Category Archives: murmuration

Friday in Bird World

13 December 2024

Hello Everyone,

The inbox lit up. Everyone is excited. She did it. There are now two eggs for Beau and Gabby at around 1824. Thanks, ‘A and J and everyone else that came after’!

The event is captured on video by SK Hideaways! https://youtu.be/VR_3G2ReIoo?

Beau arrives to aerate the nest and roll the two eggs. Thanks, ‘J’

Hugo Yugo has her dental surgery scheduled for Monday due to a cancellation at the veterinary clinic. I am so happy. She will not have to suffer waiting til the first week in January. HY will go in for her blood work this afternoon. As I write this, Brock is eating, which always brings a smile to my face. I’m not sure how he manages to survive temperatures below -30°C, but he looks good this morning with no frostbite on his ears.

HY. What a little sweetie.

Hugo Yugo’s sidekick, Missey, has been busy checking out the animals on their little woodland tree. Last year, with her brother Lewis, Missey almost destroyed this tiny tree!!!!!!!! She was eating the flocking off the branches. it is a wonder there wasn’t a huge vet bill. This year her focus is on removing the animals, and the other three think are cat toys. Ugh. Can you hear me growling?

I cannot imagine a world without birds singing and, yet, in my own neighbourhood, it is our garden where the song is happening. No where else. Plug your ears and image not a single bird singing – ever again. Let’s do something about it before that happens!

Why are birds important? and their song? “But does the silencing of our soundscapes matter to us? The short answer is yes. There is growing evidence about the health benefits of spending time in nature, including reducing risks of heart disease, diabetes and anxiety. Yet while the general benefits of being outside in nature may seem intuitive, the contributions of natural sounds to this are less understood.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/12/why-birdsong-matters-more-than-you-think?CMP=share_btn_url

Help create a time of giving and caring instead of consumerism.

Beau and Gabby have been incubating like synchronised swimmers. It has been a joy to watch them this season. As I write this, there is still only one egg. If there is to be only one, then goodness, I hope it is fertile, hatches, is healthy, and fledges. I cannot imagine another disappointment for her. She, of course, will take it all in stride and not be openly bothered. We have so much to learn from the raptors.

Beau on the nest incubating. The couple have been on and off all day.

We have a real treat from SK Hideaways. No more murmurations where they live so they went to find them! https://youtu.be/WVeEWdDAO7A?

This is also wonderful. A young person who is so creative. Look at the detail in the bird cards – a large % going to the Sussex Wildlife Trust!

Sussex nature illustrated cards by Benjamin Fallow | Sussex Wildlife TrustDownload

A long time Bald Eagle ambassador at the Audubon Centre for Birds of Prey, Paige, has died.

It appears that they are looking for Kasse. Isn’t the tracker working? I hope that Kasse has followed Mum to go fishing. Bart is waiting for Fran to wake up to see if she has the tracking for the kids.

One osprey on the barge.

All four were found on the old barge. There has been no breakfast.

Tracking from earlier:

Kasse’s adventure on video: https://youtu.be/0BRA6ZASb2s?

More news:

Catching up with Judy Harrington’s news:

At the Loch Arkaig, Geemeff has found some visitors. Ospreys not expected for 100 days or so! “Sparrowhawk on Nest Two and a Raven on Nest One. They visited within an hour of each other after weeks of no activity. Mind you, the nest cams have been down quite a bit due to lack of solar power, so who knows what we might have missed.”  https://youtu.be/2VYIExWjaig

Winston, the Black Bear Cub rescue in Manitoba, is thriving.

I need to check the comments on time. ‘AE and MP’ note that Jack was on the Achieva Credit Union nest on the 7th of December. Thank you!

Jack is one of the male ospreys that I have not kept an adequate file on his head marks. I wonder if this is him? What has happened to Diane?

I did not see anyone in the scrape at the Campanile.

There is someone at the San Jose City Hall!

Thunder and Akecheta were at the West End nest.

I haven’t seen anyone at Two Harbours recently. If you have, please let me know!

Pip watch continues at SW Florida! Did I put my vote in for Saturday? A sub-adult landed on the rails and F23 valiantly defended the nest and eggs.

It is highlights at Fraser Point. Go and have a look. Take a tissue – so many images of little eaglets that we loved so much.

