Roy Dennis is visiting Port Lincoln to give a talk and to witness Ian Falkenberg ringing Wilko and Kasse. Oh, how I wish I could have gone to the dinner and talk with Roy Dennis. Those attending are in for a real treat. 221 watching. Great narrative by Bart M on chat.
Wilko really seems to like humans and Kasse pancaked just like a good little osplet should. She listened to Mum’s instructions. And the weather could not be better!
Wilko is a boy. Males have white on right and red on left leg
Kasse is a female. She has pink right green left.
(Oh, I called it right for once. It is good to have a female after the loss of Solly and Zoe. I hope Kasse has a long life and produces many, many chicks.
Both osplets received satellite trackers. This is wonderful so that we can compare their behaviour post-fledge.
Some images:
Wilko standing right up and Kasse pancaked.
This is where the chicks are being ringed on the Calypso Star.
Janet (Red hair and glasses) and Fran talking to Roy while Ian Falkenberg attaches the tracker.
Kasse is getting her tracker.
Roy Dennis. Google him if you don’t know who he is because you should know.
Mum on the mast waiting for the babies to be returned to the nest and to have a fish feast.
Fisheries came to check on what was going on and to say hello.
Dad moves to the perch anticipating fish dinner???
On the old barge later. Five Cormorants (or more) kept Dad company. It is hard waiting! These are Australian Pied Cormorants. Note the white unlike the all brown Double-crested Cormorants in North America.
Wilko and Kasse are home! And look who is standing up!
Mum is just landing back on the nest and she will get to see her kids with all their accessories. Nope. She flew off.
Kids say: “We are Big Kids now”. We can feed ourselves. Kasse is going for it. She is hungry. Wilko looks defiant. How dare you stitch a suitcase on my back and put jewellery on my legs!!!!!!!!!
Thank you to the folks at Port Lincoln Ospreys for streaming this great event in the lives of these ospreys and for ensuring through the fish fairy their survival. Thank you to eBird for the information on Cormorants.
PLEASE NOTE THAT MY NEXT BLOG WILL BE SUNDAY MORNING DECEMBER 2.
The first hatch at Big Bear Valley, the nest of Bald Eagles Jackie and Shadow, has had five feedings so far. The first was at 05:51 followed by 07:57, 09:06, 10:15, and the last one, just finished, at 13:24. The wee one is doing so well and already looks like it has doubled its size in just three days (or nearly). The wee chick did its first poop shot (ps) at 10:15:59 demonstrating that all of its plumbing is working.
The eagles are restless today. Jackie is currently being very careful to roll that second egg. With the wet straw in the egg cup, it is difficult to tell if there is a pip or a pip and a crack.
Here are some images from the Big Bear nest of Jackie and Shadow from the late morning to early afternoon for you to enjoy.
Shadow helped Jackie with the feeding at 10:15 and took over brooding and incubation duties much to his delight. Shadow will remain on the nest until Jackie returns at 13:19. They will then both feed the wee chick.
Both adults have been staring at the chick and the egg and moving ever so slowly around the nest. I love how they back off the egg and chick so they can see them. They could, so easily, step all over everything if they got off incubation/brooding by moving forward. If you watch, they are ever so careful with their big feet and talons.
Oh, what a big yawn!
Do you see anything like a pip or a crack on this egg?
Both help with the 13:24 feed. You can hear the Corvids in the background. That must frighten Jackie and Shadow alerting them that they have to be ever so careful about coming and going from the nest – making sure that someone is always home.
The chick is eating much bigger bites than yesterday. Look how big it is compared to the egg. That is how much this wee babe has grown in 70 hours.
The nestling eats small pieces of the meat or fish along with saliva from the parents and juice from the prey items. This provides much needed antibodies and nutrients as well as electrolytes. Electrolytes keep our bodies balanced, in terms of fluids and in terms of salt and sugar. if you have dehydrated animals, electrolytes are given like an IV to rehydrate. They are essential for a healthy system.
