Bird Watching: Osprey season 2010. Towards fledging., 1 by MargaretK

MargaretK wrote:
"She's HUGE!" were Madame X's opening words in a phone call to me this morning. The well-named Whopper had been flying around and appeared to Madame to be about the same size as an adult. It was only when it landed in the top of the trees outside her house that it was obvious that it was a young bird, very much learning the art of a graceful landing. I wonder if, considering this young bird's size, we can safely assume it is a female. We have both noticed that it is also far less vocal than Aussie and Harmony (and we all know that the female of all species is much quieter than the male).

Just a couple of shots from this afternoon. Big Hook is at the left of the picture. I'm looking forward to seeing Whopper side-by-side with Dad for another size comparison.

The plate is en route. If the service is as good as it has been on previous occasions, I should have it by next Monday at the very latest.

Linth, the locust problem is in the eastern states and to my knowledge there isn't a locust problem here in the west. It's not likely there would be a problem here - we're in drought conditions and there's very little they could feast on anyway. I would imagine (or hope) that the authorities would be very cautious about introducing a predator species to combat an introduced pest. Here in Australia we have a huge problem with Cane Toads which were purposefully introduces to combat what in hindsight was a minor problem. However, the Cane Toads have proliferated are decimating native species and have marched all the way from Queensland over "The top" and are now in Western Australia. One was found in a Perth metropolitan backyard only two weeks ago. Scary stuff.