18 December 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
It is so nice to have you with us as we begin the final preparation of the solstice baskets for the garden animals. We should have a photo before they go out to the garden Thursday! I am hoping Brock’s arrives in time! It is a heated double bowl set that will solve water and wet food issues. If the snow cooperates, we will also be able to get across the City to fetch a bag of butter bark as the last ingredient to make those baskets a buffet for all the garden birds.
Our celebrations will be simple. A huge salad to accompany some homemade naan and a cashew and chickpea curry with lots of cilantro. It adds a freshness that tastes like a blend of pepper and yuzu. If you have never tried it chopped up in a salad, please do, stems and all. What to have for dessert when we have had far too many shortbread cookies and mince tarts already? So, the indulgence was two bars of the best chocolate, one a creamy Irish Cream and the other a Salted Caramel to go with a small basket of pears. There will be a warm fire for ‘The Girls’ and some special food for them. This year has been a time of discovering simple pleasures. The Solstice evening will be one of those.
Some news is coming in from Bird World while several eagle nests continue incubating.
‘PB’ writes that there is an osprey near Omaha, Nebraska. While the cold will not impact the raptors we have to remember that ospreys require fish and the water would have to be open. We had about 50 ducks fly over us the other day. They live on one of our rivers where the water is discharged back into the river and it stays open.
The New York Times has a very worrying article on climate coming from the Arctic. Its words ring true to those living in Manitoba and traveling north to see the polar bears or going there for work. The permafrost has been melting and falling into the sea! Please read. The impact is already impacting wildlife in the northern part of Manitoba and the Arctic. It will begin to impact our birds that we love so much and as the article says, “What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic.” Warming seas are going to have a huge impact on our birds as the fish die off. It is already happening in places.
The RSPB has launched an interactive map showing the fate of the Hen Harriers that have satellite trackers. Very enlightening.
The latest research paper mentioned in the document above reinforces that the fate of the Harriers lies at the hands of the grouse-killing moors.
The killing of the raptors continues. What makes people want to kill animals?
Geemeff sends us the latest news from Roy Dennis who is building more platforms for Ospreys.
Roy Dennis and chums are hard at work preparing homes for the Osplets at the Pego Oliva marshes:
It is past midnight on the Canadian prairies and is already Wednesday. I am reading a book, Feral, by George Monbiot. Bear with me as I copy a few paragraphs from this important book. I hope that those who are fighting the commercial fishing in the Chesapeake Bay are reading the post today! The subject is the introduction of wildlife and the economy.
“It took as its case study the country of Sutherland, a wide territory in the gar north of Scotland, covering 5200 square kilometres. Of this, the report reveals, 4000 square kilometres are in the hands of estates, which number just eight-one. In other words, three-quarters of one of the largest counties in Britain is owned by eighty-one families, or by their secretive trusts in tax havens. Across the ten it sampled, covering 780 square kilometres, it found 112 people in full time equivalent employment. Tat means that just one person is employed by the dominant industry for every seven square kilometres, an area five times the size of Hyde Park. The association’s figures suggest to me that the absentee owners and their monocultures of deer prevent not only the ecological regeneration of the region but also the economic regeneration. The report also revealed that the income generated by stalking on the estates throughout Sutherland is 1.6 million GBP. This is a tiny sum which spread across 4000 square kilometres. Their expenditure on deer management is 4.7 million GBP. In other words, stalking can be sustained there only because the bankers or oil sheikhs or mining magnates who own the land burn money on their expensive pastime. Even the tiny numbers of people employed by deer stalking are reliant on the irrational spending of absentee landlords, which could be terminated at any time. Compare these figures with a study from the Isle of Mull, which discovered that colonization by white-tailed eagles has brought 5 million GBP a year into its economy and supports 110 full time jobs. Thousands of people now travel to the island to watch the chicks hatching and fledging from the eagle hide at Glen Seilisdeir or to take an eagle cruise on Loch Shiel. The eagles now account for half the enquiries at the visitor desk at the island’s main ferry terminal. A study commissioned by the Scottish Government calculates that wildlife tourism in Scotland is already worth 276 GBP a year. Rewinding and the reintroduction of other missing species could greatly enhance this figure, generating many more jobs than deer-stalking does today.” (Feral, 102)
Why should we allow a foreign company to deplete the Menhaden population, which is contributing to the decline of whales and dolphins, the depletion of Striped Bass, and the starvation of Osprey chicks? Just imagine if the Chesapeake Bay were a thriving ecosystem. I wonder how much income and employment opportunities related to wildlife could be generated in that scenario.
