I absolutely love how these blogs are written, so tender and informative!  How could we not hope for the best for this osprey family as well as the other animal families we so cherish

Thanks so much, Donna, for finding these wonderful links!!!!

Your so welcome jeanne, you have a great day!

Archer on FCT...no B or C yet. 7:38 (MAK)

Dan and MAK being "Skunked" by 3 falcons. No sightings as of 7:26am. Only entertainment is with the Sparrows, Gulls and Pigeons.

Osprey Diary August 13, 2010
August 13th, 2010 by rboardman

A grand morning it is at the Loch! Beautiful light, flat water.

As the days pass, I ponder migrants everywhere, gathering in groups, in flocks and as individuals. “Our� male must be very aware of the changing light, perhaps even aware of the warmer water as he steadfastly catches for himself and “his� young. Will he be one of the males that stop over in Spain or does he fly to the Gambia and catch flying fish far offshore?

The juveniles must surely be wondering what is in store for them. Although they do not require as much food as they did 6 weeks ago, they must be senseing that more is expected of them in order to survive. Survival is an amazing motivator. I inwardly cheer on these two birds. The learning curve continues. Late yesterday afternoon, a very welcome rainbow trout put a smile on my face. Food for life, food of encouragement.

It is often the simple things that are the most profound.

Wow. I just gotta share this video.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFZcu9UsIk

Lou

AmAzing voice on that little girl! Thank you Lou.

Last pic at 4:32pm

[(In case anyone's interested)]

Every August, just when many people go vacationing in the country where skies are dark, the best-known meteor shower — the Perseid meteor shower — makes its appearance.

The "shooting stars" promise to deliver an excellent show this year to anyone with clear and dark skies away from urban and suburban lights.

The best time to watch for meteors will be from the late-night hours of Wednesday, Aug, 11 on through the predawn hours of Aug. 13 – two full nights and early mornings. Patient skywatchers with good conditions could see up to 60 shooting stars an hour or more.

History of the Perseids

The event is also known as "The Tears of St. Lawrence."

Laurentius, a Christian deacon, is said to have been martyred by the Romans in 258 AD on an iron outdoor stove. It was in the midst of this torture that Laurentius cried out:

    "I am already roasted on one side and, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other."

The Saint's death was commemorated on his feast day, Aug. 10. King Phillip II of Spain built his monastery place the "Escorial," on the plan of the holy gridiron. And the abundance of shooting stars seen annually between approximately Aug. 8 and 14 have come to be known as St. Lawrence's "fiery tears."

We know today that these meteors are actually the dusty remains left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle. Discovered back in 1862, and most recently observed in 1992, this comet takes approximately 130 years to circle the sun. With each pass, Comet Swift-Tuttle produces a debris trail along its orbit to cause the Perseids.

Every year during mid-August, when the Earth passes close to the orbit of Swift-Tuttle, the material left behind by the comet from its previous visits ram into our atmosphere at approximately 37 miles per second (60 km/second) and creates bright streaks of light in our midsummer night skies.

Excellent prospects this year

According to the best estimates, in 2010 the Earth is predicted to cut through the densest part of the Perseid stream sometime around 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday.

The best window of opportunity to see the shower will be the late-night hours of Wednesday on through the first light of dawn on the morning of Thursday, and then again during the late-night hours of Aug. 12 into the predawn hours of Aug. 13.

The Moon, whose bright light almost totally wrecked last year's shower, will have zero impact this year; unlike last year when it was just a few days past full, this year it will be new on Monday, Aug. 9, meaning that there will be absolutely no interference from it at all.

Excellent!

What to expect

A very good shower will produce about one meteor per minute for a given observer under a dark country sky. Any light pollution or moonlight considerably reduces the count.

The August Perseids are among the strongest of the readily observed annual meteor showers, and at maximum activity nominally yields 90 or 100 meteors per hour. Anyone in a city or near bright suburban lights will see far fewer. [Video: Perseid

However, observers with exceptional skies often record even larger numbers. Typically during an overnight watch, the Perseids are capable of producing a number of bright, flaring and fragmenting meteors, which leave fine trains in their wake.

On the night of shower maximum, the Perseid radiant is not far from the famous "Double Star Cluster" of Perseus (hence the name, "Perseid"). Low in the northeast during the early evening, it rises higher in the sky until morning twilight ends observing. Shower members appearing close to the radiant have foreshortened tracks; those appearing farther away are often brighter, have longer tracks, and move faster across the sky.

About five to 10 of the meteors seen in any given hour will not fit this geometric pattern, and may be classified as sporadic or as members of some other (minor) shower.

