Tag Archives: Wattsworth

K1 fledges, K2 taken into care and other news in Bird World. 22 June 2021

Before I even begin to write about everything that is happening on the nests, I want to show you an image of a gorgeous bird. Elegant even. Did you read that right. Did I just say that an Osprey was elegant? If she were a human, she could be a model on the Chanel runway. The perfectly symmetrical white V running from the top of her beak over each eye, the black mascara running through her eyes spaced evenly on both sides of her head, her stance, the beautifully elongated body, the turning of her head to look back, and the inner confidence.

Tiny Tot radiates all of those and more.

The image below shows Tiny Tot on 4 April. Sibling #2 would not let our wee one get near the food. There s/he is hungry. She had not eaten for over 2 days. Tiny Tot is almost falling off the side of the nest so that #2 will not peck his head or twist his neck. All it wants is some fish. Sibling #2 will actually keep eating when it is beyond full just so Tiny cannot eat.

Here is Tiny Tot a little later after Diane started bringing in catfish. Notice his/her little legs are filling in, the wee tail and the cute little bottom has some fat on it, too. Things turned around once Diane started bringing in her big catfish – and once she knew that Three was going to survive.

Tiny Tot survived by being clever, being patient, watching at every detail, and assessing the situation before acting. We can all learn a lot from this beautiful survivor.

There is another little bird struggling to survive on another nest. It is hard to imagine how the two Bobs on the Cowlitz nest in Longview, Washington will fare. I think that Electra is going to have to forget about who does what on the nest and go out and fish. She has proven that she is an excellent fisher – just like Diane. The chicks at Cowlitz are hungry. Electra is hungry. And today the more aggressive chick kept the other from having any fish at one of the meals.

It really reminded me of the position that Tiny Tot was in. There is the poor little thing cowering over at the rails. Even when the other had stopped eating, it would not allow the submissive chick to eat. The same behaviour as sibling #2 towards Tiny Tot.

There had to be another fish delivered later because when I checked again both had crops albeit the dominant chick’s was bigger. Indeed, more than twice the size of the other. But, I won’t complain. Both ate. I wish beyond wishing that Electra would go out and fish and turn this nest around.

Speaking of hungry, the Golden eaglet in the Bucovina, Czechoslovakia nest was so hungry. Yesterday, it ate a leg bone but bones do not provide hydration. Today, Lady Hawk posted a video of the eaglet eating the roe deer with its mother. I can only imagine how hungry both of them were. It is my understanding that there had only been 1 or 2 tiny birds brought to the nest in a five day period. It reminded me too much of Klints and Spilve. One of the things that the streaming cams teach us is that life is very challenging for our wildlife. In this instance also, humans need to learn to not interfere when there is an active nest.

Here is the video of Mom delivering the little deer to the nest:

And Lady Hawk just wrote to me and told me that Dad had brought a hooded crow for Mom to feed the little Golden eaglet. What fantastic news – both parents are well and hunting! Relief.

Speaking of relief. The little hawklet of Big Red and Arthur was taken into care this morning after K1 fledged at 8:27:31. There were no issues and K3 didn’t even notice. Well, I was certainly wrong on that. Was sure that K3 would fledge first! Here is the video of that smooth fledge of K1 – just like she had been flying all her life. She is 51 days old today. This is the latest fledge on this nest ever. Here is the video:

K2 has rhe best veterinary care a bird could ever hope to have! They will return her to the care of Big Red asap if that is possible.

Wow. The eaglet has food, the retrieval of K2 went well, K1 flew like a pro and so we wait for that cute little feisty one, K3 to leave the nest in Ithaca, New York. Thanks for joining me today. There is definitely some good news on the nests.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I get my screen shots: Achieva Credit Union, Cowlicks PUD, Cornell Bird Lab and RTH, and to Lady Hawk aka Sharon Dunne for her video and her kindness.

K3 looking out to the big world:

Tuesday Nest Hopping

Well, dear Tiny Tot did return to the Achieva Credit Union Osprey Nest this morning. Made me feel all joyful! He was on the perch and a bird buzzed him at 12:09:58. A full seconds later Tiny Tot leaves the perch. Was he in hot pursuit? Or was he just fed up being annoyed? The adult intruder had been on the nest earlier, too, when Tiny Tot was not there but it seems to be the Mockingbird that was a nuisance. Small birds love to annoy Big Birds. And how much longer will Tiny come to the nest? I wonder.

That adult intruder comes in every so often just to check things out. When Tiny arrives, it leaves! Tiny has made an impression – don’t mess with Tiny! Good.

Here comes Tiny heading for the perch at 11:07:27! You don’t see the adult Osprey – it took off the minute it saw Tiny arriving. Jack really does need to agree on a hefty amount of fish for this little one for securing the family nest all the time. :)))))

Oh, it is so nice to see you, Tiny Tot.

Tiny Tot is on the perch. If you look to the right and slightly up you will see the nuisance bird flying away from the nest.

Tiny flew off at 12:10:28 to the left.

Across the continent, Rosie is on the Whirley Crane nest in Richmond, California, with the trio. The chicks were banded on 4 June.

Isn’t that just a gorgeous location for a nest? Richmond is a great provider. This is their fifth season as parents. Rosie will stay around til the trio are well and truly fledged and independent then she will migrate. Richmond does not leave the area in the winter so he will be there helping the fledglings if necessary until they leave the territory.

Those white storks in Mlady Buky are really growing. Just miss a day and they look all grown up! And look how clean and dry they are. This is one of the best feel good stories of this year – it really is. I would love to wake up every morning and be surrounded by people who care about all living things.

