Tag Archives: birding

The Rufous hornero wins the World Cup of Birds…more visitors to Gabby’s nest and news in Bird World

19 December 2022

Good Morning!

The fluffy snow is still here – thankfully the sun is going to try and come out today and it has stopped falling. The garden is beautiful – still a wonderland.

Dyson (bottom photo) has been stocking up on Black Oil seed while two of the three babies are going after the peanuts.

Dyson is so clever!!!!!! She sits on that perfect branch and eats for hours!!!!!! Her own automatic vending machine for seed. The sparrows will never bother her.

The Starlings arrive every day around 1330. They will sit on the top branches and if it is sunny you can see them turn their little bodies around warming every side.

Mr Crow has been in a bit of a mood. The wee squirrels are taking ‘HIS’ peanuts!

Of course, the House Sparrows are always around. The way the light was falling made this one look blue in spots. He is quite a handsome male with that little white collar and blue-black bib.

It is now official. The Rufous Hornero has beaten the Gallic Rooster in penalty kicks! What a close pair these two were. Who would have thought?

Note the curve of the beak, the dark eye, and the white throat. The female is much the same as the male while the juvenile’s have lighter plumage.

“Rufous Hornero (Furnarius rufus), nesting pair” by Allan Hopkins is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

“Rufous Hornero (Furnarius rufus)” by berniedup is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Wikipedia gives this description, “The rufous hornero is a medium-sized ovenbird in the family Furnariidae. It occurs in eastern South America, and is the national bird of Argentina. Also known as the red ovenbird, it is common in savannas, second-growth scrub, pastures and agricultural land and is synanthropic.”

It not only lives in the countryside. It can be found in urban areas too. It is a rusty red above with buff plumage underneath, a white throat and a tiny little eyebrow. Note the dark rust coloured tail feathers. This bird builds its nest out of mud on trees as well as buildings and any other human structure it can find that is suitable.

It was a pretty quiet Sunday in Bird World – thankfully. We can still use some of these days to recuperate and prepare for all the eagle eggs and hatches that will be coming soon enough.

I was delighted to see Thunder and Akecheta on the West End nest. Checking often with little results or seeing the pair in the distance on those two big outcrops but…today came up gold!

It was a beautiful sunrise on the Northeast Florida nest of Gabby.

It wasn’t even 0700 and there was a suitor waiting to see if he had any chance with our Gabby.

Gabby flew off at one point seemingly tired of the youngsters appearing. She even kicked some off the nest! Some worry that Gabby will leave – this is her nest. She just needs a good mate.

Well, Gabby did return and she is telling this one on the branch to ‘get going’! It is pretty clear she is NOT happy! The looks get more and more stern.

He is not leaving!!!!!!! Notice that they are sitting pretty close together. When Gabby and Samson became a bonded pair, Samson was 4 years old. They had Romey and Jules the following year. Will Gabby pick a younger male? Remember. We have no idea how old Gabby is. Nothing is known about her. She could be nearly as old as Harriet for all we know! This ale is being called V4. Apparently, V5 was a female. Gabby booted her. She hasn’t booted this one, yet. Now if he would bring her a good sized fish.

He is not too young. Looks like a 4 year old like Harry at the MN-DNR nest. There have been other 3 and 4 year old Bald Eagles breed successfully, too.

The Stand Off with some vocals about a minute in:

Oh, dear. It seems Carole’s singing ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ scared V4 off. Or did he chase an intruder? Will he come back? Will Gabby stay the night? We wait.

Yes! Gabby is roosting and can be seen on cam 1. V4 can be seen on cam 2.

It was the 1.5 year old juvenile that has caused me wonderment. How many times did we look into your eyes, Legacy. I am pretty certain it is you! No one else. You gorgeous girl.

It was this side that gave it away that this visitor is not a suitor but Legacy.

At the nest of Ma and Pa Berry, Pa Berry wound up having to defend the nest and eggs against an intruder!

Otherwise, life in Bird World is very, very quiet.

Elain provided another of her good videos of the Orange scrape as a summary for yesterday. Thank you Elain! Indigo is still home!!!!!!!!

At the Port Lincoln Osprey barge, Zoe was over on the ropes. She made a couple of flights over to the shore. She certainly looks ‘wet’ in the image below like she might have been fishing but, what you should be noticing is that amazing necklace!

No worries. Ervie is still at Port Lincoln. He has been fishing at a place called Greyhound Road, according to Port Lincoln Ospreys.

In the mail, the book Slow Birding. The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard has arrived! It is going to be my project today – a cup of tea, a nice wool blanket, and this book. Hope to report back tomorrow.

Thank you for being with me today. Take care everyone. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their posts, videos, and streaming cams that make up my screen captures: NEFL-AEF, Explore.org and IWS, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Berry College, Elain and Charles Sturt Falcon Cam and Cilla Kinross, and OpenVerse.

Thursday in Bird World

3 March 2022

It is afternoon on the Canadian prairies. The skies are partly blue, the sun is shining really, really bright and as I look out my window, I can see that Little Red has now been joined by several other Red Squirrels chasing one another up and down the telephone poles. It must be spring in their minds! It is -14 and hopefully it will warm up before the astronomical spring is officially here.

