15 December 2024
Hello Everyone,
We had a wonderful Saturday. The temperature outside warmed up and for the first time in a long time the Crows were at the big table feeder. It is worrisome when some are missing. The little Downy female Woodpecker appears in the evening at the square suet feeder as does the Chickadee. The Starlings have been creeping into Brock’s space and grabbing wet cat food as well as some kibble. I can’t wait for them to see the baskets we are making for the solstice – so far there are walnuts, chopped peanuts, Butter Bark, Hazelnuts, two large bags of Meal Worms, and various types of seed and oats. Chopped apple and pears will be added at the last minute. I really hope that they enjoy the effort.
Hugo Yugo went for her pre-surgery blood work on Friday. She was so quiet on the way to the surgery and even in the waiting room no one would have known there was a cat in the building. Then something happened. We heard a cat yelp like nothing I have ever heard before. It was Hugo Yugo. They didn’t even get to prick her for the blood test. She was so stressed she was sent home. They will test her blood Monday before the surgery. She was so glad to be home. We really hope that things will go smoothly on Monday.
Oh, what a great day it was yesterday when E24 hatched successfully. What a gorgeous little eaglet! Now we wait for E25.
A tiny glimpse of that gorgeous soft grey down of the newly hatched eaglet.
‘J’ sent me some better images.
Do these little eaglets have to be so cute?
There was also good news from Redding. The dead tree that Liberty and Guardian had been using and were restoring fell in the high winds and bad weather that hit the area around San Francisco. This is a blessing. There were no eggs and no eaglets in that nest and now Liberty and Guardian can use the sturdy nest near the new camera prepared for them in the summer.
A video of the tree falling: https://youtu.be/GiAnGPzdmAs?
‘B’ writes that the weather that has impacted San Francisco with Redding being some 200 miles away is showing the power of the storms hitting the area. There was even a brief tornado warning for San Francisco ‘B’ says. Let us hope that everyone has some quiet now. Weather can be most disturbing to the birds and the nests and it is Eagle nesting time now!
The video of the storm that hit the Bay area: https://youtu.be/eZdIMQFr-p0?
My goodness. The fledglings from Port Lincoln are going to keep everyone busy. Looks like Wilko has had a really strong start.
Some beautiful close ups of Kasse.
Sunday’s obs board so far:
Sun 15 Dec 2024 video archive
Age (chicks): Wilko : 70 days (10 weeks), Kasse : 67 days
Fish count: Mum: 0, Dad: 0
Fish times:
| 08:35 | closeup of wilko on the far perch | ||
| 09:15 | Kasse was out on a short flight and when she came back she landed on the left ropes below the nest. She was wet. Looks like Wilko attacks her! He jumps on her back. Both fly from the ropes. Wilko had full on zoomies after the gulls! Some think he got too worked up. Wilko’s on the close branch. And Kasse is in the water again, on the anchor rope. | ||
| 09:44 | Kasse is finally able to fly up from the anchor rope onto the barge, behind the ropes on the far right edge. After trying once and falling. She’s all wet from that experience. | ||
So far no food has come to the nest either by Mum or Dad or the fairies. It is 1pm. It is so much more difficult for the fairies now that Kasse and Wilko are being quite independent. Fingers crossed for fish.
Thank goodness for the fish fairy who comes in with 6 fish. Mum brings in 1.
The AEF gives a glimpse at how well Gabby and Beau are doing this year! https://youtu.be/giLl2tlMb3E?
Builders meet only 53% of the nature friendly aspects of new homes. Perhaps they will do better in 2025?
They are so cute. Look at the neme. Once very endangered they now appear to be thriving. Neme are the Hawaiian Goose and they are descended from the Canada Goose. Below the images I have put in some fun facts about these amazing creatures.
You can see some similarities to the Canada Goose in the images of the Hawaiian Goose below. Notice how the plumage on the neck is very different from the Canada Goose which is solid black.
“Hawaiian Goose, Kaua’i, Hawai’i” by Dave Govoni is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Calico’s Tip for the Day: If you haven’t already found it, she wants you to check out the beautiful Celtic holiday music video on YouTube. We played it behind the scenes with a pre-solstice pizza making dinner with my bestie and the cats loved it. Lots of raptors and beautiful Roe deer. https://youtu.be/0RR1G_NxKyE?
Thank you so much for being with us today. Pictures of The Girls Coming soon! Take care everyone. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘B, J, SP’, SW Florida Eagle Cam, FORE, SK Hideaways, FOX News, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Bart M and the PLO, NEFL-AEF, The Guardian, Hawai’i Magazine, Openverse
