Oh, what a day it is going to be. Dorcha, the mate of Louis at the Loch Arkaig nest, arrived home earlier than usual this morning. Aran, who also arrived late in 2025 only to lose his nest to Teifi, has arrived home early and as far as I know, Teifi is no where to be seen. Elen is home waiting for ‘someone’ as hormones leading up to osprey breeding season increase.
Aran arrives at 1005 and leaves returning with a fish around noon.
Aran was always one of my favourites and I hope that Elen gets home and this year there are chicks on the Glaslyn nest once again!
Other arrivals are Blue 647 at Kielder Forest, mate to UV. The terrible weather is bringing in the ospreys to their nests quickly this Easter weekend. (They tell me this bad weather is from Canada – sorry folks).
There is other wonderful news – news that we have waited for and seriously get the tissues. Happiness has arrived for Jackie and Shadow. It sounds cold and windy at Big Bear!
There are always conflicting reports now about Jackie and Shadow. Jackie is really chatting with Shadow, who is on the nest, and you can hear the raven in the background. There is a rumour that egg 1 has almost hatched or has hatched. i cannot independently confirm this and there is nothing on chat or the events sheet other than pip began on the 3rd. At the moment Shadow has brought in a nice fish and is eating it next to Jackie. (new restrictions mean I cannot post images – which I personally think is a huge mistake on the part of the owners of the cam – they are wanting donations to save this nest!)
At 0738:12 you can see the egg is almost completely cracked all the way around! We are going to have a baby at Big Bear soon. Get the tissues, pop the champagne!
Thank you for being with me this morning. It is going to be a gorgeous Saturday on the Canadian prairies. It feels ‘warm’ , but I have not even checked the temperature. We hope to see you again soon with more exciting news from Bird World
Thank you to Geemeff for the video of Dorcha’s arrival, and the news of that arrival along with Aran. Thank you to the owners of the streaming cams for letting us view these amazing birds, and to Jeff Kear and Mary Cheadle at UK Osprey Information for keeping us abreast of new arrivals. To Kielder and Usk Valley, your reports are so valuable – thank you.
Heidi reports that Venice Beach and Golf Course ospreys have their first hatch.
At Lake Murray, Lucy and Newmann have their third egg.
Thank you to ‘VV’ for her keen observations on the Achieva nest and sharing them with us: “First, to answer your Achieva query from blog — I do watch them — I rewound yesterday (3/19) and Jack was feeding Jill fine — 2 deliveries of fish in morning and then an afternoon of sharing a big fish back and forth — Jack brings into nest,Jill takes; Jill returns after eating some, Jack takes; Jack returns with some, Jill takes, etc. Her third time w/ fish on this occasion she finished it off.
However, she seems to be alone in chasing an intruder that I caught a glimpse of yesterday on their nest perch, and the day before (?or day before that?) the intruder was trying to land in nest when she shot off the eggs and chased it.”
Thank you for being with us today on this first day of spring. Toby spent most of the day outside with me. Ann took Don to the zoo. The temperature was 4 C.
We cleaned up some of the winter dirt and mushy snow and rejoiced in the bright sunshine.
Take care.
Thank you so much to the owners of the streaming cams that allow us to see the lives of our favourite birds and to those who post information and videos so that we can learn and enjoy. I am very grateful. Also, thank you to ‘VV’ for the information on Achieva.
It is a gorgeous hot day in Manitoba- ‘sultry’ my mother would have called it. The walk at the nature centre felt like running a marathon inside a steam bath.
Chipmunk waiting to see if anyone had a peanut.
The only birds that were out were the American Goldfinches, the Redwing Blackbirds, the Black-capped Chickadees, and the Yellow Warblers.
American Goldfinch (m) and Black-capped Chickadee at the Nyger Seed Cylinder.Yellow Warbler. Male. Adult.
As I was leaving I spotted the goslings. Oh, they are getting their long necks. The adults had them on a grassy knoll eating. Four adults caring for 4 goslings – it looks like two of the goslings are missing. You can one gosling near the centre with its long neck.
Crows. I learned something today that I want to pass on. If you see a Crow on the ground and it cannot fly, before you rush it off to the wildlife rehab centre, look at its eyes. What colour are they? If they are blue, the one on the ground is a fledgling. The adults have dark black eyes and they will be around watching their little one working its way on the grass. In a couple of weeks it will fly again. Of course, there are predators lurking about, too — feral cats, dogs, etc. Normally the parents will be in a place where they can dive bomb attempts at predation.
