Wednesday in Bird World

13 December 2023

Good Morning Everyone,

The girls are all fine. Hope and Hugo have played and played and that little ginger looks like she is twice as big as she was when she arrived last week. She is getting stronger and more playful every day. Weepy eyes in kittens over 8 weeks old? Polysporin for Pink Eye does the trick. The vet came and gave Hope her booster shots and checked out all the girls. Everyone is so well. Calico is on a ‘diet’ and she doesn’t particularly like it, but I want this wonderful cat who opened up an entirely new world to me to thrive.

There must be a name for Hugo. She is a little tiger and runs like her tail is on fire. She is fearless. Calico might have intimidated Missey (at one time), but never Hugo. I just can’t seem to find a name that fits her because she looks like Hugo to me.

I need to clean her little nose (apologies Hugo – you were so cute in the basket), but she looks so much better today and has now taken Calico’s basket just like Hope took Missey’s. Just look at how clear her eyes are. Oh, and she is so sweet. I will find her after I publish this and get that dirty face clean!

There is still no news of the name for #2 at Port Lincoln. Giliath weighed the most and got the tracker. Dad has brought in a partial fish and that along with some left over fish gave the family a good start to the day.

Mum brought in a whole fish, and Dad brought in a partial on the 13th in Australia. The nest is doing so well. Thanks, Port Lincoln, for daring to be bold! NJ are you listening?

HeidiMc caught the boys and their new bling.

At the nest of Alex and the late-Andria in the Kisatchie National Forest, Alex has tried to incubate his eggs. He has fought off one female who buried the eggs and then he unburied them. Now there are more intruders.

Alex and the female F1 feeling comfortable.

Alex continues to take care of his and Andria’s eggs despite everything.

Andria is on her way to the University of Georgia for her necroscopy.

‘A’ brings us some more news from Cody, “Andria is being transported to the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine for the necropsy and many of the tests we requested. She will arrive on Wednesday at noon. Preliminary results from various tests should start to come back to us by the end of next week. I will share information as I receive it. Thanks for the support.”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The female eagle is back multiple times this morning, and arrives at the nest while Alex is incubating. The video opens with Alex on the eggs when the female vocalises. Alex responds and he flies off the nest. He returns quickly, and they continue to vocalise to one another as she is above him in the upper branches. Alex resumes incubation and the female flies off. Thirty minutes later, Alex gets up and flies off, and when he returns to the nest, the female drops down as well. She is standing right over the eggs. Alex leaves her with the eggs again and flies to the perch and then off. She looks around for him for a few minutes, then she flies off. Alex returns to the nest and incubates for an hour, then F1 returns again. She lands right in front of Alex – he gets up and moves to the side of the nest and then to the perch branch. The female is alone on the nest, and she just digs a little in the nest, then goes to the side edge and looks. She is watchful, occasionally looking at the eggs. She then flies off. Alex returns to the nest five minutes later to incubate. Alex gets up again and flies off, then returns five minutes later and the female is back, flying in to the nest for a third time! Alex gets up to leave the eggs to her and he flies to the branch. She digs in the nest, pulling up nesting and partially covering the eggs again. Alex flies off – she moves a stick and then is looking for him and she flies off too. Alex returns eight minutes later to incubate! Alex is clearly comfortable in leaving the nest and eggs to F1. He may be thinking she will incubate and this gives him a shift change, but he does not go far and remains close to the nest tree the entire morning. The female has not exhibited any signs of harming the eggs – she was curious about them but seems to want to just bury them and have Alex as a new mate. Time will tell, as we have a 2nd visitor arriving later today to the nest (be sure to watch for my next video update).And here is the footage referred to, showing the second intruder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Cw8KDCdvM&list=TLPQMTMxMjIwMjONfz9RFzYohw&index=2 Alex is very vocal in protecting his eggs against this second female.”

Alex is still on the eggs as of this morning.

If my addition is correct, egg #2 must be 37 days old today at Superbeaks. The average for Bald Eagles is 37.5/38 days. Waiting. There is a rumour that there could be a hatch in progress but I cannot confirm this and have seen nothing official.

M15 continues to be the brilliant provider he always was for Harriet and then the kids.

Some are hopeful for Gabby and V3.

Rosa has a new mate at the Dulles-Greenway Nest where Martin has been missing for some weeks.

Pa and Missey have egg #2 at Berry College.

Bella continues to thwart the advances of the male even when he brings nice food gifts.

‘H’ reminds us that Connie and Clive, the Captiva eagles: “Egg #1 is 31 days +10 hours right now.  Delayed incubation, so probably pip watch in 4 days, “hatch watch 5-6 days.” 

The Pittsburgh-Hayes Bald Eagle Cam is now live streaming.

‘A’ brings us news from Orange: “No sign of falcons at the Orange scrape since Diamond visited around 7pm last night (12 December). So she has visited since Cilla’s cleaning and adding of stones, but there was no-one home last night and unusually we have had no visits by any of our falcon family today. Of course the tower cam has chosen this most inopportune moment to completely give up the ghost. It is under warranty but Cilla is waiting for someone to fix it. So we have no news at all, except to say it is hot and humid again today, so the falcons are no doubt keeping cool somewhere, not sitting out in the sunlight on top of that water tower. So their non-appearance is hardly surprising in that sense. Still, we worry. We always worry about them. “

An Ontario falcon is in Michigan!

At the Royal Albatross colony:

Should HPAI come to the California Condors, the quarantine pens are almost finished! Thanks everyone for being so proactive for these amazing birds.

I have never seen a Scarlet Ibis! I thought this was a beautiful tree. Thanks, Geemeff.

Do you live in the Carolinas? Do you get to see the Rufus Red Knot? How much do you know about these amazing shorebirds? Maybe they travel more than we do!

Do you know who Margaret Morse Nice is?

Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care. See you soon.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ‘A, H, J, PLO, Bart M, Lady Hawk, KNF-E3, Cody Wayne, Superbeaks, Faxinating, Carol S Rifkin, Dulles-Greenway, Berry College Eagles, Marla Harrison, PIX Cams, Linda McIlroy, Holly Parsons, Ventana Wildlife Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Geemeff, and Women in Science.