How to watch

Aside from the predicted peak hours, Perseid meteor shower activity always increases sharply in the hours after midnight. We are then looking more nearly face-on into the direction of the Earth's motion as it orbits the sun, so the atmosphere above you scoops up meteors like the windshield of a car catching bugs. From around 2 a.m. until daybreak your local time, the Perseids promise to put on a good display, weather permitting.

Making a meteor count is as simple as lying in a lawn chair or on the ground and marking on a clipboard whenever a "shooting star" is seen. Watching for the Perseids consists of lying back, gazing up into the stars, and waiting. It is customary to watch the point halfway between the radiant (which will be rising in the northeast sky) and the zenith, though it's perfectly all right for your gaze to wander.

Counts should be made on several nights before and after the predicted maximum, so the behavior of the shower away from its peak can be determined. Usually, good numbers of meteors should be seen on the preceding and following nights as well. The shower is generally at one-quarter strength one or two nights before and after maximum.

A few Perseids can be seen as much as two weeks before and a week after the peak. The extreme limits, in fact, are said to extend from July 17 to Aug. 24, though an occasional one may be seen almost anytime during the month of August.

As a bonus every evening now through he heart of the Perseid meteor shower, three bright planets are tightly clustered just after sunset. Venus, Mars and Saturn are easy to spot in the southwestern sky as soon as darkness falls.

(In case anyone's interested)

Archer and Beauty in the nestbox.

We need some fill flash to counter the shadows in the nest box...

Had an idea what it was but checked anyway: Fill flash is a photographic  technique used to brighten deep shadow areas, typically outdoors on sunny days, though the technique is useful any time the background is significantly brighter than the subject of the photograph, particularly in backlit subjects. To use fill flash, the aperture and shutter speed are adjusted to correctly expose the background, and the flash is fired to lighten the foreground.
Most point and shoot cameras include a fill flash mode that forces the flash to fire, even in bright light.

[This one looks a little less complicated than Lou's. How bout giving this one a try? Easier to pack but I like Lou's contraption. Say where is that bad boy now?]

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/08/hummingbirds-eat-out-local-mans-hand-almost

ONCE I HAD the pleasure of watching a hummingbird dine at a feeder I was carrying in my hand. I had just filled the feeder with nectar, and was bringing it back to the shepherd crook where it hung.
The hummingbird must have flown in looking for its dinner when it saw the feeder in my hand. It flew right over and began sipping away. I stopped still, stood there and stared as the little bird ate its fill! (continued)



This one looks a little less complicated than Lou's. How bout giving this one a try?  Easier to pack but I like Lou's contraption. Say where is that bad boy now?

Now if only the skys would clear. 

never fails when there is something to see its clouds, clouds everywhere 

Yup...rain here.

Whoa, what a fight!    Those Talons mean business. I feel sorry for both and BB. Thanks Sage and glad the "Potter boys were saved. 

I need a translation from Spanish in English. Who controls this language?

What do you need Annette? Google or yahoo translator will work. How do you translate your German to English? Let me know if you need assistance.

[Happy Birthday, hope it's a good one!]

Happy Birthday, hope it's a good one!

Osprey Diary August 12th
August 12th, 2010 by E Rawling, Perthshire Ranger SWT

  Loch of the Lowes is a busy place at the moment with our two young ospreys out and about all over, and trying their fishing skills in between rain showers!

As some of you have noticed, there are also quite a few geese appearing on the Loch- the beginning of our autumn and winter influx?  Amongst the Canada geese there have even occasionally been three Barr Headed Geese (a central Asian species, probably escaped from captivity!).

There are also lots of ducks on the loch- Mallards, Tufted Ducks and a few Goldeneye, as well as our Great Crested Grebes which bred successfully here for the first time in a few years (thanks to a lack of summer flooding).

Our ospreys are not the only birds with fledglings learning their flying skills at the moment- there is a large family of jays with young around, as well as dozens of woodpeckers, and many small birds too.

 Amongst the mammals, our red squirrels are doing really well, with at least two young visiting the feeders at the visitors centre regularly- you can tell them by their cheeky antics and the very shiny pelts in contrast to their parent’s rather threadbare moulting stage fur. Our local fallow deer have also been seen a lot around the loch, including our white hind with her beautiful pale faun.

 And you thought it was just all about ospreys here at Lowes! Even after our youngsters leave us in a few weeks, there will be plenty of wildlife for visitors to enjoy, and to console us ‘osprey addicts’ until the spring.

 Emma Rawling

Poor baby, thanks jeanne.