A hospital architect, Roger Ulrich, did a study about nature and healing/recovery or gall bladder patients. The paper he wrote for Science, ‘View Through a Window May Influence Recovery From Surgery’ compared gall bladder surgery patients who had windows that looked out to trees with those who had a brick wall view. Ulrich found that those that had the tree view ‘spent less time in hospital, required fewer painkillers, had better evaluations from nurses and experienced fewer post-operative complications’. This leads me to believe that it is important – for each of us – that the place where you spend most of your time has a view of nature! This is the primary reason my desk is located where I can look out on to the garden with all of the birds flying in and out and the squirrels running around. Having moved from a space with no windows, I know that what Ulrich discovered works on normal daily living. So turn your world upside down and move your favourite chair to a window! Your spirits will be lifted and it could be of great benefit to your health, both mental and physical.

Thankfully my posting of the Pip at Big Bear last evening was true. Often times it is easy to think a dirty smudge is the little chick pecking away with its egg tooth. That pip is bigger this morning. Thankfully. Along with 6589 other people, I am holding my breath (well, figuratively) until this chick has hatched. These are anxious moments for this lovely couple.

The two images below were captured at 07:28 nest time. You can still go back and rewind if you wish. The pip hole is clearly bigger. Jackie looks down with great hope – as she hears her baby working to hatch.

The pip is noticeably bigger. It began at 15:47:26 on the 2nd of March.

Send your most positive wishes to Jackie and Shadow and this wee one. Tears from around the world will flow when it is free! Get the tissue box ready.

It is -3 in Ithaca, New York. The snow on Big Red and Arthur’s nest is slowly melting with the bright sun shining in on the Fernow light stand.

I have not seen Big Red or Arthur at the nest today – oh, but I could be so wrong. Arthur is so quick delivering those sticks that if you don’t go very slowly on the rewind you will miss him.

I ached for Lena and the trio at the Captiva Osprey nest last night. Lena kept calling for a fish delivery for the evening so the babies could go to bed full. I did not see that happen. Lena flew off and brought up a small piece of fish tail at 07:27:31 this morning, you can imagine how hungry the three were. Still there was no beaking. The second fish, a really nice one, came in at 09:37:27.

Here is that tiny piece that comes in first thing. I am not sure where Lena found it. Perhaps there is a stash under the tree or she went under the tree to Andy to get it??

It is easy to see that this 09:37 fish will fill all the little ones up and provide some nourishment for Lena, also. Little Bob is right up front with Middle Bob. Big Bob will join them as s/he turns around to get in line. The two older siblings continue to be noticeably darker than Little Bob whose head is clearly turning oily black in the image below. Little Bob will enter the reptile stage soon enough.

Lena filled them all up. Despite the irregularity, the chicks are growing and developing according to schedule and Mum looks alright. Would I like for them to have the 7 daily fish deliveries like Dad provided at Port Lincoln, absolutely.

Fans of Ervie continue to check in at the Port Lincoln Barge. Yesterday, the cam operator zoomed in on a beautiful Cormorant that has taken a liking to Falky’s perch.

This is an Australian Pied Cormorant. They are large black and white birds. They fish in the shallow waters around the barge.

If you are used to the dark brown Double-crested Cormorants of North America, it might take you awhile to recognize these Australian versions on the barge.

I did a couple of nest checks. My goodness, R1 and R2 at the WRDC nest at the Miami Zoo have grown in the last couple of days. They are walking much more steady and both are self-feeding and doing quite a good job of it. Beautiful beautiful birds.

Both are really tearing up the pantry to try and find some more food!

This has turned out to be a fabulous nest design. I really wish that something like this would be placed on both the Dahlgren and the Achieva Credit Union Osprey nests. It could make a huge outcome to the success of any future breeding seasons. — Richmond and Rosie need some help, too, with their nest on the Whirley crane. My goodness they no more than get the twigs and the Ravens and Crows take them! Can you hear me screaming unfair????????????

Despite some shenanigans by the oldest of the twins at the Dale Hollow nest, DH16 seems to be doing alright. So cute and fluffy with their tiny little wings.

In the next photo they are lined up by hatch time with the biggest in front.

Those three wee ones are quite a contrast to Kincaid at the KNF Bald Eagle nest of Anna and Louis. Kincaid is 50 days old today. Wow. And what a beautiful eaglet he is!

Louis and Anna have done a superb job raising their second eaglet.

It is time for me to get ready and go for my walk. It will be so nice to be outside in the fresh winter air. If you have been longing to move your chair near a window and cannot do it yourself, ask someone to help you. Don’t try and do it by yourself! It really will improve your day.

Please continue to send your warm and special wishes to Jackie and Shadow! Remember that tomorrow, Friday, 4 March at 2pm San Francisco time, there will be a Q & A on Annie and Grinnell by the Cal Falcon team. Here is that link. You can set it to alert you.

If you need more falcon activity, the couple at the New Hampshire falcon scrape are doing a lot of kerchuffing lately at the scrape box.

There is an adult on the perch on the left top.

Their eggs are normally laid in less than three weeks. Here is the link to that nest cam:

Thank you so much for joining me today. Take care everyone. Stay safe.

A deep thanks to the streaming bird cams sponsored by the following where I took my screen captures: Friends of Big Bear Valley, Cornell Bird Lab, Captiva Ospreys and Window on Wildlife, Port Lincoln Osprey, WRDC Bald Eagles, Dale Hollow Lake Eagles and the KNF Bald Eagles.