Tag Archives: wildlife

The Joy of the Birds and Squirrels

The National Post recently ran an article about birds making people as happy as money. Personally, I think they make me happier!

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/birds-make-you-as-happy-as-money-study-finds?fbclid=IwAR0ZNxXT4gK7XqoPkB8j75KVj0VZmd-48N4zu-yQFtZbxng-rzEE13ECdwI

When the article made its way to FB, one person commented that birds make her “happier than most people do”. I giggled. Yes, that can certainly be the case! I know from the comments sent to me by each of you – either as a formal comment or a private e-mail – that since the pandemic began, the birds have really been the life line for many of you. I know a dear woman who has been quite ill who kept her focus and her fantastic disposition by watching the White-Bellied Sea Eagles. Many of you might remember, if you followed the FB of the Royal Cam Albatross, that a woman who was in hospice found solace in watching Pippa being raised by OGK and YRK. It removed her from herself and her imminent death. The birds brought her both joy and comfort. She loved that little fluff ball.

I am lucky. Every day I wake up and feel blessed. I taught my last face-to-face university class on 11 December 2019. Two days later, in celebration of my retirement, I went to Quebec City and spent a glorious time exploring the most European of all Canada’s large cities. It was only a few weeks after my return that my son alerted me to ‘something happening’ and I needed to stay home. It was not a hardship. My daughter was the one carrying the burden and my granddaughter. My daughter juggled teaching full time with alternating between virtual classes and face to face ones while trying to raise a family. My granddaughter worked with the homeless addicts in our downtown core in the depths of winter. I had it easy. I fed and watched my garden birds and animals as I had done for years. I began a blog to share that joy with others. At the same time, I hoped, now and again, to raise awareness of the challenges that the birds and other wildlife face on our planet. They have given me so much and hopefully, in a small way, I can give something to them.

There are three grey Squirrels that live in my garden. Some of you know their antics. There is Dyson who is always thinking about food. There is Scraggles whose tail is forever being torn off by one thing or another. Scraggles appeared emaciated on the deck several years ago. He sat right by a huge pile of black oil seed and water and ate til I didn’t think he could eat another seed. Every day he would come and sit in the same place. It took about 3 weeks to a month and he was back to something that resembled a healthy squirrel. There is a third, much larger grey squirrel who is always somewhere in the garden. Dyson and Scraggles seem to ignore it and like to be with one another. I think they are siblings. They live in a hole in the big Maple Tree in front of my house. Thankfully, it was not one cut down by my City because Mr and Mrs Woodpecker live in that tree, too!

Yesterday, I took the very bottom slice of the compressed seed cylinder and stuck it on a very short twig. I knew one of the squirrels would find it.

Scraggles has it! But Dyson is hot on his trail.

Scraggles has the lead. In the image below it is hard to tell who has the seed. Dyson has little fur tufts sticking up from his longer ears along with a longer tail with more silver in it.

It was only minutes later and I spotted Scraggles sitting on a tree branch. The piece of compressed seed no where to be seen. Did he drop it trying to get it up the big Maple Tree? or did Dyson catch up with him and grab it? Dyson was no where in sight.

There is lots of food for all the squirrels. Dyson is a ‘pro’ at sitting on top of the compressed suet cylinders chomping away.

In fact, I have an image of Dyson, two days ago, eating from that very piece of compressed seed that Scraggles grabbed today. I am certain that they will both be working on those two new cylinders when dawn breaks tomorrow.

Indeed, our warm weather has brought them out running freely in the garden and at the park where I go for my daily walks. When I left for my walk, there were tiny flakes of snow. By the time I finished, it was raining and +3. Just last week we were -35. It must really be hard on the animals with the temperatures flopping back and forth. There is more snow scheduled for tomorrow.

My images of the little Red Squirrel at the park are not very good. He was a distance away. A lady with her dog were approaching the squirrel on the snow. It got frightened and moved like a squeaky toy over to a hole in the snow where it disappeared.

There seemed to be squirrels everywhere today – Red ones and Grey ones.

The fur on the Grey Squirrel in the images below is very, very thick. The colours offer perfect camouflage.

I noticed that someone had left some peanuts at various spots in the snow around the flower garden where I spend my time walking. I think he had one of those. It must taste yummy on a damp day.

The Red Squirrels at the park have the most beautiful fur. They are different than Little Red who lives in my garden. These have grey underneath, a stunning coppery red on their back with a black tipped tail and ears.

The planters are all empty waiting for spring to arrive.

It is so quiet. A great place to go for a daily walk.

Scattered about are sculptures by Leonid Molodozhanyn (shortened to Leo Mol). Mol was born in the Ukraine. He studied art at the Leningrad Academy of Arts, the Berlin Kunst Academy, and the Academy of Arts in the Hague. He immigrated to Canada in 1948. He died in 2009 donating all of his bronze sculptures to the park. The intent was to create a place of quiet solitude. The trail winding through the gardens and sculptures is 1.0 km long – a perfect length for a nice brisk walk or a quiet stroll.