Calico loves Junior the Squirrel:

Calico is finalising her favourite books. It is a bit of a laugh because she has slipped in a few from earlier—her all-time favourites!

Calico’s Tip of the Day comes with an image from Happy Kitty FB. It is winter, and in Manitoba it has been -40 C. The temperatures are going to get warmer for a few days, but the animals that live outside are hungry. Rapid habitat loss has brought them into urban spaces looking for food in Mexico, in Canada, in various other parts of North America. Please help if you can!

Please forgive all typos. I still have my cold, but it has been an unlucky day for accidents. I slipped on the ice and injured my left wrist and then I cut the middle finger of my left hand rather deeply. Like the thumb, it is incredible how much you use that finger. My keyboarding was kind of pecking tonight…so typos and grammar – look the other way, please! I should be back to normal soon.

Thank you for being with us today. Please take care. 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: ‘A, AE, Geemeff, J, MP’ NEFL-AEF, The Guardian, SKHideaways, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Heidi Mc, Judy Harrington, Geemeff and The Woodland Trust, Black Bear Rescue Manitoba, Achieva Credit Union, Cal Falcons, SJ City Hall Falcons, IWS/Explore.org, Gracie Shepherd, Walmer the Rescued Squirrel, Happy Kitty FB

Sunday in Bird World

29 September 2024

Hello Everyone,

Sunday morning. Baby Hope is the protector of the realm this morning! She decided that there was no way that The Boyfriend would come into the house after he had breakfast. He now arrives at 0900 and 1700 for ‘wet’ food. There are two of them. One has white on both sides of its nose – this one – and the one who is quite skitterish has white only on the right side.

Greetings from a sunny and HOT Saturday on the Canadian Prairies.

Every bird spent some time having a bath today! Water is so essential when it is hot even more so than food! And it has to be changed and filled lots of times a day.

Years ago we had a neighbour, Alf. Alf kept a journal throughout his life, no matter where he was, including being in a British submarine during World War II around Sri Lanka. He always included everything about the weather, who he saw, what he did, and the major news events. Alf was amazing. Every morning, he went swimming with the high school team at 0700. He rode his bicycle up and down the lanes near our town, often picking blackberries and bringing us a pail. Many years after he retired, he started studying German and Russian. On New Year’s Eve, he was always at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. Alf taught us so much during the time I lived near him while reading at the University of Leicester. The fates worked in my favour in 2003. I was able to visit with Alf a few weeks before he died. He began to feel unwell during the morning swimming and died peacefully in the ambulance en route to the hospital. Alf never married. I think his neighbours were his family and he certainly treated us that way. I want to take a page out of Alf’s playbook and start tracking the garden animals in a properly bound journal. I might even force myself to learn how to draw!

Lately, the digital world has been giving me a headache. The sorting of the photographs, information. While I cannot imagine not being able to find information quickly compared to ordering articles and books through inter-library loan, I want to slow down and pick up a journal and see what was happening in the garden last year on this date. Analog. Today, I would write that the European Starlings returned. Did you know their beaks are not correctly shaped for eating most seed? They like unshelled peanuts, meal worms, and soft suet. On Saturday we picked up the Starlings’ favourite suet and today their meal worms should arrive. What perturbs me is the fact that so many people are highly selective in the birds that they want to feed. Yes, Starlings are an ‘invasive’ species. They can’t help that some humans introduced them into North America. And personally I think they are stunningly beautiful and they are not more aggressive in the garden than the Jays or the Sparrows. In fact, the most aggressive animals are the squirrels. There are more entries on a search engine for bird food to prevent Starlings from wanting to eat at your feeder than what they like to eat. Oh, that irks me.

Saturday evening was amazing. It was so warm. The geese were busy feeding at the fields on the way to Oak Hammock Marsh. They had a presentation on the geese that come to the marsh and then we went out to see the murmurations of the Rusty and Brewer’s Blackbirds (the Red-Wing and Yellow-heads left on migration several weeks ago). We get Canada, Cackling, Snow, White-fronted, and Ross’s geese and the morphs. Tonight there were Blue-winged Teal, two Trumpeter Swans, Canada Geese and a speckled breast White-front juvenile. Tens of thousands of geese did not fly in at once like they would have had the weather been colder. They need to eat more than they need to sleep. Most will come to the safety of the marsh at 0100 or 0200 and go out feeding again around mid-morning.

