There are some very interesting developments going on in Estonia with the Black Storklings of Jan and Janika. On the 18th of June, Jan fed the storklings one time. He has not found the feeding pond, dug especially for him, with the decoy of Janika but, a Blue Heron has!
After dark, Urmas and a helper delivered a pail of fresh fish for the three storklings. You can see the pail that he is holding and all of the fish that have been poured onto the nest. Urmas was hoping to clean up the old fish with a branch but he did not because it could harm the storklings or the storklings might bite him. Everyone is doing an amazing job to make sure that these three rare Black Storklings will live and fledge! I cannot imagine another thing that Urmas and his team could possibly do for these beautiful young birds. Thank you Urmas!
After Urmas has left, the storklings went back to sleeping. They will wake up to a fine meal.
Grafs has delivered two feedings to his storklings at the Siguldas Latvian nest. They were so hungry and so glad to see him for the second feeding. We can only continue to hope that a miracle happens and Grafs finds the feeder with all of the little fish. This nest is not stable like the one in Estonia so no one can climb with a pail of fish and deliver them.
In stark contrast, Malin, the Osprey in the Collins Marsh Osprey Nest has a crop that is so big that it looks like it could pop. I have seriously lost track of all the feedings today, the size of the fish, and what might have been left from last night.
This Osprey chick has not seen so much food in its entire life! His system has adjusted to eating more fish. Originally, Malin would eat and then stop before he had a crop. Now he eats and eats as much as he can.
Marsha has flown in and is feeding an already full Malin that fish that was on the nest.
A few minutes ago, around 4:20 nest time, Malin still has his crop and Mom is looking pretty good, too. I wish there was someway to measure Malin. He looks like he is twice as big as he was at the beginning of the month with much more feather development.
By the size of the feet most people would say Malin is a little male. I know when the banders ringed Tiny Little on the Foulshaw Moss nest they could not tell if Blue 463 was a male or female. That was because of the lack of food. And that is precisely the problem with Malin – a lack of food might trick us. Malin could be a female but my ten cents worth is on a small very handsome male.
Don’t you just love how those wing feathers are crossing over the tail? This chick has been such a worry but it feels like that anxiety is all gone. Let us hope that the good feedings keep up for all three of the birds – Marsha, Collins, and little Malin. We want them healthy for their migration.
Ha, ha. My friend, S, in Hawaii just sent this picture to me – the one below. She is calling it the ‘Battle of the Bulges’. ‘My crop is bigger than your crop!’ Too funny. It is so nice to be able to relax and laugh. For so long we thought Malin was doomed but wow. I wish this kind of happiness for the Black Stork nests.
There is something troubling brewing. EC from France has posted images on FB of the fire, now four days old, burning the Massif des Maures in France. It is a huge mountain range. This is the worst fire in that area in 20 years he reports.
The fire is in the area with the red teardrop marker.
Here is the map showing the two main routes of the European birds. You will see on the top left that the birds from the UK normally fly over France, through Spain and across the Straits of Gibraltar and then the Sahara and Atlas Mountains. This is an extremely challenging journey. If they stay west in France, they will miss the fires currently burning at Massif des Maures. The good news is they should. The Eastern routing through Turkey and Greece still has major fires burning and is causing much difficulty. You can see how the arrows in the dark green – from The Netherlands to Latvia and Estonia converge and go through both Greece and Turkey to reach Africa.
We are told that the heat we are experiencing will now not go away. I hope that if that is the case our birds make adjustments to their schedules.
Some quick news from other nests:
NC0 is still feeding her fledglings at the Loch of the Lowes. LR2 snagged a really nice fish delivery from mom. So this is one female who has not started her migration.
Idris has been feeding Dyssni and Yestwyth at the Dyfi Nest in Wales today. Telyn has been seen so she has not left on her migration despite earlier reports that she might have.
All three chicks were on the Foulshaw Moss Nest. It looked like 464 had snagged the fish delivery with the other two waiting to see what happened. I have not seen Blue 35 and I do not know if she has departed or is just allowing White YW to do the feeding duties while she fattens up for migration.
Maya was caught on camera at the Rutland Manton Bay nest yesterday. Will continue to monitor her whereabouts. Both chicks, 095 and 096, are at Rutland.
There is our beautiful albeit somewhat grumpy looking Tiny Little on the right. It was nearing 7pm at the nest. Her crop looks good. Gosh she is a big bird! That look reminds me of Mrs G. So stern. That also makes me think she is a female!
It is always nice to see Tiny Little with a crop! And that is a good place to close for today. I hope everyone is keeping well. Sending off prayers and warm wishes to the nests and people in Latvia and Estonia and to the birds trying to make their way to their winter homes.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: The Cumbrian Wildlife Trust and the Foulshaw Moss Osprey Nest, The Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Loch of the Lowes, Collins Marsh Osprey Nest, The Eagle Club of Estonia, The Latvian Fund for Wildlife.