It is wonderful to be able to go out in a safe place and breathe in the fresh air and listen to all the chattering of the squirrels. The Cooper’s Hawks will arrive in April building their nest in the Spruce Tree along the walking paths. Eventually the juveniles will be jumping around all under these trees and around the bear sculpture looking for bugs. It is a delightful place. I hope that each of you has a place that is peaceful and serene where you can go and walk or sit or even read a book and sip some tea.

Thank you for joining me today. The news is so often full of the negative and sometimes we just need to stop and be grateful for what we have. Every day I thank the garden animals, the ones at the park, and those I see on the screen for the joy that they bring!

Take care everyone. See you soon.

Why do some Bald Eagles have ‘wing bling’?

If you watch the West End eagles on Santa Catalina Island, you will have noticed that there are tags on their wings similar to the tags on the wings of the California Condors.

It all goes back to DDT and the near extinction of the Ospreys, Bald Eagles, and other birds from the United States. Sea life has been impacted and so have humans. After World War II DDT was used to eradicate for mosquitoes in the US. Various areas received high amounts of this toxin. It wasn’t just the spraying but also the illegal dumping of hundreds of thousands of tonnes that has caused harm. Indeed, the waters off Catalina Island, for one, became a dumping ground for DDT.

In 2020, an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times about the finding of the rusting barrels of toxins leaking near Catalina Island. (The scientists were looking for methane).

The author says, “As many as half a million of these barrels could still be underwater right now, according to interviews and a Times review of historical records, manifests and undigitized research. From 1947 to 1982, the nation’s largest manufacturer of DDT — a pesticide so powerful that it poisoned birds and fish — was based in Los Angeles.”

“DDT is so stable it can take generations to break down. It doesn’t really dissolve in water but stores easily in fat. Compounding these problems is what scientists today call “biomagnification”: the toxin accumulating in the tissues of animals in greater and greater concentrations as it moves up the food chain.” The birds at the top of the food chain, often referred to as the canaries in the coal mine are the Ospreys who eat the fish and the Bald Eagles.

This is a fantastic read. I urge you to take the time so that when you hear about the impacts of DDT you will understand the history and the harm.

https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground/

In 1980, there was a reintroduction programme of Bald Eagles into the Santa Catalina and San Clemente Islands. Even until 2001, the eggs were removed and fostered and the chicks banded. Between 1980-86, 33 Bald Eagles were released on Santa Catalina. These birds grew to adulthood even breeding but due to the DDE levels, the eggshell thickness was still compromised. You might recall that Jackie and Shadow at Big Bear have problems with thin eggshells today. Big Bear Lake was heavily sprayed with DDT and it is residual in the soil. The tagging program can be seen with the tags on Thunder and Akacheta. Their chicks, should they hatch and survive, will be banded as part of the continuing study.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/chil_eaglecam/wing-bling-reference-chart-santa-catalina-and-san–t11469.html

From the findings of scientists now, the number of barrels of DDT in the waters of this area rusting and leaking are growing. In April of 2021, more were found.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/29/californias-legacy-of-ddt-waste-underwater-dump-site-uncovers-a-toxic-history

For those who would like to go back to the 1970s when the alarms were being sounded by various individuals including Rachel Carson, a good read is The Silent Spring. I would hope that most local libraries would have copies. As you can see, the storage and long life of DDT and the fact that it does not break down in water, is a continuing concern for all the wildlife and humans around the Santa Catalina Island which is now controlled by the US Navy.

In other Bird World News, there was a major storm going across the Eyre Peninsula, home to Port Lincoln and Ervie. The camera has been off line for some time. There were several nests waiting for food deliveries this morning including the KNF nest, home to Kincaid, in Louisiana.

It was wet at the NEFlorida Nest but, because the chicks are younger, there are still piles of fish in the pantry.

Have you noticed that as the nestlings get older the amount of prey on the nest declines? A small fish was delivered to SWFlorida E19 and E20 but that nest is empty of prey also. No worries. It is something to notice as the eaglets develop.

Thank you for joining me today. It is a beautiful morning -1 on the Canadian Prairies. More snow is due to start mid-afternoon. I am going to go out to try and see some birds! The Snowy Owls are still eluding me! Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to Explore.org, NEFlorida Bald Eagle Cam, and the AEF and the KNF for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots.

Feathers

In my blog on Florida Eagles, I made mention of blood feathers. A reader, ‘B’, wondered about those blood feathers. I realized then I needed to clarify the matter. So, let us take a short look at feathers – what they actually do – and in that discussion I will clarify the ‘blood feathers’.

