18 September 2022
Good Evening Everyone,
I am starting this blog early. It is 13:00 Sunday afternoon. Thank you so much for your e-mails and your concern. Your thoughts and warm wishes are welcome and appreciated. I am feeling much better! As I mentioned I am not a good patient so getting well quickly is a must. I decided that I must get this blog out so that you can see the little one at Port Lincoln if you haven’t spent all day staring at the screen.
It is a beautiful sunny day. Earlier there were no clouds not soft blotches like flattened cotton balls are moving in. It is summer temperatures at 24 degrees F and the Crows, the Blue Jays, the Squirrels, and about 100 song birds have invaded the garden. It has been fascinating watching the Blue Jays check the peanuts. They pick them up and shake them – can they tell the best ones? or the shells with two nuts inside instead of one? The real joy is seeing Dyson returning often to eat. I am beginning to wonder if the two ‘new’ additions to the squirrel family are not Dyson’s children? Photos to come tomorrow!
Making the News:
Could a tiny solar backpack save some very endangered birds? There are some scientists that are really hoping they can get some answers. The Plains Wanderer is depending on them!
The article below is about talking to whales but, in the future, it might be titled ‘Talking to Raptors’. To me, Laura Culley, falconer, understands falcons and hawks better than anyone and if you ask her if Big Red and Arthur talk to one another, she will look at your like ‘are you daft? Of course they do!’ Culley will go on to explain that humans are ‘lesser beings’ having not turned on the DNA to fly and we have lost our ability to talk ‘without making a sound’. I suspect she would tell me today that we have lost the chance to keep our own nest clean and refurbished — reminding us all the time of how clean the nests are thanks to the squads of Crows and other birds that come in after the raptors looking for tasty morsels.
Nest News:
Osplet 1 is fully out of the shell and is quite an adorable to the Port Lincoln family. The second chick is working hard. Some worry that Big Bob will be hungry and will have used up his energy reserves. Mum will feed him but, coordinating the hatched and the hatching is difficult – and Dad needs to bring in a fish, too. You can see Dad on the perch waiting for all the kids to arrive.
The egg shell has come loose from the third egg. Very good.
Oh, I wonder if you will be nice to your brothers and sisters.
Our beautiful Mum has to be hungry and tired. She has rarely had a break until now and she has two more chicks to hatch and this lively one to feed. The sunshine makes her pure gold!
The first feeding came at 08:14 but the wee one was ready at 08:11. This little one is strong and just look at how wide it can open its mouth. Incredible.
It looks to me as if there is a pip in the egg on the left and some cracks in the egg on the right. Fingers crossed. This strong first one is going to be a strong force on this nest.
It was a superb first feeding!
The send feeding came just a couple of minutes ago at 09:07.
There are still ospreys at the Boathouse (or Hog Island ) nest in Bremen, Maine. Skiff still delivers a lot of fish to Sloop. Today, however, Sloop had an unlikely encounter with a hungry gull – and sadly, lost his lovely fish.
Dad!!!!!! Dad!!!!!!!!!
No worries, Skiff was in with another one in about an hour but, it was a bit smaller than the one the gull stole. Cheeky thing! How dare that gull take a fish away from a certified fledgling osprey!!!!!!!! Named Sloop. And Sloop you did well. You defended that fish rather nicely.
If we don’t think about the troubles at the Melbourne scrape box, things are going well and as to plan for Xavier and Diamond and the Sydney Sea Eagles. The poor Melbourne Mum is suffering through the commotion and incubating those eggs. We are about a week away.
I hope you enjoy the images of the little one at PLO and Sloop. She is quite the gal. I will be sending my blogs now in the early evening Canada time so that I can get all the day’s news in. Thank you again…Please take care of yourselves. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Audubon Explore.org and Port Lincoln Ospreys.