Blocks and sunset

Drops and sunset

Raptorlet checks

A few more recent screenshots of the three Peregrine chicks at CalFalcons. The chicks are about three weeks old, the youngest turns three weeks tomorrow.

Huddled together while mom is off the nest. She can leave them without brooding for long periods now, though still keeps an eye on them. They're too big to fit under her already (check out the unhatched egg for comparison on how much they've grown!), so during nights she sits next to them in the nest. Looks like youngest chick on the left and oldest on the right, with middle child behind them, here.

Napping in a pile in the afternoon.

A feeding, with a wing stretch showing off new pin feathers.

Little fluffballs.

In other nesting news, the Red-tailed Hawk pair at CornellHawks are incubating three eggs right now. I've watched them for a couple of years, too, and baby buzzards are some of the cutest raptor chicks I know. The eggs were laid March 30th - April 5th, and Redtails usually incubate 28-35 days, though at this nest usually closer to 40 days, so hatches should start happening in the next week.


At SWFL Bald Eagle nest, the older one of the two fledglings, E21, was last seen on camera April 29th. The eaglets are old enough now that they could leave their natal territory whenever they feel ready to start their independent life as juvenile eagles, and E21 has likely done so. Good luck to both siblings, and to their hardworking dad who did a great job raising them even when he had to do so alone. Stay safe out there.

Two more Osprey eggs

All the occupied Osprey nests at Sääksilive now have eggs in them. Looking forward to osplets in about a month!

Eine at nest#1 soon after laying her first egg. Didn't get a lot of peeks at the egg itself on account of weather. Shielding it from sleet rain takes priority.

Tiuku at nest#3 with her egg.

An egg for Nuppu (and Sara!)

The Osprey pair at nest#4 of Sääksilive nests have an egg! Nuppu laid the first one of her clutch yesterday evening.

Her mate figuring out how incubation works when left in charge of the egg for the first time. It seems like this might be his first nesting season, but he did manage to shuffle on top of it eventually and keep it guarded while Nuppu was away.

At nest#5/LS Sara already laid her first egg, too, but her equally inexperienced mate (banded as a nestling in 2019. Ospreys reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years old, so this is likely his first nesting season as well) managed to kick it over the rails while arranging the nest material. Well, it happens. Learning to be a parent is hard enough with guide books for beginners, let alone without.

ETA: Sara with her second egg that she just laid this morning:

Congrats, better luck with that one!

Osprey nesting season is starting

The finnish Osprey nests I've been following for a couple of years through Sääksilive have started filling up again after spring migration. There are both returning and new individuals among the future parents.

One familiar face is Nuppu, the female Osprey whose nest I've focused on the most so far, and whose return seemed pretty uncertain considering how much uncertainty her last nesting season ended with. The whereabouts of her previous season's mate and fledged chicks aren't known, but I'm happy to find out Nuppu herself seems to be doing well. She is at nest #4 like last year (closer to camera in the above screenshot), and has a new male courting her. He is not banded, and so far doesn't have a name.

Nest #1 has the same pair as last year, Eine and Eura; nest #2 is still empty, #3 seems to also have the same pair from last year, Tiuku and Tuulos; and #5/LS has the same female, Sara, with a new and also still unnamed male, who does have a band, but the ID on it hasn't been confirmed yet to find out more about him.

Worts this?

Pink liverworts (Anemone hepatica or Hepatica nobilis, they're usually blue).