What are feathers? Sibley says “that the precursors to feathers were not scales but bristle like hollow structures” that evolved into what we know today as a ‘feather’. Feathers are made out of keratin, the same material used for human fingernails and toenails as well as the beaks or bills of birds.

There are seven different types of feathers. They are the wing, the down, the contour, the fail, the semiplume, bristle, and filoplume.

@Cornell Bird Lab

The down feathers have hardly any shaft. You will recall the soft down that Daisy rubbed from her chest to line her nest. You can see it in the image below. This soft down helps to insulate the birds by trapping air.

The contour feathers help give the bird its colour and shape. Contour feathers cover the birds everywhere except for the beak, its legs and feet. They are the outer covering of the bird and you are probably more familiar with them than any other type of feather. These feathers overlap. You can see these overlapping feathers on Daisy in the image above.

Flight feathers are on the wing and the tail of the birds. It is easy to get confused. Some people separate and say tail and wing to distinguish the parts of the bird where the flight feathers grow. Tail feathers help the bird with flying. They help it to change direction – similar in function to a rudder on a boat. These broad flat feathers help the bird to fly along with those on its wings.

The image below is of a Turkey Vulture. It is still flying – and is alive – despite the fact that it is missing one leg and some of its wing (flight) feathers.

“Turkey Vulture with One Leg and Flight Feathers Missing” by wanderinggrrl is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Here is a great diagram showing the primary, secondary, and tertiary wing or flight feathers. The Vulture above is missing some primaries as well as secondary feathers.

In the image below you can see the tail feathers clearly. You can also see the overlapping contour feathers.

The function of the wing or feathers is to support the bird so that it can fly precisely to its destination. Here is an example of a flight feather.

The central hollow shaft attaches to the bird at the calumus. In young birds, such as eagles, this shaft is filled with blood and is called a Blood feather. When the feather has completed growing, the blood vessels regress.

If a flight feather is broken – the tail or the wing – before it is fully grown, blood will flow. Normally, the blood of birds will coagulate just like humans and there is no risk to the bird. However, it is possible for birds, such as eaglets, to bleed to death by a simple broken feather. This is especially true if the bird has been exposed to rodenticide. Rodenticide stops blood from coagulating. In the case of the Captiva Eaglets, the elder was flapping its wings and jumping and broke a blood feather causing it to bleed to death. It had been exposed to rodenticide by a dead rat being brought to the nest.

There have been instances when birds have had to have emergency treatment because they have bled so much when a feather was broken. These are emergencies and the blood needs to stop flowing. Cornflour (cornstarch) and icing sugar can be applied to the site of the break. Both will help to coagulate the blood. If you have pet birds this is something to know if you raise little ones.

Here is an excellent article on all things feathers!

https://www.thoughtco.com/feather-anatomy-and-function-129577

The feathers are ever so important for the birds. Indeed, the feathers are absolutely essential for the bird’s survival. You will see them constantly conditioning their feathers by preening them. The feathers wear out and have to be replaced. Some birds molt twice a year to change the colour from breeding to non-breeding. Others molt only once a year. Molting uses up a lot of energy so birds generally molt during the warmer times of year such as summer. Some birds replace a few feathers at a time. Geese and ducks actually molt all of their flight feathers at once which means that for several weeks until they grow in, they cannot fly. Some of you will have seen Cardinals or Blue Jays molting their feathers. Their heads often look like they have a disease. Our favourite Red-tail Hawk molts after the nestlings have fledged. The running joke is that Big Red becomes Big Blond as the colour of her feathers goes from a deep rich auburn red to a paler strawberry blond of blond during the late summer and early fall.

“Blue Jay (Ypsilanti, Michigan) – Late July & Early August, 2020” by cseeman 
“Balding Cardinal” by Tobyotter is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

So, to be clear, birds will not bleed to death once their feathers have fully grown in and there is no blood in the shaft. One way to help reduce the number of blood feather deaths or any deaths of our raptors is to ban rodenticide.

For American Bald Eagles, we use the change in the colour of their plumage to tell us what age the birds are. When all of the eaglets from the nest fledge, they will look like the raptor in the top left. In 2020 (I think I am right), there was a 4 year old Dad at the DNR nest in Minnesota. This was unusual. Normally the adults that are breeding are 5-6 years of age and have that distinctive pure white head.

Thank you for joining me this evening. I hope that you are all well. I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre Sydney Olympic Park and the WRDC Bald Eagle nest in Miami.

Yeah for Ervie!

It is impossible for me to hide those birds that melt my heart. The third hatch of Mum and Dad at the Port Lincoln Osprey barge this year was one of those birds. Measured to be a male, given a sat-pak to track his adventures, and a real name – Ervie – he has amused us from the moment he hatched. Whether it was making certain that he got to the ‘sweet spot’ so Mum could feed him, standing up to Bazza, or having those dust ups with his older brothers, Ervie has been nothing short of a joy to watch.