Oak Hammock is a combination of wetlands, the marsh, and the Tall Grass Prairies.

What is unusual at the end of September are the number of mosquitoes!

The Trumpeter Swans at a distance. One overwintered about 2 km north of the wetlands at the site of an Artisan spring.

The colours were so beautiful and the water was as smooth as glass.

It was just the perfect night.

In the UK, those amazing Pink-footed Geese are arriving from Iceland and Greenland.

Country diary: The annual spectacular of noisy, feathered visitors | Birds | The GuardianDownload

We need to know as much about Menhaden as we can. They are critical to keeping the ospreys in Chesapeake Bay alive. https://youtu.be/2Tvq8W8QtLM?

After Helene. Gabby and 24E1 continue work on their nest.

Still wet at SW Florida.

It is raining in Ithaca, New York at the nest of Big Red and Arthur.

It is always nice on a Saturday listening to Ferris Akel’s tour. Today, there were some excellent waterfowl, including gorgeous Great White Egrets, Blue Herons, and Gallinue.

And some female Wood Ducks!

It was the start of a beautiful day at Big Bear Valley.

The cameras picked up a person walking their dog close to the nest tree.

A sub-adult Bald Eagle is working on the US Steel nest of Claire and Irvin in Pittsburgh. https://youtu.be/zmF87AzhDPU?

WingsofWhimsy caught the visit on video. https://youtu.be/mdcE0Oq_A_M?

There was an adult Bald Eagle at the Duke Farms nest on Saturday!

Boone and Jolene’s nest in Johnson City, TN was destroyed by Hurricane Helene. Let’s be grateful no eggs or chicks were in that nest.

Do you know about the streaming cam to the nest of the Sooty Falcon? https://www.youtube.com/live/mhZtCdEuRe4?

eBird describes the Sooty Falcon thus: “Slim, long-winged, long-tailed falcon that is built for long-distance migration. Adults are all gray, while juveniles have pale, spotted underparts. Breeds on cliffs along the coast or in the desert. During migration and winter, spends most of its time on the wing, and can be seen over any habitat. Quite social, and often seen in loose flocks of dozens or more. Adult is very similar to the dark-morph adult Eleanora’s Falcon, but Sooty is paler gray. Immatures also very similar, but immature Sooty has an unbarred tail without a rufous tip. Much longer wings and tail than Peregrine Falcon. Larger and lankier than other falcons.”

They are seriously cute.

“Sooty Falcon (Falco concolor), Allée des Baobabs near Morondava, Madagascar” by Frank.Vassen is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The Peregrine Fund describes the challenges these falcons have: “The Sooty Falcon is categorized as Vulnerable. Some of the threats this lovely falcon faces including habitat destruction, especially in the form of human developments cropping up at important breeding sites, and disturbance. Feral cats also pose a threat to this falcon.”

Those cute little Olympic Park Sea Eaglets had some fish for lunch! Not a bird. Gosh, these two are little darlings. https://youtu.be/JiVqBbKBKX0?

Pip watch for Xavier and Diamond!

Thankfully these two are not going to fledge in the next week!

The first pair of White-tail Eagles are breeding in Northern Ireland in 150 years.

White-tailed eagles: First breeding pair confirmed in Northern Ireland in over 150 years – Raptor PeDownload

There are no plans for anything to happen to the Achieva Nest. I wrote to the Tampa Bay Raptor Centre and bucket trucks are in high demand right now and the ospreys will need to rebuild their nest on their own.

It is relatively quiet in Bird World right now. Instead of taking a full break, I will be writing a shorter blog until we get the hatches in Australia.

Take care of yourselves. We will see you in six days.

Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, announcements, and streaming cams that helped me to write my post today: ‘J’, Oak Hammock Marsh and Ducks Unlimited, The Guardian, The New York Angler, NEFL-AEF, SW Florida Bald Eagle Cam, Cornell Red Tail Hawk Cam, Ferris Akel Tours, FOBBV, PIX Cams, WingsofWhimsy, Duke Farms, eBird, CarnyXWild, OpenVerse, Nesting Bird Life & More, Ildiko Pokk, ETSU-Johnson City, and Raptor Persecution UK.