Tag Archives: Stewards of the Mississippi

Saturday in Bird World

19 March 2022

This will be a very short report on a few of the nests we have been watching. Each of those nests is doing fine. Indeed, they are doing really well.

Thunder and Akecheta are such an amazing team this year at the West End Bald Eagle nest. It has been a real treat to watch Akecheta mature into the genuinely passionate father of three chicks that he is. There isn’t anything that he will not do and he loves to shade, brood, and feed! This Bald Eagle nest of three chicks is doing very well. there are no issues.

Some of you may well be familiar with the Trio Love Nest on the Mississippi River near Fulton, Illinois. In 2017, the female, Hope, was probably killed by an interloper. There were two beautiful chicks in the nest and the two fathers, Valor I and Valor II raised them. It is a beautiful story that will lead both of them to find Starr or Starr find them and ‘the Trio’ to raise chicks together. It is not clear what is happening at the Trio Nest this year. It was believed Valor I had left and then he returned. This morning the Stewards of the Mississippi River said they believed that some sub-adult Bald Eagles had cleaned up the nest. We wait to see but this might be the end of The Love Trio. So sad. They were such a great team raising big healthy chicks to fledge.

This is an old video. Hope is believed to have been killed and the two males, Valor I and II, take over the care of the eaglets. They will raise them to fledge. It is really a good news story. I wish we had one today for all of them.

It has been 5 years since Big Red’s long time partner, Ezra, was killed. There were no eggs laid in 2017. In April of that year, a young Red-tail Fledgling made a visit to the nest that Big Red shared with Ezra. The young ‘whippersnapper’ as many on the Cornell chat call him wooed Big Red over all the other males that courted her. This is Arthur before he even had his Red tail!

This is Arthur today incubating the eggs for the 2022 breeding season. This is his 5th year together with Big Red. He is a cutie pie and Big Red is giving him more duties. Yippeee.

Gorgeous Big Red. Her and Arthur sure make great babies. She is 19 this year. Her life as a Mum has been tracked since 2012. No one knows if she had other mates before Ezra or how many chicks she fledged but, since 2012 she has only not fledged one. That was K2 who had a beak or jaw issue last year. That is an amazing testament to the amazing parenting that happens on this nest and the prey rich territory where she resides.

By 12 noon, Andy had made 3 fish deliveries at the Captiva Osprey Nest. They were a Sand Perch at 08:23; a Pinfish at 09:59, and a large Striped Mullet at 11:52. Everyone ate well and Lena has been shading her two surviving chicks from the hot Florida sun when she is not feeding them. I have seen no report from Captiva about the results of the necroscopy on Big Bob who died suddenly on the nest. Captiva and Window on Wildlife anticipated that they would have those results by the end of this past week.

Its 16:39 and the two at Captiva are eating again! Both have huge crops. Little Bob is pausing but there is so much fish left that surely he will return to the table for his usual second helping. All is good on this nest! That is such a relief. Hungry, healthy chicks!

For the followers of Ma Berry, the former mate of Pa at the Berry College Bald Eagle nest, a photo of Ma at Lake Allatoona was posted today by one of the members of the Berry College FB group. She looks good. The photo was September 26, 2021.

Pa’s and his new mate, Missy, have one chick this year, B15. A real sweet little eaglet. Well B15 has branched on 17 March! This is the announcement on the Berry College Eagles FB group.

B15 is a really healthy eaglet that loves using the nest like a trampoline.

Jackie and Shadow continue to do a great job at Big Bear just as anyone might expect. There have already been 7 feedings on this nest and it is barely 14:00. Feedings were at: 6:42; 8:01; 9:37; 10:29; 11:12; 12:16; 13:20. There appear to be several fish on the nest waiting. The Little One is growing like a beautiful read.

Everyone is good with the exception of Dale Hollow and whatever is happening at the Trio nest. The chick at Dulles Greenaway is happy, shaded, and fed. Rosie and Richmond, the Ospreys at the Whirley Crane in the Richmond Shipyards in SF Bay, are busy trying to rebuild their nest. That is going to be a huge job. There is no recent news of Annie and Grinnell.

I will do a separate report about the day’s happenings at the Dale Hollow Lake nest probably late this evening. I can tell you that Middle got 2 or 3 bites of fish this morning, the very first since the meal late on the 17th. (I think I said the 18th in an earlier report). The oldest has launched ferocious attacks on the Middle one like he did with Little Bit. The Middle One has tried to fed but can’t on a big fish on the nest. Middle has even tried eating dirty straw. It sat at the feet of the mother begging with a huge fish and River allowed Big to continue its terror. I will put a warning on that posting. Suffice it to say that I do not believe that any miracles are going to happen on this nest. There will be one chick at the end. A huge ferocious female. I hope to post at least one academic article that argues that siblicide is simply selfishness and that evolutionary success depends on many factors but definitely not siblicide.

Thank you for joining me today. It is gorgeous and sunny and all the snow is in full melt. Geese continue to come, several Blue Jays are back and I saw my first White-throated Sparrow of the year. Take care everyone. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams or their FB pages where I took my screen captures: The Cornell Chatters Group FB Page (image of young Arthur); Berry College Eagles FB Group; Captiva Ospreys and Window on Wildlife; Cornell Bird Lab and RTH; Friends of Big Bear Valley; West End Bald Eagles and the Institute of Wildlife Studies.

What a fantastic day

Today a woman who answers all manner of questions about The Love Trio, Starr and the two Valors whose nest is on the Mississippi River near Fulton, Illinois, answered a question for a member of the FB group. The question was: Do all of the eagles take turns incubating the eggs? Joan Dice’s response was simply priceless and I want to share some of it with you. I know you will have a smile on your face. I wish that all of the Bald Eagle nests had such attentive parents like these three!

