26 February 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
The sky was blue on Sunday and the temperature was -5C. Not as warm as it was on Saturday, but still nice. It meant a trip north of the City to check on eagles and, wow. We lucked out. Sitting there quietly in a tree minding its own business was an adult Bald Eagle. The second image is heavily cropped. All taken with my iPhone from a distance.
People were ice fishing on Lake Winnipeg at Gimli. The marina where the Osprey fishes from spring to fall was silent today. Everything awaiting the thaw.
‘The Girls’ did not get into too much mischief on Sunday. Hugo Yugo held her own and kept command of the top of the smallest cat post. Baby Hope was on her favourite sofa. Calico was no where to be found and Missey was by her window on arrival home. It looked like it was a lazy Sunday afternoon for them. No one wanted to pose and neither of these two were particularly happy that I was bothering their nap.
The Bald Eagle nest in Johnson City, TN is blowing so hard. I was afraid the tree was going to go down…This was during pip watch and then…
The eaglet hatched! Congratulations Jolene and Booth on this feisty new born.
The egg at Duke Farms is 35 days old. We are officially on hatch watch. Did you know that Duke Farms “is located on 2,700 acres near Hillsborough, New Jersey” and “is one of the largest privately-owned parcels of undeveloped land in NJ state.” Isn’t that fantastic! (For clarification, 600 acres is a square mile to give you an idea of the size).
We are THREE days away from pip/hatch watch at Big Bear Valley with Shadow and Jackie. Eggs are still in tact as of Sunday afternoon. Their nest is in a Jeffrey Pine, some 145 feet from the ground. It is one of the highest Bald Eagle nests in the US in terms of elevation at 7100 ft above sea level.
Watchers of the Captiva Osprey nest are hoping that Jack and F07 will have their first egg on Sunday.
No egg yet on Sunday.
It is not all smooth sailing at the tower of Diamond and Xavier. Cilla Kinross notes some altercations with the Kestrels. The falcons have also been hunting at night! You might recall that Annie’s mate, Alden, was a great nocturnal hunter.
Will Newmann pick Julie? There is some action at the Great Spirit Bluff scrape on Sunday that might suggest romance is finally in the air.
Archie and Annie spent Sunday in and around the scrape at The Campanile.
Clive delivered a large fish to Cal on Sunday. Dad demonstrates ‘unzipping’ the Pompano for Cal and leaves the fish for his youngster to self-feed after he gets some good bites.
Sunday morning at Flaco’s roost tree in Central Park. I have to admit that I am captivated by the outpouring of love for this owl and how his plight of being in a small cage resonated around the world. People wept for his death and also for the joy they believed he felt in the year that he was free. Flaco spoke to something deep in our own souls. Can YOU imagine sitting in a cage watching life walk by? or fly by? Or flying yourself? Is this the heart of what is happening?
You can see and listen to Flaco’s ‘hoot’ here:
https://twitter.com/birdcentralpark/status/1761549232769581213…
I will only mention products that really work in my post and that I have either used or, in the case of books, read. I do not get a penny for mentioning Feather Friendly but it works. So do Crayon Window Paints. The key is to put these on the outside of your windows (decals and all other items, too) including the window paint. The lines for the window paint need to be 2 inches a part in every direction. You can clean the paint off at the end of migration season with White Vinegar that does not harm the environment. The Feather Friendly are expensive but they are supposed to last a number of years. The window markers are the cheapest of anything you could use.
I use the Feather Friendly on the Conservatory. We can watch it save lives.
A lovely article on birds and aging. It is two years old and still a good read. Found it on a FB feed this morning and wanted to share. Please note that Wisdom is now 72 years young! She was dancing on Midway Atoll but did not get a mate and is back foraging at sea.
Preparing the nest in Durbe County, Latvia – Milda, the White-tailed Eagle and her new mate. The first year I watched Milda she laid her eggs the third week of March.
It looks like an almost two-and-a-half-year-old eagle landed on the nest of Beau and Gabby late Sunday afternoon. What a beauty! The only hatches from this nest that might come close would be Jasper or Rocket. The larger amount of hot chocolate brown could account for the slight difference from the image below.
Beau wasn’t happy and chased the youngster off.
Two successful GHO fledges on the SW Florida property of the Pritchett’s that is shared with M15 and F23.
Meadow and Swampy were both well fed on Sunday…no problems here except for the flies.
Everything looks good at Superbeaks. That little one is right up there in front. Pepe and Muhlady have a catfish and is it a bird? in the pantry.
Thunder was attacked by a hawk while incubating her three eggs at the West End on Saturday. My heart sank.
The first Cahow has hatched in Bermuda.
They are the Bermuda Petrel – known on the island as a Cahow. They are also the national bird of Bermuda and are one of the rarest seabirds on Earth according to the Cornell Bird Lab.
Here are some facts about the Cahow that you might want to know.
Thank you so much for being with me today. We hope to see you soon – take care everyone!
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, articles, photographs, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘A’, Duke Farms, Sara A, Gracie Shepherd, FOBBV, Window to Wildlife, Holly Parsons, Cilla Kinross, Ashely Wilson, Cal Falcons, Birgit Nanette, @BirdCentralPark, Marion Savelsberg, Feather Friendly, Audubon, LDF, Biruta Papa, NEFL-AEF, Lisa Russo, Eagle Country, Superbeaks, Janntonne, Nonsuch Exhibitions, and OpenVerse.
