LR1 at Loch of the Lowes fledged! Only one more to go for NC0 and Laddie (LM12). Here is the big moment:
John Williams has been trying to figure out where Dylan is getting his nice trout for the Lyn Clywedog Nest. Today, our sleuth detective, reports that an unringed male was seen leaving Nant y Moch Reservoir at 9:55 carrying a fish. The bird was flying in the direction of Llyn Clywedog. Williams watched the streaming cam and sure enough Dylan landed 25 minutes later with a trout on the nest for the Only Bob. I am certain Seren Blue5F was pleased too.
We know that Dylan is going to go as the crow flies – straight from Nanty-y-Moch Reservoir to Clywedog. But, wow. That is a good distance to travel for trout! Apparently there are too many people fishing for trout at the end of the Clywedog Reservoir and that could be the reason he is travelling so far. I am in awe.
Here is Seren Blue 5F feeding Only Bob that lovely fish:
I wanted to bring Blue 5F up today so you can see how well she is doing on this nest at Clywedogs with Dylan. Look at that lovely chick! I had a fantastic conversation with Tiger Mozone late last night. We talked about all things Osprey but one thing that Tiger mentioned early on is that Ospreys are not bonded to one another for life. It might appear that way and you have read over and over that they “bond for life”. Tiger had so many examples that it made perfect sense that they do not. So here is the thing with Blue 5F. Blue 5F hatched in Rutland in 2012. Chris Wood regularly sees her at the Tanji Marsh in Africa where she winters. She came to Glaslyn in 2015.
Aran, the mate of Mrs G, took a liking to Blue 5F and they mated in 2015. Eggs were laid on the Traeth Glaslyn Nest but as the Glaslyn Osprey News notes, “once the chicks hatched on the Glaslyn Nest he gradually lost interest” in Blue 5F and the future of their eggs. According to Glaslyn records and Tiger this went on for four years! I really hope right about now you are thinking about Iris and Louis. But, Blue 5F decided she didn’t like that arrangement so, she left! And she found the nest at Llyn Clwedog in 2020 where she is quite happy. Last year her and Dylan raised three male chicks to fledge when his regular mate did not return. This year they have the Only Bob! Give the girl a hand of applause! The entire issue of Aran and Blue 5F brought in discussions of how close nest platforms should be to one another. It might well be that they want to look into this again at Glaslyn. I am not entirely sure that the blue banded bird after Aran at the Cob was not Z2 Aeron from the Pont Croesor Nest. Time will tell if Aeron Z2 is trying to take over the Glaslyn territory.
Alan Poole, the author of Ospreys. The Revival of a Global Raptor did a 45 minute YouTube talk with nice visuals on Ospreys. It is definitely worth watching – you will learn something. You can stop and start!
Thanks for stopping in. I hope that you have a lovely weekend. Take the time to listen to Alan Poole’s talk. I think you will really enjoy it.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams: Llyn Clywedog and Carnyx Wildlife. Thanks to Tiger for the great conversation and to John Williams for tracking the travels of the trout!
Everyone that watches the Achieva Osprey Nest in St Petersburg, Florida is following the tracking of Tropical Storm Elsa. The latest weather news is that Elsa will remain a Tropical Storm bringing heavy rain, thunderstorms and tornadoes, and some wind to Florida. The current tracking has Elsa interacting with Jamaica and that is slowing her down. She will speed up a bit as she hits the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Elsa is not expected to intensify to hurricane status.
The good news for Tiny Tot and the Achieva Nest is that the current model shows the intensity off the west coast of Florida (but it could shift). Elsa will be trying to make landfall North of Tampa early Wednesday morning. I pulled the following model shots off of the weather broadcast in the area. The white thicker arc line on the left is the current believed path that Elsa will take. That could shift, however, and be anywhere in the area between it and the darker blue arch line.
This is Elsa at 11 am EDT. You can see the strongest area is right over Kingston, Jamaica.
I will continue to follow Elsa and report as we get closer to the beginning of the week with more certainty as to how the storm will impact St. Petersburg.
The last time I checked on Tiny Tot was 1:54 nest time and she was there fish begging hoping Jack would hear her and bring some lunch in. I do not believe Tiny Tot has had any fish yet today. She had a nice fish at 6:47 last night.
