Wow. Tiny Tot didn’t get any fish yesterday. It would appear that Jack is attempting to make up for that today. A fish was delivered at 7:53:25 and a second at 10:03:55. Needless to say, Tiny Tot is very happy and has a nice crop!
Tiny was really hungry. I hope he didn’t grab on to dad’s talon! There is always a flurry of wings and talons during a prey drop.
And that second delivery. Tiny was just as excited and mantling just as frantically as the earlier fish drop.
Tiny Tot is still working on that last fish. It is going to get up to 31 degrees C in St Petersburg, Florida today. These fish should really help hydrate Tiny Tot, too. Thanks, Jack!
There is a Golden Eagle nest in Romania where there is now a single mother taking care of her chick. Why is this the case? What would scare off a father eagle from helping his family? Could it possibly be someone who knew that there was an eaglet on the nest and decided any how to install the solar powered camer. No one puts up a camera unless they know that it is an active nest. Cameras and time are expensive. Sadly, it frightened the male. The male is so afraid of the camera that he has not returned to the nest since it was installed. To be clear, those actions might have cost this eagle family their nest. The chick is fortunate in that there is enough prey and the mother is a very good hunter.
Many of you will have watched Spilve struggle last year after Virsis did not return. Sadly, Klints died. I so hope this little one survives. The Golden Eagles are opportunistic hunters and the other has brought in a fawn and now she has been bringing in parts of an adult deer.
The little one is just starting to get some of its juvenile feathers. Here the mother keeps it warm. She will not waste any of the prey. The other day the chick was eating what looked like an ear from the deer.
The female has all of the duties. She has to bring in the prey, brood the chick, and also protect the nest. It is fortunate that she has the stamina to do all of those duties.
Last week residents of my City including myself were successful in stopping our public utility from cutting trees in the area of a known raptor nest. It is essential that individuals stay away as the adults can be so easily traumatized by a human presence. How sad for this family – and how difficult the life of this female has become.
The camera to this nest is here:
Some of you might be familiar with the videos of Lady Hawk. She is covering this nest because she started Golden Eagle coverage with Spilve and Virsis in Latvia last year. Virsis disappeared and Spilve was left to raise Klints by herself. She had to perform all of the duties like this mother and, in the end, Klints, who was almost ready to fledge, starved to death. Lady Hawk really wants to see a Golden Eagle chick grow up. She has created a number of videos of the happenings on the nest if you go to YouTube and do a search for Bucovina Golden Eagles or search under Lady Hawk. Here is the one of the chick eating the ear by Lady Hawk:
Many of you will remember Bonnie and Clyde, the Great Horned Owls that took over the Bald Eagle Nest in Kansas earlier this year. I did not know that so many people loved owls. Where I live they are mostly responsible for people running outside and screaming as they raid the nests of smaller birds including the local Crow family. That said, for those of you that do enjoy owls, my friend ‘S’ told me about a nest of Barn owls in the Hula Valley of Israel. There are seven owlets in that nest – they are all sizes. Right now they do not look very soft and cuddly! But guess what? A pigeon laid an egg in that nest! I wonder what is going to happen.
Here is the link to the live camera in Israel with the Barn Owls if you want to watch:
UPDATE: The mother owl evicted the pigeon and the pigeon’s egg broke. All done and dusted.
Ah, thank you for joining me today. Lots of things happening. Always think before you get around an area that could have a bird nest! And please be pro-active like the residents of East Fort Garry – they knew of an active nest and stopped a major utility company from cutting down the trees! Help protect our wildlife and their nests. Thank you!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: the Achieva Credit Union, the Charter Group of Wildlife and Barn Owl Israel, and Asociatia Wild Bucovina.