Tag Archives: Legacy is saved by Fortis linemen

Wednesday in Ospreyland

The camera at the Foulshaw Moss Osprey nest has been down or going on and off today so it has been hard to follow what has been happening on the nest. I was able to get some shots for you with two different fish. We know some of Tiny Little’s behaviour and this might help us predict what will happen. When Tiny Little is hungry he is going to be a pest until he gets some fish. In the afternoon on the nest, around 15:40, Tiny Little was on the nest with White YW and Blue 462.

Blue 462 has the fish in its beak. White YW is to the right of 462. Tiny Little is behind 462. You cannot see her.

Ah, there is 463 looking out off the nest maybe day dreaming of fledging? White YW is cleaning his beak and 462 is tucked into the fish. Tiny Little doesn’t seem interested.

Dad has left and Tiny Little continues to look off to the hills and mountains. Tiny Little is acting peculiar. At times he appears to be preening and at other times you might think he is hiding a small piece of fish. At any rate, whatever is going on, he does not seem hungry or interested at all in the fish that Blue 462 is eating.

Once he turned around and looked.

Then Tiny Little goes back to preening.

A fish was delivered for the late snack around 20:00. All three of the chicks are on the nest. It is so nice to see them together and to know they are all safe. 464 has the first go at the fish while 462 looks on anxiously.

Tiny Little is laying down duckling style just watching what is going on. Tiny Little learned a long time ago to let 464 finish before moving in. 462 is standing there, head down watching and waiting for their turn. Tiny Little has no problem getting up to try and eat or take the fish from 462 — but not 464!

462 could not have been that hungry. It ate and if you look carefully you will see that most of the fish is left on the nest to the left of the chick at the rear. 462 does a couple of beak swipes and flies off.

462 moves in to have some fish before Tiny Little can get there. Tiny is still playing duckling.

Tiny gets up and does the usual trying to distract the older sibling. He is now working on nest renovations and moving twigs about.

Then Tiny Little goes and stands by 462 next to the object of desire – that fish! They are both busy watching something. Maybe it is 462 flying about. I bet Tiny Little is hoping it is Blue 35 coming to take that fish and feed her like yesterday.

They both follow whoever is flying for a long time their heads and eyes moving in unison for the most part.

Tiny does a pretty fantastic ‘ps’ at 20:18.

And then he moves right back over by Blue 462 eyeing that fish.

Sadly, I cannot confirm what happened. But if yesterday was any indication, Tiny Little is eventually going to get some of that fish. Maybe Blue 35 will fly in and take over and feed Tiny Little or will Tiny Little get the fish herself? Fingers crossed the camera comes on again to solve the mystery.

At the Dyfi Osprey Nest, Idris was on his perch while Telyn was feeding Ystwyth on the nest.

Later both Dysynni and Ystwyth were on the nest together. Aren’t they adorable? Ystwyth should be fledging soon.

LM 2 was on the nest alone at Loch of the Lowes earlier. Is she watching her mother or Laddie or NC0? That is truly a gorgeous place to have an Osprey nest.

My Scottish friends can correct me but I am thinking that there is not a lot of fishing equipment debris to get into the Osprey nest making the nests in the UK safer than most in North America where the lakes and rivers have many power boats and weekend fishers.

Over at Clywedog, Only Bob loves to eat. Telyn and Only Bob are looking up to the skies at 17:13.

At 17:13:59 Dylan lands on the nest with dinner for the family.

Only Bob moves up so that he can watch how Dad eats the head of the fish.

Only Bob also knows that Dad loves to feed his chick! Dylan spends some time feeding Only Bob before turning it over to Seren who is waiting patiently in the wings. She would like some fish, too.

Only Bob waits for mom to have a few bites before she feeds the rest to him. You are really a very ‘big’ boy, Only Bob.

If you have been watching the nest of Iiris and Ivo in Estonia, their first hatch fledged. Here is that moment:

And with all the attention on Tiny Little, these three beauties of Richmond and Rosie, have all fledged. Aren’t they gorgeous. Richmond could probably handle a nest of four. Very few Osprey males can.

Many of you will have read that when the three chicks were banded, the measurements indicated that they were all boys. But…for the very first time in the history of the nest, the measurements were wrong. DNA testing shows that Poppy ZP and VZ Lupine are females and WR Sage is the only boy. Goodness they were wrong.

