Tag Archives: Woodland Trust

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.

Good Morning Ospreyland

I have a friend who lives in the Northeastern United States. She has a beautiful garden and loves her songbirds. She also adores Big Red, Arthur, and their chicks. Wicky and I often get really down in the dumps over the direction that environmental policies are going. Then we see something and begin to believe that there is hope that all this heat, drought, flooding, birds falling from the sky, etc will pass. We need one another – for on the day I am down, she is up and vice versa!

Today Wicky sent me a quote from Jane Goodall that I would like to share with you. I am including the interview in the New York Times that she sent as well. I hope you can open it.

“Traveling the world I’d see so many projects of restoration, people tackling what seemed impossible and not giving up.”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/12/magazine/jane-goodall-interview.html?smid=em-share

I am always impressed with how New Zealand develops positive policies for their wildlife. Another area that is doing that is Scotland. Here is a short early morning BBC programme on the restoring of the landscape at the Cairngorms National Park. I am including some images of the park for you so that you get a glimpse of the type of landscape being restored.

“Cairngorms” by wwarby is licensed under CC BY 2.0
“Cairngorms” by chuckrock123 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Of course, my interest is the Ospreys and this is the home to the Loch Garten Ospreys. It was the first place that the Ospreys returned to in the UK in the 1950s. It was the home of the Lady of the Loch, that female, often called the Norwegian by Tiger Mozone whose DNA, according to Tiger, is in every UK Osprey except for CJ7. Lady was the foundation stone.

The image below is of that historic Osprey nest that is still used.

“Osprey Nest – Loch Garten” by iantherev is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Sadly this year there were no Ospreys breeding at the nest. I might be remembering this wrong but it seems to me that two birds arrived at the nest and people in a canoe or kayak got too close trying to take photographs and the birds left not to return. (I hope that I am not remembering another nest – I could be so feel free to correct me, please!). Fingers crossed for next year! Here are some images of the loch. It is freshwater and is full of trout. We know that Ospreys love their trout. Dylan flew 13 km to get trout for the Clywedog Nest with Seren and Only Bob a week or so ago.

What an incredible sunset.

“Sunset at Loch Garten” by chuckrock123 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
“Loch Garten” by Cairngorms National Park is licensed under CC BY 2.0

This is that short programme with Ade Adepitan, MBE on the restoration of the natural environment in the Cairngorms:

It is now approaching 11pm on the Canadian Prairies. The Osprey nests in the United Kingdom are just waking up.

Good Morning Tiny Little! I wonder if you dreamed about flying?

Totally serene image of Loch of the Lowes. No one sleeping on the nest. On occasion NC0 or one of the fledglings will appear on the nest but for the most part the camera remains fantastic because sometimes you can see the Ospreys fishing in the loch.

Aila did not return from her migration. Louis waited and waited refurbishing their nest. When he could wait no longer he paired with a new female. They raised two chicks on another nest off camera. The new Mrs Louis is Dorcha. When the two chicks were ringed on 15 July it was believed that they were 4-5 weeks old and are both are believed to be male.

Beautiful Manton Bay Nest of Blue 33 and Maya. The camera will be shut off soon and we will have to wait til the Ospreys return in March. Normally Blue 33 and Maya arrive within an hour of one another. Just think – they travel 4000 miles and arrive in that close of time. It is unclear if they winter together in the same place.

The beautiful morning turned into a day of defending their nest for Blue 33 and Maya. Poor birds.

What a beautiful morning – just look at that pink sky and the green of the landscape – at the Dyfi Nest of Idris and Telyn. I can’t see a fledgling but it sounds like one of them is scratching on the microphone of the camera!

The cameras have not come on at the nest of Dylan and Seren but, wow. I found an 11 minute video shot by a photographer of Llyn Clywedog. We can get a really good look at the loch where their nest is located. It is like you are going for a walk around the water. Very restful.

It is now a sunny afternoon at Llyn Clywedog and no one is home! It is quite understandable why the owners of these streaming cams will be turning them off in the future!

Tiny Little made a short flight from one side of the nest to the other. She spends a lot of time looking down over the edge. Did someone tell me that birds are afraid of heights? Yes, they did. It was someone at the Cornell Bird Lab years ago. It is one of the reasons the little ones don’t often fall off the edge of the ledge nests.

Tiny has spent a lot of time sitting on the edge of the nest looking down.

It’s tea time at the Foulshaw Moss Nest. 463 has joined Tiny Little who is food begging. His crop is pretty flat. Good luck Tiny!

At 16:32 Dylan flew in with a live fish which 464 promptly mantled. Let’s hope mom is around to feed some of that fish to Tiny Little!

White YW is out of there as 462 flies in for the fish. This is going to get interesting. It is still alive! Good lessons.

Oh, we had a little rain and a thunderstorm during the night. It is still really cloudy and, despite the 27 degree heat, one can imagine it is cooler!

Thank you so much for joining me. It seems that everything is going along as it should with the UK Ospreys – save for our little darling Tiny Little who needs some confidence. It will come. They are all individuals. Have a wonderful start to your week. Take care. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen shots: Cumbrian Wildlife Trust and the Foulshaw Moss Osprey Nest, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Friends of Loch of the Lowes, Scottish Woodland Trust, LRWT, Rutland Water and the Manton Bay Osprey Nest, Carnyx Wild and Llyn Clywedog Osprey Nest, the Dyfi Osprey Project, and Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn. A big shout out to Wicky for sending me the Jane Goodall interview!