For the past few days, Ervie has been down in the cave with Dad. One day Dad brought Ervie 3 fish meals but yesterday, he brought Ervie only one. Observers believe that Ervie had, at one time, been catching fish successfully off camera. While we so longed for Ervie to dive off the barge and come up with a fish like Falky, that has not happened. Ervie did bring in a puffer fish to the nest that he had obviously caught. There were loud cheers from Canada to Japan when that happened.

Today, Ervie was on the nest and Dad was sitting on the twigs in the cave. Ervie flew off the nest. When he flew in, he had caught a fish – a very nice fish – and Ervie was wet.

Tears of joy flowed and hands clapped. Our boy can fish!

You can see Dad down in his cave. Ervie has flown off the nest. I wanted to make certain that Dad did not hand the fish off to Ervie somewhere else. No, he is sitting tight. Did he have a chat with his boy?

Here comes Ervie with a nice fish in his talon. Dad looks up and sees his lad. He must have been thinking, ‘Well done’.

Ervie lands nicely and doesn’t lose the fish over the rim of the nest.

Fantastic, Ervie! You look so proud and confident.

You can tell that Ervie is wet – yes, Ervie, you did catch this fish all by yourself. Congratulations!

Ervie is really enjoying that fish. It must be all the more delicious because he caught it himself.

I wonder if we will see him fishing more and more and bringing his catch to the nest on the barge?

I am smiling! Wonder if Dad thinks Ervie should share with him?

Three other items in Bird World. A search party gathered to look for Bella, the female, at the NCTC. She had an altercation with another female several days ago. Bella returned briefly to the nest but she was bloodied and there was much concern over her left eye. Bella has not been seen since. There is no news on finding Bella, sadly. Perhaps they will continue looking tomorrow. The Dulles-Greenway Bald Eagle couple have their second egg. It was laid today. And, sadly, Scarlett, the female adult Osprey on The Landings nest has returned to find her nest taken over by GHOWs. I wonder if her and Rhett will find a place for their eggs so they can raise little ones this season? They had two of the most gorgeous fledglings last year!

Thank you so much for joining me. I know that so many of you love Ervie just like I do and his successful fishing trip just reassures us that he can take care of himself – when he wants to! What a darling. Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to Port Lincoln Osprey Project for their streaming cam where I took my screen shots.

First egg at Achieva Osprey and other Bird World News

Jack and Diane are the Ospreys at the Achieva Credit Union Nest in St Petersburg, Florida. Off and on there have been other couples coming and going when they were not on the nest. This morning, however, that is all changing. Diane laid the first egg of the 2022 season around 23:40 on 1 February! Congratulations Achieva!

Diane, I really hope that you stop at two this year! Despite Tiny Tot Tumbles surviving and then thriving last year.

Jack brought Diane a nice fish this morning and took his turn incubating the egg so she could eat and have a bit of a break. Good one, Jack.

There is something going on at the NCTC nest. Where is Bella? Smitty was seen mating on the nest with the intruder female this morning! There she is on the right with the brown feathers in her tail. She is quite easy to identify. It was 08:06.

Deb Stecyk caught it on video:

Ervie likes it down in Dad’s cave. He is still there but Dad is gone!

Anna and Louis’s baby at the KNF nest is 21 days old today. If you look carefully you can see the shafts starting on the wing tips for the flight feathers. The thermal down is really coming in nicely.

Typically, this eaglet has a huge crop as it sits in front of Anna.

I have not seen the final three names for voting posted. Cody has been in Texas until today and I am assuming that him and Steve will meet, figure out the three that were mentioned most often, and then set up the final public voting.

It’s that stage. Thermal down and clown feet and looking like Hulk. White dandelions on the head.

The little eaglet – B15- at Berry College is getting its thermal down, too. It was caught preening this morning! Did you know that the pin or blood feathers will grow where the natal down shafts were? So the thermal down always remains under the feathers to help the beautiful eagles regulate their temperature.

It looks like the eagle nests I have been reporting on will, for the most part, not be impacted by the snow and ice that is coming in through Saturday. The Love Trio along the Mississippi near Fulton, Illinois, the eagles in PA, Big Red and Arthur’s nest and Duke Farms will likely get some precipitation.

This is the current view of the Mississippi Flyway.

The Pittsburg Hayes Bald Eagles are already dealing with some snow. It is egg watch at this gorgeous nest. That is Mum on the left. Dad is looking down to that beautiful river that supplies this couple with some of their food.

Here is the link to the Pittsburgh Hayes Nest. That nest is only 5 miles from downtown Pittsburg on the Monongahela River. Remember this couple raised three lively chicks to fledge last year! Incredible. This nest is looking for 3-6 inches or up to 15 cm of snow with an ice coating tomorrow.

