It is a full moon night on the Canadian prairies with a temperature of -16 C. Tobby and Hugo Yugo are curled up beside me on the sofa along with a couple of ‘Little Lambs’, Toby’s favourite toy. Ann spent the morning with Toby while I went to the hospital to see how Don was doing.
I felt really ‘proud’ and happy when the nurse sat me down, hugged me, and told me how well I was taking care of Don. You don’t think it – or I didn’t – his clothes are always clean, and so he is. I feed him, for the most part, whole foods, giving in to a love of cookies that his mother created by her excellent (and constant) baking when he was younger. His bloodwork is good, and he is very healthy given his condition. I know that many have expressed concern about his discharge back into the home, but the root cause was not his dementia, but rather a serious problem with his bladder that the doctors have now repaired. He was very alert today, and after I had been there for about an hour, his oldest friend, Andrew, arrived, and you could hear them laughing several metres away. I slipped out quietly, knowing that his other friend from high school would be arriving shortly. Ann stayed home, monitoring Toby to make sure he didn’t start haemorrhaging again. Toby is getting stronger and more like himself. It was so nice having him snore in my ear last night – I will NEVER complain again about that! Sometimes he is so loud he could shake the roof off the rafters.
Thank you for all of your notes. I want to publicly pass on a big shout-out to Heidi and her video that was included on Day 11 – many of you have downloaded that blog so that you can watch her handiwork repeatedly. She is exceptionally talented, and I am so glad that our paths crossed in this lifetime.
The nurses have asked me to rest up for a few days, so my posts over the next 2-4 days will be shorter and less comprehensive. As most of you can tell, I have a real soft spot for Gabby and now for Beau after adoring Samson for so many years. Those two little scrappers in NE Florida are adorable. And like all of the other eaglets in the nests, they are adored by their parents. My goodness, I wish we could sprinkle this type of eagle love all over the planet.
Girri is one of those great events from 2025. Having sobbed our eyes out with the loss of Xavier, we thought Diamond would not have any chicks. Then along came Gimbir, and well, everyone thought he was too young and inexperienced to be a Dad. Well, were we wrong? Diamond and Gimbir gave us one heck of a strong female falcon, and here she is flying above the trees near the tower! https://youtu.be/ECUH1DwWGao? It just doesn’t get much better than this at the Charles Sturt University Falcon Cam project.
It’s not a raptor… but this is a story everyone should know about. China has footage of a Wild Siberian Tigress with five cubs in Hunchun. Northwest Tiger and Leopard Park. This is thrilling news! They normally have 2-3 cubs so five is rare and is a great conservation success. Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/JaSsbkfC5N4?
The BBC reports, “Five Siberian tiger cubs have one very proud mum – she’s the first ever tiger known to have given birth to quintuplets in the wild in China.
The family have been spotted in Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, which is one of China’s first five national parks and covers over 14,000 square kilometres – that’s around the same size as Northern Ireland!
It’s very rare for Siberian tigers to give birth to five healthy cubs, so it’s a big success story for the park, who say it’s likely that mum had the cubs back in June.” (27 December 2025)
It is all good for Beau and Gabby at NE Florida.
The AEF captured Gabby feeding Beau who then fed the eaglets with the food. How cute was that?
E26 is a massive eaglet. Want to bet we have a strong female here for M15 and F23 this year? Thermal down. Pin feathers. And quite enough food and more than enough love from Mum and Dad.
What a little cutie – the other only – at Captiva for Connie and Clive.
R9 and R10 are just adorable. Ron and Rose are doing a fantastic job at Dade County. Life is looking good!
One of my favourite all-time books about a human being changed by an encounter with wildlife was Raising Hare. Here is an incredible story about a Japanese island inhabited by Hares! Can I put it on my bucket list?
Time for Toby’s last medication. Oh, my dear darling little man. The sheer idea that I could have lost you is beyond my comprehension.
This week, I learned two significant things I would like to share with you, in the hope that one or both might help you in the future. If you know of anyone whose behaviour radically changes, from calm to agitated, please get them to the doctor to check for an infection. If you know or suspect they cannot pass urine, do not be shy about stating this. It is critical. Secondly, if you see any blood, watery or otherwise, in your pet’s vomit or diarrhoea, rush them to the vet. Do not sit around and twiddle your thumbs, I mean, rush. Toby’s life was saved because of quick action on my part and that of Dr Maryam.
Thank you so much for being with us today.
Thank you to the owners of the streaming cams that let us glimpse the breeding seasons of our wonderful raptors. Without them we would never see the joyful moments shared by these parents and their chicks! I would also like to thank The Guardian for their constant reporting on issues about wildlife. Thank you Holly Parsons or that great capture, to Cilla Kinross for her post and to the China Daily for its story on the Siberian Tiger.
