20-21 March 2022
Correction: Abby and Blazer’s chicks hatched on the 11th and 14th of February not March! Argggh. Thanks, ‘S’.
The atmosphere at the Dale Hollow Lake Bald Eagle nest of River and Obey has been so good for the past 36 hours that, well, I am still smiling and can’t settle down. When that happens I start watching nests!
Mum and Dad met at the nest on the Port Lincoln Osprey barge around 11:49-11:59 on the 21st. How nice it is to see them! They get a chance to rest, relax, and enjoy the quiet. Do you remember how loud Ervie was calling for fish all the time once Bazza and Falky had literally flown the coop? Mum and Dad needed ear plugs!
Xavier and Diamond have been hanging around the scrape box. Xavier brought Diamond a gift – a Starling. Now Diamond doesn’t like Starling but she grabbed it and went flying away ready to enjoy the meal.
Besides those delicious prey drops for Diamond, the couple have been bonding inside the scrape box. Life is good at Orange!
It may be good with no confusion at Orange, Australia but Grinnell has problems! That young female juvenile that brought a pigeon to the ledge of The Campanile just won’t go away. Grinnell and Annie have been mating and Annie has been in the scrape — and Grinnell needs this other female to leave! It is a good thing that Grinnell didn’t let all this female attention go to his head.
Annie is so beautiful. She has been staying close to the scrape today. I sure hope Grinnell brings in some juicy prey for her.
Thunder and Akecheta are ending the day with a very unique way of tandem feeding. Akecheta is passing bites of food for Thunder to feed the Little Baby while he feeds the two big ones. Another brilliant strategy to keep this nest calm and to quiet any inklings of food competition and rivalry.
At the nest of Liberty and Guardian, Guardian has brought in a huge fish. Their first egg pipped 12 hours ago. In the next 12 hours there should be a Bobble head.
Guardian got up to eat some fish but she is not giving away any hints as to the stage of the pip.
Eagle 1 at Redding hatched at 21:14 on the 20th of March!
No hints coming out of Pittsburgh-Hayes either. But, if all is going well, there should be Bobbleheads at both nests by 09:00 tomorrow morning, the 21st of March, the first official day of spring.
Mum and Dad were present when the first chick popped off the top of the egg at Pittsburgh-Hayes. They both stood in awe watching. It was pretty amazing. That chick fully hatched at 08:16 and there is a pip in the second egg. Squint and go right below beak of adult to see that the top if cracked all around.
Welcome both of the new eaglets. Congratulations to Liberty and Guardian at Redding and to Mum and Dad at Pittsburgh-Hayes!
Andy had a nice big fish on the nest at Captiva Ospreys at 07:57:24.
Both ate until their crops were full and there was fish left for Lena! All is well on this nest. Still no official word on the cause of Big’s death.
Wow. Arthur has had most of the incubation duties for Monday morning at the Cornell Red-tail hawk nest. Big Red who normally doesn’t give him much time on the nest got off for her morning break, left Arthur for more than an hour, she returned for a short while and gave Arthur incubation duty back. Fantastic. He is a great mate and really needs to be involved more now that he has proven himself. Also, wouldn’t you get really stiff sitting on eggs all day??
Arthur is such a little cutie.
Big Red is back on deck.
I am writing a separate report on the happenings at Dale Hollow and it should be finished in about two hours. There were some amazing things this morning and it is good to look at them separately.
Thank you for joining me this morning. There is so much happening. Pipping, hatching, fledging or branching. It should be a lively week in Bird World. Oh, and don’t forget about all of the Ospreys returning! Take care everyone. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Redding Bald Eagles, Pix Cam, Cornell Bird Lab RTH, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Cal Falcons, Captiva Ospreys and Window on Wildlife, West End Bald Eagles and the Institute for Wildlife, and Charles Sturt University at Orange Falcon Cam and Cilla Kinross.