15 January 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
We are still experiencing life threatening extreme temperatures with the wind chill. Without the wind, it is -25 C now as I am writing – fifty degrees difference between Winnipeg and Melbourne!
Hugo Yugo has been watching television ‘again’. Isn’t she adorable?
The others are fine, and so is ‘The Boyfriend’, who is snug as a bug in his super-insulated home.
The Starlings had been in the garden, nearly 30 of them in November and December. Today, there were eleven that returned. They were eating snow and the solid suet cylinder on the big table feeder (it had fallen off its holden and broken).
I have a heater for the bird bath, but there was a problem with the closest plug, and the instructions say not to attach the cord to an extension cord. So I wait…I feel bad because studies repeatedly show that the birds need water more than seed, and if you feed seed in the winter, water should be provided.
The Pritchetts reported that it was a fish hook in E23’s mouth that M15 worked and got out. Was it that or a fishbone? Whatever it was, it was a miracle that M15 got it out. CROW was monitoring the situation. Thankfully, it was resolved by the hard work of M15 and F23.
Here is the video of that removal!
E23 is OK. What a relief. E23 is eating well later. As so many of you must be thinking – the best parents, lots of food, still do not protect these babies 100%. This precious little one, the only child to the new bonded pairing of M15 and F23, must thrive! That is all there is to it. I am so grateful that the Pritchetts and CROW monitor these events and will respond immediately if help is required.
It is 13:29 Sunday and the pip has turned into a pea size hole at the WRDC nest of Ron and Rita. Everyone is waiting for R6 to arrive safely.
Missing fish. Ron took it. Rita not impressed. Hopefully he will bring some back!
Pat Burke aka gr8lakes and all those staring at the screen waiting for the hatch are celebrating Sunday night. R6 is here!
HeidiMc made the best hatch video of the bunch and my system is not letting me post it directly. Please click on the link below and have a look at a nicely edited concise video from pip to hatch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSgwj-F6AwY
Rose talking to R6 as she appears to remove the last part of the shell.
So where is the food, Dad?
Good Morning Gabby.
Beau came and gave Gabby a much needed break in the afternoon.
Bella and Scout keeping a close watch over their nest and territory.
We so want Sauces Canyon to have an eaglet this year…8 eggs last year Audacity laid with no luck due to the lingering impact of the DDT sprayed and remaining in the area after fifty plus years. Send this couple positive wishes.
Both eagles were at the Dulles-Greenway nest today…Rosa and her new mate.
C10 and C11 are changing from little eaglets to getting their full thermal down and losing all those dandelions. Before we know it, they will have their juvenile feathers.
How many of you are checking out the Bald Eagle nest at Seagoville, Texas? You might just want to put this one on your watch list. It is in the John Bunker Sands Wetland Centre which is 25 SE of Dallas, Texas. The nest is 26 metres (85 feet) off the ground on the tower shown in the image below. The Eagles returned on the 10th of September. They are called Mum and Dad and both are believed to be approximately 19 years old.
The female is believed to be the one that was here in 2014 but there is a divided opinion on whether the male is the original or not.
Here is the link:
It is so nice to get some news of dear Ervie!
Meanwhile, it was very rough at Port Lincoln today. Mum, Dad, and Gil were spotted on the old barge while Brad stayed at the nest.
Brad got the first two fish deliveries with Gil getting the mid-afternoon one at 1529.
The two oldest eggs at the Royal Albatross colony in NZ are hatching!
News coming from The Gambia of Rutland fledglings. 2H2 from 2022 seen!
Also caught on camera was Arthur, mate to Big Red, on the Cornell Campus. You could be fooled into thinking this is Big Red until you see the apron across the breast. Not Big Red but our darling Dad.
Some interesting nest building happening on Kauai this year. Will there be torrential rains to impact the eggs? Let’s wait and see if these Laysan Albatross are better predictors of the weather than the meteorologists!
The climate crisis is killing some of Scotland’s wildlife including the smallest raptors, the kestrels.
Remember, the news at the bottom is not the least important. Often it is what comes to me right before I hit ‘publish’. A gamekeeper and his son pleaded guilty to selling wild peregrine falcons on the market in the UK. What is going on with their sentencing?
She is a special person and that is why I am including this today. You should remember Sacha Dench for her efforts in finding the answers to conserving the Ospreys and the flyway from the UK and Western Europe to West Africa. Some of her interviews with local people were linked to my blog – the goal was to get the people of West Africa on board with conservation efforts, and to do that, they needed education about the ospreys. 4K was the bird being followed at the time – the subject of Simon Curtis’s new book. That journey was undertaken after a horrific accident in the Scottish highlands. She is known as ‘The Human Swan’ because of her earlier 7000 km trip tracking the Bewick Swan and their migration from Russia’s Arctic region to the UK in 2016. A crowd funder to get prosthetic legs for Sacha Dench has been opened. Here is the information.
Thank you so much for being with me today. Take care. Stay safe. See you soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, videos, posts, articles, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ’A, H, J, M’, SW Florida Eagle Cam, SK Hideaways, WRDC, Heidi Mc, Pat Burke, Gracie Shepherd, NEFL-AEF, NCTC, Deb Stecyk, Dulles-Greenway, John Bunker Sands Wetland Centre, PLO, @TimMacKrill, @CornellHawks, Sharon Dunne, Holly Parsons, Raptor Persecution UK, and Conservation without Borders.