Tag Archives: nature

NE27 is pipping and other Bird World News

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.

Late late Sunday in Bird World

Is there a better way to spend a snowy Sunday than to watch little eaglets being fed in their nests?

Gabby and Samson’s NE26 hatched at 03:04 on the 23rd of January. It was caught in an image that Pascale Ragon posted on FB. What an adorable little eaglet! It is also very strong, holding its head up high and not bobbing along so much!

The image of this sweetie below shows clearly the very sharp egg-tooth that was used to break out of that shell. It looks like 26 has already caught on to the latest in eye liner styles!

This ‘new born’ is also eating large flakes of fish. I could not believe it. Oh, what a sweet little tongue.

Gabby and 26 have this all worked out. Mom tilts her big beak 90 degrees and baby brings its beak straight up the middle. Bingo! I cannot tell you how impressed I was with what was going on at this nest today — but mind you, Samson and Gabby are always at the top of my list for Baldie parents.

Look at this sweet one looking up to Mum. That is simply adorable.

Hi there.

I feel like a new grandparent showing off pictures — I could seriously have cut and pasted so many you would be bored to tears. It is hard to take your eyes off a 12 hour eaglet!

The eaglet at the Kisatchie National Forest Bald Eagle nest had 10 feedings today, again. They began at 06:47 and ended at 17:40. I compares the times from one day to another. So, on Friday, the first feeding was at 06:52 and the last one at 17:41. There was a similar pattern for Saturday. Does Anna have an app that tings at the same time each day? Or are the feedings linked to dusk and dawn? Bald Eagles are diurnal. They hunt and eat during the daylight hours. The little eaglets are trained and treated as such from the time they hatch.

You can see that this eaglet -who is 11 days old today- is beginning to change. The light grey fluffy down is giving way to the darker thermal down. This will mean that once that thermal down is all in, Anna will not have to brood the eaglet so much.

Today, Anna let the eaglet have quite a bit of warm, not hot, sunshine. Both her and Louis were close but they let the little one have some air!

In the image below, the ‘baby face’ is also disappearing. The beak is growing longer and the egg tooth is almost totally gone. If you look at the wings you can see little black lines. Can you believe feathers are coming??

I have had the Big Sur condors on my mind and was very thankful when Ventana Wildlife Society posted this message on their FB page today. What a relief! Little Iniko 1031 was only released back into the wild six weeks ago, on 4 December 2021, after being caught in the Dolan Fire and having a long rehabilitation.

The Kakapo Recovery are also very happy. This is the ‘white board score board’ for the eggs. It looks like it could be a really super year if they all hatch and the chicks survive.

Each time I went to check on Ervie, the nest was either empty or there were pigeons doing clean up.

Then, all of a sudden, at 13:00:51 Ervie comes flying in. He was sure putting on the breaks. Just look at those magnificent wings. Oh, Ervie, you are so special.

Ervie must have a motion detector for when Dad is coming to the nest with a fish! It was 13:01:09. Ervie arrived 15 seconds before Dad!

That timing is not a coincidence. So where did Ervie see Dad with the fish? Was Ervie on the old barge while Dad was fishing?

It was a really nice fish and Ervie will enjoy every morsel!

Ervie spends several minutes mantling and alarming before he digs into his lunch.

Ah, thank you Port Lincoln! Ervie is a beautiful bird.

Two hours later and Ervie is screaming for more fish!!!!!!!!! I bet they could hear him across the bay!!!!!! No wonder Mum and Dad don’t stay on the barge when Ervie is about.

R1 and R2 were well fed today. This is the coldest day Miami has experienced this season. It is currently 16 C – which on the Canadian Prairies would be considered a nice summer day! But, if you live in Miami, everyone would be cold.

Rita was making sure that everyone was eating.

Both eaglets had nice crops before Rita informed them it was bedtime!

Rita tucked both eaglets in as best she could to keep them warm from the wind and what would be to her, the cold temperatures.