Rosie migrates but Richmond doesn’t. He stays around the San Francisco Bay area all year round. He will take very good care of these babies once Rosie leaves and he will be waiting for Rosie to return around Valentine’s Day!

Here is a really cute video of the two girls doing a tug of war with a fish. This was yesterday.

Ah, Legacy at the Fortis Red Deer Nest is snuggling up with mom to keep cool as she serves as a mombrella from the sun. That sky is so hazy from all of the fires. It travels all the way – the smoke – to Manitoba and can make breathing difficult. I wonder what impact the smoke has on these chicks?

It looks like the smoke from the wild fires is also making it hazy at the Fortis Exshaw Nest. Little ones are also trying to get in some of the shade provided by mom.

It is such a contrast to see the Osprey nests in Alberta, Montana, Florida, and California with those in the United Kingdom. It has given me a lot of pause to think about the trash that makes its way into the Osprey nests such as the baling twine that has been killing the chicks up in Montana.

I could not get back on the Cumbria Wildlife Osprey cam but Blue 35 will not let Tiny Little go to bed without some fish. He was so full in the middle of the afternoon that he wasn’t wanting any so maybe he really has had enough already. Either way he will be fine. Growing like a bad weed that one – and surely with those big sturdy legs he is a she.

Thank you for joining me. I am in the midst of planning a trip to Overflowing River in Manitoba to go and see the Ospreys that come to our province to breed during the summer. There will be lots of images for you I hope – but this is not happening for a couple of weeks. Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: SF Bay Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Friends of Loch of the Lowes, Dyfi Osprey Project, CarnyX Wild and the Clywedog Osprey Nest, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the Foulshaw Moss Osprey Nest, Fortis Alberta Red Deer Osprey Cam, and Fortis Alberta Exshaw Osprey Cam.

Monday Nest Hopping – to keep my mind off Elsa

There were some lovely letters in my inbox today – articles and quesions – to keep me busy and to try and curtail me from checking on Tropical Storm Elsa every half hour. My friend Wicky – lover of books and hawks as long as they leave her songbirds alone – pointed my noise to an article in The New York Times by Margaret Renkl. Renkl is the author of Late Migrations, a fabulous book that I pick up often to simply read a single entry. Today in “Hawk. Lizard. Mole. Human”, Renkl speaks to the garden that she can see out her windows. She says, “How lucky I am to live in a home with windows. Against all odds – the encroachments of construction companies and lawn services and exterminators – those windows still open onto a world that stubbornly insists on remaining wild”.

Here is the link. I hope that you can open it. Renkl is a wonderful writer always leaving me appreciative of her love of our feathered friends and – others. Thank you, Wicky.

Like Renkl, I am grateful for my windows and astonished at what happens in a tiny bit of paradise inside the heat and concrete of a big and growing city. The birds have returned to the garden after the extreme heat. It is simply glorious seeing them splash around in the baths, having drinks, and sneaking off with some birdseed that looks like trail mix. The Blue Jays love the cashews and the berries and have gone through the large berry-insect-suet cylinder in a few days. There seem to be fewer insects every year. Is it the spraying of the caterpillars who eat the leaves off the trees? the greening of the lawns so that they look like they came out of a magazine, or the opposite where concrete is replacing grass? What are the birds to eat? Thankfully a growing number of people are willing to put the time and effort into helping them survive.

A lovely note came in from Finland, also, telling me about the ten Osprey nests. Thank you Tiny Toefan! I admit to not knowing enough about the Finnish nests but tonight while that storm is churning through the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida I am going to begin my education on these Ospreys. I want to learn more about them so I am just not an occasional observer. Tiny Toefan says that their Ospreys had a bit of a sad year. The attack of the Raven at the Satakunta Nest and the death of Alma spread quickly within the community of Osprey Lovers around the world. Our hearts broke for that dear family. Intruders, lack of food, and weather-related events have wrecked havoc with all the Ospreys this year.

Speaking of intruders, the UK nests are having issues with the returning two year old juveniles. They are all excited and flying about while the adults are trying to take care of their chicks that will soon be fledging. Today there were three intruders at the Glaslyn nest. All hatched at the Dyfi Nest. Z2 (Aeron, 2017) has chicks on the PC nest with 01 at Glaslyn. He quickly moved Hesgyn KA3 (2019) and Dinas KS6 (2018) along before they could do any lasting damage. Here is a video clip of all that action:

There were intruders at Foulshaw Moss Nest also. While watching Tiny Little get ready to stand up, in a quarter of a blink he was flat down like a pancake. For a moment I thought he had broken his leg – but, no – somewhere there were unwanted guests.