I checked on the Fortis Exshaw Osprey Nest in Canmore, Alberta. There was a fish delivery at 9:30 this morning and both of the surviving chicks were eating. Last night one of them had an enormous crop. So this nest is bucking the trend and has 2 survivors and 1 dead from the heat. Indeed, last night I thought we might have lost 2 but this morning there were two little heads eating.
The top image is last evening. You can see that huge crop on the little one.
This was right after the fish delivery on Sunday morning around 9:30.
There were two heads clearly seen in the image below. Well done Exshaw!
Kindness just gets cuter every day. This is Sunday morning in the Glacier Gardens Bald Eagle Nest in Juneau, Alaska. Talk about one very much loved eaglet. Her parents Freedom and Liberty really take good care of her.
It looks like it is the end of the season at the Newfoundland Power Osprey Nest, sadly. We know that the oldest chick got on top of the little one hatching. Mom tried to pull the bigger one off by its legs and both died. There was one remaining egg. That egg now seems to be broken and abandoned. If I am reading this wrong, please let me know.
Tiny Little Bob continues to rebuild the Foulshaw Moss Nest. It is interesting that he is also finding pieces of dry fish there that must be yummy. Tiny Little isn’t sharing with Big Sister when he does find a piece!
It is still wet up at the Loch of the Lowes. Laddie delivered an evening fish and got out of that nest fast! There was quite the scramble. NC0 will try and feed the Bobs so everyone gets something. Sadly, it was a bit of a twiddler that was delivered so it won’t go far.
News out of Australia. Mom and Dad at the Port Lincoln Osprey Barge have been mating and Mom is feverishly working on nest restorations. Mom is watching dad eating a fish not far away and wondering why he isn’t sharing and hasn’t been helping her! With all the twigs in and now the soft lining…it won’t be long!
Last year’s first hatch, Solly, returned to Streaky Bay and then went right back to Eba Anchorage. It appears that this might be where Solly is making her permanent home. Thanks to the satellite tracker her every move is monitored! Solly is doing well. That is excellent news.
News coming out of New Brunswick, Canada. A rare Stellar’s Sea Eagle – not seen in Canada – but in Russia – is in Canada on the Restigouche River! Have a read:
And while I would like to leave us on a happy note, another Osprey was found entangled in monofilament fishing line in an Osprey Nest in Alberta and had to be detangled. Please, please, if you fish be responsible. Don’t fish where you know your line is going to get caught up and broken in underwater tree trunks leaving line and hook to harm the wildlife. Thank you.
Thank you for joining me today. Take care all. For those of you celebrating 4 July – have a happy one.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I grabbed my screen shots: Achieva Credit Union, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Friends of Loch of the Lowes, Cumbrian Wildlife Trust and the Foulshaw Moss Osprey Cam, Newfoundland Power Corporation, Fortis Alberta, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, Port Lincoln FB Page, Glacier Gardens Bald Eagle Cam, and Channel Two Weather News.
Juvenile Osprey Blue 096 has fledged from the Rutland Manton Bay Nest of Maya and Blue 33 (11). It happened at 12:12:27 pm.
He looks up.
Wings begin flapping. Blue 095 goes, “oh, not this again! This nest is getting too small for flapping. I wish you would just go away!”
He’s on tippy toes and grabs the wind and…
Blue 096, male chick of Maya and Blue 33 (11) fledges on 1 July 2021.
Jack delivers a breakfish to Tiny Tot this morning. Oh, thank goodness! It is 28 degrees C and the weather service says there is a 40% of a thunderstorm around 5pm in St Petersburg, Florida. Thanks, Jack!
By 9:29 Tiny Tot will have that fish out of dad’s talons and she will be saying ‘Yum’.
There were, to my knowledge no fish deliveries to Tiny last evening. She was really waiting and watching for dad. Turns out it is a small headless fish, a bit of a teaser for our gal who chowed down on that whopper the other day, this morning.
Look at those magnificent wings. Tiny, you are such a gorgeous bird!
Well, one of those nests that I suggested you watch when others get stressful just turned up the noise. Lady Hawk posted a video of the Royal Cam chick going to visit her neighbor SSTrig and the neighbour gets into a big territorial dispute. Taiki is very social and meant no harm but we now know there won’t be any afternoon tea parties with these two. Here is that video:
There is great news coming out of New Zealand. Remember I love this country for the way in which it takes care of its wildlife. Well, today, New Zealand announced that it is putting surveillance cameras on all of its fishing boats to make sure that they comply with safe fishing so that no seabirds are caught as bycatch. Way to go New Zealand!
