Friday Morning in Bird World

6 May 2022

The five peregrine falcon eyases at the Manchester, New Hampshire scrape have been fed four times before 0930. Meal times were 0531, 0627, 0712, 0917. Mum doesn’t get finished quick. She will wait til there are no beaks open wanting food. Just look at the youngest right up there!

There are five eyases in the scrape at the Walburga Tower in Oudenaarde, Belgium, too.

Here is the link to the camera in Belgium:

There is still one eyas at the scrape box on The Campanile on the grounds of UCalifornia-Berkeley. The wee one hatched on 5 May. There are two more eggs. One appeared to have some cracking of the egg but that could have been light or debris.

Bingo!

A really nice fish arrived for the two soggy eaglets at the Dale Hollow Nest at 0813.

It is not clear to me which of the eaglets claimed the fish. Note: the cam is flickering (or was) in and out of IR mode).

There was some headway made on the self-feeding and later both decided to sit it out on the rim of the nest.

Lessons are still being taught at the WRDC Bald Eagle nest in the Miami Zoo. Rita arrived with a nice fish at 0926.

She waited eating morsels. It was not until 1024 that a fledgling arrived on the nest.

Mum left them empty taloned. Wonder what lesson she was giving out today????

Both R1 and R2 seem to be hanging around the nest. Hi there.

The three eyases at the Weissenburg scrape in Bayern are really growing. Look at the change in their plumage. The soft dow gives way to a rather matty looking cotton that reveals feathers!!!!!! Pink beaks begin to change colour.

Louis is an amazing partner. I adored him with Alia and so sorry she did not return last year. He has settled in with Dorcha and despite the pelting rain in Scotland landed a nice fish for her. Well done, Louis.

Dorcha is so dark. She reminds me of Mrs G at the Glaslyn nest.

We might be checking in on the Osprey nests scattered about the UK but all eyes are on one nest – that nest belongs to Blue 33 (11) and Maya at Manton Bay. They should be having a pip and a hatch today or tomorrow.

Maya is not giving anything away! Gosh she is beautiful.

If you are looking for a solid Osprey nest to watch, one that fledges all their hatches then this is the nest to watch. Here is the link to the streaming cam.

It is raining a lot of places in the US and much of that rain is really welcome especially up in the Pacific Northwest. You will notice that I do not list any of the Osprey nests in that region. The ones I know have suffered from the extreme heat.

It is also raining on Long Island at the PSEG Oyster Bay Osprey platform. Did you know that there are over 2000 Osprey nests on Long Island? Most are located on the eastern end. PSEG has two platforms. The one at Oyster Bay in Nassau County and the other at Patchogue. The Ospreys return each year with the arrival of the Menhaden. It is a species of fish in the herring family. They travel south in the fall and winter and north in the spring in slow moving tight schools. Sadly they have been over fished.

Brevoortia patronus Goode, 1878 – Gulf Menhaden” by Crabby Taxonomist is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

There are two falcons and two eggs at the Indiana and Michigan Power Company scrape. You can help them name the chicks. Information below.

Here is the link to this camera.

The Boys & Girls Club of Fort Wayne, Indiana provided a list of ten names for a Survey Monkey. You can vote here once before May 16.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LN776TF

We are waiting for hatch at the new scrape box mounted on the top of the Spartan Stadium at the University of Michigan. It is raining there today, too.

Dad has come to relieve Mum but she isn’t budging. Will we have a hatch today? Maybe. Here is the link to this new streaming cam and scrape.

These falcons made the news!

Some images from this morning at the nest of Big Red and Arthur on the grounds of Cornell University in Ithaca.

Nancy has fed E1 and a cherry picker has gone up to the nest. It is banding day!

E1 properly defended the nest he shares with Mum. Sadly, Dad Harry has not returned to the nest. He disappeared on the evening of 26 April. Once Nancy realized what was happening, she started bringing food to the nest. As we know, it was too late for E2.

Despite early worries by some watchers when there were four eggs, Big Red has shown that this is not a problem. Indeed while it might be one extra to her norm, you can see by some of the peregrine falcon nests that it is possible for five to do well. Life is so different on the hawk and falcon nests than it is for the eagles and the ospreys.

It is going to be a gorgeous 21 degree C day in Manitoba. It is a good day to get outside – before the next rains come – and go and see some of the new arrivals in the City while I wait for the second hatch at Cal Falcons and for their Q & A at 5pm Pacific Time.

The Dark-eyed Juncos that arrived in mass during the horrible storm a few weeks ago seem to have departed. The numbers of birds at the feeders are returning to the norm. Even Mr Blue Jay dropped by this morning.

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

Thank you to the following for their streaming cam where I took my screen captures: Cal Falcons, WRDC, Woodland Trust and People’s Post Code Lottery, LRWT, Cornell Bird Lab RTH, Spartan Stadium Falcon Cam, I & M Falcon Cam, PSEG Oyster Bay, Weissenburg Falcons, DHEC, Oudenaarde Falcons, MN-DNR, and Peregrine Falcon Networks.

