15 May 2022
Good afternoon everyone. It is a coolish, perhaps, rainy day on the Canadian Prairies. So far it feels like a really good day to read rather than planting all the annuals. There are rumours that are temperatures will drop this coming week and that would kill all the delicate flowers and vegetables! So far no Baltimore Orioles today but a whole host of White Crown Sparrows, Pine Siskins, European Starlings, and House Finches. It is also a good day to check on some of our favourites and some that have been overlooked for awhile.
Alden always surprises me. I adore him for his quirkiness and his devotion to Annie and the chicks. Alden was up hunting and delivered ‘something’ that resembled a gull early this morning. Annie ran out and retrieved it for the kids at 04:44. The kids were wide awake and ready for breakfast. Both of those chicks are growing and doing very, very well. What could have been a disasterous season has turned into a truly joyful blessing.
Here ‘it’ comes!
If you have been watching the Weissenburg Peregrine Falcon nest and you cannot see the eyases, do not despair. They are losing their white down and their feathers are coming in. They are also very mobile and all are out on the ledge when prey is delivered as the scrape is very cramped. You can just catch a glimpse of them at the far right.
Only chick at the Cromer Peregrine Falcon scrape is doing great. Indeed, look at the colour of its legs and feet in the second inmage. That bright yellow is a sure indication of a chick that is in good health.
This is a short video clip of a feed at the Cromer scrape on the 13th.
There are four eyases at the scrape in the Salisbury Cathedral. The parents are doing a great job keeping each one of them fed. Every one has a huge crop.
There is a continuing fear by many watching the falcon and hawk nests that have 3-5 chicks that one will suffer like they do on eagle, boobie, osprey, heron, etc nests. This is not normally the case. The falcon and hawk parents feed the eyases til each is full and the % of siblicide is so low on these nests that we do not even have to think about it!
The three in a scrape over looking the city of Warsaw, Poland are doing well, too.
All five eyases at the Manchester, NH scrape appear to be doing just fine. I cannot even imagine the work that these parents are going to have to do in terms of getting prey as these chicks grow and grow and grow.
It is amazing how many Peregrine Falcon scrapes have streaming cams! There is always a new one and the scrape in Warsaw is new to me!
It is raining lightly on Theo’s Osprey nest in Latvia. It appears that he has not attracted a mate to the nest. Is it because all the female Ospreys know that this Osprey nest is close to the Goshawks and that those hawks will kill the chicks? That is sad. This is the only Osprey nest in Latvia.
If only we could get Theo together with Iris! A male sort of suitor has been coming to Iris’s nest. She did not fight him off until yesterday. Iris wanted to see his intentions and when he approached the nest several times without a fish, she wasn’t having it. Good for you, Iris!
The Patuxent River in Maryland has been home to Ospreys for more than thirty years. They chicks are ringed and one female has been returning for 20 years! So don’t forget about these Osprey if you are searching around for a nest to watch. I will also add that it was here, last year, that many of us were able to rally one of the staff to return to the part on a Friday evening to retrieve a chick that had fallen off and was in the water. A good intervention!
Here is the link to the streaming cam for nest 2.
Mum is bringing in catfish to the Osprey nest at the UFlorida-Gainesville. Middle has been working hard to get the food off of them unlike Big who really does like to be fed by Mum. Both chicks appear to have moved beyond the food competition phase. Middle is a lovely bird – a survivor.
Big gives up working on the catfish – getting the meat off of a catfish head is very, very hard work. Middle does not mind.
I have been thinking a lot about this nest and I am grateful to ‘R’ for helping me to understand what might be impacting the fishing for this family. ‘R’ was able to establish that Lake Alice which ‘was’ a very large lake supporting the Ospreys has been partially taken over by dormitories and parking lots! Bivens Arm Lake in the second image is covered with green algae/plants making it impossible for Dad or Mum to see fish and catch them. This is quite tragic. Thank you ‘R’ for finding this out for all of us. Much appreciated.
There is also concern that Dad might be trying to keep two nests as one is clearly seen on a light pole leading up to the campus not far from the nest on the practice field. Both could explain the prey deliveries to the nest for Big and Middle.
The triplets at Manton Bay are doing well. Blue 33 continues to bring in lots and lots of fish including those pesky perch that have several lives.
Blue 33 is getting his breakfast order from Maya.
Rosie and Richmond are not giving any hints as to a pip happening at the San Francisco Osprey nest on the Richmond Shipping Yards.
The eaglets on the Dale Hollow nest are really getting the last of that juvenile plumage in. It will not be long til they begin to hover and fledge.
Big is on the right and just look at Middle’s crop!!!!!!!
Only Eaglet at Duke Farms is really going up high on the branches and is quick to get to the nest when food is brought in. (You may recall that there were originally two eaglets at the nest. The much smaller one did not survive).
That is a quick check in on some of our nests. So far, so good! It is always lovely to start the day knowing that everyone is as good as they can be! Thank you so much for joining me today. Please take care!
Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Duke Farms, DHEC, SF Bay Ospreys and Golden Gate Audubon, LRWT, Google Maps, UFlorida-Gainesville Ospreys, Patuxent River Park, Montana Ospreys, LDF, Peregrine Networks, Warszawa Peregrines, Salisbury Cathedral Peregrines, Cromer Peregrines, Weissenburg Peregrines, and Cal Falcons.