Fledgling Crow with Blue Eyes @Liz Henry
I want to give a big shout out to the NZ DOC. Once again they have come to the aid of Royal Cam chick QT with a supplementary feeding to bring her weight up. They are also feeding another chick 6 days a week – its parents have failed to return. Without the supplementary feedings, QT chick would not survive. A single parent simply cannot bring in enough food for these growing offspring. NZ takes really good care of its wildlife. Oh, for other birds to be so lucky. There are serious threats to the Albatross – the most significant are the long line fishing boats. The birds are literally decapitated. Yes, it is horrible. They go after the food on the fishing lines.
Of course, the solutions are very simple and do not cost much, if anything. 1. Instead of baiting the hooks during the day, do it at night! 2. Put sparkly streamer lines on the hook and bait. 3. Put the lines over the side of the vessel instead of at the rear. 4. Put weights on the lines to hold them down so the fish bait and the hooks do not dance on the surface of water. 5. Dye the bait blue and the albatross will never want it.
It is seriously that simple and we would not have to worry. As it stands, one Wandering Albatross is decapitated every five minutes. That species is now vulnerable to extinction.
How can you help? By insisting that the fish you purchase is ethically produced.
Much better images of this adorable chick getting a feeding from her lovely Mum, YRK yesterday.
If you are a fan of the Royal Albatross they will be ringing QT chick on the 29th of July. Remember – that is Australia, a day ahead of North America. She will be ready to fledge in September. I do not have a time for the ringing. When I find out I will let you know.
Llyn Brenig are looking for the names for the two osplets. The local school children have come up with ideas for 2 names for the female and 2 ideas for names for the male. Now it is time to vote. You can only vote by going to the Brenig Osprey Project FB page. You do not have to be a member. Here is the information and just look at those chicks. The camera does not do them justice – not at all. Just look at those white chins and beards and all that peach. Seriously, I wish the adults were this beautiful!
My friend ‘T’ sent me this video link for an event that took place 2 days ago. Thanks ‘T’. I cracked up and couldn’t help but share it with you. It is #3 nest at Saaksilvie in Finland. The back story is that the Mum loves her fish and sometimes eats first before she feeds the chicks and sometimes eats it all and doesn’t bring fish to the chicks (or that was her behaviour last year). You can create your own story about what is going on but be sure to watch the expression on Mum’s face!
Thank you so much for joining me today. Have a lovely evening. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for the streaming cams where I took my screen captures: NZ DOC and Cornell Bird Lab and Brenig Osprey Project.
I am going to start with the ‘Ugly’ so that the ending of this posting can possibly be joyful. Please forgive any typos or grammar today. It has been crazy!
The Dale Hollow nest continues to be quite unsettled. Yesterday morning both of the chicks enjoyed about half an American coot each. They were still filled late in the afternoon. As many of you know the camera was turned away from the nest for some time. It was speculated by many, including me, that River had been digging in the nest and fed Little Bit’s body to Big.
There was, however, an unidentified object on the nest that I have now IDed. I finally put a scope up to view it. Go down to the bottom. Those are the whitish-pink feet and talons of a nestling Bald Eagle. Move up. You can see the wing. The ‘fur’ is the thermal down of an eaglet and it is not Little Bit who did not have her down and was not that big. This object is no longer on the nest. But it is decidedly a nestling eaglet.
Is it possible that the reason the camera was turned away was the delivery of live nestlings to be eaten taken from another nest?
Middle has had nothing to eat since the Coot. There was an unidentifiable object that appeared to be a pelt of some kind brought on and today at 13:24:29 River flew in with what looked like a sheet of dry fish skin. Big clearly wanted to send a message to Middle. “There is only enough for me!” and Big went on the attack before the dried skin landed on the nest.
There needs to be a couple of big fish or another Coot brought on to this nest right away to calm Big’s warpath down! So where are the fish? or the Coot? It is nearly 14:00 – every other Bald Eagle nest had food early this morning!
Update for Dale Hollow: At 14:18:49 a big fish with head is brought on to the nest. The adult begins to feed Big immediately.
Middle is listening and carefully watching. He begins to mov slowly around to the right of the nest rim at 14:26:22.
At that same moment, the adult moves the fish and Big who stopped being fed notices Little and goes on the attack.
Middle is so terrified that once it gets up to the beak of the parent – thankfully they turned to face the rim so it could be on the opposite side – it first refuses. Middle takes its first bite at 14:40:36.
It is extremely difficult to see how much fish – during the feeding – that each of the eaglets got.
At 15:16:07, you can see that Middle has a nice crop. There is also some fish on the nest.
