22 January 2024
Good Morning Everyone,
Calico was her regular alarm clock self – my goodness. 0835. After their breakfast, the kittens – Hugo Yugo and Baby Hope – tore through the house. Then, there was a very loud crash. I wonder what happened?
Oh, dear. Who do you see?
Are these two the only culprits?
Calico was cautiously coming to see what happened from the other side of the house.
Baby Hope was relaxing on the top of a chair – she says she had ‘nothing to do with knocking the twinkle tree off the table’. Do you believe her?
No one is telling what happened…Baby Hugo decided to have a nap and poor Calico is just worn out from it all, too. I am left to wonder.
It is hard to believe, but they didn’t even wake up for lunch. Instead, all four crowded into the kitchen around 1800. Very strange, indeed.
The news from Bird World is really rather thin. We might think that the entire Bald Eagle season has mostly collapsed. There will be no chicks at Berry College or at NE Florida to look forward to – we have, on the streaming cams, two at Captiva, one at SW Florida, and one at Miami-Dade. We lost Anna and Andria at the KNF nests before the eggs hatched (thankfully). Superbeaks first clutch failed. Will we have any second clutches? Will any new couples lay a clutch in Louisiana? We wait and wonder why this is happening.
So, instead of falling into that deep dark hole, we need to rejoice in the four healthy eaglets that are currently on the nests in Florida at Captiva, WRDC, and at Fort Myers.
At Captiva, Lori Covert has named Connie and Clive’s eaglets – C10 is Lusa and C11 is Cal.
Look at how plump and healthy these two are with their full crops, fat little legs, and bottoms. Let us all wish them uneventful days until they fledge – and good feathers!
E23 is also plump and very healthy, spoiled only eaglet by M15 and F23. Pin feathers clearly seen on the wing tips.
R6 is a fuzzy little darling – the pride and joy of Ron and Rita at the WRDC nest. So, on streaming cams, we have 4 – only FOUR – eaglets to watch.
Gabby flew off the nest to join Beau at 12:13 and has not returned to the egg as I write – it is now 15:57. It is ONLY 6 degrees C or 42 degrees F at 16:01 on Sunday. This egg is looking less and less viable.
No one returned. So, there are two scenarios. Gabby and Beau figured that the egg was not viable and abandoned it. The second one I do not even wish to contemplate is that something happened to Gabby. I simply do not wish to think about that, but there were intruders about. Let’s think positive -Wherever they are Sunday night, I hope they are both safe—way too many intruders about. Gabby was last seen at noon and Beau around 1700 after he incubated the egg for a short time after 1630.
Beau was at the nest tree Monday morning, vocalising. There has been no sighting of Gabby, and I am beginning to really become concerned. Please let me be wrong – this is highly unusual behaviour for Gabby. Is she injured? or worse?
A drone, flying over the NCTC nest, almost hits Scout! It is illegal to fly drones over an active Bald Eagle nest – so will they catch the culprit? and what will happen to them?
Lisa and Oliver were in the nest in PA County. Oh, this is one that I know many of you are looking forward to watching.
Jackie and Shadow were at Big Bear. Shadow delivered a fish gift and then they flew of only with Shadow to return to move some sticks he noticed were out of place earlier. Bless his heart. Shadow cannot leave those sticks alone.
Pittsburgh-Hayes female comes to the nest on Sunday.
Gary has ceased covering the Redding Eagles – Liberty and her three mates, Patriot, Spirit, and Guardian, after fifteen years. he says he is going to work on features and examine current research on eagles. This is a thank you video with lots of historical images of Liberty and her mates and chicks. I cannot embed it – have no idea why but this is happening more often. Here is the title for you to search in YT.
Major Announcement Regarding Coverage of the Eagles
The weekly video summary of the happenings at Port Lincoln.
At the time of this writing, only one fish has come to the PLO barge. It is extremely windy and the water is choppy. Mum flew in at 1247 with the first meal and Bradley got it.
Beautiful Capture of the Golden Gate Audubon Osprey male, Richmond. It is the 21st of January. His mate, Rosie, returns around Valentine’s Day. Richmond will be checking in for her return as he does not migrate.
Ruby has been missing for more than a fortnight. There are now intruders buzzing and a female wanting Jack’s attention at Captiva. Let us hope things settle down so we can have an Osprey family here this year.
The cold weather has also hit Europe where the ground is frozen and people are calling for food for the storks that are trying to feed in the fields. Here 80 storks are being taken care of in Russia – incredible. What kindness.
A Peregrine Falcon has been shot in Essex….this follows the dumping of the Woodcocks in Cheshire. And, of course, other heinous deeds to wildlife. Unfortunately, we don’t have a watchdog like Raptor Persecution UK in the US and Canada.
Loving hummingbirds. Geemeff sent the link to Aryana’s tiny nest. She has eggs!
Aryana has her own FB page. Thanks, Geemeff. Quite the celebrity.
https://www.facebook.com/LivestreamHummingbirdCam/
The Royal Cam chick is making progress in its hatching! Thanks ‘A’.
The latest news on the attempts to re-introduce Kakapo to the New Zealand mainland and the trials and tribulations over these smart birds outwitting humans and a fence!
So much to be grateful for and SE31 is one of those things. The latest report from Chang-Le Dong and the WBSE:
Oh, I love Plovers and these nearly threatened shore birds had a fantastic year in New England in 2023.
Piping Plovers are one of the smallest of the species. Their colouring offers good camouflage against the beach sand where they nest and forage. These are unique to North America, although they do winter in Mexico. Their biggest threats are human disturbances, which are endangered or threatened in many areas.
Information is being compiled about Laura Culley with the goal of having a really good bio of her – pre-falconry and her falconry days -by an individual at Cornell. I will keep you posted as I am very hopeful that her manuscript about her life with Mariah will appear on those pages. In looking for information, I came across the following: ”Let me warn you–falconry is FAR more addictive than any drug. The sheer wonder that the bird CHOOSES to work with you it beyond my comprehension. It’s really not about food. That’s where you start to earn their trust, but after that, you’re always in the reality that they can fly. You can’t. There’s a wonderment when your bird (who is no more YOURS than the air you breathe) chooses to fly to your fist!!! Another reality is that you’re nothing more than their servant, and that’s a good thing. For me, it reconnected me to the natural world in ways that I can only describe a little bit. And you get to see who these birds are, sharing what they do and how they do it, and if that doesn’t regularly take your breath away, you need to check your pulse.”
Laura always said the hawk is the boss – we only serve them. She wondered at their abilities that we have lost, but most of all she was astonished, every day, by Mariah.
Thank you so much for being with me today. Please take care. We hope you can be back with us soon.
Thank you to the following for their notes, videos, posts, articles, photographs, and streaming cams that helped me to write my blog today: ’A, Geemeff, J’, Window to Wildlife, SW Florida Eagle Cam, WRDC, NEFL, Deb Stecyk, Dana Anderson, FOBBV, PIX Cams, Gary and FORE, PLO, Pam Kruse, Diana Lambertson, Natalia Voss, Raptor Persecution UK, Aryana YT/FB, NZ DOC, Kakapo Recovery, Chang-Le Dong, BirdGuides, and Laura Culley.