The Cornell Bird Lab and Wild Birds Unlimited have a photo contest. I know that so many of you are very talented. Please check out the information below – I want to see your names for those winning prizes!
A week or so ago I mentioned to you that one of the Melbourne fledgling CBD falcons had been in care and was being prepared for release. That information came from someone close to the individual whose care the falcon was in. ‘J’ has just sent me a posting by Victor Hurley that gives us some additional information:
Now what is happening to those two little bobble heads at SW Florida?
E25 coming out to join the world. https://youtu.be/B82BuqHCLc4?
Images from Tuesday. I hope that E25 gets strong fast as E24 is quite the strong older sibling.
You are going to need your worry beads. I don’t think this is because I am concerned. M15 always steps in to help the underdog eaglet! Or he has in the past. This nest has never lost an eaglet to siblicide. What you will see are two eaglets fighting it out for dominance. 24 began it began the minute 25 hatched. They will bonk and twist one another, and you will want to turn the screen off. — To my knowledge, 25 has not eaten since it hatched. I am worrying.
Jackie has been at the nest in Big Bear. https://youtu.be/YnQaMHImpuk?
Jackie has also been doing a lot of flying about! Isn’t she gorgeous? https://youtu.be/slHlKI9geKc?
The day began with Wilko getting all of the first fish but a few bites that Dad brought to the nest.
Wed 18 Dec 2024 video archive
Age (chicks): Wilko : 73 days, Kasse : 70 days (10 weeks)
Fish count: Mum: 0, Dad: 1
Fish times: 07:07Feed times:
| 06:02 | Wilko messing with his sister in the early morning sun rise. | ||
| 07:07 | Dad’s in with a headless, breakfast fish. | Dad (M,Part) | |
| 07:07 1 | Wilko gets the 1st fish as usual. Mum was hovering over the nest but decides to fly away instead. It was already grabbed. Kasse manages to get a bite for herself when she latches onto the fish in his talons! Wilko will finish the fish tail. | ||
| 08:31 | wilko and mum on the old barge | ||
Feeding Times
| Start | Finish | Duration | Fed Chick | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilko | Kasse | |||||
| 1: 07:07 | 07:45 | 38 min | L | S | ||
Another fish was delivered and it appears that Wilko got it as well.
The fish dinners improved at Port Lincoln Ospreys.
The worry about the Mum from Coobowsie who has been missing for several days continues.
Supplementary fish cannot be provided because of gulls and pelicans at Tumby Island.
At the Royal Albatross Colony, there was a royal reunion. https://youtu.be/USv_Tmmd2UI?
Geemeff wonders if she can hijack my blog to ask for help for the Highland Tiger. Of course, you can! We are concerned mostly about ospreys but that season is not here save for South Australia so yes! Please help. They are an integral part to getting the Highlands back to the biodiversity there once was in that beautiful landscape.
Geemeff reminds us that saving the Highland Tigers also helps to save and protect the birds. Please read and write to the company Vattenfalls.
Judy Harrington brings news of the Olympic Park Sea Eagles. She speaks of the heat. The forecast is for 32 C at the Park by the weekend.
We have news from the Ventana Wildlife Society:
Calico’s Tip for the Day comes to us at one of the most intensive spending times of the year:
Thank you so much for being with us today. I hope that you are enjoying time with friends and family. Take care. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘Geemeff, J’ The New York Times, Raptor Persecution UK, lamarinaalta. Cornell Bird Lab and Wild Birds Unlimited, SK Hideaways, SW Florida Eagle Cam, Bart M and the PLO, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Dave Wetherall, Cornell Lab Bird Cams, Judy Harrington, Ventana Wildlife Society, 1 Million Women FB and Mari Copeny
Great blog Mary Ann 😁
Thank you so much, Connie!