We are all waiting with Xavier and Diamond for the first (or all) of the eyases to hatch in the scrape box at Orange, Australia. There is, perhaps, a pip. Fingers crossed. BTW. The Peregrine Falcons made it to the final vote in the Australian Bird of the Year. We now wait to see who wins.
The chicks on the Port Lincoln Osprey nest certainly did get another big feed at 16:28. A small fish tail was brought on the nest at 19:57 but everyone had a big crop. Mum got off the nest for a bit a little later. Everyone is great. As I continue to say, all three chicks are doing well and I sure haven’t seen any of the rivalry of past years.
The chicks are still eating the whopper of a fish brought in at 14:49. This is going to really fill them up. It is also late in the day.
Some are still eating at 15:23.
Dad is still on the nest after delivering the 16:28 fish. You can see that the chicks still have large crops from the feeding they just finished.
This fish will really top them off.
There was certainly not a lot of fish left on that tail that Dad brought in. It does not matter. I hope that Mum got some of it. The chicks are definitely full and will be fine til tomorrow.
I am always looking for great videos by the people that advertise for the various camera companies. The reason? Their footage is simply the very, very best. So when I spotted Mark Smith’s video about the migration of the mullet off Florida, I knew there would be some great Osprey images. I would also like to think that our very own Tiny Tot, Achieva Osprey’s miracle third hatch survivor in 2021, might be out there during that annual mullet run filling her crop. Here is the link. It is about 8 minutes long and worth all of it.
Enjoy those wonderful shots of Mark’s.
Thank you for joining me this morning. All of the nestlings in Australia are doing great. I have one last image to leave with you. One of the FB members posted this gorgeous screen shot of the 367 Collins Street Falcon faily. I am reposting it here because it is priceless and a lovely way to leave our blog. Take care everyone.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: the Port Lincoln Osprey Project and the 367 Collins Street FB Page.
Everyone is still waiting for any sign of a pip or a hatch with Xavier and Diamond’s eggs at their scrape box on the water tower on Charles Sturt University at Orange. It is now mid-afternoon on the 7th of October. Diamond has been restless but she sure is not revealing anything to anyone!
Meanwhile the week-old chicks at 367 Collins Street are growing by leaps and bounds. It was really hot today and Mum was a great ‘Mumbrella’ to keep the heat off their pink skin underneath all that white fluffy down. Mom was panting, too.
Those four are really getting stronger too. Each of them can easily sit with their neck held relatively still. It is so much easier for the parents to feed them.
This is Mom feeding.
The baby or the 4th hatch is doing great too. There it is on the right. Their eyes are open wide. Such cuties. Just notice how much of the scrape box they take up today. We will compare this with them next week. It should be interesting.
This is Dad feeding. If you have trouble recognizing them, one of the best ways is to look behind the legs and between the tail. Mum has lots of long dirty feathers from brooding the chicks. Dad doesn’t. Dad has more yellow on the eyes and is, of course, much smaller. But the feathers behind the legs are a giveaway that it is Mum.
The Port Lincoln Osprey Cam was offline for a good part of the early morning. I do not know when the three osplets were fed but each had large crops when the stream returned. I think they must have had a really good feed.
If you are wondering how Little Bob is doing, well that ‘ps’ of his in the image below says it all.
Everyone is waiting for a fish, snoozing in the sunshine of a beautiful Australian afternoon. It is 17 degrees C and the winds are blowing at 16 kph.
The Sydney Sea Eagles are incredibly beautiful. We are getting near and nearer to branching. This nest has been full of wonderful surprises this year, just like the Port Lincoln Osprey Nest.
Lady Hawk did a 5 minute video of some of the cuteness that these two WBSE have gotten into. Have a look:
I took a drive on a very hot day to check out the number of Pelicans and Cormorants still around and to see the geese come into the fields. They begin around 15:00 and continue to dusk.
Manitoba has one-third of North America’s American White Pelicans during the summer season. There are often 100 or more on our Red River near the dam at Lockport Heritage Park. Today, there were only four Pelicans and two Cormorants. There were, however, quite a few Greater Yellow Legs. The birds were back lit and more than a football field away so the images are not as good as I had hoped.
This is a non-breeding immature Greater Yellowlegs.
The Double-crested Cormorant had just landed on the water and was drying off its wings. There were fish jumping and everyone will eat well today, if they already haven’t.
There are always lots of Ring-billed Gulls.
I have one last thing to share with you. Sandhill Cranes. I missed seeing the hundreds of them when they landed south of Winnipeg about a month ago as they began their migration. On Saturday, during Ferris Akel’s tour, he filmed a number of Sandhill Cranes at Montezuma. They are such beautiful birds. He has posted that edited video. Here is the link:
Thank you so much for joining me. I had hoped to have hatch news for you but we wait, just like Xavier does. Take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I take my screen shots: The Port Lincoln Osprey Project, The Falcon Cam at Charles Sturt University at Orange and Cilla Kinross, Sea Eagles @ Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre, and 367 Collins Street Falcons by Mirvac.
I just watched the Dad at the Collins Street Peregrine Falcon scrape trying to feed a huge piece of pigeon to “the four”. He tried several beaks to see if any of them could handle it and then ate some and tried again. Bingo! Then he did it again. Bingo! These two are just amazing – the parents. It is a lot of work to feed 4 instead of the usual 3. I can’t even imagine what it will be like when each one wants their own pigeon! Makes me tired thinking about it.
The eyases are able to eat larger and larger pieces of meat.
Ah, so sweet. Open wide.
Here are some pictures of a beautiful mom a few hours earlier. The eyases have doubled in size. It is getting more difficult to brood them.
Notice how careful Mum is raising her leg to get off of the eyases, turn, and get to the ledge to take a break.
