19 July 2022
Good Morning Everyone,
We woke up to more rain with the promise of tornadoes in some parts of the Canadian prairies. When I first moved to Canada, tornadoes were rare – something that I knew a lot about coming from Oklahoma where F4s are the norm. Now everyone knows what the word ‘tornado’ means. It is 21 degrees C – almost half of what it is in parts of the UK and Europe. I am grateful for the rain – wells are full and so are lakes – instead of a drought and fire. The garden birds are happy today. Way too hot yesterday. Thunderstorms are headed to Llyn Clywedog in Wales but it looks like Glaslyn will be spared. The temperature at Heathrow Airport hit 40.2 C, a record. My thoughts go out to all the animals – human and not – around the world who are experiencing drought, massive flooding, fires, heat, or all of the above. We live in very challenging times.
In Finland, the female has returned to the Janakkalan nest. I have been missing her visits. Thank you ‘C’ for the time stamp. Reviewing footage, the Mum of the two beautiful osplets has tried to eat but she cannot keep the food down. She appears to be weak and tired. Her ‘ps’ is like water – not thick cream. It is so sad but we must be thankful that the chicks appear to be healthy, regardless. Dad is bringing in plenty of fish. One can eat well and the other one is getting there. There are, of course, fish squabbles and both wish their Mum was well and was feeding them. Send positive wishes to this nest – for Mum, so the chicks don’t get sick, for plenty of fish, and for cool weather as Mum is not able to shade the babies if it gets hot as she is normally not on the nest. This is a good thing since it appears that she could have trichomonosis which is highly contagious.
Rain is falling on the Ironwood Tree in the Sydney Olympic Forest. Mum is keeping SE29 nice and warm and we are waiting to see where SE30 is in the hatching process.
Very first bites of fish for SE29. Sweet.
The last osplet, Farne, has fledged from nest 1A at Kielder at 11:10. The Mum of the three fledglings, Mrs YA, has a real task ahead of her keeping these fed. This may hinder her own preparation for getting her weight and fat levels up for migration. I wonder what will happen at the time of migration? Normally the UK females leave earlier than the males leaving the Dads to feed the young ones for 2-3 weeks. Once the fledglings fly south the Dad will leave.
Thanks to Suzanne Arnold Horning we still have wonderful images of Big Red and Arthur’s Ls flying around campus, accepting prey drops, and catching their own.
Cutie Pie L4. Notice that the juvenile hawks have the loveliest blue eyes, sometimes blue-green or blue-green. As they mature, those baby blues will turn dark espresso brown.
Brooks flew off the nest on the morning of the 18th and has not returned. Richmond and Rosie are on the nest. I wish we had some understanding on what happened to Molate. GGA said that they will not retrieve Molate’s body while Brooks is still in the area. So sad for this lovely Osprey couple in their beautiful nest on SF Bay.
Golden Gate Audubon mentioned that some of the chicks in this area actually go to other Osprey nests where they are fed. This apparently happened in 2018 when one of Richmond and Rosie’s chicks moved to another nest and was fed and stayed there until he left the area. That was Brisa.
At the Glaslyn nest of Aran and Mrs G, it appears that Blue 498 fledged this morning. Congratulations! The only chick remaining on the Glaslyn nest is 499!
Both of the fledglings sitting on Aran and Mrs G’s perch! Gosh, they look like they are going to be dark like Mum.
Padarn and Paith on the Dyfi nest of Idris and Telyn. Pedran fledged on the 15th of July. Waiting for these two to test their wings. Gosh, look at that crest. Gorgeous.
All of the chicks of Dylan and Seren’s at Llyn Clywedog have now fledged. what a fabulous year for this nest!
Dorcha continues to look quite fine after the scare with the blood on her abdomen/leg the other day. Louis continues to get the fish on the nest and the weather looks pretty good today. It is about 24 there today.
One of Blue 33 and Maya’s girls was on the Manton Bay nest this morning fish crying to Dad. These were the first to fledge and it is rare to catch them on the nest at Rutland.
Annie and Alden, the Peregrine Falcon couple on The Campanile on the grounds of UC-Berkeley might be wishing that Lindsay and Grinnell Jr would find their own territory!
What a gorgeous sunrise on the Channel Islands West End nest of Thunder and Akecheta this morning. Thunder even came to the nest and paid a visit at 05:45.
Everything looks good at the Boathouse Osprey nest of Dory and Skiff on Hog Island this morning. It is going to get pretty hot on Hog Island today…going up to 28 or 29 C with a 50% chance of rain.
No one slept on the Mispillion Osprey nest by the harbour in Delaware. Later Mum is on the nest with one of the fledglings feeding it and then enjoying some fish herself. I am surprised the other fledgling is not rushing in for some of that fish.
According to the chatters, fish of various sizes ranging from tiny to a little bigger arrived at 0501, 0516, 0534, and again at 0650 for Mum and the two osplets on the Osoyoos nest in British Columbia. Dad is making up in numbers what he isn’t able to supply in size with the heat in the region. Looks like it will be up to 33 C later today — it is 18 degrees C now. What a difference. Mum will be shading her babies!
I have seen no updates on Victor or Little Bit ND17 so far. It is 0939 CDT. All of the nests look fine but two which are worrisome. One is the nest in Finland which took a turn for the worst with one chick dying of starvation. The two older chicks, realizing that fish was at hand, learned to self-feed. There is also worry for Mrs YA at Kieldner nest 1A – how will she get herself in good condition to migrate while tending to all the chicks? Send them all your best wishes – and also for Brooks. I hope that he is safe and being fed elsewhere or that he gets himself home.
Thank you for being with me today. Take care. Stay cool if you are in an area of extreme heat. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their photos, videos, or their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Finnish Osprey Foundation, Sydney Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre, Suzanne Arnold Horning, SF Ospreys and GGA, Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn, Dyfi Osprey Project, CarnyXWild, Friends of Loch of Arkaig and the Woodland Trust, LRWT, Cal Falcons, Explore.org and IWS, Explore and Audubon, Mispillion Harbour Ospreys and DDNR, and Osoyoos Ospreys.