You have probably never thought much about feathers unless you raise chickens and wind up plucking them yourself. Or your duvet is full of down and feathers and you find them all over the place if there is a small hole. But, maybe, like many of us, you wish you had wings and could fly – like Icarus – but not with the same consequences. I wish I had feathers and wings because then I would soar into the sky as high as I could go!
Before I begin, this posting is not the definitive answer to everything about feathers or preening. But I hope to give you a glimpse into the importance of both to Red-tail hawks. Sort of a nutshell version. If you are really interested in feathers and believe me, there is a lot to learn, I have included the name of a good book later in this blog.
Red-tail hawk chicks begin to jump and flap in the nest, according to my observations, approximately 2-3 weeks after they hatch. They are building the muscles in their wings when they flap and flap. Flight feathers not only help birds fly and soar but they are contoured and offer protection from the weather. In the first photo below, there is a snow and ice storm in Ithaca on May 8. Big Red’s feathers are keeping her dry and also protecting the chicks. Look carefully at the one under her beautiful red tail feathers.
Feathers keep birds warm and dry – in ice, rain, and snow. The chicks have not yet developed feathers to do this so Big Red covers them.
Several times this spring, the rain has just been torrential in Ithaca. Again, the feathers kept Big Red, no matter how drenched she looked, dry and in turn, she spreads her wings to keep the chicks dry and warm.
For us newbies, we were worried about Big Red in all the rainy weather. Here she is covering the chicks. They get so warm that they often stick their heads out just to get cool. And just a note. Both Big Red and Arthur have brood patches where their feathers have worn down from incubating the eggs and then protecting the chicks.
When it is really hot and humid as it is in both Ithaca and Syracuse the last few days, rain can be very welcome to hot hawks. Below is an image from the Syracuse University Hawk cam showing two of their newly fledged red-tails dancing in the rain to cool off. It reminds me of being in India in the late 1980s and 1990s. You would beg for the rains to come to cool off and would run out into the rain ever so thankful!
So remember. Flight feathers are not just for flying but they are also for protection from the weather. The water resistance from the feathers comes from hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure is the tension between the structure of the feather versus the pressure of the water. Water droplets bead on the feathers.
Arthur leaving to get prey for the chicks with Big Red giving him directions. Notice his legs tucked up and the slight curve of his wings at the end and, of course, that beautiful red tail.
Wing feathers are the longest and the most useful for flying. Below is a closeup of one of the chicks with their wing feathers starting to grow. Also notice the tail feathers that are beginning on the chick and the recognizable “red tail” of the Red Tail Hawk on Big Red. The chicks will not get their beautiful red tails until they are in their second year. Tail feathers are like the rudder on a boat. They help the birds manoeuvre. About a month after they have fledged, the chicks should be able to soar into the sky.
Approximately 18% of the weight of a Red-tail Hawk comes from feathers. By the time the chicks are 29-31 days old, their dorsal wings should be 90% feathered. Their legs will begin to feather and they will get the characteristic “pantaloons”. The ear openings should be covered and the upper tail coverts should be well developed. By the time they are 35 days old (about a week from a possible fledging or first flight off the nest), the head will be at least 50% feathered, the dorsal body will be 95% feathered, and the breast should be 90% feathered. Their tail feathers should be five to six bands long, preferably. The more bands the more successful the first flight will be.
This chick is J3, the youngest. He is 31 days old. Note the distinctive “peach” on the breast, the lovely dark feathers marking the “apron” below the crop. The downy head is beginning to gets its feathers and the feathers covering the legs are there.
At the time these chicks fledge, their wing and tail feathers will be longer than their parents. With their first molt, they will return to normal. Molting is the falling out and gradual replacement of the feathers.
There is a really good book on feathers. It is Feathers: the evolution of a modern miracle by Thor Hansen. There is so much to learn including every part and its function! Apparently humans have the DNA to grow feathers but we don’t have the “switch” to turn it on and off. Feathers are much more efficient than their hair. Hawks also use their feathers like a sharpening tool to keep their beaks in perfect condition.
The simple definition of preening is that it is cleaning and maintaining the feathers. Preening reinforces and conditions the surface of the feathers with gland oils. These gland oils contain vitamin D. When the feathers are exposed to sunlight after preening, the oil works as a protective conditioner. The oil in the glands change composition during the year just like you will, if you live in a cold climate in the winter, change the weight of your oil in your car. Red-tail hawks spend approximately 77% of their time preening.
This is an example of a warble. This is when the head of the bird is folded all the way back and down and they are preening their wingsThe chicks learn quickly how to balance themselves on branches or metal railings and preen at the same time!
One of the things that I found most interesting about the feathers is that because they are hollow, some researchers understand that birds can feel the changes in barometric pressure and will know what weather conditions are approaching. They are more likely to know the precise weather approaching than the local weather station. They have to. They live outside in the trees, roost on the ledges of buildings, and depend on millions of years of evolution to give them clues to nature’s mysteries so they can survive.