Whew. Oh, just look at how big those the chicks are that are sitting straight. If Victor Hurley could get to the scrape box and weigh and measure the wings of the eyases next week, he might have a good idea which are female and which are male. This, of course, will not happen. He does not wish to disturb them in any way. But a Peregrine Specialist can from those two measurements differentiate between the males and females at that early age. For us, when they are about 24 days old we should be able to tell the males from the females. The females are approximately 50% larger. According to the research, even though the females are so much larger they do not substantially require more food than the males, just about 25% more.
Ah, you will often see them playing with one another’s beaks. Beaks of course mean food! They will not hurt one another. They are much stronger today than they were yesterday and you will continue to see significant growth and strength.
Cutie Pies.
And, yes, all four are there! It is 22 degrees C in Melbourne. That is 71.6 in F. A really nice warm day.
Mom is taking another break. Sometimes if you listen very carefully you can hear Dad calling her. She has to eat, too, and Dad is in charge of filling the pantry. She will often pick up the food for the chicks and bring it to the nest.
You will notice that the parents do not normally leave food in the nest. You will also see Mum eating bits of old food left in the scrape. She doesn’t want to attract insects or anything that could harm the chicks. That level of cleanliness has evolved for millions of years.
Mom has now been gone for 12 minutes (my current screen time). The chicks are nice and toasty stacked up on one another on a beautiful warm Melbourne Day. Rest assured, the adults are not far away. There is someone nearby at all times despite the fact that there really are no predators in the area.
The Port Lincoln Osplets had their first feeding at 9:00:06. It was a really nice fish and very one was stuffed, leaving the table with a nice crop.
Just look at that crop on the chick in the foreground. My goodness. By my reckoning that is Little Bob. He might have had a bit of trouble getting into the right spot yesterday but it certainly looks like he did well this morning.
A half hour later and the chicks are still working on that fish.
Right before 9:30, the fish is completely finished. There is nothing left. One of the older siblings is looking at Mom. You can see their nice crop, too. Little Bob is the one with its head near Mom’s tail.
The second fish of the day arrived on the nest at 12:02. It was entirely consumed and the feeding fished at 12:20. My goodness.
The chicks are all lined up nicely for Mum. Everyone will be fed and the feeding will end with each of the three having a crop. If you are just joining us and are wondering what the word ‘crop’ means, it is like a pre-stomach stomach storage area in raptors. They can ‘drop their crop’ when they need food and energy. It really helps because out in the real world, away from mom and dad feeding them, the birds might not be so successful at fishing or hunting. This way if there is plenty they can eat lots and kind of store it for when there isn’t.
Little Bob is in the middle. You can see the ‘dot’ on his head in the image above and the stripe down his back is not as wide as the two older siblings. The length of the copper-red feathers coming in on the head and neck appears to be the same length now on all three. The tail feathers of the older two are longer.
At the end of the feeding the three were still lined up as they had been. This nest is so civil. Just causes smiles, big ones.
Oh, this has been such a great year to watch. Last year this nest was the one that almost made me stop watching Ospreys altogether. I am mystified but overjoyed. The only explanation is the closeness in the hatch. No one of the osplets is significantly smaller than the other- or the reverse, none is significantly larger than the others. Not like Tapps and Solly. In this instance, Little Bob is also tenacious and has not let Big Bob’s occasional attempts at dominance rattle him in any way.
In this short blog, so far, you have read about two Australian Birds. The Guardian newspaper out of London, UK is holding its voting for Australia’s Bird of the Year. You do not have to be Australian to vote. I will post the link. Please note that the Peregrine Falcon is still in contention! There is no Osprey to vote for but the Galah is still in contention. There are many other birds and you might have a different one you like. It doesn’t cost anything and every day some birds are knocked out of the competition. You can vote every 24 hours til the end. Please take part. It is a bit of fun!
Also mark 9 October on your calendar. That is the big e-Bird count for the fall that helps in understanding where the birds are with regard to migration. Last year Cornell reported that 32,000 people from around the world submitted 80,400 check lists with 7, 128 species observed.
I am certainly curious about this year’s migration because today it was 28 degrees in my City today. That is a temperature that years ago we never even hit in the summer. It has become more normal over the past four years but not digging into October. So please do take part. Here is the information and instructions on how to do so.
It is hatch watch for the Orange Falcons, Xavier and Diamond. Diamond has been letting Xavier do some of the incubating today. I hope she is spending some time enjoying herself in the sun. These two parents are going to be really busy very soon.
Royal Albatross male, OGK, spent the night on Taiaroa Head waiting for his mate YVR to arrive for the 2021-22 breeding season. Oh, he is such a handsome but sweet male. The amount of time and care he gave to his daughter, Miss Pippa Atawhai, when she was the Royal Cam chick a year ago won the hearts and minds of anyone who saw them together. He never rushed when he came to feed her. Always doing more than a few skycalls, OGK would often sit with his chick for long periods of time preening her and chatting. Sometimes he would even sleep!
It will be a joyous occasion when the two are reunited after being apart since before Miss Pippa Atawhai – their daughter and the 2020 Royal Cam Chick – fledged last September. I think OGK is anxious for his sweetie to arrive. Send all the positive wishes for this amazing couple. Maybe the NZ DOC will decide to have OGK and YRK has the Royal parents again this year. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Take care everyone. It is getting late and I want to go and check out my book on duck ID. Thank you for joining me. Stay safe, watch the birds and be joyful! Vote for your favourite Australian bird and be sure to register for the big bird count!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: Port Lincoln Osprey Project, 367 Collins Street Falcons by Mirvac, Falcon Cam at Charles Sturt University in Orange and Cilla Kinross, the Cornell Bird Lab and the NZ DOC.
