JBS24 seems well…late Wednesday in Bird World

11 February 2026

Good Evening,

I hope that you are well and have had a wonderful week so far.

It is a bright blue sky with brilliant sun and a temperature of about -5 C. Ann and Don are at The Zoo! Toby, The Girls, and I are doing some spring cleaning. We cleared out a pantry yesterday that went to Ann’s son, and now I have a place for a chair so Don can safely put on his shoes and boots by the garden door.

Toby and I are both well. I feel like a new person after a round of antibiotics – especially when I didn’t really know that I was unwell, just exhausted. Seems the tiredness was attributed to the infection, so get checked out if you live in a place where this is affordable. I am so fortunate. I worked hard, paid my taxes (still do), and never see a bill from my doctor, who is the head of our university clinic. Maybe you are not really tired either!!!!!!!! Toby and I are going to finish patching some nail holes, change the bedding, and go for a nice walk.

That walk turned into a wonderfully long walk. We did change all the bedding – oh, to sleep on clean sheets and under duvet covers! We did not patch the nail and screw holes. We baked some Spelt buns so Ann can take some home along with a nice jar of jam and we walked. We walked and walked. 3.2 km according to the routing on the phone. We could have gone on for much longer but there remains enough ice on the walkways in places to make me nervous.

Toby is continuing to grow. He is long, with nice, long legs. His fur grows fast, as do his nails. Except for the HGE (due to the stress of what happened over the holidays), he is very healthy and will not have the issues that many of the Cavaliers do – breeders who sought out large heads and googly eyes over health. His ‘dog parents’, Mia and Myles, and 4 generations of their family have not had the trouble I read about in many FB groups, so, like the world news, I am going to take a long break from reading about them. Life is beautiful – it looks ugly at times when we see the disregard for life of any kind. So look for the good!

I wake up and am so grateful for so much. I have a home – a small home, the size that families raised three children in during the 1950s and 60s. We have good food and I can afford to have pets and take care of animals outside. I am grateful for my health at my age. I am tremendously happy that Brock is doing well. He spends much time inside the porch of the dear lady down the street. He loves sleeping on her chair and he will wait, as he did with us, for more food to be brought out if you tap on the door a couple of times. Brock is safe and eating well. Don has come around and I have adjusted his medications so that there are no acute flare ups at any time of the day. Every day I appreciate those researchers who developed these medications for dementia and other psychoses – they are helping me keep Don at home and our family together. I am hoping, however, to have a holiday – two of them, in fact. One to British Columbia to visit an old and dear friend. We will walk through the Old Cedar forests and cleanse our souls and the other to the UK to see the ospreys and meet up with a few lovely people. Of course, those are mere wishes now. Perhaps reality in the future.

Ah, so we hope that you can breathe the fresh air, listen for the birds—–remember this is the Big Bird Count this weekend! Please take part.

So what is happening in Bird World?

JBS 24 is still alive. As ‘MP’ reminded me, the little one is really now out of the woods as per HPAI for a period of 72 hours after the death of the first eagle. So we have almost another day. The eaglets that I have seen die in the same nest – well, it happened normally within 24-26 hours if not hours.

24 had a good feed early today. Keep sending good wishes.

We are looking for eggs for Bella and Scout at the NCTC Bald Eagle nest and also for Irv and Stella at the US Steel nest in PA.

At the Golden Eagle nest in Romania, the very first egg for 2025 was laid in early March – the 9th to be precise. So, we could be looking at eagle eggs in less than a month.

Francis and Franklin laid their first egg on the 26th of January in Tennessee. So, let’s count the days til pip watch – looks like we are on day 16. Two and a half weeks, at least, to go.

Ellie and Harvey laid their first egg on the 28th in Kansas. So three weeks away.

We leave branches and rotting wood scattered around the garden. Those old tree trunks and pieces of broken cedar planters have lots of insects for the garden birds.

These dead trees are also homes to my local Blue Jays as well as these little owls. Please protect them if you can!

Thank you so much for being with us. I had not expected to do a posting until at least the end of the week but the happiness that JBS24 is still alive just spreads over me. We are not out of the woods yet but after Thursday morning I am going to relax! And you should, too. Take care. See you soon.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me notes and news, and to the owners of the streaming cams, so that we can watch their daily lives. Thanks, J, for the news of the owl and the reminder of the dead wood, and to Christine’s Critters for their post.