29 February 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
Well, I haven’t been able to concentrate. Despite the freezing temperatures, a walk seemed like a good idea. It was so cold and slippery that the trails did not give much joy on Wednesday, so today, I am heading to a pool to go for a good long swim while we wait to see if any of the eggs at Big Bear are viable.
Will this mini bottle of champagne get opened this year? We wait to see. I bought it last year to celebrate the hatch at Big Bear, and it has sat in the cupboard waiting just like Jackie and Shadow have to try again for a family.
10,731 were watching the nest at 1534 on Wednesday. I just wonder what the numbers will be when the Pip starts. So many people love this couple. They are the epitome, like Jak and Audacity, of resilience and hope.
Rolling the precious eggs.
Singing together.
11, 784 and growing at 0700 watching for a pip as Jackie rolls the eggs leaving us to wonder.
JC23 and JC24 are quite the characters – and strong. My goodness the necks these two have!
Boone feeding these babies. Gosh that one is so strong. It appears the bonking has waned for awhile. Hoping it stays that way.
Abby and Blaze have fed Swampy and Meadow all day on Wednesday – full-to-bursting crops were the order of the day. It is a wonder either of these eaglets can move.
Starting to look like the new fleece jackets!
Proud Mamma Abby with her two beautiful eaglets.
Have a look at Swampy’s fat bottom and a huge PS!
Two eggs for Andor and Cruz at Fraser Point.
News coming in of the South Australian ospreys.
Beau and Gabby have been mating and working on the nest. Could I seriously hope that these two might have another clutch of eggs? at this date?
Mum is still incubating the eggs at Duke Farm and it appears that there will be at least one little one as hatch is underway. Congratulations.
The Bald Eagles on the Hanover, PA nest now have two eggs. It was a breezy rainy day there on Wednesday. HDonTap says, “With the recent arrival of the second egg, the plot thickens as two male eagles fiercely vie for the coveted space. As observers eagerly await the hatching, speculation mounts, adding an extra layer of suspense to this captivating avian tale.”
There are two eggs at the ND-LEEF nest in South Bend.
Everyone wants to incubate (except Beau and Lewis)…
Arthur and Big Red worked on their nest with Arthur in and out with sticks several times. At 17:45 he arrives with a vole (or mouse) for Big Red and calls her but she did not fly in. He took the prey and left!
Notice how many sticks Arthur has accumulated. Those rails look pretty good. Is he expecting 3 or 4 eggs this year?
The eaglet at JB Sands Wetlands is really changing its plumage. Just squint and you can see the dark feathers starting to come in with the charcoal thermal down.
Food delivery at the Hilton Head GHO nest that I missed! Aren’t they cute?
More bonding at Anacapa with Lena and HJ.
Is Archie inviting Annie to come down to the scrape with him? Does she join him? Watch and see!
Not sure I this is before or after Annie discusses Pocket Gophers and Rodenticide with Archie!
I am imagining the most famous raptors all over giving lectures on dangers to their existence.
Only one Kakapo was born on Leap Year Day – Tau Kuhurangi. Happy Birthday!
Frustrated by the camera at FORE and wanting to watch Liberty and Guardian, here is some news.
And now…for some really good news. With population numbers declining rapidly for some species, the Eastern Imperial Eagle is having a comeback in Austria!
Conservation efforts to stabilize populations elsewhere while the clearing of pine forests and lost of habitat continues to threaten.
In 2020, there were only three recorded nesting pairs of Imperial Eagles in Serbia. The reasons for the total decimation of the population were:
“Loss of habitat, poisoning, and poaching are the problems that brought the eastern imperial eagle to the edge of extinction. The european ground squirrel [Spermophilus citellus, native to Eastern Europe and Asia Minor], a favourite food of the eagle, lives in open grassy fields, most often pastures that have been plowed over due to the dying off of traditional animal husbandry. There are no cows grazing, no pastures, no ground squirrel, no old trees that can withstand the nests of these large birds, so there are no imperial eagles. When you add in pesticides and poaching, the state of the population is not surprising,” he says.
Reckless pesticide use is very bad for the birds, but Serbia also faces the issue of intentional poisoning of wildlife.”
In the last article, more discussions of how humans have made the Imperial Eagle decline so rapidly. I hope by reading the article on the growing numbers in Austria that you will appreciate how difficult it was – because almost everywhere these gorgeous raptors are in great decline.
Eastern Imperial Eagle having a bath.
More tributes continue to pour in to Flaco.
Do you live in NYC?
Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care and remember – all eyes on Big Bear starting tomorrow.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, screen captures, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post this morning: ‘H, J, SP’, FOBBV, Johnson City Eagles ETSU, Rollin’ Dog, Eagle Country, Lisa Yen, Brooke Copp, NEFL-AEF, Duke Farms, HDonTap, ND-LEEF, PIX Cams, Cornell RTH, JB Sands Wetlands, Hilton Head, SK Hideaways, Cal Falcon, Kakapo Recovery, FORE, BirdGuides International Openverse, NABU, Emerging Europe, Birdlife International my-mriya, Kathy Robles, and The New York Times.