So, Middle has eaten today and that is wonderful. There is enough fish for each of them to have something later but…that will depend on the mood of Big. It is terrifying to the garden birds when Sharpie comes and is successful in its hunting. I cannot image what it would be like to live with something like a ‘hawk’ right in the nest with you. Middle will need to continue watching and listening. He did well today. It was only when the adult moved the fish that Big noticed Middle was moving. If that did not happen, Middle would have quietly gotten up front. Still, after being beaked many times, he moved up to eat. It is wonderful.
I was getting ready to close and well, Middle gets the ‘Gold Star’ of the day. It quietly went up to one of the two pieces of fish and began self-feeding. Not the full blown self-feeding we think of but it was holding the tail piece down and getting fish. Big had no idea what was going on!
River has flown in to feed both of the eaglets the remaining fish. Big did beak and tower over Middle because it was already up there ready to eat.
It did, later, get some of the fish.
Middle has a nice crop and has moved away from the feeding area.
At the Dulles Greenaway Bald Eagle nest, Martin has been fishing. He brought in another big one for Rosa’s pantry with several on the nest! This little one is never going to have to worry about being hungry.
Martin took time to feed Rosa some of the fresh fish before the baby was fed. Sweet.
No one is going to mess with the three eaglets at the West End nest of Akecheta and Thunder. Dad is doing a great job shading the babies from the hot California sun today.
For those of you who might have missed it, Big Red and Arthur now have 4 eggs on their Cornell University campus nest. Four. The newest egg was laid at 12:17:40.
Here is the link to Big Red and Arthur’s camera, one of only two RTH cams:
My first and continuing loves were hawks and falcons. While Big Red was laying that 4th egg, Annie was spending an awful lot of time in the scrape box. In fact, it is 13:47 in Berkley California and Annie is still there. She first arrived at 07:39 staying until 10:18. She returned for a really quick visit at 11:06 returning at 12:40. She has been in the scrape since then.
If you have not watched Peregrine Falcons raise their chicks, I highly recommend that you do. You will learn a lot and can compare them to the bigger raptors.
Congratulations to Harry and Nancy at the MN DNR nest. Their first egg hatched yesterday. Poor Nancy was soaked to the skin but she kept those eggs and that baby warm and dry. This is a really beautiful couple. Here is the video.
This is today. You can just see the one fur ball. Harry was an amazing day last year at the age of 4. Looking forward to this season. Just hope the rain and cold will blow away!
‘B’ sent me a note while I was out shopping for birdseed. R1 at the WRDC nest flew back into the nest at 13:10. Thanks ‘B’. I would have missed it. This is wonderful news.
If you are looking for the eagle cam link at the Miami Zoo, here it is:
E19 has been enjoying the pond at the Pritchett Farm. I wonder how many times the eaglets watched their parents enjoying the water? Beautiful view.
Mr North is on the Decorah North nest in Iowa. We are on pip/hatch watch.
It is time to turn the attention to the Ospreys in the UK. At the Loch of the Lowes nest, LM12 or Laddie has been working to create the most wonderful nest for Blue NC0 since March 13. NC0 arrived at 18:19. The same bit of cool greeting for Laddie when he flew in as met Blue 33 (11) at Rutland. Go and get a fish Laddie. She has flown a great distance to get back to you safely. Oh, it is getting dark. Hurry up! or she will be hollering all night.
Last Osprey breeding season, person or persons took a boat and chainsaw and cut down the Osprey platform at Lyn Brenig. This halted the breeding season of the Ospreys that were there. They never recovered. A new pole has been installed and the streaming cam is now live.
At Rutland Water Manton Bay, Blue 33 (11) and Maya are working on the nest. Maya is supervising after Blue kept hitting her with that branch.
Here comes Maya with soft nesting material. Blue brought Maya a nice fish later and there has been mating on the nest.
Reports of an Osprey just south of Loch Arkaig. Is it Louis? We will find out tomorrow!
It is all good. Middle at Dale Hollow is full and sound asleep.
If you missed the talk on restoring Bald Eagles to the Channel Islands, here is the link. Explore.org does a lot of very interesting presentations – not just on eagles! The one prior to this was about the need to maintain the large Sequoyah Forests and how this might done.
It has been a pretty terrific day in Bird World except for the Sauces nest of Jak and Audacity. It appears that their egg might not be viable.
We are almost at the point that other than tossing him off the nest, Big’s actions will not mean much other than intimidation. Thank goodness. Both hatched on 28 Feb so they are 25 days old today. Oh, River started feeding the remaining piece of fish. Big ate first but she positioned herself and Middle moved up and is being fed. It is 17:17:41. Look at middle’s fat legs and bottom. This eaglet is filling out. Tears!
