Tag Archives: Richmond and Rosie have three osplets

Tense Day in Bird World

It has been one of those days. Two things happened that were expected. One was a good expectation that almost turned into a tragedy – and sadly, the other one was the siblicide of one of the chicks on the Cowlitz Osprey Nest in Longview, Washington.

K3 fledged from the Fernow Light Tower at 13:42. K3 is 49 days old and is a tiny little hawklet standing at just a little less than 30 cm (12 inches) tall. The flight was dramatic. K1 had been visiting the nest. Indeed, the K1 had spent the night on the nest with her little brother, K3. They were sooooo cute.

K1 is a great big hawklet – a big female and a cute tiny little male. K1 flew over to the Oak Tree where she had fledged yesterday at 13:38. I don’t think K3 wanted to be left out of the action that his big sis had described. If you missed it, here is that fledge:

K3 flew around the Oak tree where K1 was, did a turn, and tried to grab onto Bradfield and missed. But he was not injured and has spent the afternoon exploring the ledges and being dive bombed by Robins.

Here is an image of K3 after fledging taken from the nest cam:

K3 has even had a rest. Meanwhile K1 flew back to the nest where a chippie was dropped off for a tea time snack.

After all the stress I thought that I should just follow it up with a check on Tiny Little Bob on the Foulshaw Moss Nest. There are three chicks on that nest and Great Big Bob is a bully. It was not certain that Tiny Little Bob would survive but it seems like he will. Fingers continue to be crossed. The older and bigger that Tiny Little gets the more chance he has.

When I turned on the nest cam the chicks were looking around and you just knew something was happening. They were looking around everywhere. Mom landed on the nest followed by White YW, Dad, with a Flounder!

Here is that video clip of the arrival of that fish:

Tiny Little was not comfortable eating first as you can see and then Tiny Little Bob realized that Great Big Bob wasn’t pushing for food so Tiny Little went for it. He ate for about 4 or 5 minutes without stopping. You could tell he kept wanting Blue 35 to hurry up before Great Big got hungry!

Great Big and Middle let Tiny Little go first.

Seeing Tiny Little eat made me feel really good but, of course, I am still uneasy about the size difference between Great Big and Tiny Little. I needed one of those feel good moments and that sent me checking on Richmond and Rosie. Richmond and Rosie are the equivalent of going over to check on the Royal Cam chick in New Zealand. You just know before you look that everything will be alright.

Richmond and Rosie had three boys this year. Gosh, there are a lot of male ospreys being born! I also wanted to see what names were selected for the trio. There they are on the natal nest on the historic Whirley Crane on the Richmond Shipping Yards. The third chick is on the other side of Rosie.

The Golden Gate Osprey FB – the SF Bay Ospreys – posted the image below with pictures of the boys, their ring numbers, and their names. Over 700 people voted. That is pretty amazing. Now look at the beautiful necklaces on those boys! Don’t let anyone tell you that only female ospreys have necklaces. 022 on the Poole Harbour nest has one of the best necklaces I have ever seen! And look here at Sage.

Richmond and Rosie always make me feel good. They are a stable couple with a male who provides well for his mate and children. There is never the issues of sibling rivalry and siblicide as we have seen on the Cowlitz Nest. It is refreshing and calming.

Jack brought Tiny Tot a fish at tea time so everything is all right with the world on the Achieva Osprey Nest. Oh, Tiny has grown into such a beautiful bird and a great protector of the realm. Who ever would have believed this in March? A whole lot of love went out to this third hatch – so many people wanted 3 to survive and well…just look!

There is Tiny mantling really big and tight! S/he wants that fish. Thanks, Jack!

Thanks for joining me today. Looks like it could be a stormy evening on the Canadian prairies. Take care everyone. Be safe!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my video clips and screen shots: Achieva Credit Union, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, SF Bay Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, and the Cornell Bird Lab and RTH.

Checking in on Bird World – Friday 4 June

This is the first year that Sarasota Bay has a camera on their Osprey nest. This year there are three chicks and this morning at 7:41, Mom put on a stunning fishing demonstration for everyone watching. Here is a short video clip of that moment. She has been watching a fish for several minutes and was drawn to catch it!