There has been a bit of concern by the watchers of the Berry College Bald Eagle Cam. Missy stepped on the left wing of the eaglet. Something startled Missy about 20:12 and she got up abruptly. Is it hurt? I do not know. We will have to wait and see how it is doing tomorrow.

The eaglet was moving its wings fine at the time of the image below.

All is quiet now and then something startles Missy.

She gets up, looks to her right and stumbles around the baby.

Send warm wishes to this little one that everything is alright. They are so fragile at this stage and B15 is doing so well. Something startled Missy about an hour later, too. Everyone is tucked in now and we wait to see how the baby is doing tomorrow.

I will leave you with a nice shot of Ervie with his crop. What a handsome osprey you are, Ervie.

Thank you so very much for joining me today. With the exception of the worry at Berry College, Bird World is looking good. Take care everyone. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams or FB pages where I took my screen shots: The Kakapo Recovery, Ventana Wildlife Society, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, Berry College Bald Eagle Cam, NEFlorida Bald Eagles and the AEF, KNF Bald Eagle Cam, and the WRDC Bald Eagle Cam.

Sunday in Bird World 23 Jan

NE26 is here! There are so many hatch times posted that it is unclear when NE26 was officially out of that shell. Does it matter? The AEF is showing 07:28:38 but the eaglet is fully dry and fluffy so I think Gabby was hiding that hatchling, keeping it warm. It is noon and it is still only 7 degrees C or 44.6 F. Chilly for Florida!

By 11:30, NE26 was holding its head up and looking straight at you! Notice that the inside of the shell was, in part, a beautiful blue.

What a cutie pie! Hello.

I wonder if you will be strong and sassy like your big sibling, Legacy????

Samson just brought in a nice fish to the nest – and its got its head on! He is so excited about the little furry one and wants to make sure that Gabby and it are well fed.

Gabby checks to see if the baby wants to eat. That pantry is so far from the nest cup. Remember Legacy last year crawling up the bowl to get over to it? Sure made NE24 strong.

You are so precious with that big egg tooth!

Tired.

Gabby was hungry! And the little one needs to figure out which way to face the pantry! Not the grass! Gabby keeps checking to see if N26 wants to eat some fresh fish.

Proud Mama Gabby!

The growing eaglet in the Kisatchie National Forest Bald Eagle nest has already had 5 feedings between 06:47 and 11:45. I thought Anna might be slowing down but no…the feedings are just getting longer!

What a little cutie looking up at one of the parents on the branch above the nest. If you are looking for the turtle, it is still there amongst all manner of large fish and a beautiful Eagle feather.

A nice family portrait!

B15 at Berry College is doing well.

B15 peeking out between Mum and Dad.

At the WRDC nest of Ron and Rita in Miami-Dade, R2 has figured out to let R1 get full and then get up to eat. Once R1 is full, it doesn’t care what R2 is doing. So around noon, R2 started eating and it is getting really full. Whew!

For all who are teachers, the Raptor Resource Project can help you, from K through high school, from art to science. Why not teach about raptors?

Raptor Resource Project Teachables
From Egg To Fledgling

It is a great Sunday. Everyone is doing well. There are big snowflakes starting to fall on the Canadian Prairies. They are swirling and are quite beautiful. But, please, no more snow! We are 50 days away from the arrival of the first Ospreys in the UK for breeding season! Do you have a favourite nest? I can’t decide but I am awfully keen to see some little osplets in the nest of CJ7. Hopefully she will return to Poole Harbour along with her hopeful partner, Blue 22. For those of you that might have missed it – Jackie and Shadow have their first egg as of yesterday and YRK has flown in to relieve OGK on the Royal Cam nest in New Zealand. It looks like it will be Mum on the nest this year when the hatchling is returned. The egg is in the incubator hatching right now! E19 and E20 are doing great at SWFlorida and Ervie has been sleeping on the perch at Port Lincoln all night – so all is well with the world.