Look carefully. You can see the throat pouch in the image below. Remember storks make a lot of sounds but they do not have vocal chords like songbirds. Instead, they clatter their bill together very, very fast and the noise resonates in this throat pouch making it much louder – like an amplifier.

Looking at how quickly these three are growing made me realize that I also need to check on Karl II and Kaia’s three storklings. They are the Black Storks in a nest in Southern Estonia.

Here is Kaia looking down at the three of them. Oh, I am so hoping that enough food arrives on this nest so that the little third hatch will survive. Kaia is a new mother and Karl II’s old mate, Kita, laid 5-7 eggs and they could not feed them all. Kita was known for tossing one or two of the small ones off the side of the nest. It is understandable when there is a food shortage but it looks like Karl II might have this under control and if Kaia only lays three eggs then they might fledge all their storklings without hardship.

Karl II and Kaia take turns feeding and watching the storklings. That is Kaia above. She has no bands on her legs – makes her easy to recognize. Those long legs help her wade through the long grasses and water in search of food.

Here comes Karl II. See his band. Kaia moves off the nest for her break to eat and forage for food for the storklings. So everything is just fine on this nest also. So far the day has been good for the birds I have checked on.

Taking turns.

In Wales, the camera operator gave everyone a good tour of the landscape that is the territory around the nest of Aran and Mrs G. For those of you unfamiliar, Mrs G is the oldest Osprey in the United Kingdom. She is 21. Her and Aran lost all three of their 2021 hatches due to Aran being injured while protecting the nest. He lost some primary feathers and could not fish. The community provided a fish table. Everyone ate but the wee ones not having food for 48 hours meant they could not be saved. Aran and Mrs G are getting their strength back and Aran is now flying much better. They are a strong established couple and will return next year from their African migration to try again.

Isn’t this just the most idyllic setting? There is a beautiful pond, an old stone fence along with cows and sheep. You can almost ‘hear’ the landscape!

All the rain made the Welsh countryside emerald green.

Now look carefully. Can you spot the Osprey?

Gorgeous landscape around the Glaslyn Osprey Nest.

The Two Bobs at the Rutland Manton Nest look almost as big as Maya and Blue 33 (11). Looks like it is time for some fish!

Blue 33 brings in a nice fish for Maya and the lads.

Now this image is really making me happy. The other day Idris got one of those mesh bags that holds produce – like oranges – caught on either his talons or a fish. It got into the nest with Telyn and the two Bobs. Thankfully no one was injured. The staff were watching it closely and if necessary, they would remove it. Otherwise they were going to wait to remove the mesh when the Bobs are banded at the end of the month.

Here is an image of the Two Bobs and the mesh the other day. You can imagine how worrying this was for everyone. You can also see the flat crops of each of the osplets, the down off their heads and the feathers growing in, and their deep amber eyes. They are in the reptile phase and for some, this is not so attractive as when they have either their natal down or their juvenile feathers. They really do remind us that Ospreys were around 50 million years ago – and as my son tells me – scientists only figured out that dinosaurs had feathers a few years ago so are they birds? or dinosaurs?

Another way that humans endanger wildlife is not disposing properly of our rubbish.

And this is today. Oh, what a relief. I hope someone finds that mesh and disposes of it properly.

Mesh is gone fron the Dyfi nest! Yeah.

Wattsworth has brought in a really nice fish to Electra on the Cowlicks PUD Osprey Nest in Washington State. I sure hope she takes the time to feed each oproperly. There was an awful lot of aggression on this nest yesterday and I am going to put it flatly on Electra for the lack of feeding when she had fish in hand on Sunday.

Wattsworth delivers a big fish – now feed your babies til they are bursting Electra!

And speaking of little bobs – oh, my. The third hatch at Foulshaw Moss of White YW and Blue 35 is really a wee lad. Everything is fine as long as food is not around but there is also a lot of aggression and it seems that there needs to be more fish delivered. Come on White YW!

Bob Three is really so tiny. He is cuddled up with sibling 2 having a nap. Of course sibling 1 is so big that it wants all the food but – Bob 3 is still here with us today and that is a good day in my books.

Wee little hatch 2 at Foulshaw Moss Nest in Cumbria.

The only child of Dylan and Seren is just in fish heaven. Growing up with no competition, s/he will need the parents to help it understand how to survive in the wild – the fight for the fish! I wonder if they will do that?? Certainly Bald Eagles train their only eaglets by pretending to be surrogate siblings. Samson did a wonderful job with Legacy on the Northeast Florida nest in Jacksonville.

All that chartreuse is moss. The first time I looked I thought it was another mesh bag. Is it just me or does this nest need some tidying?

And my last check in, the two Bobs up at Loch of the Lowes with Laddie LM12 and Blue NC0. Gosh. They are looking good, too.

It is so nice to stop in and find that everyone seems to be doing alright on a Tuesday. No telling what Wednesday will bring but for now, these birds are surviving.

I want to thank ‘S’ for writing to me and telling me that Tiny Tot had returned to the nest. It is much appreciated as are all your letters. Tomorrow I am going to explain something I learned today – the difference between the Migratory Birds Treaty of 1917-18 and the Wildlife Protection Acts of each individual province including my own.

Thank you for joining me. Smile. It is a great day.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: Mlady Buky, Eagle Club of Estonia, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Loch of the Lowes, Dyfi Osprey Project, LRWT and Rutland Water, Clywedog Osprey Project, Carnyx Wild, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Achieva Credit Union, Bwyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife Trust, Cowlitz PUD, and Golden Gate Audubon.