Over in Mlady Buky, Czechoslovakia, the three baby storks and their Dad are really doing well. The community continues to provide food for them and will until such time as the little ones can get their own. How generous and caring these people are. It has been two weeks since the female was electrocuted on the hydro lines. It is heartwarming that everyone has pitched in so that this nest can be a success and not a tragedy.

Look at how well they can stand. Their wings are growing. This is just grand. And now the three can move around the nest much better than they could a week ago. They love to watch what is going on below them! My Asian friends tell me that everyone will be blessed with a long life because of their good deeds for this stork family. I sure hope so! It is for their efforts that these three little birds are now standing.

Look at those precious ones standing and their wing feathers growing in so nicely. They are looking like healthy little storks. This was ten days ago:

What a difference!

The little albino Osplet in the Urdaibai Biosphere Nest is still with us! It has really been raining and thankfully, the skies stopped pouring down and Landa got a break to feed the trio.

Aww, little Zuri is right up there wanting some fish. Thank you Roy!

The sun is setting. The golden glow that it casts on the marshlands makes them so green and so alive. Landa is keeping all three of her little ones warm and dry. I wonder if they will have one more fish dinner?

The rain has left Landa and her wee ones in Spain but it is pitching it down in King George County in West Virginia. Harriet and the two Bobs were soaked when I checked on them today. Just look at how big those kids are now. Harriet seems to have controlled Jack’s urge to bring too many objects to the nest! or maybe the people of the area have stopped putting out toys specifically for Jack to take to the nest! That would help a lot.

Thinking about toys and aprons being brought to an Osprey nest reminded me of Richmond and Rosie. Richmond is the ‘king’ of cute things coming in to the nest. There are people who watch so that the chicks don’t get hurt and carefully go up and remove them. One of the most fun things was a blanket last year; many remember an orange monkey, too, and an apron.

There are two camera views. One is a rather wide view of Richmond and Rosie’s nest on the Whirley Crane – yes a real crane – at the Richmond Shipyards in San Francisco.

The other one shows more of the actual comings and goings on the nest. The last time we checked on this family – I am embarrassed it has been so long – was when the third chick hatched. Rosie is a pro at handling a nest with three ospreys and Richmond is quite the fisher. These babies and their mom will never be hungry. Richmond does not migrate. He stays in San Francisco all year round but Rosie heads south in the winter returning in late February. This year she arrived earlier than she ever has – on 18 February – just a few days off of Valentine’s. Richmond is always delighted to see her. He is usually at the nest within minutes of her arrival! Oh, the love birds. How sweet.

Richmond and Rosie’s trio are getting their peachy juvenile plumage!

I always watch the scrape box of Diane and Xavier on the grounds of Charles Sturt Campus in Orange, NSW, Australia. As you may know, Peregrine Falcons do not build nests like Ospreys and Eagles. They lay their eggs on gravel or sandy cliffs. This is a method that has evolved so that there are no parasites to harm their eyases. Izzi is Xavier and Diamond’s 2020 hatch. Izzi has his own very distinct personality. And he is a handful.

The scrape box is on top of the old water tower (170 steps up). The behaviour of the Peregrine Falcons is part of Dr Cilla Kinross’s research on raptors.

Izzi is posing a lot of interesting questions into falcon behaviour. He should have vacated the scrape box months ago as the new breeding season is about to start. BUT – yes one of those big pauses….Izzi fludged and was returned to the scrape box. Then on his second fledge he flew into a window and was taken into care and returned to the scrape box. The third time was a winner – a perfect fly out from the box. But Izzi, being Izzi, the only child of X and D, may think that the scrape box is his! It is now the beginning of June and everyone was sure he would be evicted no later than February. I wonder what is doing to happen???

Here is Izzi having a serious chat with Diamond, his mother, who is on the ledge. Izzi is known for being very loud. They can probably hear him all the way to Sydney!

I am going to close with a video by Lady Hawk on the Bucovina Golden Eagles in Bulgaria. The mother hunted and brought a fawn into the nest the other day. You might recall that normally the males do the hunting but the male is afraid of the camera! So the mother has had to go and hunt. Here you can see that she keeps feeding her chick til it looks like it will pop. Just look at that crop!