You might not have this next nest on your radar. This is the information on the streaming cam about the region and the eagles. “The Dulles Greenway Wetlands has been home to two American Bald Eagles since 2005. In 1995, TRIP II established a private 149-acre wetlands preserve in Leesburg, Virginia during the construction of the Dulles Greenway roadway to mitigate the loss of roughly 64 acres of federally protected wetlands. Today, the wetlands property is managed by the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and utilized for local wildlife education.”

The first egg was laid at this nest yesterday, 1 February, at 14:47. The adults are currently changing over incubation duties.

Here is the link to this streaming cam. There is also an overhead cam that is off line at the moment. This couple will be seeing more snow and ice along with the nests in PA and NJ.

No worries for the nests in California. Akecheta is currently incubating the two eggs at the West End Bald Eagle Nest in the Channel Islands. Looks like a gorgeous day. The sky is blue in Winnipeg and the snow has stopped but it is bitterly cold. Oh, wish I could twitch my nose and arrive in California for a couple of days to thaw.

The first Kakapo chick has hatched. It was Pearl’s! And Pearl’s second chick is on the way. Here is the announcement from the Kakapo Recovery. Such good news. Hoping that all of the hatches survive and do well. This is so exciting!!!!!!!!! You are witnessing people working hard to recover a population of flightless parrots that could easily go extinct. Incredible the efforts that are being put into this. Makes me smile every day.

I wonder if Ervie will leave the Dad’s mancave today? Will monitor our beautiful boy. He is certainly settling in to a nice life on the barge! Who would have thought?

Thank you for joining me today. It is lovely to have you with me as I do a hop skip and jump around the nests. Take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams or their FB pages where I took my screen captures: Kakapo Recovery, KNF Bald Eagles, Berry College Bald Eagles, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, Dulles Greenway Eagle Cam, NCTC Bald Eagles, Pix Cams, Explore.org, Achieva Credit Union, and CNN.

Late Monday in Bird World

The ‘Alberta Clipper’ is just starting to impact Winnipeg with some light snow flakes. We are in an extreme blizzard warning area until tomorrow morning when the winds and snow – getting up to 90 kph (or 55 mph) – dissipate. The garden birds were a little strange today. They ate and left. Normally they come and stay all day but a couple of waves of different groups came and went. I suspect they were going to try and find a place to hunker down for the duration. This storm system is also going to impact a huge part of the US including my childhood state of Oklahoma.

It is snowing on the Storks near Freiburg, too.

There is wind and blowing snow in Durbe, Latvia, the home of Milda, the White-tailed Eagle. The sound from the camera’s microphone makes you shiver – the wind is just howling through the forest.

The female Bald Eagle at Duke Farms is also under some snow and it looks like she might get more as this weather system moves through the eastern US.

There is good news in Bird World. Both of the USS Bald Eagles were seen at the nest today. The worry last night over whether or not there was an injury melted away. Nice.

The thermal down is coming in on the eaglet at the KNF in Central Louisiana. The light natal down is giving way to dandelions. Notice how much longer the beak is and how large the cere has become. The cere is the soft fleshy part above the black beak, seen below. The cere varies in shape, size, and colour amongst raptors. The beak will turn that beautiful yellow when this eaglet is approximately 4-5 years old and be pure yellow by the time it is 6 years old. At that time, it will also finish getting its adult plumage including that full beautiful white head.

The meals are more spread apart but the eaglet is eating longer and its crop is getting much fuller. Just look below. The crop is a pouch along the espophagus. It stores food before it gets to the stomach. It also processes prey items that cannot be processed in the stomach. The raptor will regurgitate a compressed pellet of those items that do not go to the stomach.

The Wildlife Biologist has just confirmed that this crop is at least 3-4 inches (10 cm) long! Wow.

Poor Baby. It took some maneuvering with the weight and flopping of that crop for it to get in a position to PS. Obviously the crop weighs more than the chick’s bottom does.

This baby has really grown in the last 4 or 5 days and is changing more and more with every blink it seems.

Despite being full to the brim and hardly able to move, Anna is making certain that the little one is topped up before bedtime.

NE26 and 27 are awash in Spanish Moss. The nest seems to be covered with it and fish. Lots of fish.

There are those sweet little fluffy dumplings in the nest bole.

Sleeping quietly under Mum.

At the WRDC Nest in Miami, R1 and R2 have popping crops, too. The pin or blood feathers can be seen coming in through the thermal down.

R1 is closest to you. R2 without the fluffy hair is in the back and also has a large crop. Both eaglets are doing well and there is plenty of food on the nest.

The 2022 Albatross Count on Midway Atoll is completed. Here is the information as it was posted by Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge today:

YRK flew in and switched places with OGK yesterday at the Royal Albatross Quarry Track Nest in New Zealand.