Did the adults teach them to do this? or is this 65 million year old instinct at work?

My friend, “R” also wrote today to tell me of another bird in the wrong place. It begs to ask how many instances of birds being where they shouldn’t are there? There is a Stellar’s Eagle in New Brunswick, Canada that should be in Russia and there were definitely birds out of location in Toronto earlier in the season.

The bird in England is a beautiful Black-browned Albatross. It should not be in the Northern Hemisphere! Imagine what a sight it was for those in Britain. I will follow up later on this story with more information. Thank you, “R”.

Here is the article. If it won’t open, try to copy and paste the URL in your browser. What in the world is this bird doing in England!?

https://www.thisisthecoast.co.uk/news/local-news/rare-albatross-sighting-on-yorkshire-coast/?fbclid=IwAR2lu8erfI5wv_J-I0gGdUvcJ2YM35wipWkXornJDTVtlAdiUgMs372NWRQ

In a swing through the Osprey nests, Tiny Tot is not on the Achieva Osprey Nest. She came in during the night and then left. The fireworks for the 4th must have been really disturbing to all the Osprey in that area. I am going to hope that Tiny Tot is down by the water catching fish to hold her until Elsa passes. She might also be looking for a place to hunker down til the storm passes. Again, because she is a fish eater and not an insect or nectar eater, Tiny Tot should be alright. It is the wind and flying debris if it gets bad. Well, it is worrisome. We can all image a hundred scenarios. I continue to run Laura Culley’s advice in my head – “worrying is nothing more than establishing an outcome in your mind before it happens. Don’t do it!” Need to put that mantra on repeat. Culley would tell me that these birds are much smarter than we are.

Electra has a huge fish that she is eating on the Cowlitz PUD Nest. It is good to see her eating well. She needs to regain her strength. On the other hand, it also makes me very sad. It would have been grand if that size of a fish came on that nest when the little tykes were alive. It might have made all the difference.

Give a shout out to the linemen of Fortis Alberta and to the streaming cam watchers who notified them that Legacy was tangled in monofilament line. They got there in time and saved her life. Legacy was so wound up in the line that she could not even lift her head to eat – and this was during the heat wave. She needed that hydration! The linemen responded to the call quickly. They removed the fishing line as well as the two dead chicks from the nest. Today, just look at her. Legacy is chowing down on a nice fish on the Fortis Red Deer Nest. There are still dark clouds but the rain has stopped and the nest seems to be drying out. That said the forecast is calling for rain tomorrow. The temperatures are in the 17 degree C range, a far cry from the extreme 40s C.

The two chicks on the Fortis Exshaw Nest at Canmore, Alberta seem to be doing alright, also. They are both being fed by mom. The skies are the same as those at Red Deer but they are calling for a thunderstorm tonight and rain tomorrow at the nest. Oh, stay dry little ones!

There seems to be a constant stream of intruders on the Hellgate Osprey Nest of Iris. It is prime real estate right next to the river and the fishing continues, despite the heat and low water, to be good for Iris. Louis has come and helped ward off the Dunrovin juveniles looking for a nest but sometimes, Iris has had to fend for herself The indignity of it all!

There are not enough good trees for the Ospreys and the placement of platforms has to be carefully evaluated because of all the territorial issues. It is confusing. On the one hand old timers tell me that Ospreys do not have territories but if you watch, Louis certainly claims this nest and the one at the baseball park as his even if he fishes in the same river as the other Ospreys. As more male chicks survive and return, careful planning will need to be undertaken for nests – if the water in the rivers and the fish stay sufficient to support a growing population of these fish eagles.

The predictions for Elsa are becoming more worrisome. Each change in the model sees it bearing down more heavily along that Southwest coast of Florida including Fort Myers up to St Petersburg. Please send any warm wishes you have that the system pulls more to the West as it heads towards Florida after Cuba.

Thank you for joining me today. Stay safe wherever you are and thank you to everyone who writes to me. I do try and get to answer your letters as quickly as I can and please know that I appreciate them. I learn something new every day from you! And thank you to all of you for simply loving the birds and doing what you can to make their lives better.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I grab my screen shots: Fortis Exshaw, Fortis Alberta, and the Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the Foulshaw Moss Osprey Cam.