Take care everyone. Thank you for joining me today. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: NEFlorida and the AEF, KNF, Berry College, and the WRDC.

NE26 – almost here!

Oh, NE26 is really progressing well.

These images were taken four hours ago. You can see the chick is really breaking up the shell. Just a little more and 26 will be free and fully hatched. Bald eaglets are not considered hatched until they are out of the shell completely.

You could also hear NE26 cheeping!

At 21:30 Gabby raised up enough to see some fur and still some shell. There was loud cheeping.

Gabby is trying to take some power naps in between raising up and moving gently. She is very antsy. NE26 should be fully hatched soon. It will be the fourth hatch for Samson and Gabby and their third breeding season. This will be a sibling for Jules, Romey, and Legacy.

Gabby is really sleeping. Does she know something we don’t???

Here is the link to one of the cameras at the NEFlorida Bald Eagle nest so you can join in watching this incredible Bald Eagle family.

I am so excited. If you are not going to sleep, join me and the more than 300 persons who have stayed up to get the first glimpse of this welcome eaglet. Unless I fall asleep!!!!! LOL, it has been a long and exciting day with Jackie and Shadow’s first egg.

Thank you for joining me on this check in with Samson, Gabby, and the almost hatched NE26. Take care everyone. Tomorrow we will get to see this little eaglet have its first meal of fish. Yippeeeeee.

Thank you to the NEFlorida Bald Eagle Cam and the AEF for their streaming cam where I took my screen captures.

While we were watching Samson and Gabby…..

Jackie laid her first egg of the season at Big Bear, California. No fan fare. Ate some prey. Just in the nest, laid the egg. Wow.

Jackie you made that look easy!!!!!!!

Mark your calendars. Pip watch will begin 27 February.

Last year the couple laid two clutches. Neither were successful. These are two real sweet hearts who have a loyal fan base. Let’s send them all of the positive energy we can for fledges this year!

At 15:19:56, Jackie was eating a prey delivery from Shadow.

It looked like an easy labour.

The egg appears from underneath all the feathers at 15:44. It could, however been laid a little earlier.

Talk about fans. There are 2365 people watching Jackie right now. We all hope that this will be a great year for this wonderful California Bald Eagle couple. Congratulations Shadow and Jackie!

Thank you for stopping by. So excited. There are hatches going on at Royal Cam Albatross and NEFlorida and now an egg for this couple. This is a great Saturday! Take care everyone.

Thank you to the Friends of Big Bear for the streaming cam where I took my screen captures.

What keeps us busy while NE26 hatches?

Samson has come to the nest to check on the progress of the hatch and to see if Gabby wants anything. Samson is more than anxious for NE26 to hatch – just like the rest of us.

Samson comes in to check on Gabby. Do you need anything, sweetie?

26 is using his egg tooth to chisel away at that shell. At 08:20 this was just a tiny hole.

Looks like a nice hole!

You can see that egg tooth chipping away.

Hello, NE26

Samson is back again, just checking on progress.

Samson decides to redo the rim of the nest and add and move sticks while he is waiting.

Waiting is hard!

Gabby has rolled the eggs. Look carefully you can see some cracks underneath the branch on the egg.

Samson is as anxious as the rest of us. He keeps jumping down on the nest to see how 26 is doing.

What a great portrait of our NEFlorida couple.

Look at the progress! Wow. This little one is getting that egg open quickly. I am really impressed with the progress. It won’t be long til 26 can give a karate kick and be free!

Come on NE26! We want to see you.

Progress!

Thank goodness for Ferris Akel. I was getting a little bit like Samson wondering how things were going with the hatch and the notice popped up that Ferris was on his tour. So between Ferris and the garden birds it is helping to pass the time while we wait for N26 to hatch! There is heat shimmer on the images and some were at a great distance.

