10 February 2024
Good Morning!
I wish I could replace my battery with Hugo Yugo’s. I think Calico does, too. I seriously don’t know how she can get from the very back of the conservatory into the sitting room and disturb Hope in a couple of seconds and run back and leap on top of Calico putting her nose out of joint without even taking a breath!
This morning she was intent on watch the Blue Jays. They arrived right after a big pile of peanuts was put on the big table feeder. It looked like Hugo Yugo’s eyes were going to pop out of her head!
It’s the baby Blue Jay. Well, not such a baby anymore but the youngest of the six that hatched in the summer. It and Junior are still here. Their tree across the lane is still standing but the other Blue Jay family lost theirs this week when the City went on a cutting spree. My lovely treed neighbourhood is not lovely anymore. If I did not feel responsible for the garden animals, I would pack it up and move to a large wooded lot.
She is also fast – Dyson! She was getting peanuts, too. I ran to get the camera, but she was already hurrying off with her nut down the top of the fence. I worry about her, too. When they cut the 122-year-old Elm tree on the boulevard, she cannot go up, leap to the tree branches across the lane, and down to safety. She will have to cross the lane, which can be busy sometimes. Is there a proactive City that plants a small tree near a big one that they know might get disease and have to be cut down???
The big cat tree is taking a beating this year from these four. Thankfully the man who built it considered how one might need to replace some areas with new carpet and not others. But it is heavy! Made out of 3/4″ plywood – I wonder if I can learn upholstery.
She is chasing her tail on the top of the tree. Seriously, she is either going at 100% power or 0%. there is nothing in between. I get tired watching her.
That little square measures 20.3 cm or 8 inches square.
Today, Calico decided that she wanted to watch the little birds, too, in the vines.
On March the 13th there is going to be a Zoom presentation sponsored by The International Osprey Foundation by Dr Alan Poole, US Osprey expert. For a $10 US donation, you will get a link to attend. It will be on line from 7-8:15pm EDT. Here is the information to register.
You can also listen to Sir David Attenborough tell about the return of the Osprey to the East Midlands – . What a great history. It is on YouTube and is titled ‘Ospreys – Flying Home to Rutland Water (2004).
This is all to get you in the mood for those little ones with the dark eye stripe and all that bonking!
Despite the snow, various species of wildlife in Latvia are now working on their nests and looking forward to spring egg laying. Acacias and Rasene, the White-tail Eagles, were busy.
Goshawks are visiting their nests!
The Red-tail Hawk at Cornell, Arthur, was also visiting the nest he shares with mate, Big Red, bringing sticks anticipating March eggs.
What an image to wake up to – beautiful Jackie being kissed by the morning sunlight incubating and protecting the three eggs that her and Shadow hope will hatch in 20 days. Twenty-days. Leap Year eaglets! (More on them later… You just had to see this gorgeous image early! Jackie is soooo beautiful)
Highlights are still playing at the Channel Islands nest of Jak and Audacity. We are thinking there could be a second egg today.
Two Harbours was back on line Friday morning. There is certainly evidence of either Chase or Cholyn being at the nest, but nothing so far as to visits Friday morning.
There have been at least four feedings for Swampy and Meadow at Eagle Country and it is only 1120! Most often, I see Swampy’s head. I want to be hopeful that Blaze and Abby are reaching down and making sure that Meadow is getting some good bites. I will check throughout the day.
Meadow seems to be getting bites at Eagle Country. It should be highly improbable that any eaglet would starve on the nest of Abby and Blaze. It is loaded with stacks of fish that remind me of dear Louis of the E1 nest he shared with Anna. That first season, they brought in – wasn’t it 20 fish – and had them stacked for the wee babe. Oh, how we will miss that pair in the coming years. But, I digress. Meadow is getting its share.
Finally!
Just look at those huge hunks of fish everywhere. That nest must smell…good, gracious.
Shadow and Jackie exchanging incubation duties.
FOBBV NightBot reminds us: ”Standard Incubation Period is 35 days. Pip watch begins on 2/29. In the past, our eggs hatched ~38-39 days.Learn more about the hatching process, go to this link:
And our beloved couple made the news again…everyone adores them. We are all holding our breath til those eggs hatch!