The landscape at the Glaslyn Nest of Mrs G and Aran in Wales is stunningly beautiful. I admit to dreaming of trees and places where you can look out and see birds and not the concrete of the city. Of sitting and smelling the wet grass and hay and not the petrol fumes of cars. Of disappearing into the wilderness.
Aran and Mrs G are spending more and more time together. Aran is able to fish after his injury in early June but he is still healing. There will be no more chicks this year but the couple was seen bonding. That is fantastic!
Aran brought in a big fish earlier that he was eating. I wonder if he shared it with Mrs G who now has a nice chunk and the tail in her talons. He has provided at least one fish to her that was caught on camera which is a great indication of Aran’s continuing progress in healing.
The two Bobs at the Dyfi Osprey Nest in Wales are enjoying a lovely fish that Idris delivered. Telyn is a fantastic mom but that nest is getting a little crowded. She may have to stand on the rails to feed her babies soon. These two are growing like crazy! You might remember that Dysynni, the male, is the largest male Osprey born on this nest ever. Idris has really brought in some of the large fish. It has been determined that many of those fish actually weigh more than Idris – breaking another myth that Ospreys can only carry a % of their actual weight.
It also demonstrates how much food and the quantity of it matter to the health and well being of the chicks. This is the nest of a super dad – as are many of those in Wales and other parts of the UK.
Meanwhile, over in Scotland, the two Bobs on the Loch of the Lowes nest are waiting for NC0 or Laddie to bring them in a tea time fish. Gosh these Bobs are beautiful. The time has flown by and they will soon be hovering and fledging but, in those very first days, I really wondered if Bob 2 would survive the bonking from Bob 1.
And goodness, I woke up this morning and had to look twice to figure out which of the chicks on the Foulshaw Moss Nest of White YW and Blue 35 was Tiny Little Bob! Which one do you think is Tiny Little?
If you said the one closest to the right looking out, you would be right. She or he is watching for one of the parents to arrive with a fish! As noted from the people who ringed the chicks, they could not determine the gender of Tiny Little from the measurements because of its small size at the time. Rumours had gone around that Tiny Little is, in fact, a female.
Today, the Cumbrian Wildlife Trust put out their announcement about the ringing of these three Ospreys. Part of the celebration is that Tiny Little was the 100th osprey chick to be banded in Cumbria since 2001. That is amazing. Here is part of the text that was posted:
“I’m incredibly pleased that we have ringed another three osprey chicks at Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve this year. For a time we we’re unsure if the smallest chick was going to make it. It was rapidly being outgrown by its bigger siblings but it carried on fighting for its share of the food from mum and dad. Now there’s not much difference in weight – and it was the smallest one that was the 100th osprey chick to be ringed in Cumbria since 2001! Osprey chicks are weighed by the licenced bird ringer and each chick is given a coloured leg ring. This year we have Blue 462, a female weighing 1.6kg, Blue 463 weighing 1.5kg – gender unknown, and Blue 464, a male weighing 1.6kg”.
Paul Waterhouse, Cumbria Wildlife Trust
I wanted to check in on the little Golden Eaglet in Bucovina, Romania. He has changed so much in just a few days. Most of the white feathers are gone and are now replaced with the beautiful dark black kind of espresso coloured ones for the juveniles.
The female has come to the nest to feed the eaglet. There were lots of bones and scraps of meat left on them. It is unclear to me whether or not the mother has brought in new prey or is using what is in the pantry.
You can look and see the remote mountain area where this nest is located. I continue to hope that the parents are able to find enough prey for this little one to thrive and fledge.
Thank you so much for joining me today. I regret I have no images of the Ks for you – maybe later today. They are off exploring the trees and some of the buildings with Big Red and Arthur. Everyone is fine; they are just not around the nest!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I obtained my screen shots: Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Foulshaw Moss Osprey Nest, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Friends of Loch of the Lowes, Achieva Credit Union, Asociatia Wild Bucovina, LRWT and Manton Bay Osprey Nest, Cornell Bird Cam Royal Albatross and NZ DOC, and Dyfi Osprey Projec. I would also like to thank Lady Hawk for her video clip of the territorial dispute between Taiki and SSTrig.