It has been a great day to see raptors on Ferris’s Tour especially in the Montezuma area. There was an American Kestrel, a Rough-legged Hawk, and a Red-tail Hawk mixed in with Starlings and Horned Larks.

Rough-legged Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk

This is one gorgeous hawk!

Rough-legged Hawk

There were a pair of them hunting. The light one above and a darker plumaged one.

Rough-legged Hawk

This is such a beautiful dark Red-tail Hawk. Look at that amazing patterning on the scapula, the ‘V’ formed on the back when the wings are folded.

Red-tail Hawk, Adult

Horned Larks do not really have horns. They normally show two little feathered tufts on their heads. Horned Larks are the only true species of lark in North America. There is one other lark, the Sky Lark, that was introduced to Vancouver Island.

The Horned Lark is larger than a sparrow. The pattern is striking. Notice the yellow under the beak and then the dark brown/black line across separating the head from the breast.

Horned Larks
European Starlings

All of a sudden there was open water and there were Mallards, Black Ducks, and a female Red-breasted Merganser plus an array of Canada Geese.

Ferris took us to see some amazing water falls on the way to Ithaca. They are Taughannock Falls at Ulysses, New York. Incredibly beautiful. They are 8 miles away from Ithaca and if you are ever in the region, this would be a great place to visit.

Having promised myself to take images of a wasp nest hanging over the street in the tree canopy, it seemed like a good time between the falls and Ithaca to do that.

This nest is so fragile looking. It was in tact, like a tight round ball, until our snow storm the other day.

I will go out during different lighting conditions to document the change in the nest as winter progresses.

This little Black-capped Chickadee kept itself busy getting seeds and moving around the many European Starlings.

It seems like they would use more energy retrieving the seed and cracking it than the energy contained inside. But what do I know? I am just a silly human.

One brave sparrow sat with a sea of European Starlings today.

This fellow decided it was easier to knock the seed cylinder down and eat on the ground! The Chickadee thanked him.

Ferris is trying to find Big Red and Arthur. NE26 continues to work itself out of that shell. All of the other birds are doing well even with the cold temperatures in areas such as Louisiana.

Dad delivered a fish for Ervie. It was a bit of an appetizer. Ervie has been away from the nest. Maybe he is out fishing!

Ervie knew that day was coming before we could see him. Ervie flew into the nest and started prey crying.

Ervie is great to flap his wings and call for food at the same time. He can also stand on its tippy-toes.

There is Dad. Mum watches from the perch.

It is a flurry of wings and feet. Thanks, Dad!

Everything seems to be fine in Bird World. So far Ferris has found lots of Crows but not Big Red and Arthur. What in the world is going on? The Crows are flying, in the trees, just moving about.

They are also on the roof of Barton Hall at Cornell University. Is the beginning of hundreds of Crows gathering together? Researchers believe that they gather at dusk to share food sources and to find breeding partners in the spring.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Take care. Just think tomorrow there will be a new eaglet in the world. Yes!

Thanks to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Ferris Akel Tour, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, NEFlorida and the AEF.

It’s a Pip for Gabby and Samson

Eyes have been on the two eggs of Gabby and Samson at the NEFlorida Bald Eagle Nest for several days. This morning what everyone was hoping for happened – a pip – the egg tooth broke through the shell. The time was 08:20.

The AEF produced a short video:

Last year Samson and Gabby fledged Legacy – how can we ever forget that incredible juvenile? And the year before it was Jules and Romey named after Samson’s parents, the occupants of this nest before Samson. Oh, I am so excited!

Gabby was restless before the pip. She could hear that little one inside that shell wanting out.

Samson is getting to see the progress their baby is making!

If you want to join the action at this nest in Jacksonville, Florida, here is the link:

There should be a little one at The Hamlet by tomorrow morning from the progress being made.

Thank you for joining me this morning. There will be a full check on Bird World late this afternoon or early evening. Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the NEFlorida Bald Eagle Cam and the AEF where I took my screen captures.

