was empty because he went further to try and find fish. His transmitter stopped at 10:01 on 1 August. It is not know what the problem is and everyone is waiting not so patiently to see if data is uploaded today or if he appears at the nest with food. Fingers crossed. These are the only four Black Storklets that I am aware of in Estonia this year to survive.
Andor delivered a fish and Lilibet sure enjoyed it. The top image is the 30th of July.
Then he delivered a fish and no one showed up.
Everyone began to question if Lilibet had left the territory. Lilibet has gone no where! She is around the nest a few minutes ago being quite loud – with what appears to be a nice crop.
Lancer is still calling Two Harbours home and Chase & Cholyn are busy delivering fish. Lancer has earned the name ‘Miss Sassy Pants’ by the Bald Eagle community. She practically tore Chase’s leg off with the delivery. — I am sure Mum and Dad do not mind. She will really be able to stand up for herself when she leaves the safety of the nest area.
The Sydney Sea Eaglets are ‘darling’. Just cute little fluff balls eating and growing. Start watching for the slightest hint of little black dots which are feathers coming in.
It is August and we have another month, perhaps, with Iris at the Hellgate nest in Missoula, Montana. For those unfamiliar, Iris is the oldest unbanded Osprey in the world believed to be 29ish. It is remarkable. Mrs G in the UK is their oldest at 22 years.
Iris spent much time at the nest earlier working and bringing in sticks and she has, on occasion, lately graced us with her beauty. She was there this morning when an intruder arrived. Louis went swiftly over to remove the visitor.
Each of us needs a good rescue story! It gives us faith in ‘humans’.
Dad at the Port Lincoln Osprey Barge seems fine. Bonding taking place!
That is a hop, skip, and a jump around the nests this morning. So far everything seems calm. It is a strange time of year. The US Ospreys are eating and preparing for migration at the end of August or beginning of September. We have eaglets in Sydney and we await the arrival of the eggs for Mum and Dad at the barge and the peregrine falcons at CBD and Orange. I do not know about you but I really need a ‘fix’ of little ospreys. Simply cannot wait.
Thank you for joining me today. Please take care everyone. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cam where I took my screen captures: Montana Osprey Project, Cornell Bird Lab, Osoyoos Ospreys, Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre Sydney Olympic Park, Audubon Explore.org, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, Eagle Club of Estonia and Looduskalender, and Suzanne Arnold Horning for her lovely pictures of Big Red and family.
11 July 2020
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.
Heartbroken
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.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/worlds-oldest-bird-just-turned-70-why-so-special
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.
25 April 2022
The only eaglet of Chase and Cholyn attached itself to Cholyn’s feet/talons this afternoon when she flew off the nest on the cliff at Two Harbours. The chick fell off and is on a ledge down about 10 feet from the nest. That happened around 14:35 nest time.
The eaglet has eaten and is fine but probably frightened. It needs to hang on and stay on that ledge til Dr Sharpe can get there tomorrow!
This is the latest update from Dr Sharpe:
“I’m trying to find someone to help me in the morning (my crew has left the island already). It is too late to try to go out today.”
This is the link to the Two Harbours camera:
Thank you to Explore.org for their streaming cam and to all the staff and Dr Sharpe and the chat mods who have had to keep all of us calm this afternoon. Send your most positive wishes to this wee one. I am so grateful that cliff ledge caught it!
Take care all.