This chick is getting fed approximately 8-10 feedings each day.
Such a good baby.
The egg has been rolled several times. Did it pick up wet and dirty straw that has clung to it so that we think it is a pip or a crack? I wonder. Big Bear has not announced a pip on the second egg.
Adorable. Jackie is such a proud Mama. She takes over from Samson and lets him have a much needed break. Meanwhile, the weather is just so much better than yesterday.
Other Bird World News:
The Pied Cormorant is still hanging around Dad’s perch at the Port Lincoln Osprey Barge.
The trio at Captiva Osprey nest have been enjoying a nice afternoon fish that arrived sometime around 14:15.
Everyone will stagger away with a nice big crop and be rehydrated. They are hot in that Florida sun.
The two nestlings at Duke Farms Bald Eagle nest are doing just fine.
Anna and Louis have been spending a lot more time with Kincaid over the last week. It will not be long til this 8 week old eaglet is branching and before we know it, Kincaid will fledge. These are adorable parents. It has been a real privilege watching them take care of Kincaid.
Jasper and NE27 continue to do well. NE27 is so far ahead of Jasper on the self-feeding but slowly, ever so slowly, Jasper is catching on. I hope that we have a name for NE27 this coming week. That would be super. Beautiful eagles out of the NEFlorida nest of Samson and Gabby.
Just a few hours ago E20 branched up to the Veranda at the SWFlorida nest of Harriet and M15. Now both eaglets have branched. It will not be long until these two fledge.
Lady Hawk caught the branching in a short video:
Thank you so much for joining me for this end of the day nest check on Sunday. Everything is fine. Our sweet Ervie has not been back to the barge and continues to hang out around the North shore. I hope he is enjoying every mouthful of fish that he catches. Oh, the joy he brought us. I wish he would just take a quick fly over to the barge and hang out for a bit. I bet you do, too. Take care all. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Friends of Big Bear Valley, NEFlorida Bald Eagles and the AEF, Captiva Ospreys and Window on Wildlife, KNF Bald Eagles, and Duke Farms.
It is afternoon on the Canadian prairies. The skies are partly blue, the sun is shining really, really bright and as I look out my window, I can see that Little Red has now been joined by several other Red Squirrels chasing one another up and down the telephone poles. It must be spring in their minds! It is -14 and hopefully it will warm up before the astronomical spring is officially here.
A hospital architect, Roger Ulrich, did a study about nature and healing/recovery or gall bladder patients. The paper he wrote for Science, ‘View Through a Window May Influence Recovery From Surgery’ compared gall bladder surgery patients who had windows that looked out to trees with those who had a brick wall view. Ulrich found that those that had the tree view ‘spent less time in hospital, required fewer painkillers, had better evaluations from nurses and experienced fewer post-operative complications’. This leads me to believe that it is important – for each of us – that the place where you spend most of your time has a view of nature! This is the primary reason my desk is located where I can look out on to the garden with all of the birds flying in and out and the squirrels running around. Having moved from a space with no windows, I know that what Ulrich discovered works on normal daily living. So turn your world upside down and move your favourite chair to a window! Your spirits will be lifted and it could be of great benefit to your health, both mental and physical.
Thankfully my posting of the Pip at Big Bear last evening was true. Often times it is easy to think a dirty smudge is the little chick pecking away with its egg tooth. That pip is bigger this morning. Thankfully. Along with 6589 other people, I am holding my breath (well, figuratively) until this chick has hatched. These are anxious moments for this lovely couple.
The two images below were captured at 07:28 nest time. You can still go back and rewind if you wish. The pip hole is clearly bigger. Jackie looks down with great hope – as she hears her baby working to hatch.
The pip is noticeably bigger. It began at 15:47:26 on the 2nd of March.
Send your most positive wishes to Jackie and Shadow and this wee one. Tears from around the world will flow when it is free! Get the tissue box ready.