Late Friday in Bird World

There is excitement on Taiaroa Head. The Royal Cam chick for 2022 pipped its egg today and the NZ DOC rangers promptly removed that egg from under YRK replacing it with a dummy. Why you ask? Fly strike is when flies lay their eggs, in the hot summer months, on various things including hatching Albatross chicks. Fly strike can be fatal as the fly eggs hatch into maggots that eat their host. So, for the safety of the very endangered Royal Albatross, the eggs are removed at pip to hatch in an incubator. The chick will be returned to the parents to feed and brood as soon as it is safe to do so. Last time OGK was on the nest. Wonder if he will fly in just time time for the return of the chick? Oh, it is so exciting.

The NZ DOC made a short video of the removal of the egg:

At the end of the day, the Kisatchie National Forest yet-to-be-named eaglet was fed 14 times between 06:52 and 17:41. That is 14 feedings in 10 hours and 45 minutes. Wow.

Anna wanted to feed the little eaglet at 17:08 but the baby had something over its beak. You can see it in the image below. Turns out it is some of Anna’s underbelly feathers. Anna tried to feed the chick but it could eat with that big wad over its beak.

Anna realizes the problem and begins to pull the fluff off the little one.

To the relief of everyone, Anna removed the fluff without a problem and the baby had its penultimate feeding of the day.

This is one of the most hilarious Bald Eagle couples I have ever seen. Louis fills the nest with food, so much it could not possibly be eaten. If he comes around to try and have a snack without having to go fishing, Anna perks up.

This is precisely what happened below. Anna was brooding the eaglet and she sees Louis arriving. She makes this very interesting vocalization and gets up and goes over to move a piece of fish. Louis is watching all of this. The little one says, ‘Sure, Mum, if you want me to, I will eat again!’

Louis decides he will be cool and he plays ‘hide the baby’ while Anna is trying to feed the eaglet (again). In the end, Louis winds up digging in the nest and finding a piece of old fish bone which he takes with his beak and flies off the nest. Meanwhile, the little eaglet is still being fed by Mum! That was the last feeding documented before the camera froze. Maybe you had to be watching. The interaction between these two parents is so funny. Louis did do something very useful today. He brought in some more branches to build up the walls of the nest. There are places with holes in them that will need to be covered.

Dad delivered Ervie’s breakfast fish to the nest at 08:30:59.

Here comes one dedicated Osprey dad with a fish!

Ervie was so happy when he saw Dad flying in with a fish.

Later, the cam operator gave everyone some really nice close ups of Ervie staring at the water looking for fish.

Ervie focused.
Even when he was looking for fish, Ervie was prey calling to Dad.

I made a short video clip. It was wonderful to see Ervie interested in the water and the fish! Enjoy. There is a severe weather warning for Port Lincoln. The warning is for intense rainfall, severe warnings for heavy rain beginning at 16:00. Later in the evening possibilities of thunder and lighting. Stay safe Osprey family!

At the WRDC nest, it has been hot. Tomorrow they are looking for temperatures around 18 with a 40% chance of rain. I am happy to report that R2 ate and both eaglets seemed perky and happy. In the image below, R1 is full and looking out of the nest while R2 is eating.

R1 full and distracted so R2 can get a nice feeding.

Happy sleeping babies.

R1 and R2 in a food coma.

CROW has announced a virtual speaker series. Some of you might be interested. The guest is Ron Magill, ‘Mr Miami Zoo’ who is responsible for this human made nest for Ron and Rita. It sounds like a really interesting topic.

It will get down to 11 degrees C at the nest of Samson and Gabby in Jacksonville, Florida. That is 51.8 F. There is a chance of rain on Saturday.

Northeast Florida Bald Eagle Nest. 21 January 2022. Gabby rolling the eggs.