I lost count. There was a strange piece of prey and at least two fish and I could not tell you how many feedings. M15 and F23 must be afraid that E23 is going to try and fly! Not ready, of course, but goodness. Every time I checked someone was feeding that eaglet who now has almost its entire juvenile plumage. Check the time stamps in the top left.
And then…an Armoured Catfish arrives. E23 self-feeds for the very first time – what a fish to start. My goodness.
Not only did E23 feed itself for the first time, but s/he also stood on the rails! Two milestones in one day. Wow.
Cal and Lusa can feed themselves. They can sleep standing up like the adults with their heads tucked under their wings, but, of course, they prefer Mamma to feed them. It has to be so much easier when you are really hungry. Beautiful eaglets.
The eaglet at JB Sands Wetlands has grown so much we can now easily see it. How wonderful. It is growing and growing.
No egg at Moorings Park. I can put that on rewind, right?
It’s raining in Gainesville, Florida and Stella and Talon don’t have their first egg either.
Many wonder about that third egg at the Achieva Osprey nest. It seems highly improbable that there would be 11 days between eggs one and three. That would be a much-needed relief if it had just been overlooked and not seen until the morning of the 8th.
Remember I mentioned the metal ring on a bird. Well, Gracie Shepherd gives us the video of Rose feeding R6 the pigeon leg with the band attached.
Egg #2 arrived at the Venice Golf and Country Club as expected on Friday.
‘J’ sent me something funny. It is the Raptor Resource Project dictionary on nesting language. Print it up and use it if you go on chat! ”Eagle Time – throw your clock away, we are on eagle time…” I will be saying that about the Ospreys when they start nesting.
Hope and Chandler have their first egg at Port Tobacco. Congrats.
The bird of the day comes from a short article in The Guardian. It is the American Bittern. We have them in Manitoba in the spring and summer and it is glorious to see them searching for prey around the wetlands.
“Bittern-0001” by Phil Fiddes is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
All About Birds says, “You’ll need sharp eyes to catch sight of an American Bittern. This streaky, brown and buff heron can materialize among the reeds, and disappear as quickly, especially when striking a concealment pose with neck stretched and bill pointed skyward. These stealthy carnivores stand motionless amid tall marsh vegetation, or patiently stalk fish, frogs, and insects. They are at their most noticeable in spring, when the marshes resound with their odd booming calls that sounds like the gulps of a thirsty giant.”
They are not listed as endangered in the US, but are of ‘high concern’.
- Cool Facts
- American Bitterns are heard more often than seen. Their booming, clacking, gulping calls have earned them some colorful nicknames, including “stake-driver,” “thunder-pumper,” “water-belcher,” and “mire-drum.”
- When field scientists want to trap American Bitterns for study, they take advantage of the males’ aggressive territoriality. Knowing that the birds will respond to other males’ calls from as far as 1,600 feet away, or to the image of another male, the researchers use recorded calls and mirrors to draw the birds in.
- The American Bittern’s yellow eyes can focus downward, giving the bird’s face a comically startled, cross-eyed appearance. This visual orientation presumably enhances the bird’s ability to spot and capture prey. The eyes turn orange during breeding season.
- The oldest recorded American Bittern was over 8 years, 4 months old, when it was found in Ontario where it was banded as an adult 8 years previously in 1940.
At the Dulles-Greenway Bald Eagle nest, they are expecting the first egg any time. Rosa’s new mate has been named Lewis.
Thank you so much for being with us today. Take care of yourself! See you soon – and the very best for the Lunar New Year to our friends celebrating around the world.
Thank you to the following for their notes, posts, videos, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ’J’, TIOF, Rutland Water, Latvian Fund for Nature, Arlene Beech, Cornell RTH Cam, FOBBV, News at 12, IWS/Explore, Eagle Country, SW Florida Eagle Cam, Androcat, Window to Wildlife, SK Hideaways, JB Sands Wetlands, Moorings Park, Achieva Credit Union, UFlorida-Gainesville, Gracie Shepherd, Diana Lambertson, Raptor Resource Project, Trudi Kron, The Guardian, Open Verse, and All About Birds.
