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.