11 January 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
Missey and Hugo Yugo wish everyone the best day ever!
Ah, yes, and ‘The Boyfriend’. He is hard to resist but he is terrified of me. He will (or one of the pair) will come to the door if the food dish is empty, but otherwise, they scramble if they think I am coming out. For now, he has two warm cat shelters – one on the deck and one below – and he is getting food. I don’t want to frighten him. In the spring I will see if he might become friendly.
Oh, it was such a gorgeous day on Wednesday. It was snowing! Beautiful white fluffy snowflakes fell, kissing the branches of the trees. Marvellous. It was a brilliant day to walk around the nature centre. The trails had not been cleared, and hardly anyone was there. It was ‘still’ and so peaceful. You could stay there and soak in all the calm nature sometimes offers.
You can see how much snow fell directly from looking at the bird bath in the garden and the little feeder house.
Pip/hatch watch has started for Ron and Rita at the WRDC nest in Dade County, Florida. The eggs were laid four days apart. Rose practised good delayed incubation. Hopefully, they might hatch closer together so that we can avoid any beaking/bonking and a much smaller eaglet in the second hatch.
Pip/Hatch watch started for Berry Eagles, Pa and Missey, on Wednesday. ”1st laid on 12/8/23 and the 2nd on 12/11/23. It’s been about 34 days since the 1st egg was laid. Bald Eagle eggs hatch after 34-36 days on average.”
Wednesday.
E23 is a feisty strong eaglet. M15 and F23 can be very proud.
Beau is finding his way.
Beau was also incubating this morning. ’A’ sent a note: ”After Gabby flew to a branch beside the nest and exchanging vocals with Beau this morning, Beau flew down to the nest and around 6:55 began rolling and aerating before eventually settling onto the egg around 6:57. Happy that he is safely doing his job, Gabby flew off at 7am, hopefully to get herself something to eat, and Beau has been on the eggs for half an hour now. He looks like such a proud daddy. I do hope he gets this parenting thing mastered in time, but he is still missing an important element: bringing food.” Thanks to the others who sent notes, too. We had a big snow and I was out shovelling so I had missed this.
Xavier and Diamond’s Marri returned to the scrape box on the morning of Thursday the 11th (Wednesday in NA). Isn’t she a strong and beautiful falcon? What a good feeling to see her.
Holly Parsons captured this great image of Marri before she flew out.
Helen Matcham got some great shots of Marri flying to the scrape.
At Port Lincoln, Gil picked off the first beautiful fish of the day. There will be five more deliveries. Unbelievable.
SE 31 caught another fish! ”January 11: Very early, our juvenile was on the river with no adults in sight. There had been a late report of them both at Burns Bay last evening at 5:30pm, so we assume they were there for the night. Then just before 7:35am this morning, SE31 was seen catching a fish, which she took to Mangrove Island to eat. Later, at 10:30am, both parents were seen at Goat Island. It was high tide at 10am and SE31 was seen making several attempts at ‘catching’ floating debris in the river. All good practice for developing her skills. Later, the adults were seen still at Goat Island. Around 4:40pm, SE31was heard whining on the island, then flew towards River Roost, still whining, though the parents could not be seen.”
I love seeing stories of the intelligence of birds. Every day in the garden the Chickadees also use branches or stones to break their seeds open.
Another intelligent bird.
We are getting ready for the season to open in California and it isn’t just the Eagles…remember all those falcons!
I missed it. Wednesday was National Save the Eagle Day. A reminder these majestic birds of prey – and, of course, others, were extinct, in some instances while others were critically endangered due to the use of DDT in the US beginning in the 1940s.
The girls were watching their bird video. Then ‘something’ happened by accident. Did Hugo Yugo step on the remote? All of a sudden it was a documentary about a Danish photographer, Morton Hilmer, in Norway, searching for osprey – yes, osprey – to photography. It is called The Impossible Shot – Amazing Bird Photography in Norway – 14 Days. Yes, he did get the shots. They are towards the end…The scenery is incredible especially for someone who lives in such a flat place as Manitoba.
Thank you for being with me today. Take care! See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ’A, Geemeff, H, J’, WRDC, Baiba, Berry College Eagle Cam, SW Florida Eagle Cam, Ursula Picard, Charles Sturt Falcon Cam, Holly Parsons, Helen Matcham, PLO, Bart M, Sea Eagle Cam, Leslie Westlake, The Guardian, Leanna Haboush, Jann Nichols, and Wildlife Photographer.