Lady Hawk caught that sweet reunion.

The camera is still offline in Port Lincoln. Would love to have had a good look at our Ervie.

Tuesday February 1 is Lunar New Year for many of our friends. For all of you celebrating the Spring Festival, we wish you a healthy, happy, prosperous Year of the Tiger.

Thank you for joining me today. So happy to have you with me. Stay safe, stay warm!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Cornell Bird Lab and the NZ DOC, Friends of Midway Atoll Wildlife Refuge FB Page, KNF Bald Eagle Nest, NEFlorida Bald Eagles and the AEF, WRDC Eagle Cam, Duke Farms, Latvian Fund for Nature, and the Stork’s Nest Livestream.

Late Sunday in Bird World

The other day, Jean-Marie Dupart took photographs of a Scottish Osprey in the Saloum Delta in Senegal. The band on the leg, slightly obscured, could read JJ2 or JJ7. JJ2 was believed to be a female at the time of banding. JJ7 was believed a male at the time of its banding.

Here is the photograph Jean-Marie Dupart took of the Osprey in question:

The Woodland Trust and People’s Post Code Lottery put out the following announcement today:

I had so hoped it was JJ7 but, in the end, it is wonderful to see a healthy Scottish fish eagle that hatched in 2019.

In a sadder note, the H5N1 highly pathogenic strain of Avian Flu that killed the two white-tailed eaglets in the spring of 2021 is striking again in the UK. First swans were culled and now the Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary in Yorkshire.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-60188953

Ervie has been waiting on the nest hoping that Dad would either bring him a fish or that he would catch one as he focused on the beautiful waters of the cove. And then, at 8:20:39, Ervie finds an old fish tail on the nest. He did several double takes when he saw it a few seconds earlier. What a delight! An old dried up fish tail for our lovely boy.

Ervie really enjoyed that old piece of fish.

Ervie had been standing fish calling to the parents missing that piece of tail down by his talons. In the image below you can see that this is not a big piece of fish but for Ervie, it must have felt like he had found gold in that nest.

Gosh, Ervie is a handsome Osprey.

Ervie is still working on that old piece of dry fish. He is not giving up.

And he is still working on it…

You can see from the time how long Ervie has been pulling this dry fish. He is making good progress. Ervie would love to share some of the fish from the KNF nest! But he is not going to give up until he eats every single scrap of this tail. That is why you are a survivor, Ervie.

While Ervie is dreaming of having a big fish soon, the eaglet at the KNF nest in Louisiana has been filled to the brim by Anna. Look at that crop. Incredible.

Anna is making up for missing the feedings yesterday afternoon but, at the same time, Louis did a fantastic job taking care of the eaglet. The baby was never hungry and always had a bit of a crop. Louis was extraordinary – just like Samson was when Gabby was away for 24 hours before NE26 and 27 hatched.

Diamond did not seem to spend the night at the scrape but she is on the ledge early this morning. I wonder how much the hot weather impacted her and Xavier? As you know, many Peregrine Falcons wound up in care from dehydration.

Last breeding season the Mum at the Duke Farms Bald Eagle nest spent most of it buried in snow. This year is starting off the same way. Whether it is extreme heat or extreme winter storms, our feathered friends are being impacted.

Mum will keep the eggs warm and dry. These eagles are amazing.

I wanted to do a last check on the WRDC eaglets, R1 and R2. They are doing fine. R2 is being fed at the moment which must mean that R1 is full! You can tell the difference between the two because R1 still has a big drop of light natal down on its head.

If you are a Pittsburg-Hayes eagle fan, the couple were just mating on the tree. Eggs are not normally laid til 15 February or after. I wonder if they will be early this year? Looks like they have a nice egg cup created. Last year this couple raised triplets. Yes, three eaglets. 3.

Thank you for joining me today and for all your letters and comments. I really enjoy hearing from you. Take care everyone. Stay safe!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams or FB pages where I took my screen captures: WRDC, KNF Bald Eagles, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, Duke Farms, Charles Sturt University at Orange Falcon Cam and Cilla Kinross, Friends of Loch Arkaig Ospreys, and Pix Cams.

Where is Anna?

At 12:12 Anna, the female Bald Eagle at the Kisatchie National Forest nest (KNF) lets her mate, Louis, take charge of the eaglet so she can have a break. It had been a good morning.

Anna, the perfect Mum, protecting her growing eaglet from the hot sun. Look at how nice he is standing up so straight.

Louis took over the task of caring for the little one. Anna touched down on the nest and was last seen at 14:06. There she is standing on the fish.

Louis got better feeding the little eaglet over the course of the afternoon.

Louis is brooding the chick. He is not only a great provider but proves he is up to the task and is taking charge. He isn’t sleeping though. He is awake and alert listening.