It is -3 in Ithaca, New York. The snow on Big Red and Arthur’s nest is slowly melting with the bright sun shining in on the Fernow light stand.
I have not seen Big Red or Arthur at the nest today – oh, but I could be so wrong. Arthur is so quick delivering those sticks that if you don’t go very slowly on the rewind you will miss him.
I ached for Lena and the trio at the Captiva Osprey nest last night. Lena kept calling for a fish delivery for the evening so the babies could go to bed full. I did not see that happen. Lena flew off and brought up a small piece of fish tail at 07:27:31 this morning, you can imagine how hungry the three were. Still there was no beaking. The second fish, a really nice one, came in at 09:37:27.
Here is that tiny piece that comes in first thing. I am not sure where Lena found it. Perhaps there is a stash under the tree or she went under the tree to Andy to get it??
It is easy to see that this 09:37 fish will fill all the little ones up and provide some nourishment for Lena, also. Little Bob is right up front with Middle Bob. Big Bob will join them as s/he turns around to get in line. The two older siblings continue to be noticeably darker than Little Bob whose head is clearly turning oily black in the image below. Little Bob will enter the reptile stage soon enough.
Lena filled them all up. Despite the irregularity, the chicks are growing and developing according to schedule and Mum looks alright. Would I like for them to have the 7 daily fish deliveries like Dad provided at Port Lincoln, absolutely.
Fans of Ervie continue to check in at the Port Lincoln Barge. Yesterday, the cam operator zoomed in on a beautiful Cormorant that has taken a liking to Falky’s perch.
This is an Australian Pied Cormorant. They are large black and white birds. They fish in the shallow waters around the barge.
If you are used to the dark brown Double-crested Cormorants of North America, it might take you awhile to recognize these Australian versions on the barge.
I did a couple of nest checks. My goodness, R1 and R2 at the WRDC nest at the Miami Zoo have grown in the last couple of days. They are walking much more steady and both are self-feeding and doing quite a good job of it. Beautiful beautiful birds.
Both are really tearing up the pantry to try and find some more food!
This has turned out to be a fabulous nest design. I really wish that something like this would be placed on both the Dahlgren and the Achieva Credit Union Osprey nests. It could make a huge outcome to the success of any future breeding seasons. — Richmond and Rosie need some help, too, with their nest on the Whirley crane. My goodness they no more than get the twigs and the Ravens and Crows take them! Can you hear me screaming unfair????????????
Despite some shenanigans by the oldest of the twins at the Dale Hollow nest, DH16 seems to be doing alright. So cute and fluffy with their tiny little wings.
In the next photo they are lined up by hatch time with the biggest in front.
Those three wee ones are quite a contrast to Kincaid at the KNF Bald Eagle nest of Anna and Louis. Kincaid is 50 days old today. Wow. And what a beautiful eaglet he is!
Louis and Anna have done a superb job raising their second eaglet.
It is time for me to get ready and go for my walk. It will be so nice to be outside in the fresh winter air. If you have been longing to move your chair near a window and cannot do it yourself, ask someone to help you. Don’t try and do it by yourself! It really will improve your day.
Please continue to send your warm and special wishes to Jackie and Shadow! Remember that tomorrow, Friday, 4 March at 2pm San Francisco time, there will be a Q & A on Annie and Grinnell by the Cal Falcon team. Here is that link. You can set it to alert you.
If you need more falcon activity, the couple at the New Hampshire falcon scrape are doing a lot of kerchuffing lately at the scrape box.
There is an adult on the perch on the left top.
Their eggs are normally laid in less than three weeks. Here is the link to that nest cam:
Thank you so much for joining me today. Take care everyone. Stay safe.
A deep thanks to the streaming bird cams sponsored by the following where I took my screen captures: Friends of Big Bear Valley, Cornell Bird Lab, Captiva Ospreys and Window on Wildlife, Port Lincoln Osprey, WRDC Bald Eagles, Dale Hollow Lake Eagles and the KNF Bald Eagles.
