Tag Archives: Pont Cresor

Both eaglets have hatched at Big Bear

5 April 2026

Wow. Isn’t this a great morning?! We had marvelled at Jackie and Shadow’s first hatch keeping a keen eye on that second egg that was pipping knowing full well there would be two eaglets today – and there are!

We missed the second hatch. Thanks to ‘PB’ for sending me some great images while we were out walking Toby.

It has been a while since I watched the news. In fact, I have made a conscious decision to live in the moment, to rejoice in what is happening in our garden as the seasons change, and to monitor how our on-screen bird families are faring. The world is too dark and from past experience checking on streaming cam videos that show ‘death’, it would seem that more people prefer to see a ‘snuff’ video of an eaglet than one where a much loved and wanted chick is hatching. To me that is simply ‘sick’. So, I don’t post them and I don’t watch them.

Today was also a glorious day in the garden. At 0900 three Blue Jays appeared! Three. One of Junior’s and the Mrs fledglings from previous years has returned. They make their nest in the tree across the lane now that their big elm has been cut down. Mr and Mrs Crow have arrived. We have started putting out leftover chicken and their cheesy dogs as they begin to build up after the winter and prepare for their nesting. The Starlings are here, the sparrows are down in number, and the chickadees arrive at dusk and dawn. The Red squirrels are busy caching peanuts – I do not know why and to date, we still have dear Dyson coming with her kits. She is VERY old. We know it is her because of markings that we have compared over the years. With lots of good food and a safe environment, Dyson can possibly live for several more years. That makes me happy.

The Starlings yesterday:

I could never catch the three together in the same frame.

Two blue jays perched near a feeder, one holding a peanut, with a background of twigs and branches.
Two blue jays at a bird feeder filled with peanuts, one in flight with a peanut in its beak and another perched on the feeder.

I record the seasonal changes in the garden including the arrival of more species in this book:

Cover of 'The Naturalist's Notebook' featuring illustrations of birds, plants, and natural elements, with titles and authors' names.
An open book page featuring illustrations of a large beetle with wings and a black bird perched on a tree branch.

Just like many of the large nature centres keep track of the arrival and departure of their ospreys and eagles, I do the same with all of the garden animals over the years. It is a wonderful way to keep yourself in ‘the present’. Nature heals us – it does not destroy us. We need to embrace the life around us.

Each of us should turn off the outside world to keep our hope and kindness. Most of you will recognise that we are all interrelated and that what is good for wildlife and the planet is also good for humans. Then why do we allow people to destroy our precious home? Clearly, Jackie and Shadow do nothing to destroy Big Bear, and yet their habitat is constantly under threat, as it is now from proposed construction at Moon Camp. I want ‘the people’ to triumph for Jackie and Shadow – not just for them but as a signal that we care about wildlife, their habitat, and the sheer joy that their existence gives to us. If there has ever been a time to step up and be heard on this matter, it is now. Being silent is no longer an option. Whether you do it at the ballot box, by donations or volunteering, writing letters or op ed pieces, do something. That something could be as simple as a dish of life-saving water put out daily and refreshed for the birds and animals.

Baiba has the first feeding attempt at Big Bear for hatch 1. (Gosh, I hope they name this one Sandy!), and they could name the second Speers. That would be a wonderful tribute to a woman who worked so hard for these eagles. https://youtu.be/Lyo3kpR280M?

Baiba has the arrival of the second eaglet: https://youtu.be/CB0Jfj3dVoQ?

My gosh they are cute.

A fluffy gray chick sits in a nest surrounded by sticks and two unhatched eggs, with some straw and twigs scattered around.

There continue to be ospreys arriving. We are keeping a close eye out for Louis and I would love to see Blue 35 return to Foulshaw Moss although I have to say that hope is dwindling by the day. Blue 717 has really taken a liking to White YW and why wouldn’t she? He is an amazing provider.

Fish deliveries at ​​the Pont Cresor nest of Z1 Aeron and Blue 14 are at 07:03 – 11:29 – 16:23 according to chat. This is the new streaming cam at Glaslyn owned by Friends of Osprey.

Z1 Aeron is an excellent provider – one of Monty’s boys. Making his dad proud.

A bird with outstretched wings is perched on a nest made of branches, set against a cloudy sky at dawn. The image is slightly blurred due to water droplets on the camera lens.
A close-up view of an eagle perched on a branch near its nest made of twigs, with a scenic landscape of hills and greenery in the background.

At the nest of Aran and Elen, close to the Pont Cresor platform, Aran is delivering fish in terrible conditions, but no Elen to eat them. It is not clear to me that Aran and Elen have seen one another at all since Aran’s return. Please correct me if I am wrong.

A bird perched on a branch amidst bare trees, with greenery in the background.

Storm Dave has brought rain and wind, with some snow, to Wales. It was particularly bad last evening in Sotlad at the Loch Arkaig nest. Will Louis return today or tomorrow?

Dorcha had a sunken crop. She is waiting for Louis to bring her a fish but she doesn’t know he has not arrived. Oh, please, Louis come home.