The American Eagle Foundation posted the following information today about hatching. Super informative as we wait for Gabby and Samson’s eggs to pip!

Hatching is hard work. Before starting to break out of the egg the chick has three things it must accomplish. It must first switch from being dependent on the oxygen diffusing through the pores in the eggshell into the network of blood vessels that line the inner surface of the shell and start to use its own lungs to breathe. The chick takes its first proper breath and fills its lungs the moment it punctures the air cell inside the top of the egg. (Internal Pip) This step is essential because by this stage of development there is not enough oxygen diffusing through the pores in the shell to support the chick’s respiratory requirements. Taking a breath from the air cell provides the oxygen and the energy necessary to break through the eggshell. Before it takes that first breath, the chick has to start shutting off the blood supply to the network of blood vessels that line the inner surface of the shell, and withdraw that blood into its body. The blood vessels are programmed to close off at the point where they emerge from the bird’s umbilicus, and just before the chick starts cutting round the shell. Third, the chick has to take what is left of the yolk and draw it into its abdomen. It does this by sucking up the remaining yolk through the stalk that connects the yolk to the chick’s small intestines. This “yolk sac” is a food reserve for the first few hours or days after hatching.

Hopefully we will have a pip tomorrow at NEFlorida. We are also watching the Achieva Osprey nest of Jack and Diane. There have been gifts of food and mating on the nest. Diane normally lays her eggs on the 22 or 23rd of January. Oh, so close! Stay tuned for news. So we are on pip watch, hatch watch, and egg watch! Crazy.

Take care everyone. Thank you so much for joining me today. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots and my video clips: Port Lincoln Osprey Project, KNF, NEFlorida Eagle Cam and the AEF, and the WRDC.

Friday in Bird World

There is mooooorrrrrrreeeeee snow falling on Winnipeg! There seems to be no place to shovel it anymore. Can you hear me growling? It has made Little Red anxious and he has been chasing the 32 European Starlings out of the Lilacs yelling, ‘Don’t you know it is Squirrel Appreciation Day?!’ To appease him, I promised I would put a photo of him on the cover of today’s blog! LOL.

The top image shows Red returning from the large seed cylinder his mouth full of seed to cache in his penthouse.

Red comes and goes dozens of times.

No one needs to train Little Red to jump. Away he goes from the plucking post of Sharpie to the wood shed then to the seed cylinder.

Meanwhile, there isn’t any snow down in Louisiana but it is set to be 21 degrees F (very cold) for that area. Louis is filling up the nest with giant Crappie and the little eaglet has been fed at 06:52, 07:46, 08:23, 09:16, 10:10, 11:03, 11:28, 12:13, and 13:45. Here are a few of those feedings:

In addition to the nest of Anna and Louis in the Kisatchie Forest, there are two other known nests with one chick in them each. The others are Berry College and Osceola.

B15 is doing great on the Berry College Bald Eagle Nest. Missy and Pa Berry are doing are good job keeping this little feisty eaglet fed and warm.

The Bald Eagles at the Osceola Nest are Starlight and Skyler. This couple took over the nest in the fall of 2021. The eaglet hatched on 21 December so it is a few days older than Harriet and M15s at the SWFlorida Nest in Fort Myers.

The Osceola Nest is beautiful. It is in a popular park near Lake Toho.

You can see the eaglet sticking its head up looking out at the world beyond.

Here is the link to the Osceola camera in Florida if you don’t have it on your list.

It might be cool for Anna and Louis and even B15 but it is scorching hot for R1 and R2 in the WRDC nest of Ron and Rita in Miami. The chatters said that R2 had eaten twice in the morning so that is a good thing!

E19 and E20 are in really good shape this afternoon. They may be hot but both have a large crop that they are using as pillows. All is right in the world of Harriet and M15 at the SWFlorida Bald Eagle nest.

There is pip watch at the Northeast Florida Bald Eagle nest of Gabby and Samson. So far, the eggs are being rolled and there hasn’t been any announcement of a pip.