It is now 35 degrees C on the Canadian prairies. The heat warning remains in effect for this atypical weather. In fact we are now 7 degrees hotter than islands in the Caribbean! It is time to replenish all the bird bowls and baths. Have a fabulous weekend everyone. Thanks for joining me. Take care.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: Charles Sturt University Falcon Cam, Urdaibai Biosphere Ospreys, Mlady Buky, Dahlgren Osprey Nest, Sarasota Bay Ospreys, and Golden Gate Audubon.

Saturday Nest Hopping

As many of you know, I have a ‘soft’ spot for several of our avian friends and clearly, Legacy, Tiny ‘Biggie’ Tot, and the Ks are at the top of that list but, in truth, there are so many amazing birds that have brought me joy that it is impossible to give each one of them the air time that they truly deserve. That said, Tiny is going to fledge in about a week. Legacy is still home but it won’t be long until she is gone into the big world, too. That is why I am spending so much time with them.

Tiny Tot working his wings. 7:15 pm. 8 May 2021

This morning Legacy really lucked out. At 9:30:16, she sees her parent coming in with food and she starts squealing. She flies down to the nest six seconds later to retrieve that fish from her dad, Samson.

Then at 2:43:25 Legacy starts squealing again. She flew down from her branch so quickly that she sent Samson off the nest with the fish. He had to come around and land again. Wow, it was a whopping piece of nice fresh fish. Legacy will be full until tomorrow for sure!

That is a really large chunk of fish that Samson has brought Legacy.

Legacy is learning how to hold the fish with all of her talons so it is easier to eat and doesn’t move around and so that no one steals her dinner!

Oh, Legacy is doing a really good job with the self-feeding.

Legacy’s crop is as full as it can be! Isn’t she just gorgeous?

Richmond is busy bringing in fish for Rose and the gang. Like all the dads, he loves the head. He has nice crop. Richmond is a great provider. It looks like Rosie is keeping the toys and hats out of the nest for now.

There they are. Three tiny little Ospreys.

Aran brought in a really nice flounder for Mrs G today in celebration of Mother’s Day. There are the three eggs that Mrs G is incubating.

Big Red and the Ks are beginning to dry out. Oh, it has been a soggy couple of days on this Red-tail Hawk nest.

Precious. Well behaved. Big Red always has everything under control.

Blue 33 (11) brought in a nice fish for Maya to feed ‘Little Bob’. There he is not even a day old. Oh, so cute.

The two little ones at The Landings Skidaway Island Osprey nest are growing.

Can you find them? Look carefully.

Still looking a little reptilian.

You can see the big crop on the eldest one and the youngest still being submissive in the image below. These little ones learn quickly – if they survive – to keep their head down, let the dominant one eat, and then go for it. So, like Tiny Tot they wait, listen, and get ready to jump.

And there is the little one getting a nice feed.

Tiny ‘Biggie’ Tot is enjoying a nice fish meal as I type this. Indeed, Tiny has had a lot of fish today. He might have even had more if it had not been for sibling #2 losing a whole catfish off the edge of the nest. This last delivery came at 8:11:58. You can just hear Tiny Tot squealing, “It’s mine”. If you look you will notice that Tiny still has a crop from earlier in the day.

Jack is so funny. He really is not comfortable feeding the kids. He keeps looking around for Diane. Meanwhile, Tiny must be thinking “just give me the fish, I can feed myself.” Turns out Jack is OK at feeding the little one.

Tiny is still being fed as the IR camera comes on and the sun is going down in St Petersburg.

This is a lovely image of Tiny Tot by Diane with sibling #2 eating its fish in the back. I want to try and get a really good front image of Tiny tomorrow. It appears that Tiny is getting a dark necklace. If that is the case, I am going to have to stop calling Tiny ‘Biggie’ Tot a ‘he’.

Tiny’s wings are getting so big and the tail feathers are growing nicely. The plentiful food in the last couple of weeks has made a big difference in Tiny’s life.

Thank you for joining me as we hopped, skipped, and jumped from nests today. Take care and all the best.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams. That is where I get my screen shots. They are: Achieva Credit Union, Cornell Bird Lab and RTH, Cornell Bird Lab and Skidaway Audubon, Golden Gate Audubon Ospreys, NE Florida Eagle Cam and the AEF, LRWT Rutland Osprey Project, and Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife.