Tag Archives: Hog Island Eagles

3 year old eagle returns to natal nest while Sloop decides to fly…or not

16 August 2022

Sometimes events are so heart warming that they need to be spread throughout the community. Sitting on a perch as I write is a 2019 hatch of the Two Harbours nest and Mama Cruz. Trey is the female eagle’s name because she was the third to hatch. She survived her migrations to return to the Channel Islands as a three year old! Just splendid.

My goodness even moulting she is gorgeous. A survivor. When you look at this three year old eagle be amazed. As we know most simply do not make it to their first birthday.

The Channel Islands eagles have graced us with their beauty in the past few days – Lancer at Two Harbours, and Thunder and Akecheta at the West End. Andor and Mama Cruz and now Trey.

Remember that the research tells us that it is the males that return to their natal nests. Well, this is a female! I hope that Victor’s natal nest GPS coordinates are hard wired into his system so that no matter where he is released, we will see him on this same perch in 3 years time.

In Canada we are familiar with Spunky, the Red-tail hawklet raised by the Bald Eagles in Sydney, British Columbia. This year it was Malala’s turn – another Red-tail Hawk – to be raised by Bald Eagles along with their chick,, Junior, on Gabriola Island, British Columbia. Well there was, at the same time, on the other side of the US, another Red-tail Hawk being raised by a Bald Eagle family in New Jersey.

Here is the story:

A New Jersey First: Hawk Raised by Eagles

It would seem that the raising of a hawklet on an eagle nest might not be as rare as we think.

A note from ‘H’ came flying across my computer screen. It is about Sloop, the third hatch at the Boathouse who has not fledged. He made his way up to the high perch and it would appear that he is afraid to come down. ‘H’ says Dory has been trying to lure him down with a fish. He has now not eaten since 1230 — and we know that Sloop loves his fish.

Sloop has now been joined by a sibling.

I have a great fear of heights and have so much empathy with our dear Sloop who has been up on that perch for almost 7 hours! Poor thing. The water looks calm and he can fly —– he just does not know it.

‘B’ gave me an idea. I am going to send Stephen Basly and Doreen Taylor snail mail thank you cards to St Patrick’s Park. I am certain they know them well – from all of us. It has been such a treat to be able to see Little Bit 17. So grateful for their efforts.

Thank you so much for joining me. Send good energy and a gentle wind to our dear Sloop in the morning. After his huge meal yesterday he will not starve. Remember in the wild eagles can go for days without eating and he had some crop. Yesterday he was too full to fly.

Speaking of crops…one last image. SE30 is the one on the right. No words needed. Take care everyone.

A New Jersey First: Hawk Raised by Eagles

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or posts where I took my screen captures: Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre Sydney Olympic Park, Audubon Explore, Bald Eagles 101, Explore and the IWS.

Late Monday news in Bird World

25 July 2022

Oh, I hope that you had a good day wherever you are. Everything ‘seems’ to be fine in Bird World.

The rain has started pouring down – just a couple of minutes ago. Before that the three every-growing-larger Crow juveniles were having fun in the Bird Bath, eating their sandwiches and peanuts along with Dyson, the Blue Jays, and a host of sparrows. Dyson has to have a nest somewhere. She has a very short tail and I was told that she would line the nest with the fur. She is ‘quite large at the back end’ my daughter responded when she saw her. Baby squirrels soon? We hope. Lots and lots of peanuts were put out so everyone had plenty.

I just checked on the Osoyoos Osprey nest. I could not see the time stamps but Olsen apparently brought in at least one large fish to Soo today! There was an early one and one later and maybe some in between. The chatters were happy.

The smallest eaglet on the White-bellied Sea Eagles nest, SE30, needs a shampoo. There is fish juice stuck to all of the soft down on the top of its head. You can easily identify who is 30 and who is 29. 29 is also bigger. That extra day surely makes a difference at this stage. I stayed with the feeding to make sure that 30 got fish and it did! Lady tried 29 and its beak was closed and 30 moved to the other side for bites.