She said: “Definitely all 3! So it is a struggle getting time. Starr broods during the night. V1 does all he can to get a lot of the day. He will let someone brood, but come back a few minutes later with a stick to be annoying. In fact it is a full circle on who can get one up the easiest. Starr can get V2 up by giving him kisses, which he doesn’t like, so usually quickly gets up. V1 can get Starr up easier than V2 can just by being annoying…walking all over her by placing a stick & hitting her with it, putting his rear end right in her face, or standing next to her, pushing on her side with his leg or body. It is very subtle, but you can tell by Starr’s reactions what he is doing. And V2 can get V1 up more easily than Starr can. He either stands there & waits (more patient than Starr) until V1 gives in. Or V2 will lay next to V1 a little while, then start shoving him off the nest bowl with his body by scooting over. Starr’s kisses are mostly ineffective on V1, but there are times he senses he better turn over duty to her. And V1 does the stick tricks to V2, also. He has even brought fishes to the nest to bribe V2 off the eggs. And that is why we call him the Brooding King”.

The image below was taken at 2:30pm 17 February 2021. One is incubating the eggs (or maybe laying another egg if it is Starr) and another is towards the left protecting the nest. You can see the bright yellow beak if you squint at the nest to the left front. This is when you want eyes like a hawk!

17 February. @2021 Stewards UMRR
17 February 2021 3:40 pm. @2021 Stewards UMRR

Normally eggs are three days apart. Starr laid her first egg on Valentine’s Day for the boys. Wonder if we will get another one today?

Usually there are only two eggs. There are sometimes three but this is rare and you really hope that there is a lot of food and a good feeding strategy and no problems between siblings if there are three. The incubation period for Bald Eagle clutches is 35 days. The eggs are rolled on average every two hours. You will notice the Bald Eagles rising up slightly and using their beak to do this. The Red Tail Hawks do it this way and that GHO has the cutest egg roll. She hoots to the eggs while using her feet and doing a little shimmy over the eggs. Indeed, most parents talk to their eggs so that the hatchlings recognize their voice. And rolling the eggs is not just so the parent can move around a bit. The purpose is to make absolutely certain that the yolk does not stick to the shell. If it did it would kill the chick that is growing inside.

All is well with Bonnie. She has been regularly rolling her eggs. Oh, the weather has certainly improved for this devoted mom. It is +26 with a little snow. That is thirty-three degrees warmer than it was two days ago. Clyde should have good hunting tonight.

And while so many are incubating eggs, M15 sits on the rim of the nest at SWFL in Fort Myers with two big babies, E17 and E18, below. They are 25 days old today. Harriet and M15 are super parents.

And despite 17 being a bully on several occasions today, E18 got a good feeding at 4:20. In fact, he had a nice big crop. It is hot in Fort Myers, 28 degrees C. The eaglets get their water from the moisture in the food. It is important that they get fed.

E18 has a nice crop full of fresh fish.

Over in St Augustine it is much, much cooler with grey skies and rain. Gabby is making sure that NE24 stays dry and is fed.

Parents are rolling the eggs and changing shifts over at the eagle nest at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, NJ. How grand is it to see no snow on that nest? These two have it slow right now. There are three eggs there! Three. I can’t even imagine what that will be like to keep law and order and get all of them fed. And that is where those eaglets being raised by The Trio are so very, very lucky. Each one could feed an eaglet if there were three and avoid all manner of sibling rivalry. When you have two parents and one needs to hunt and also protect, it can get tough.

Solly is on the move again. She is 150 days old today and there are said to be a lot of fish at Perlube. She has gone a distance of six kilometres from Eba Anchorage where she was the other day. She is still heading north.

Now, this really is what all the excitement is about today at my house. Remember this fellow? He came in with an old beak injury and a healed broken leg (on its own so not perfect). Those injuries happened in the fall, perhaps October or late September. But he was grounded, starving, and on the verge of dying. And someone had the vision to get him to A Place Called Hope. His lead levels were 49. And the top image below is what he looked like.

This old Warrior would not give up so the wildlife rehabbers and the vets did not give up on him. He is eating well and look at this today! I mean this is the kind of news in the ‘Bird World’ that causes you stand on the top of a building and shout. A miracle. No doubt about it. The Chelation Therapy worked.

Now look at that reading………..wow. 12.5. You can tell just by looking at him that he is feeling so much better. Thank you to all those people who believed in him – and spread the word. A reading of 49 does not mean a death sentence to a Bald Eagle if you have ‘Hope’.

And down in New Zealand, this chick is causing so many problems. Not because he is sick or underweight – oh, no. It is because he is so big! Yesterday at weigh in, he was 1.9 kilos. He is so big that is getting extremely difficult for him to fit under his dad, LGK (Lime Green Black) who is now on nest duties. What a problem to have! Great food, great parenting. Again, if every nest could be so lucky.

Lime-Green-Black looks down with those same gentle loving eyes at his little son who is becoming fluffier by the day. Soon this little chick will be left all alone on its nest. Each parent will be out at sea foraging and returning to feed it and then leaving. Always pulls at my heart to see them sitting there waiting for a parent to return.

It takes both parents to keep up with feeding the growing chick. Last year OGK (Orange-Green-Black) was injured and was away for forty days. Something had happened to his leg.

As the sun lowers on the Canadian prairies, all of the birds in our update are doing great. What a nice relief.

I hope that all of you are well and warm and staying inside if you are in the middle of the next weather system moving around.

Thank you to the following streaming cams: Cornell Labs and NZ DOC; Duke Farms, Farmer Derek, SWFL and NEFL. Stewards of the Mississippi and to Port Lincoln Osprey for the tracking images for Solly and to A Place Called Hope for the images of the Warrior Eagle.