13 February 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
Monday was warm on the Canadian Prairies. At 0 degrees C everything is melting. It is damp and icky. The beautiful white snow is gone and is now puddles of brown coloured muck – salt and sand mixed together. Oh, gosh, golly. I want winter back!
Dyson and the kits were at the feeders loading up on peanuts. There were some sparrows and the Starlings. I didn’t see the little Reds, but I wasn’t always looking. The peanuts were, however, cleared up in record time, so they must have been scurrying about!
I spent the day taking apart and putting ‘back’ together an IKEA Billy Bookcase—a word of advice on these flatpack bookcases. If you do not intend to move them, get a bottle of wood glue, put glue in every hole and then attach it. Then, being careful, glue that back on as well. I hope never to have to do this again! The three will never be moved – not during my lifetime! As a result, the blog is a bit short today. At least you cannot hear me yelling! The ‘girls’ were very patient today—such little sweeties.
Annie and the new male are getting rather chummy and bonding more in the scrape on Monday. Cal Falcons has decided to name him, too. Details under the image.
Flaco, the escapee Eurasian Owl, appears to be doing just fine. Remember. Flaco could die from eating a rodent that had ingested poison. All of the wildlife that feed on the rodents in Manhattan could! Including the Red-tail hawks in the area. Indeed, many of them have and it is very sad. It is time to end this practice and let the raptors take care of them!
Here is the link to the streaming cam at Mt Ibuki in Japan, home to a pair of Golden Eagles. ”According to current trends in census size and reproduction, the Japanese golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos japonica) is at risk of extinction this century, leading the Japanese government to recognize the subspecies as endangered. It is now the focus of national conservation efforts.”
Last year the only surviving Golden eaglet sadly starved. It caused great concern particularly since the raptors are considered to be greatly endangered.
Jackie and Shadow continue to be ever so careful when they are getting on and off the eggs or doing the old switcheraroo for incubation duties.
I thought maybe they were not going to eat on the nest, but Jackie proved me wrong as she nibbled on that piece of fish.
We are now 16 days away from hatch watch for Jackie and Shadow and their three eggs at Big Bear.
Thanks Abby and Blaze! We really cannot see those darling eaglets now!
We are expecting the second egg for Sally and Harry at Moorings Park on Valentine’s Day.
At first glance, I thought this was Ervie on the light, but it is Bradley. There are his beautiful leg tags.
These are the reports for a day ago. Both fledglings are still coming to the barge for fish. But, read the report. It looks they are each trying to fish as well. Fantastic.
PLO posted some stats for Giliath. The posting below shows you how far he has travelled and the places around the nest. Well done, Giliath. You are doing fantastic.
This is the information for Gil’s older brother, Ervie:
“2024.02.13 – Port Lincoln Barge – Ervie – October 2023 to January 2024.
The satellite tracking data for Ervie for the time October 2023 to January 2024. At a broad scale view, clearly the dense clusters of points shows his preference for fishing including the Port Lincoln Grain Terminal, grain silos, between Stenross boat facility to the Moreton Bay fig tree, Delamere and northern shore of Proper Bay (adjacent greyhound Road) and Boston Island. I have over layed same data from October 2022 to January 2023 and almost identical pattern of movements. Not surprising his avoidance of the Porter Bay Barge nest during the 2023 breeding season. Elevation data shows his movements and distance covered over the 4 months = 3,364km and an average height of 58 meters. This Osprey is also now in his third year and appears to be a most competent hunter.”
The new male at Dulles-Greenway replacing Martin is named Lewis! Oh, Lewis! (Fabulous name…you all know why.) Lewis has big talons to fill. Martin and Rosa had no trouble raising three eaglets. Let’s see what happens this year. We are on egg watch.
It is so lovely to see Mum at Duke Farms not buried under snow.
An eagle was at the ND-LEEF nest quite early.
Liberty and Guardian were both at their Redding nest working away. I have to admit I am really nervous when I see that high water below them.
Rose and Ron should be very proud. They have such a beautiful eaglet this year in R6.
The Little Miami Conservancy Bald Eagle Cam is live with Bette and Baker. This nest is near Miami, Ohio – not Florida. Both were on the nest Monday working away.
Here is the link to their streaming cam:
Beau has learned to incubate and stay the course. 17 hours. He has also done some other long stints. My goodness how I wish he had done this earlier when there was a chance this egg was viable…good practice for net year.
We are all looking forward to Rosie’s return, but none more so than Richmond! Condolences, Richmond, on the loss in the Super Bowl. Maybe next year for the 49ers.
BirdGuides Review of the Week for Birds in the UK.
How can we protect the raptors if the sentences handed out mean nothing to those convicted? More on the pair that laundered the Peregrine Falcons and their lack of a custodial sentence. They make the rules protecting wildlife a joke – and they know it and continue to abuse the systems that offer meagre protection.
It is beautiful, and soon we hope that Aran and Elan will be there, right before our eyes, in the Glaslyn Valley.
Word has come that the camera for Jak and Audacity might get repaired.
I missed it. It was Otepoti’s Birthday and every Kakapo deserves to have their birthday celebrated! If you do not know about the Kakapo, I have included the Kakapo Recovery Brochure below this posting.
A fantastic book also arrived in the post last week, waiting for my attention. Written in 2010 by Alison Ballance, Kakapo. Rescued from the Brink of Extinction, it includes everything you would want to know about these evasive flightless parrots. It did not include any further information about Otepoti, sadly, as he was born 5 years after its publication. Thanks, ‘J’ for the recommendation!
Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care all. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their posts, articles, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ’J’, Cal Falcons, Kathy Robles, Conservation Science, Japan Golden Eagle Cam, FOBBV, Eagle Country, Moorings Park, Mike Wood, PLO, Bart M, Dulles-Greenway, Duke Farms, ND-LEEF, FORE, WRDC, Little Miami Conservancy, Jerinelle Wray, SF Bay Ospreys, BirdGuides, Raptor Persecution UK, Bywyd Gwylld Glaslyn, Gracie Shepherd, and Kakapo Recovery.