I am always asked if the female Ospreys bring fish to the nests. Oh, yes, they do! They normally do not do this until well after the chicks have fledged unless there is a need (for example, the male disappears or the fish deliveries are not enough). Rosie brought Brooks a nice piece of fish today. Brooks has been doing a lot of flight training.

Blue 33 landed at 17:52 with a really large fish – including the head. Two of the female fledglings had been on the nest fish calling to Dad when the third flew in wanting any leftovers on the Manton Bay nest.

It was delightful seeing all three girls on the nest and Dad. It is always nice to ‘see’ that everything is going to plan. It is not often you catch them on the nest and all seems well.

That is such a nice fish. I wish that Soo could have just one that size for her and the Osprey chicks in Osoyoos every day. What a difference it would make in their development.

Watching Osprey and Eagle families is very educational. You do not appreciate the necessity for good plentiful food until you have seen a nest suffer from lack of prey with stress lines in the feathers of the chicks and babies dying from starvation. It is the same with human animals.

There are so many Osprey nests and Daisy and Duke at the Barnegat Light nest have fallen off the radar. There the two surviving osplets are – goodness, full plumage – ready to go! (The third was accidentally pulled out of the nest cup at a very young age and died).

Every year I remember a friend telling me that if I really loved the plumage of the Red-tail hawk juveniles then just wait til I saw the fledgling Sea Eagles! But…I know we all have our favourites – there is nothing for me that can improve on the plumage of the fledgling Ospreys. I think they are much more beautiful than their parents! And wish they did not have to change. I would say the same for the Sea Eagles – juvenile sea eagles with their creams, golds, coppers, browns are smashingly beautiful.

The three osplets of Dory and Skiff are simpy adorable. They line up nicely for dinner and no one seems to want to cause the other any big problems. They are now standing and learning how to walk on their feet instead of their knees.

Oh, just look. Kissed by the peach at the nape of the neck and on the ends of the feathers with that dark eye line. How many young women wish they could get their eyeliner to look like that?

Dory did a great job – a big shout out – for this first time Mum. Skiff did, too!

The camera at Two Harbours in the Channel Islands panned around and caught one of the adults perched. Then they did nice close ups of Lancer waiting for a fish!

Lancer waiting patiently at time for a fish delivery – until she sees an adult and she really lets them know she is hungry!!!!!!!!!!

At the West End, Thunder was out on the Lookout Rock. Yesterday Akecheta brought Kana’kini a fish on the natal nest. I did not see any of the juveniles today. Did you?

At Fraser Point, Lilibet was on the perch and then on the nest eating a small piece of prey. Gosh, she’s gorgeous.

Ah, if you go to the Glacier Gardens Eagle nest and re-wind you can find spots where the camera does not have moisture on the lens. Peace and Love are getting big and they have been working their wings! I did notice that the rain has caused them to look a little ‘rough’. They will fluff back up quickly.

It is gently raining at the Big Bear Valley nest of Shadow and Jackie. Gosh it looks lonely without Spirit and her parents. Did you know that this is the one of the highest Bald Eagle nest in the US? The nest itself is 44 metres or 145 ‘ up in a Jeffrey Pine. The elevation is, however, 2164 metres or 7100 ft.

This is just a hop, skip, and jump through a small number of the nests we are watching. The nest of concern remains Osoyoos and it is doing well today. Fingers crossed and positive wishes for tomorrow and the next day. Thank you so much for joining me. It is such a nice change when the news is all good. Thank you so much for joining me. Please take care of yourselves. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their FB posts and streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Osoyoos Ospreys, SF Bay Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, Friends of Big Bear Valley, Glacier Gardens, Explore.org and the IWS, Explore Audubon, Barnegat Light Ospreys, Sydney Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre, Sydney Olympic Park, and LRWT.