There are now 2 eggs at Duke Farms Bald Eagle Nest. The second was laid at 15:52 on 20th of February.

rt LincoPort

It is a rainy day for Ervie down in Port Lincoln. The cam operator zoomed in to a show a soaking wet juvenile!

Royal Albatross fans are starting to get super excited at the impending hatch. Yesterday Ranger Colin checked YRK and OGKs egg and could hear the chick inside. It won’t be long! The NZ DOC put out a very short video of that visit:

Do you like Hornbills and other exotic birds? If so, I have a streaming cam for you to check out in Pretoria, South Africa. They have a bot that identifies the birds on the screen so you will know what has come to the feeders. There are many species you might never have seen!

For me, it was simply wonderful to see a world alive with green.

Sometimes you get other animals that are hungry raiding the feeder such as this Genet.

Different birds and animals come at different times of the day. As the sun is setting, bird feeders are set out.

Here is the link to the Allen Bird Cam:

The cold blast of weather and the continuing amount of snow fall seems to caused havoc for some of the ducks that were spending the winter in Manitoba. They are winding up on the lawns of peoples houses, no water and no food. If you are in Winnipeg and you have or see ducks in the City disoriented, please call Wildlife Haven. (204) 878-3740. Thank you!

Thank you for joining me today. Fingers crossed for a pip up at NEFlorida! Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: KNF, Berry College, SWFlorida and D Pritchett, NEFlorida and the AEF, Allen Bird Cam, Eagle Cam at Osceola, Duke Farms, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, and the WRDC.

Osprey fledgling flies 350 km from natal nest in a week

I don’t think anyone ever expected to get a phone call telling them that an Osprey with a yellow band was seen at Port Augusta yesterday.

The question at the time was: is it Star or is it Falky? Falky was last seen on the 12th of January at 19:40.

On 9 January, Falky took a dive off the barge and caught a fish!

On the 10th, Falky and Ervie have their ‘dog fight’ in the air.

On the 8th of January, Bazza knocks Falky into the water. We held our breath as he figured out how to get. Falky’s confidence must have grown when he kept his cool head and recovered instead of drowning.

The two siblings were not so nice to the middle one who kept himself to himself, most days, looking for fish in the water.

Well, Morgan Palmer Dunn took some photographs and sent them to the Port Lincoln Osprey Project and guess who it is that is 13 km south of Port Augusta, a distance of almost 350 km?

There he is, the middle hatch, Falky flying like a pro. Our keen eyed observer noticed the young Osprey when a bunch of Silver Gulls began vocalizing.

So, in one week, look how far Falky flew. I am smiling and can’t stop saying ‘incredible’.

What is interesting to me is that everyone was startled when Solly flew up to Streaky Bay and then Eba Anchorage. The thoughts at the time were that this 200 km distance from the natal nest was quite far. With this flight of Falky’s, it is time to start looking for Bazza and maybe Star and DEW further afield!

This is why banding birds is important. Look at the information retrieved by a simple coloured leg band and a very keen observant individual – who took the time to get in touch with Port Lincoln!

Some may be asking if the tracker was put on the wrong bird. At the time of the weighing, the naming, and the banding, Ervie really was the star of the nest. He was the male who weighed the most and got the sat-pak. If you go to Port Lincoln’s FB page and look back, Ervie was quite adventurous. Did something happen to Ervie so that he lost his confidence? is he getting his mojo back as some claim? or was Ervie’s goal all along to be the ‘King of the Nest’. We wait to find out. But for now, raise a glass to Falky. What an incredible young Osprey. May he live a long safe life with always a full belly!

Falky, you really are impressing everyone. You look good. You are obviously catching your own dinner. Be careful out there!

Thank you for joining me! This is simply incredible news.

Thanks to the Port Lincoln Osprey Project streaming cam and FB page where I took my screen captures and video clips.