Will close on this magical moment.
Thank you for joining me today. It is lovely to have you here with me and the raptors. Take care!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Dale Hollow Eagle Cam, Dulles-Greenaway BE, Rutland Manton Bay, Loch of the Lowes and Scottish Wildlife Trust, Pix Cams, Decorah North, WRDC, MN DNR, Cal Falcons, Cornell Bird Cam RTH, and the West End Bald Eagles.
Oh, the sun is so bright this morning! It is beautiful and, at the same time, it is cold. We have another extreme cold warning. That is the problem with sunny days. If it is cloudy, it is normally warmer. The birds are already coming in waiting for the feeders to be filled.
NE26 continues to do really well and Samson has piled on the fish for Gabby and 26. NE27 is now working its way through that shell with its egg tooth and there is a confirmed pip.
NE26, are you going to be nice to your younger sibling?
This is the state of the pip at 13:00. You can sometimes see the beak moving under the shell.
Gorgeous Gabby. The morning snow casts a beautiful golden glow on our Mum.
Berry College eaglet. The eaglet is bright-eyed this morning. Its left wing was stepped on yesterday when something frightened Missy and she stumbled getting up. B15 is eating fine this morning although I would feel a whole lot better if Pa Berry had more filled pantry.
A quick check on the eaglet at the Kisatchie National Forest nests shows that it is another expected 10-feeding day! The eaglet weights about 1 kg or 2 pounds now with the weight on its bottom area. You can see this easily from the image below.
E19 and E20 had a lesson in plucking before breakfast this morning! M15 arrives with a mystery bird and Harriet lines the babies up to watch. E19 and E20 had just finished up the last of what looked like a squirrel before the bird’s arrival.
R1 and R2 have their thermal down, like E19 and E20. They have both eaten today and other than some scary moments with the kidlets looking over the edge of the nest things appear to be much the same. R2 has learned to remain submissive until R1 is finished eating.
In the image below both of the eaglets, now 3 weeks old, are enjoying the sunshine and the really mild 14 degree C temperatures.
We are on the countdown to the arrivals of the Osprey in the UK. 49 days now. The staff at the nature centres are busy getting ready, making sure the streaming cams are working, and just looking forward to their arrival as it also marks the beginning of spring.
A new Osprey platform has arrived at Lyn Brenig in Wales. I have seen no word on any arrests of the individual/s who cut the pole down and frightened the Ospreys last season.
In the garden, the European Starlings and Dyson seem to have a truce. Dyson sits and eats on what is left of the big seed cylinder and the Starlings are eating off the ground and a smaller one. Meanwhile, the sparrows finally get to eat out of the flat feeder while the chickadee flits back and forth stealing seeds when it can.
Dyson has been eating for about two hours. His thick fur is keeping him warm in our -40 temperatures (with the wind chill). He is a real sweetheart…yes, you are Dyson.
The colours in the Starlings are nothing short of beautiful. In the sunshine, everything turns beautiful iridescent colours. In the shade, the patterns range from caramel to rust with some blue and green . Their beaks are so long. These two have already managed to remove all of the meal worms! Cheeky.
I hope the Starlings stay all year. They have really brought some life to the garden.
I will continue to monitor NE27s progress towards hatching and will check in on Ervie several times if he is on the barge. In the meantime, Daisy the Duck seems to have found another spot for her eggs. Or will she land on the WBSE nest the minute I post this blog? There seems to be no recent news on Annie and Grinnell and this time ‘no news’ is going to be taken as ‘good news’. For those of you following the illnesses that have beset the dogs walking on the Yorkshire beaches, the historic deaths of crustaceans and sea birds, it appears that the cause has been found. It is the dredging up of toxins that were once dumped in the area. In Manitoba we are very familiar with this as the dredging of land to build the northern dams to produce electricity for the south of the province have caused the water – drinking, in lakes, and in ponds – to not be able to be used for at least two decades if not more. This is very sad as the marine life and sea birds continue to die off the coast of northwest England. If you haven’t already, please submit your name for the Kisatchie eaglet. The deadline is 30 January. The three names most mentioned will form the short list from which the winner will be chosen at the end of the first week of February. I will keep you posted. You can send your suggestions to: nameknfeagle@gmail.com
Thank you so much for joining me today. Take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams or FB pages where I took my screen captures: NEFlorida and the AEF, Berry College, SWFlorida and D Pritchett, Brenig Osprey Project, KNF, and the WRDC.