The nest is in a non-hunting area. There were, however, two gunshot sounds in the afternoon at 16:14:35. There were also loud voices of people. At 16:57 it sounds as if there are two eagles chatting to one another. One of them with a hoarser voice than normal.

Is Anna injured? The rangers will go out and search for her. Was she shot? Let us all hope not. It was way too sad when the Eagle couple from area 2 were killed by gunshot.

Please send all your warm wishes to this fabulous nest – so full of hope, full of food, and two loving parents. This just shows us how challenging life is for these beautiful birds and how their good fortune can turn in an instant.

I am so sorry to bring you this news. I wish it were not so and we all wake up in the morning and realize it was Anna on the nest after all! Take care everyone.

Thank you to the KNF Bald Eagle streaming cam where I took my screen captures.

Saturday in Bird World

Yesterday I took a walk in the English and the Leo Mol Sculpture Gardens. They are part of the larger Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg. In the summer, these areas are full of people walking and looking at the flowers, of people clamouring to see the latest hummingbird arrival, or me – sitting on a bench hoping to see the juvenile Cooper’s Hawks again.

There was not a single bird in this area of the park yesterday. The wind was bitter against your face. The only remnants of the birds were the nests, sometimes two to a tree. As I looked for nests I also notice this colossal Blue Spruce.

And another one full of Spruce cones. We planted a Blue Spruce in our garden. I am hoping that one day it will be full of cones like this for the Red Squirrels to eat.

There are a few snow flakes falling in the garden. Dyson & Co were up early eating off the suet cylinders and the square hanging feeder. Each had a spot – 3 civilized squirrels all having breakfast. Close your eyes and imagine it! By the time I had the charged battery in the camera they were off, chasing one another in the Lilac bushes.

I checked on Ervie first. The camera has been on and off at Port Lincoln due to the storm. One of the chatters posted a fish arrival time stamp for Ervie yesterday afternoon and thankfully, I could still rewind and find our beautiful boy.

Dad arrives with a nice fish. Here he is flying off. Ervie has it in his talons.

Ervie spends the next hour eating that fish – it was a nice sized one.

I wonder what has happened to Ervie’s feathers on his left wing?

It was just so nice to see Ervie and see him eating that I could have stopped checking on the birds right then! How much longer will we see this incredible Osprey on the barge? Every day is a gift.

It is good to see Port Lincoln posting updates. That means that they survived the big storm as well. Here is the latest tracking for Ervie from yesterday. Yes, he is traveling further afield! So glad he has a tracker!

Port Lincoln also posted information on Calypso. 2019 hatch. Here she is! What a beautiful Osprey!!!!!!

The little chick at Berry College is so adorable. You can see the dark thermal down coming in replacing the soft light grey natal down. Soon our wee one will be able to thermoregulate its own temperature. For today, however, it wants to be close to Mum to stay warm.

A great comparison is the plumage of E19 and E20 yesterday but first, look at that crop. Harriet and M15 have been keeping these two full and I have not seen any of the rivalry when I have been watching them that we did in early days. (Feel free to correct me!)

The thermal down layer now covers E19 and E20. There are a few dandelions of the natal fluff left. You can now see their contour and flight feathers coming in.

The image below shows the juvenile Bald Eagle at the Osceola Florida nest. Notice that it is a dark espresso brown/black. It will not be that long and E19 and E20 will look like this beautiful only Eagle.

The little eaglet is growing and growing at the KNF nest. It is out of its ‘hole’ that Anna had made for it and is up sleeping by the eleven fish and the turtle that Louis has in the nest. The pair have been busy moving Spanish Moss around covering much of the pantry at times.

Look at the size of that leg! You can see the thermal down coming in on the Anna’s baby. Soon there will be only dandelions, faint hints of it as a wee babe. It seems like it has doubled in size overnight.

The eaglets really grow fast. Samson and Gabby’s wee babes are some of the only ones now with natal down. They are darling. Samson seems to have been in some kind of contest with the number of fish on the nest with Louis. As someone reminded me, Samson has 2 to feed, not 1. Regardless, Louis and Samson are two of the best prey providers. Incredible what they bring to the nest.

These two appear to be getting along. They are both doing very well.

The two are not really that much difference in size. The camera angle and 26 having its neck pulled all the way out makes it look much bigger. Gosh they are cute.

The nicest thing about this year in terms of hatching is that the nests vary so much in the age of their nestlings. It is fantastic to see all the stages of development including their plumage!

It was reassuring to check on the WRDC nest and see that R2 (in front) and R1 (eating) both have crops albeit R1 is going to have the larger. The wind is very brisk at the nest. In fact, there is a wind advisory for Miami with a temperature of 13 C (or as you see on screen at 57 F).

There is a cold front moving through all of the Eastern US.

