Fledges and returns…brief Bird World News

9 August 2022

I hope this finds each of you well. We are just enjoying especially beautiful days lately with clear skies and ‘green’. It is the thing we miss most during the winter – the colour ‘green’. The juvenile Crows and Blue Jays are still coming for peanuts and water and for some nice swims in the bird bath. Of course they have to beat Dyson to those peanuts. The men have not closed up the bottom of the sunroom and I believe, if they went under, they might find about 30 peanuts Dyson has been putting there! I am waiting to see if these Crows and Blue Jays migrate. They do not always. Soon the migrating birds from up north will begin to make their way south. The Dark-eyed Juncos will be here demanding millet – on the red carpet!

There is not a lot of news in Bird World but what there is is fantastic.

The Fortis Exshaw Osprey Nest (put up by the power company of the same name) is celebrating today and so is ‘H’ who spent the day staring at the screen. She had a feeling that all three would fly today and — well, she was almost snookered when Dad came in with a fish but – yes, all three osplets at the Canmore Alberta site are now fledglings. This is fantastic. Thanks ‘H’ for your tenacity and belief. Mom had been on the distant pole urging them on. You can see her cheering her three babies.

This is the footage of the first fledge. (There is some buffering).

Fledge 2. The fledgling flew about for 2 or 3 minutes before returning to the nest.

Fledge 3.

Guess who is home? He doesn’t migrate but his mate does. The couple fledged two eaglets at their nest near Jacksonville. The nest this male Bald Eagle is using is the actual nest where he hatched on 23 December 2013. His father’s name was Romeo. His mother’s name was Juliette. Any ideas?

Gosh he looks good! If you said Samson you are correct. He has fledged 5 eaglets from this nest: Jules and Romey (2019), Legacy (2020), Jasper and Rocket (2021). Welcome home, Samson!

Gosh, things are just steaming up in Australia and Samson is home. Goodness.

More images of the Notre Dame eagles have been taken and posted. The three of them together a few hours ago. Lovely to see them. It is curious that our Little Bit 17 seems to always stay away from where 16 is…long memories.

The two sea eaglets at the nest in the Sydney Olympic forest are getting two big for that egg cup. They should be stretching those legs and skooting around the nest on their wrists. They are adorable. Pin feathers and all.

For all the California Condor lovers, the chick at Tom’s Canyon is really growing beautifully. Very hopeful.

Thank you so much for being with me. Cheer the Fortis Exshaw osplets. It was quite the day for their parents – all three fledging at once. So happy. They are going to have good time to create those flight muscles. Take care everyone. I will be back on Friday.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams, videos and or posts that became my screen captures: ‘H’ for the Fortis Exshaw videos, Fortis Exshaw, American Eagle Foundation- NEF Bald Eagles, Sydney Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre, Sydney Olympic Park, Notre Dame Eagles FB, and Ventana Wildlife.

As the sun goes down

Typically I check on ‘the babies’ many times a day. This evening there is a soft glow coming across the eagle nest onto Gabby and little NE24. The Japanese have a name for this particular light that shimmers down through the trees causing everything to appear slightly golden. It is komorebi and it is magical. It looks like the universe is laying a soft warm blanket around Gabby and NE24.

Just look into Gabby’s eyes gazing down on NE24. Pure love.

It is just turning 6pm. The setting sun is softly lighting the Spanish moss hanging down from the old tree, too. And up in that deep nest where Samson was born is Gabby and Samson’s little one, NE24. NE24 is nine days old today.

It is a Slash Pine tree. Sometimes these trees are called Swamp Pines because they grow in the watery swamps of Florida.

Samson’s parents, Romeo and Juliet, brought the very first twig for this nest for the 2008 breeding season. They placed twig after twig in that spectacular ‘V’ about eighty feet off the ground. And every year they added more. It is now estimated that the amount of sticks and leaf debris, moss, etc. making up the nest would weigh more than a metric tonne. For ten breeding seasons Romeo and Juliet successfully fledged every eaglet they reared in that nest, nineteen in all. There was plenty of food and little sibling rivalry.

No one knows anything about Gabrielle. She appeared one day, a female looking for a mate and Samson liked her out of all the others. We know that Samson was born on this very nest on 23 December 2013. He fledged on the 22nd of April 2014. Samson returned four years later and bonded with Gabrielle. Their first breeding season was 2019-20. The administrators for the NEFL Eagle cam named the eaglets Romy and Jules after Samson’s parents. Both fledged successfully.

The same soft glow of the day’s end falls over Bonnie, the GHO in the Eagle’s nest. Bonnie must be anticipating that her mate, Clyde, will come in with some treats for her. It has now been sometime since she had a meal because of the frigid temperatures. The temperature may stay in the range around 6 degrees F so there might be hope that those mice Bonnie loves will be running about tonight so Clyde can catch one for her.

As the sun set, Clyde was ready to wake up and go hunting. It wasn’t long until he brought Bonnie her first mouse of the evening.

I wish that my hearing and my eyesight were as good as Bonnie and Clyde’s. It is said that a Great Horned Owl has such good hearing that if a mouse steps on a twig they can hear it even if they are 23 metres away (75 feet). And, from observing Bonnie, we know that she really can turn her head for a complete 360 degree view. But, even though she is called a Great ‘Horned’ Owl, she doesn’t have any horns! How silly. But she does have those soft feathery tufts coming off of her incredible ears that resemble horns. Bonnie’s feathers are not hard like other raptors; they are very soft. The ends of Clyde’s feathers are round which allows him to fly virtually undetected – like a Stealth bomber – just not as fast. Bonnie hears him; she sits up in anticipation as he nears the nest (below).

Clyde flies into the nest with the mouse.
Bonnie quickly took the mouse.
After dinner they had a wee bit of a conversation.

We are so fortunate to be able to see the exchanges with these owls – what a rare treat! And aren’t they cute together?

Updates on all the gang will come later tonight. Have a fantastic day everyone.

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Thank you to NEFL Eagle cam and Derek the Farmer for their streaming cameras where I took my screen shots.