A bird sitting in a nest made of twigs and branches, overlooking a mountainous landscape with patches of snow in the background.

Asha has arrived home at RSPB Loch Garten.

A female osprey is seen in a nest made of twigs at Loch Garten, surrounded by a forested landscape with hills in the background.

Keep your eyes on those screens for arrivals and if you haven’t seen the second baby at Achieva, check it out. Dad is doing an amazing job bringing in the fish! What a relief.

An osprey chick stands in a nest made of twigs on a platform, with an adult osprey perched above it. In the background, trees and a street are visible.

To those celebrating, Happy Easter or Happy Passover. May you find peace and joy and have good times with friends and family.

Take care everyone. That is it for today. Toby is getting a nail trim in the house tomorrow. Another one of the convenient services I have discovered and it is now time for me to think of what we might have for lunch. We hope to see you soon!

Remember – if you are feeling the least bit down, put on a jacket and head outside. Sit and listen. Feel the breeze on your cheek. I promise you will feel a thousand times better. If you are up to it, go for a walk. Check out the birds around your home. Let me know what you are seeing. Bye for now!

Thank you to Baiba for the videos of the Big Bear Valley family of Jackie and Shadow. Thank you ‘PB’ for alerting me to the full second hatch at BBV and to all the owners and people who post news including Jeff Kear and the UK Osprey Info FB, I am so grateful. Thanks a billion!

Saturday Morning in Bird World

09 April 2022

Good Morning Everyone. I had so hoped to have some images of the Tunda Swans landing here in Manitoba for you today but, alas, we have a flooding issue that is causing a bit of a problem for some of the bridges and roads outside the City. So, that will have to wait! We will be back up to a balmy 7 degrees C and I am told to get out and enjoy it. Snow is coming again in a few days. Thinking that somewhere tropical looking at birds in the winter might be a nice change next year, for sure.

White-tail eaglets are hatching! The British RSPB (and others) have been working to reintroduce the White-tailed Eagle to the UK. The RSPB at Loch Garten in Abernathy Scotland announced the hatch of the very first chick in the Cairngorms Connect Programme happened at 19:42 last night. Congratulations everyone!

“Cairngorm Plateau” by Mr Moss is marked with CC BY 2.0.

White-tailed eagles in the UK became extinct with human persecution. The eagles last bred in England and Wales in the 1830s, in Ireland in 1898, and in Scotland in 1916. This hatching in the Cairngorms is, therefore, a big deal. One current threat to them is shooting. Several of the White-tail eagles introduced to the southern part of England have been shot near hunting estates this year causing wide spread outrage.

Almost simultaneously, the first White-tail Eaglet in Denmark hatched!

Norway has the largest population of White-tail eagles in Europe. That is completely understandable because the birds like to have a territory that is located near to or adjacent to a body of water. Their territory can be as large as 70 km.

The White-tailed Eagle appears in Germany’s coat-of-arms and is Germany’s national bird. The eagle appears on the 1 Euro coin.

The eagles are recovering but they are still in a critically dangerous level. There are only 600 breeding pairs in the EU. Factors causing a decline in the population include shooting, poisoning, nest robbing – eggs and chicks -, the loss of habitat, the loss of wetlands, and the high pollution of water.

White-tail eagles eat fish, birds, and small mammals. They are one of the largest birds of prey in the world with a wingspan of 5.8-8 feet and weighing 9.5-12 pounds. They normally lay 1-2 eggs. The nest in Denmark has 3 eggs this year.

Congratulations to Richmond and Rosie at the SF Osprey Nest at the Richmond shipping yards on their second egg. Here is one of my favourite male Ospreys rolling his eggs — Richmond!

The contest for naming Annie’s ‘The New Guy’ has made the news in California. Be sure to put your suggestion in. Cal Falcons will create a short list for voting on the 13th.

https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/04/07/no-more-new-guy-contest-begins-to-name-uc-berkeley-falcons-new-mate/?fbclid=IwAR18ht5DRDRHm-piNOX2_LuqPglbg9iY-adWlXVllXHZ3uJqrzSTWxOHB4E

There is another naming contest for the two eaglets at Redding. Here is their announcement:

Everyone hoped that Big at the Dale Hollow nest had moved on from beaking Little Middle. Not so. Perhaps the wet cold weather caused Big to not be so friendly this morning when the breakfast fish was brought in. Big attacks Little Middle at 10:08:01. Little Middle waits and listens and moves up to eat at 10:14:18 doing what he does best – the snatch and grab. Both eaglets were fed. Little Middle stayed and did clean up.

It was not nice. Big can still get a good hold on Little Middle around the neck.

I am so delighted! Karl II was on his nest yesterday. Welcome home, Karl II. Congratulations to everyone who worried so much and did such good tracking of his migration home.

Idris and Telyn are eating, working on the nest, and thinking about eggs and chicks at the Dyfi nest in Wales.

Idris on the nest; Telyn up on the perch eating a fish.

Everyone is still waiting for Aran to arrive. Mrs G, the oldest Osprey in the UK, has been visiting Aeron Z2 over at the Pont Cresor nest which is close by to the Glaslyn nest.

I did not catch it but a male, LJ2 has been sky dancing over at Glaslyn for Mrs G. Will Aran return is the big question on everyone’s mind. I hope that he is arriving as I write this! That would be grand.

All the nests appear to be doing fine. There are some weather systems to be watched for next week. The Dark-eyed Juncos are arriving along with several species of Sparrow. The Canada Geese continue to arrive along with the Bald Eagles. There were 43 of them on the river near to where I live two days ago. They are on their way up to Lake Winnipeg and the good fishing.

Thank you so much for joining me. I hope that you have a lovely Saturday. Take care everyone.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams and/or FB pages where I took my screen captures: Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, DHEC, Dyfi Osprey Project, Eagle Club of Estonia, Birdlife Denmark, SF Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, Redding Eagles, and the RSPB Loch Garten Abernathy.

Wednesday in Bird World

Lady Hawk has posted some close ups of the Royal Albatross cam chick, Tiaki, doing some wing exercises. Tiaki is all grown up, a beautiful juvenile, the daughter of LGL and LGK. She will fledge soon beginning her five or six year journey at sea – never touching land – til she returns to the headland to begin finding a mate. Perhaps one day Tiaki’s chick will be the Royal cam chick. I do hope so. It will mean that the seas are safer places for our beautiful squid eating birds.

“Masked Bobwhite (female ) (subspecies of Northern Bobwhite) | BANWR | AZ | 2016-04-15at07-43-413” by Bettina Arrigoni is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The Audubon Society has posted some really good news. The Masked Bobwhites are once again seen in southern Arizona. They were believed to be on extinct or on the edge of extinction because of cattle grazing in the Arizona deserts. Today they are listed as ‘critically endangered’.

They are a small round quail. When I was a child, we would travel to visit relatives in Arizona every summer. Oh, was it hot! But there were always Bobwhites. It is nice to hear that they are now returning.

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2021/the-decades-long-effort-save-masked-bobwhite?ms=digital-eng-social-facebook-x-20210900-nas_eng&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20210900_nas_eng&fbclid=IwAR3FdSaYj3uy5eJPlW1b1mf1vqn6tl3tEgRrhpa7ErJl356QCTvPxxgFzaE

This photo was taken on the 10th of September. I wrote about it at the time because in migration news, this is great. The son of Aeron Z2 and Blue 014 at the Pont Cresor nest in the Glaslyn Valley – and the grandson of Monty and Glesni – had reached Brittany. That was 12 days ago. He would now be further on his migration, perhaps stopping in Spain. The photo of Blue 494 was taken by Colette Leclerq.

Photo by Colette Leclerq, Brittany France

Speaking of migration and waiting and wanting news of Blue 464, it is more than time to check on the Black Storks from Latvia and Estonia.

First up, Karl II, his daughter Pikne, and his son Udu. They are from the Black Stork nest in the Karula Forest in Estonia. This map is taken from the Karl II migration pages of the Forum.

Udu is now in Hungary near the fishponds at Banhalma. Karl II remains around Kherson Oblata in the Ukraine. Pikne has doubled back and remains in Moldova. What I think is interesting about this map is that Udu has turned and is heading towards the Asia Minor route. There was a question as to whether he might go the western route to Africa but it seems he will be flying over Greece.

This is the data from BirdMap. You can access the BirdMap here:

http://birdmap.5dvision.ee/EN

I was wanting to see about the Black stork Julge. He is Jan and Janika’s only surviving chick this year. He is now in france. You can see him still heading over the westerly routing.

The birds that are in the centre of Africa are two Ospreys!

So far everything looks in order and everyone is still safe.

I cannot bring you a late afternoon update on the Port Lincoln Ospreys. The camera was frozen for most of the day and has just returned to normal. Mom has the kids covered tight. It is only 8 degrees at 16:00 with winds blowing over the water at 11 kph.

I can show you a bit of what a beautiful day it was on the Canadian prairies. I really need to practice with my camera and my tripod. These are some images today taken at a distance of about 68 metres. I found the tripod tricky to use – I need a counterbalance for it – so these are all hand held. The set up was heavy. But there were a few passable images.

A female Mallard. This species is very common in Manitoba. They have, on occasion, fooled me so I have had to go to our local eBird expert. This is a real beauty.

The Canada Geese would like the entire pond to themselves. They swim after and honk as they pursue the ducks.

There is your dabbling duck. She knows that goose is there but is trying to ignore it.

The park was just beautiful. It was 25 degrees today. One of the fountains was not working and that end of the pond had men working. Still the geese on the other side were a bit curious.

All of the Wood Ducks were either up on the islands or down by the fountain that was working. This is a female and she is such a cutie. I sat and watched her swim in and out of the water droplets for quite awhile.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Tomorrow is a day away chasing shore birds. I hope to have a posting tomorrow evening (Thursday). Take care everyone. Stay safe. Stay Positive!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams or FB pages where I took my screen shots: Port Lincoln Osprey Project, Friends of Ospreys, and to the Eagle Club of Estonia, BirdMap, and the Latvian Fund for Nature.