Early Wednesday in Bird World

09 March 2022

There is not much that would bother me today. It was so wonderful to see Ervie last evening. It was just such a relief. It is one thing to see his tracking and know he is alive but it is entirely another thing to see him alive, well, and eating a fish – even if it is a puffer.

Ervie is obviously catching his own food and doing well. How he lost an entire talon and got his green tag scraped up in places will always remain a mystery. It had to have been really painful. Perhaps he got his foot caught in something? If so, I am thrilled he was able to get out! He also looks very healthy and that is a good thing.

Congratulations to Thunder and Akecheta (West End Eagles on Catalina) on the hatch of ‘his’ first chick and the first time in two seasons that they had success. In the previous two years, the Ravens took the eggs when they were left alone by Cheta. He has matured and understood what happened and – wow. Here is a video of that hatch!

It looks hot already in the San Bernardino Mountains at the nest of Jackie and Samson. Mum has been panting. Shadow has filled the pantry and the little one will be 5 days old today at 16:00 nest time. All is well.

Jackie and Shadow chatting first thing. I think Shadow thought he would get a turn looking after the wee one.

Look how much this baby has grown! Wow. So cute. If you are watching life, check out the front sides of the parents, it has been peeking out. So sweet.

The little eaglet was alive in the middle of the night and this morning, barely, at Duke Farm. It is so much younger and so much smaller and has now not eaten for at least 36 hours. My heart aches for it. It has gotten up to eat and not been fed.

It raised its little head up in the middle of the night when the parents changed duties. Oh, how I wish the Dad would give it a good feed.

Sweet little thing has no idea what is going on when it raises up to eat and the food is on the other side. The development was so off on this nest to the disadvantage of the wee one. There is enough food. Mum could walk around and feed it. She won’t. We all know the story…sadly.

It has not been a good morning for the third hatch at Dale Hollow Bald Eagles either. River has moved to several parts of the nest to feed the chicks but Little seems not up there and going after the food like in previous days. The nest looks wet and damp to me. I hope that it will dry out. Not a good environment for wee ones.

I did not expect to wake up and worry about this nest of River and Obey’s. Oh, let us hope that it dries up soon. It looks like the water of the lake is really rising with all the rain that they have had in the past few days.

There has not been a fish delivery at the Captiva Osprey nest yet today. As I write this it is nearing noon nest time. Big Bob will certainly be in rare form when it arrives.

Lena roosts on the edge of the platform nest at night now. The babies are not babies anymore and do not fit under her even though she might want to try.

Lena is hungry this morning and is looking around for Andy but to no avail. Wonder where he is?

Ospreys choose platforms and the tops of dead trees so that they can see all around them. No surprises for them. At the same time it leaves them open to the heat of the sun.

Big is definitely getting its coppery feathers today!

As it approaches noon and gets hotter, the chicks try to get in the shade of Lena. Little has been partially successful.

The chicks have lined up to eat but no Andy. I hope he brings in several fish in a row. Lena really needs to eat and Little could use a lot of fish today.

Lena seems to have given up on Andy and might have gone out fishing herself for the babes. Nope. She did return. No fish. Wish for fish!

Arthur was working on the nest for Big Red this morning. He flew in around 08:39 and now it has started snowing. I wonder if they will return to work on the nest later?

The female juvenile Peregrine Falcon that has been wanting to get friendly with Grinnell at The Campanile flew up to the ledge with a Mourning Dove this morning. She proceeded to pluck it and eat it and had a massive crop at the end. Grinnell has been aggressive to her but we wait to see how all of this plays out.

Grinnell took on a defensive posture towards this female yesterday. Cal Falcons caught it on video for us:

Things are a little more certain at the Manchester, New Hampshire scrape where the resident falcons were seen mating today.

This is the link to the cam that faces outward in the scrape box:

This is the link so you can see all the action inside the scrape box in New Hampshire:

Harriet has been working on the Dahlgren Osprey platform. They were given a brand new one. There are still a lot of sticks to go before any eggs can be stable in this nest. I now wonder, after seeing the Papadan chair nest at the WRDC Bald Eagle nest in the Miami Zoo, why some mesh is not installed for the Ospreys?????

Poor Richmond and Rosie. Richmond is being attentive and brings Rosie a fish giving us a glimpse of their nest for this season. Boy do these two have a lot of work!

Rosie and Richmond got a great start and look what the Ravens did!

Thank you so much for joining me this morning. Send warm wishes off to the wee ones that are struggling and wish for lots of fish for Captiva! Take care. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Port Lincoln Osprey Project, Friends of Big Bear Valley, Dale Hollow Lake Bald Eagles, Duke Farms, Peregrine Falcon Network, Dahlgren Ospreys, Cornell Bird Lab RTH, Captiva Osprey Project and Window on Wildlife, and Cal Falcons.