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.
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.
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.