It is much colder in Ithaca. Indeed, Ithaca is -11 C which is precisely the same temperature as we have in Winnipeg today. Crazy. It is difficult to imagine that in less than 8 weeks we could have Big Red incubating eggs on this nest!

Except for the extreme wind and cold temperatures, everything seems to be just fine with all of the nests. Most of all it was wonderful to get a good look at Ervie and know that he has eaten in the midst of all the horrific weather in South Australia the other day. Good news continues to come out of Senegal. The Osprey count along the coast for the month of January was 1206. That is simply amazing Jean-Marie Dupart.

Take care everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I will see you tomorrow!

Thanks to the following for their streaming cams and/or FB pages where I took my screen captures: Port Lincoln Osprey Project, KNF Bald Eagles, NEFlorida Bald Eagles and the AEF, SWFlorida Bald Eagles and D Pritchett, Berry College Bald Eagles, WRDC, Cornell Bird Lab and RTH, and the Osceola Bald Eagle Nest.

Royal Cam Chick Hatches!

YRK and OGK laid their egg at the Quarry Track nest, created by OGK, on 9 November 2021. Yellow-Red-Black (YRK) and Orange-Green-Black (OGK) are no stranger to the Royal Cam spotlight. They are the parents of the very popular Miss Pippa Atawhai, Royal Cam Chick at Top Flat in 2020. The moments viewing Atawhai with her dad, OGK, melted people’s hearts. Those who watched these very gentle birds will never forget the pair of them together.

YRK is 28 years old and OGK is 26 years old. They have been a bonded pair since 2006. This year is their 8th breeding attempt. They are also grandparents. This year their son RLK (Red-Lime-Black) successfully fledged SSTrig, the chick in the nest close to Royal Cam chick, Tiaki.

It took five days for the little one to hatch. The rangers say that the reason it takes the seabirds so long to get out of their shells is that they are such long lived birds. The Royal Cam chick is the 11th to hatch this season.

Ranger Sharyn returned the new hatchling to its mother, YRK, at 19:40 on 26 January. Before placing the chick under the mother, the area of the nest is sprayed with a bird-friendly insecticide in order that there is no fly strike on the youngster.

Ranger Sharyn carefully removes the chick from the insulated container.

She has already removed the dummy egg and sprayed the nest area before placing the chick under YRK.

Ranger Sharyn watches with delight as YRK accepts her little one.

YRK gives a shimmy and settles down to brood.

Once Ranger Sharyn is away, YRK raises up and looks down with the most gentle love to the new bundle.

It is extremely windy today. I wonder when OGK will fly in to relieve YRK and have his first look at the baby?????

Southern Royal Albatross are endemic to New Zealand. After the chick hatches, it will fledge in mid-September, spending 4-6 years at sea foraging for food in the waters off the coast of western Chile. Then the juvenile will return to Tairoa Head to find a mate. This choosing and bonding could take years. These seabirds are known for their socializing and elaborate dancing as well as the beautiful sky calls.

Once a couple have bonded, they will lay one egg every two years. Why not every year? It is too physically difficult to raise chicks that close together. The adults have to travel many hundreds if not thousands of miles to forage to feed their chick. They each take turns incubating. Once the chick has hatched they will take turns flying in and out of the headland to forage and feed their chick. They will do this until the chick fledges and begins its life on the sea. Imagine flying for the first time and not landing back on ground for another 4-6 years. I often cannot get my head around that!

The Albatross has the largest wingspan of any living bird at 3 metres or 9.8 feet. They stand 115-123 cm or 45-48 inches and weight 8.5 kg or 19 lbs. The males are larger than the females.

The population of the Southern Royal Albatross is vulnerable and stable at the moment. The challenges they face are longline and trawl fisheries, oil and plastic waste in the sea waters, natural disasters, and warming seas as part of climate change. The New Zealand Department of Conservation makes every effort to ensure that all of the Royal Albatross on Taiaroa Head are healthy. They provide supplemental feedings to both chicks and adults as well as elaborate sprinkler systems to cool the birds and medical care.

Here is the video of Ranger Sharyn returning the chick to YRK:

Here is a very short video by Liz of YRK revealing the chick three times.

You can watch the streaming cam for YRK and OGK here:

What wonderful news! I have peeked at all of the other nests and everyone is fine.

Ervie looked like a wet rat Wednesday afternoon late in Australia.

Ervie was alone on the barge last night while the rain is caught by the camera pelting down.

Thankfully the rain has stopped!

Gabby has been giving Samson time to brood the babies and feed them. Both 26 and 27 are doing very well! Gabby is much more relaxed this year with her third clutch.

Aren’t they so cute??

Thank you so much for joining me today. Take care everyone. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: the Cornell Bird Lab and the NZ DOC, Port Lincoln Osprey Project, and the NEBald Eagle Nest and the AEF.